Chinese Literature: AN ANTHOLOGY FROM THE EARLIEST TIMES TO THE PRESENT DAY

Note that, except for the books of poems and songs, most of this literature is philosophical and didactic; there is little in the way of fiction.

However, these texts maintained their significance through both their ideas and their prose style. The Confucian works in particular have been of key importance to Chinese culture and history, as a set of works known as the Four Books and Five Classics were, in the 12th century AD, chosen as the basis for the Imperial examination for any government post.

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These nine books therefore became the center of the educational system. They have been grouped into two categories: The Five Classics are:. Other important [ according to whom? Among the classics of military science, The Art of War by Sun Tzu 6th century BC was perhaps the first to outline guidelines for effective international diplomacy.

The earliest known narrative history of China was the Zuo Zhuan , which was compiled no later than BC, and attributed to the blind 5th-century BC historian Zuo Qiuming.

The Book of Documents is thought to have been compiled as far back as the 6th century BC, and was certainly compiled by the 4th century BC, the latest date for the writing of the Guodian Chu Slips unearthed in a Hubei tomb in The Book of Documents included early information on geography in the Yu Gong chapter. Another early text was the political strategy book of the Zhan Guo Ce , compiled between the 3rd and 1st centuries BC, with partial amounts of the text found amongst the 2nd century BC tomb site at Mawangdui.

The oldest extant dictionary in China is the Erya , dated to the 3rd century BC, anonymously written but with later commentary by the historian Guo Pu — One of the largest was the Kangxi Dictionary compiled by under the auspices of the Kangxi Emperor r. Although court records and other independent records existed beforehand, the definitive work in early Chinese historical writing was the Shiji , or Records of the Grand Historian written by Han Dynasty court historian Sima Qian BC — 90 BC. This groundbreaking text laid the foundation for Chinese historiography and the many official Chinese historical texts compiled for each dynasty thereafter.

Sima Qian is often compared to the Greek Herodotus in scope and method, because he covered Chinese history from the mythical Xia Dynasty until the contemporary reign of Emperor Wu of Han while retaining an objective and non-biased standpoint.

This was often difficult for the official dynastic historians, who used historical works to justify the reign of the current dynasty. He influenced the written works of many Chinese historians, including the works of Ban Gu and Ban Zhao in the 1st and 2nd centuries, and even Sima Guang 's 11th-century compilation of the Zizhi Tongjian , presented to Emperor Shenzong of Song in AD. The overall scope of the historiographical tradition in China is termed the Twenty-Four Histories , created for each successive Chinese dynasty up until the Ming Dynasty — ; China's last dynasty, the Qing Dynasty — , is not included.

Large encyclopedias were also produced in China through the ages. Although these Song Dynasty Chinese encyclopedias featured millions of written Chinese characters each, their aggregate size paled in comparison to the later Yongle Encyclopedia of the Ming Dynasty, which contained a total of 50 million Chinese characters. Other great encyclopedic writers include the polymath scientist Shen Kuo — and his Dream Pool Essays , the agronomist and inventor Wang Zhen fl.

The rich tradition of Chinese poetry began with two influential collections. In northern China, the Shijing or Classic of Poetry approx. Confucius is traditionally credited with editing the Shijing. Its stately verses are usually composed of couplets with lines of four characters each or four syllables, as Chinese characters are monosyllabic , and a formal structure of end rhymes.

Many of these early poems establish the later tradition of starting with a description of nature that leads into emotionally expressive statements, known as bi , xing , or sometime bixing. Both the Shijing and the Chuci have remained influential throughout Chinese history. During the greater part of China's first great period of unification, begun with the short-lived Qin Dynasty BC — BC and followed by the centuries-long Han Dynasty BC — AD , the shi form of poetry underwent little innovation.

But a distinctively descriptive and erudite fu form not the same fu character as that used for the bureau of music developed that has been called "rhyme-prose," a uniquely Han offshoot of Chinese poetry's tradition. The end of the Han witnesses a resurgence of the shi poetry, with the anonymous 19 Old Poems. This collection reflects the emergence of a distinctive five-character line that later became shi poetry's most common line length.

Taoist philosophy became a different, common theme for other poets, and a genre emphasizing true feeling emerged led by Ruan Ji — Reunified China's Tang Dynasty — high culture set a high point for many things, including poetry. Various schools of Buddhism a religion from India flourished as represented by the Chan or Zen beliefs of Wang Wei — The distinctively different ci poetry form began its development during the Tang as Central Asian and other musical influences flowed through its cosmopolitan society.

