Introduction to

Chinese Literature

China possesses one of the world's major literary traditions. Its texts have been preserved for over 3,000
years. Reverence for the past has influenced the preservation of these cultural sources, and may have
influenced the invention of woodblock printing in the 9th century and moveable type printing in the 12th
century. The practice of collecting and reproducing libraries has also played a major role in the transmission of
literary tradition. Most important, China can boast an unbroken cultural tradition based on the Chinese script
as a language a written medium independent of spoken dialectic difference. As literary language
became increasingly removed from spoken language, it became less vital and literature took a natural turn
toward imitation. Indeed, after the formative classical period that began with Confucius, the literary history of
China becomes one of imitation-with-variations of different models. Literature also thus becomes more elitist,
for an understanding or appreciation of a text may require familiarity with the models being alluded to.
The principal genre of Chinese literature is poetry; early folk songs established the shi (shih) form that
crystallized during the Han dynasty and dominated for the next 1,200 years. Beginning with the simple
complaints and longings expressed in rhymed couplets of folk songs, this form gradually became more and
more complex, or "regulated," until it took years of study to master its formal rules of composition.
The short story, which began to develop during the Tang dynasty, at first emphasized either historical events
or supernatural happenings which could not be related in a formal historical work. The notion of fiction as
connected to history persisted, yet more imaginative and rationally inexplicable, culminating in China's
greatest novel, The Dream of the Red Chamber or The Story of the Stone, which is at once autobiographical
and realistic, and at the same time imaginative and mystical.
Drama, one of China's least well-developed genres, had its origins also in popular entertainment. The high
point of elite drama was during the Yuan dynasty, when intellectuals dispossessed by the Mongol invaders
turned to the composition of drama both to productively employ their taste and erudition and also to covertly
criticize the foreign government. During the following centuries, dramas tended to become longer, and the

opera dominated. Spoken drama was not generally conspicuous until the 20th century.
By the beginning of the 20th century, the movement to modernize and westernize China's literature became
very popular. The formal classical language, which by then survived only in written texts, was replaced by the
vernacular spoken language as a literary medium. Experiments with free verse and sonnet forms, short
autobiographical stories and interior monologues, spoken drama and radio or film scripts were influenced by
western models rather than by classical Chinese tradition. However, the theme of China's plight dominated
20th-century Chinese literature, and for the past six decades the pendulum has frequently swung back and
forth between western imitation and modernized styles versus Chinese foundation and conservative
techniques. Whereas classical Chinese literature was often valued for its craft and erudition, post-1919
Chinese literature has been evaluated largely in terms of its social and political relevance.
Much Chinese literature of the 1920s and 1930s both exposed national social problems and also expressed
writers' doubts about finding viable solutions to these problems.
In 1942 Mao Zedong, in his "Talks at Yenan on Literature and Art," emphasized to his fellow communist
revolutionaries that the goal of literature was neither to reflect the dark side of society nor to express the
author's own private feelings or artistic inspirations. Instead, he said, literature and art should inspire the
masses by presenting positive examples of heroism and socialist idealism. It should also be written in the
public voice and style of the workers, peasants, and soldiers, not of the elite intellectuals.
During the Cultural Revolution period (1966-76), Mao's principle that literature and art should serve the people
and promote socialism was most rigidly adhered to. The fiction of Hao Ran (Hao Jan) constitutes an excellent
example of this tendency.
Literature After 1976
With the death of Mao Zedong in 1976 came the official end of the Cultural Revolution period, and with it
increased freedom for writers. During the subsequent decade, Chinese fiction tended to fall into the following
five (necessarily overlapping) categories:
1. Literature of the Wounded
The initial impulse of writers was to begin, tentatively at first, to express the profound suffering of the previous
decades. Chen Roxi's stories in The Execution of Mayor Yin and Other Stories offer an example of very well-

