Educator's work completed years after his death

Older versions of the collection are well illustrated classics that enlightened many Chinese in the past. [Photo provided to China Daily]

The books, written by Lin Handa, together with his History in Five Thousand Years, have been bestsellers of children's history books for decades, and set a sales record of 10 million copies.

Lin was a historian and linguist, devoted to education, and served as teacher, translator and vice education minister. He wrote many history textbooks as well as those for learning both Chinese and English.

Narrating Chinese history isn't easy, considering its long span and rich content. Lin managed to find a way of telling famous stories f in spoken language. He started writing the series in 1962 but the project came to an abrupt halt after the fourth volume on his death in the early 1970s.

Lin's family hoped the collection could be completed one day and Xue Gang, an editor with the books' publisher China Children's Press and Publishing Group, studied Lin's draft and carried on with the project.