China's Song Dynasty — , another reunification era after a brief period of disunity, initiated a fresh high culture. Several of its greatest poets were capable government officials as well including Ouyang Xiu — , Su Shi — , and Wang Anshi — The ci form flourished as a few hundred songs became standard templates for poems with distinctive and variously set meters.

Classical Chinese poetry composition became a conventional skill of the well-educated throughout the Ming — and Qing — dynasties. Over a million poems have been preserved, including those by women, such as Dong Xiaowan and Liu Rushi , and by many other diverse voices. Early Chinese prose was deeply influenced by the great philosophical writings of the Hundred Schools of Thought — BC. Mo Zi's polemic prose was built on solid and effective methodological reasoning.

Mencius contributed elegant diction and, like Zhuang Zi, relied on comparisons, anecdotes, and allegories.

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By the 3rd century BC, these writers had developed a simple, concise and economical prose style that served as a model of literary form for over 2, years. They were written in Classical Chinese , the language spoken during the Spring and Autumn period. During the Tang period , the ornate, artificial style of prose developed in previous periods was replaced by a simple, direct, and forceful prose based on examples from the Hundred Schools see above and from the Han period , the period in which the great historical works of Sima Tan and Sima Qian were published.

This neoclassical style dominated prose writing for the next years. The Song Dynasty saw the rise in popularity of "travel record literature" youji wenxue. Travel literature combined both diary and narrative prose formats, it was practiced by such seasoned travelers as Fan Chengda — and Xu Xiake — and can be seen in the example of Su Shi 's Record of Stone Bell Mountain.

After the 14th century, vernacular fiction became popular, at least outside of court circles. Vernacular fiction covered a broader range of subject matter and was longer and more loosely structured than literary fiction. Chinese fiction was rooted in the official histories and such less formal works as A New Account of the Tales of the World and Investigations of the Supernatural 4th and 5th century ; Finest Flowers from the World of Letters a 10th-century compilation of works from earlier centuries ; Great Tang Record of the Western Regions completed by the pilgrim to India, Xuanzang in ; Variety Dishes from Youyang , the best known collection of Classical Chinese Chuanqi Marvelous Tales from the Tang dynasty; and the Taiping Guangji , which preserved the corpus of these Tang dynasty tales.

There was a range of less formal works either oral or using oral conventions, such as the bianwen Buddhist tale , pinghua plain tale , and huaben novella , which formed background to the novel as early as the Song Dynasty. The novel as an extended prose narrative which realistically creates a believable world of its own evolved in China and in Europe from the 14th—18th centuries, though a little earlier in China. Chinese audiences were more interested in history and Chinese authors generally did not present their works as fictional. Readers appreciated relative optimism, moral humanism, relative emphasis on group behavior, and welfare of the society.

With the rise of monetary economy and urbanization beginning in the Song Dynasty, there was a growing professionalization of entertainment fostered by the spread of printing, the rise of literacy and education. In both China and Europe, the novel gradually became more autobiographical and serious in exploration of social, moral, and philosophical problems. Chinese fiction of the late Ming dynasty and early Qing dynasty was varied, self-conscious, and experimental.

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In China, however, there was no counterpart to the 19th-century European explosion of revolution and romanticism. Scholars now tend to agree that modern Chinese literature did not erupt suddenly in the New Culture Movement — Instead, they trace its origins back at least to the late Qing period — The late Qing was a period of intellectual ferment sparked by a sense of national crisis.

Intellectuals began to seek solutions to China's problems outside of its own tradition. They translated works of Western expository writing and literature, which enthralled readers with new ideas and opened up windows onto new exotic cultures. In this climate, a boom in the writing of fiction occurred, especially after the abolition of the civil service examination when literati struggled to fill new social and cultural roles for themselves.

Stylistically, this fiction shows signs of both the Chinese novelistic tradition and Western narrative modes. In subject matter, it is strikingly concerned with the contemporary: In this sense, late Qing fiction is modern. These poets would become the objects of scorn by New Culturalists like Hu Shi , who saw their work as overly allusive, artificial, and divorced from contemporary reality. Peking opera and "reformed Peking opera" were also popular at the time.

The literary scene in the first few years before the collapse of the Qing in was dominated by popular love stories, some written in the classical language and some in the vernacular. This entertainment fiction would later be labeled " Mandarin Ducks and Butterflies " fiction by New Culturalists, who despised its lack of social engagement. Throughout much of the Republican era, Butterfly fiction would reach many more readers than its "progressive" counterpart.