crafted fiction which reveals the physical, psychological and spiritual pain the Chinese people endured under
Mao. But finally, Chen Roxi must be considered a foreigner, though she is Chinese and she lived in China
during the Cultural Revolution era.
Within China, the "literature of the wounded" movement began in the summer of 1977 when Lu Xinhua, a 23year-old student at Fudan University, presented a story entitled "The Wounded" as a big-character poster on
the walls of the campus. The story was soon published, and it inspired hundreds of others. Another one which
became equally famous was Liu Xinwu's "Class Counselor," published in November 1977. In Liu's story, the
young girl fails to achieve a reconciliation with her mother, whom she had been forced to denounce during the
Cultural Revolution. An open-minded class advisor recognizes that there is still hope for the generation of
youth who suffered at the hands of the Gang of Four. For several years, story after story poured out the guilt,
regret, and pain over lost lives and ruined careers, betrayal of friends and family members, and the need to
seek restitution. Within the "wounded" tradition, though not literature per se, a number of Chinese have written
accounts of this tragic period for Western audiences.
2. Humanistic Literature
A related literary trend which began in the late 1970s and early 1980s was fiction which treated the problems
of recreating the whole person after the constricting movements of the Cultural Revolution. A large number of
women writers predominate in this category.
Since personal feelings were supposed to be subordinate to political action during the Cultural Revolution,
writers who reacted in the opposite direction after the death of Mao used the rally cry, "Love Must Not Be
Forgotten" the title of one of Zhang Jie's short stories advocating marriage based only on love and private
desire.
3. Social Criticism
Finally allowed once again to treat in fiction the darker side of Chinese society, many writers composed works
which addressed post-Cultural Revolution social problems: alienated youth, the loneliness of the elderly and
the divorced, the housing shortage, government corruption, dissatisfaction with the system of job
assignments, etc. In a bold social indictment, Bai Hua in his screenplay, "Unrequited Love," has the
protagonist's daughter ask the fundamental question: "Dad, you love our country. Through bitter frustration
you go on loving her . . . But, Dad, does this country love you?" This script first appeared in 1979, and by 1980

it was banned.
4. Seeking Roots
Some writers, especially those who live outside the main cities, have turned to local themes and subject
matter in their recent fiction. For example, Lu Wenfu describes the customs of the Suzhou region and Gao
Xiaosheng depicts agricultural life in his native Hunan province. These people are seeking a meaning in life
separate from political movements and urban upward mobility.
5. Reportage
Some writers feel that the most important contribution they can make is to record the facts of Chinese life in a
way that illuminates both the problems and strengths of the Chinese people. The most famous journalist who
exposes corruption in his sophisticated reporting style is Liu Binyan, whose "People or Monsters?" was
acclaimed for its unflinching honesty in confronting deeply rooted government corruption.
In a different tone, Chinese Profiles, compiled by Zhang Xinxin and Sang Ye, presents interviews with 100
Chinese citizens who tell about their lives in a way similar to people interviewed by Studs Terkel. Their stories
are poignant and surprising as individual accounts. They illuminate the rich social fabric of China and indirectly
point out major social and political issues implicit in the individual accounts.

To many Westerners, Chinese literature remains a hidden seam in the rich strata of
Chinese culture. As a matter of fact, it is a treasure of a very considerable number of
brilliant and profound works as each dynasty, in the long history of China, has passed
down its legacy of magnificent events and works. For 3500 years, they have woven a
variety of genres and forms encompassing poetry, essays, fiction and drama; each in its
own way reflecting the social climate of its day through the high spirit of art. Chinese
literature has its own values and tastes, its own reigning cultural tradition and its own
critical
system
of
theory.
Chronologically,
contemporary

it

can

ClassicalLiterature

be
and

divided

into four
the

main periods:
present-age

classical, modern,
literature.

It refers to the earliest period and covers works from three thousands years ago to the
late Qing Dynasty (1644 - 1911), and is a virtually unbroken strand enduring dynastic
changes. Written in an ancient form of language that is very different from present day
Chinese, it needs to be carefully studied to be understood. Since it was nearly always
developed under the reign of centralized and unified government, it is imbued with the
thoughts of a culture that embraced slavery and a feudal society. It was steeped in an

enclosed environment that hardly had any real links with religion or least of all the
literature of foreign cultures.

Chinese Drama
Tsa-Chu Drama

Zaju (Tsa-Chu Drama) in the Yuan Dynasty belongs to Yuan Qu and as its main branch
it was welcomed by both the court and the people. It underwent two stages in the early
Yuan and the mid and late Yuan.
In the early stage, dramatists suffered from the misfortunes of the time and created
works to embody the reality of social darkness. Guan Hanqing, the most highly reputed
dramatist, wrote The Injustice to Dou'e as his masterpiece. In this work, Dou'e is a
widower living with his mother-in-law. When the scoundrel compelled her to marry him,
she resisted him. Wrongly accused, she was sentenced to death. Prior to her execution,
she pronounced three curses. The first was of blood spraying onto a white flag, the
second was for snow in summer and the third for a severe drought lasting for three
years. Each of her curses was realized. There were other contemporary playwrights like
Bai Renfu who wrote Rain on the Wu Tong Tree to praise the love between Emperor
Xuanzong and his concubine Yang Guifei. Autumn in the Han Palace by Ma Zhiyuan is
another telling the story of Wang Zhaojun.
At the second stage, dramatists turned their concentration to feelings of love and the
fairy and ghost stories as the conditions under the reigning government were rather
disappointing. Romance of the Western Chamber by Wang Shifu is typical. The lyrical
and fluent verses cause readers to sympathize with the lovers and to dislike their
obstructer.
Drama in the Ming and Qing Dynasty reached another peak after the Zaju (Tsa-chu
Drama) of the Yuan Dynasty. Dramatic theory and works as well as performance skills
were all greatly admired. The famous Beijing Opera was created during this time. The
dramatic works include 'Ten Tragedies' and 'Ten Comedies'. The Peony Pavilion is the
typical one among these.

