"The Ming Qing Women's Writings digital archive and database project is dedicated to the digitization of collections of writings by women in late imperial China (1368-1911). "
"The Red Brush project is a collection of texts in Chinese from a wide range of writings from Imperial China, by and about women writers. The website for this collection is available in both English and Chinese. "
Suggested terms to look for include - diary, diaries, letters, papers, documents, documentary or correspondence.
Combine these these terms with the event or person you are researching. (example: civil war diary)
Also search by subject for specific people and events, then scan the titles for those keywords or others such as memoirs, autobiography, report, or personal narratives.
An additional option is to do a search on a topic and use the "Resource Type" limiter on the left side of the results and choose the option "Primary Sources" - please note this is extremely limiting as most primary source materials are not marked in records with this resource type and you will miss seeing a large number of useful items.