In the course of the New Culture Movement —23 , the vernacular language largely displaced the classical in all areas of literature and writing. Literary reformers Hu Shih — and Chen Duxiu — declared the classical language "dead" and promoted the vibrant vernacular in its stead. Hu Shi once said, "A dead language can never produce a living literature.

Though often said to be less successful than their counterparts in fiction writing, poets also experimented with the vernacular in new poetic forms, such as free verse and the sonnet. Given that there was no tradition of writing poetry in the vernacular, these experiments were more radical than those in fiction writing and also less easily accepted by the reading public. Other poets, even those among the May Fourth radicals e. May Fourth radicalism, combined with changes in the education system, made possible the emergence of a large group of women writers.

While there had been women writers in the late imperial period and the late Qing, they had been few in number. These writers generally tackled domestic issues, such as relations between the sexes, family, and friendship, but they were revolutionary in giving direct expression to female subjectivity. Ding Ling 's story Miss Sophia's Diary exposes the thoughts and feelings of its female diarist in all their complexity.

The s and s saw the emergence of spoken drama. In the late s and s, literary journals and societies espousing various artistic theories proliferated. Among the major writers of the period were Guo Moruo — , a poet, historian, essayist, and critic; Mao Dun — , the first of the novelists to emerge from the League of Left-Wing Writers and one whose work reflected the revolutionary struggle and disillusionment of the late s; satirist and novelist Lao She — ; and Ba Jin — , a novelist whose work was influenced by Ivan Turgenev and other Russian writers.

In the s Ba Jin produced a trilogy that depicted the struggle of modern youth against the ageold dominance of the Confucian family system. Comparison often is made between Jia Family , one of the novels in the trilogy, and Dream of the Red Chamber. Many of these writers became important as administrators of artistic and literary policy after Most of those authors who were still alive during the Cultural Revolution —76 were either purged or forced to submit to public humiliation.

By it had adopted the Soviet doctrine of socialist realism ; that is, the insistence that art must concentrate on contemporary events in a realistic way, exposing the ills of nonsocialist society and promoting a glorious future under communism. Other styles of literature were at odds with the highly-political literature being promoted by the League. Lin Yutang , who had studied at Harvard and Leipzig, introduced the concept of youmo humor , which he used in trenchant criticism of China's political and cultural situation before leaving for the United States.

The literary ideals of the League were being simplified and enforced on writers and "cultural workers". In , Mao Zedong gave a series of lectures called " Talks at the Yan'an Forum on Art and Literature " that clearly made literature subservient to politics via the Yan'an Rectification Movement. This document would become the national guideline for culture after the establishment of the People's Republic of China.

After coming to power in , the Communists gradually nationalized the publishing industry, centralized the book distribution system, and brought writers under institutional control through the Writers Union. A system of strict censorship was implemented, with Mao's "Yan'an Talks" as the guiding force. Periodic literary campaigns targeted figures such as Hu Shi and other figures from the New Culture period, especially Hu Feng , a protege of Lu Xun who, along with his wife Mei Zhi , did not toe the Party line on literature.

The ability to satirize and expose the evils in contemporary society that had made writers useful to the Communist Party of China before its accession to power was no longer welcomed. Feb 02, Richard Roberts rated it liked it. I picked this book up mainly for reference - my major in college was Asian history - specifically China.

Feb 21, Lisa added it. Feb 26, Bruce rated it really liked it Shelves: See my introductory note on 'Identity, the Nano God'. Apr 24, Erica rated it it was amazing. This literature is filled with wild tales of plum wine in the moonlight and the first Emperors of China. There are short stories and great poetry. I really enjoyed this translation. Sharon Huestis rated it really liked it May 11, Nina rated it it was amazing May 22, Richard rated it really liked it Dec 06, Santaraksita rated it it was amazing Nov 30, Lysergius rated it liked it Jan 19, Jason rated it liked it Jul 08, Jim rated it really liked it Jul 21, Chubbytaro rated it it was amazing Jan 06, Dan Jones rated it really liked it Mar 03, Daniel Zulauf rated it really liked it Jan 24, Dana rated it really liked it Dec 27, Edmond Chadwick rated it it was amazing Mar 25, Shea Bartlett rated it it was amazing Mar 23, Marlaina rated it it was amazing Jul 30, Daniel Cunningham rated it liked it Jan 09, MK Fong rated it it was amazing Dec 19, Carol rated it really liked it Sep 10, Dom Sagolla rated it liked it Jan 29, Hope rated it really liked it Oct 09, Yu He rated it it was amazing Sep 18, Ximena Anleu rated it it was amazing Apr 13, There are no discussion topics on this book yet.