Other Forms
In ancient China, as well as the above four forms of literature, there were also others
such as historical records, critical works, idioms, allegories, ballads and many legends
that had been handed down from generation to generation.
It refers to the periord from the Opium War in 1840 to the May Fourth Moverment in
1919. As the decadent reign of the Qing failed to inspire the minds of people, the
literary forms had remained unchanged; till the Opium War in 1840. Then they
absorbed the impact of western thoughts as foreigners poured in China and
established their colonies. Novels, poetry and other works began to appear with a
theme of patriotism and a revelation of social ills.

Modern, Contemporary, Present-Age Literature

Modern Literature

The Opium War brought to an end China's seclusion from the outside world and caused
it to progress to a new period in its history. With a crisis of politics, economy and
culture, Lin Zexu introduced a more open literary creation. Founded on the Hundred
Days' Movement, advocators called for a revolutionary style poetry and novel to prompt
people to join in the political struggle. Another group of writers created novels to
denounce the system that was the cause of so much dissatisfaction among the people.

Contemporary Literature
The contemporary period refers to the glorious thirty years from the May Fourth
Movement in 1919 until the foundation of the Peoples' Republic of China in 1949. With
the development of the New Culture Movement and the victorious October Revolution in
Russia in 1917, new thoughts refreshed the literary field. They tried to approach the
public with more oral and excellent works as well as the literary association.
Lu Xun, the harbinger and master of modern literature, composed the Madman's Diary,
which is the first work set completely in exoteric language and which sharply revealed
the essence of society. The True Story of Ah Q is considered to his finest novel and built
up the image of spiritual anesthesia in both Chinese and world literature.
Lao She was skillful in utilizing the Peking dialect and Camel Xiangzi and the drama Tea
House are his masterpieces which reflect the helplessness of the lower classes in the
old China.
Bing Xin, a literary woman, is known for her morbidezza style of writing, so called as
she wrote as though painting a picture with the finest and most tender detail. From her
works you can get an insight of mother love and innocence.
Lin Yutang wrote many essays. After settling in America, he created the novel Moment
in Peking, and won the nomination for the Nobel Prize for Literature.
Xu Zhimo, a much traveled lyric poet, expressed his feelings of longing for the days
when he was at Cambridge University in his evocative poem Second Farewell to
Cambridge. Breaking with many of the conventions of the poetic form he returned to
them in his later works prior to his untimely death in an air accident in 1931.
There are also numerous great works that are too many to be listed here but it is hope
that these notes will give you an appreciation of the diversity and breadth but from the
above, you may see how diversiform they are.

Present-Age Literature
Modern China's political arena, thriving economy and culture provides more freedom
and an open atmosphere in which present day literature takes on a greater brilliance.
Poems, essays, fiction and drama in a broad spectrum of themes and in many forms are
quite popular. Newspapers, magazines, radio, and the Internet, all give writers of
literature much scope for their exertions. Consequently, for their encouragement, there
are literary prizes such as the Lu Xun Prize, Mao Dun Prize, Spring Prize, Feng Mu Prize,
and Lao She Prize and more besides.

StylesofLiterature
Over time, the nature of the language in which the literature of China was written
diverged sharply, producing two main styles of writing, one composed in a

specifically literary language and the other in the vernacular. Both strands produced
their own very different styles of literature, and both styles reflected their own
characteristic language.
Literary

