ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Biji (Chinese literature)

Okay, so you know how sometimes you read books that are written in English, and sometimes you read books that are written in other languages, like Spanish or French? Well, some people read books that are written in Chinese.

And one really important thing in Chinese literature is something called "biji." That word means "notebooks" or "miscellaneous notes" in Chinese, and it's kind of like a way of writing that's different from what we're used to.

Basically, biji is a style of writing where people write down anything and everything that catches their attention, without worrying too much about making it all flow together perfectly. It's like taking a bunch of random notes on different ideas, and then putting them all together in one place.

Sometimes these notes are about big, important ideas, like politics or philosophy, and sometimes they're just about everyday life, like what someone ate for breakfast that day. But the idea is to capture a snapshot of someone's thoughts and experiences at a certain time, kind of like a snapshot in a photo album.

Biji has been around for a long time; some of the earliest examples are from the Tang Dynasty, which was over a thousand years ago! And writers have used the biji style in all kinds of different genres, from poetry to history to fiction.

So, in short, biji is a way of writing in Chinese where people write down all kinds of random thoughts and ideas, without worrying too much about how they all fit together. It's been around for a long time and has been used in many different types of writing.