Style

The literary style was exceedingly concise and was unmatched for its vigor,
richness, and symmetry. Historical and literary allusions abounded, and finally
special dictionaries were required for their elucidation. In poetry the relatively
simple prosody of the Chou period was followed by systems of more minutely
prescribed forms. The lines, which rhymed, had to be matched syllable by syllable in
both part of speech and intonation. By the T'ang period the prosodic rules no longer
suited the spoken structure of the everyday language; they continued to be
observed in spite of changes in pronunciation. It is generally agreed that China's
greatest poetry was written in the T'ang dynasty. Wang Wei, Li Po, Tu Fu, and Po
Ch-i are masters of this period. In the succeeding Sung dynasty Su Tung-p'o was
perhaps
the
foremost
poet.
Translations of T'ang and Sung poetry strongly influenced the modern imagist
school in English (see imagists). Chinese lyrics are generally very short, unemphatic
and quiet in manner, and limited to suggesting a mood or a scene by a few touches
rather than painting a detailed picture. Intellectual themes and narratives are
comparatively rare. Many varieties of learned prose have also been written in China.
Notable for accuracy and objectivity are the series of dynastic histories produced
since Han times; the famous Shih chi [records of the historian] (c.100 BC) by Ssu-ma
Ch'ien served
as
their
model.
Chinese lexicography developed in response to multiplication of characters. The last
of a great series of dictionaries (still in standard use) was produced in the reign of
K'ang Hsi (16621722). So-called encyclopedias, actually extracts from existing
works, have been occasionally compiled; one such work of the Ming dynasty (1368
1644) ran to over 11,000 short volumes and appeared in three manuscript copies.
Vernacular

Style

While the literati were cultivating polite literature during the T'ang and Sung
periods, prose and verse of a popular nature began to appear. It was written in the
spoken vernacular rather than in the classical literary language, and scholars
regarded it with scorn. Springing from story cycles made familiar by professional
storytellers, this vernacular literature first emerged as a full-fledged art in the
drama
of
the
Yan
dynasty
(12601368).
The vernacular style later developed into the great novels of the Ming period that
followed. Both the drama and the novel proved immensely popular. Thus the 13th
cent. witnessed the emergence of the resources of the living language of the
people. The vernacular novels, although they had their roots in the Yan epoch, took
shape gradually during the Ming era until they were finally given their finished form,
perhaps
anonymously
by
some
talented
traditional
scholar.
An early and outstanding example of the novel is the San Kuo Chih Yen I (tr. San
Kuo or Romance of the Three Kingdoms, 1925); it is set in the Three

Kingdoms period (220265) and recounts heroic deeds and chivalrous exploits.
Another historical romance is the Shui Hu Chuan (tr. All Men Are Brothers, 1937), a
picaresque tale of men forced by the venality of officials to become bandits. The Hsi
Yu Chi (tr. Monkey, 1943) is an allegorical tale, full of the supernatural, concerning
the
adventures
of
a
Buddhist
pilgrim
on
a
journey
to
India.
The Chin P'ing Mei (tr. The Golden Lotus, 1939) by contrast portrays domestic life
and amorous intrigue; it is marked by realistic incident and the interplay of human
relationships. The greatest Chinese novel is considered to be Hung Lou
Meng (tr. Dream of the Red Chamber, 1958), an 18th-century work chiefly from the
hand of Ts'ao Hseh-ch'in. With an unrivaled gift for subtle characterization and plot
construction, the author recounts the declining fortunes of an aristocratic family.

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WRITTEN BY:
William H. NienhauserHoward C. GoldblattHellmut WilhelmTien-yi Li
LAST UPDATED:
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Chinese literature, the body of works written in Chinese, including

lyric poetry, historical and didactic writing, drama, and various forms of fiction.
Chinese literature is one of the major literary heritages of the world, with an
uninterrupted history of more than 3,000 years, dating back at least to the
14th century BCE. Its medium, the Chinese language, has retained its
unmistakable identity in both its spoken and written aspects in spite of
generally gradual changes in pronunciation, the existence of regional and
local dialects, and several stages in the structural representation of the written
graphs, or characters. Even the partial or total conquests of China for
considerable periods by non-Han Chinese ethnic groups from outside the
Great Wall failed to disrupt this continuity, for the conquerors were forced to
adopt the written Chinese language as their official medium of communication
because they had none of their own. Since the Chinese graphs were
inherently nonphonetic, they were at best unsatisfactory tools for the
transcription of a non-Chinese language, and attempts at creating a new
alphabetic-phonetic written language for empire building proved unsuccessful
on three separate occasions. The result was that after a period of alien
domination, the conquerors were culturally assimilated (except the Mongols,
who retreated en masse to their original homeland after the collapse of the
Yuan [or Mongol] dynasty in 1368). Thus, there was no disruption in Chinas
literary development.

GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS
Through cultural contacts, Chinese literature has profoundly influenced the
literary traditions of other Asian countries, particularly Korea, Japan, and
Vietnam. Not only was the Chinese script adopted for the written language in
these countries, but some writers adopted the Chinese language as their chief
literary medium, at least before the 20th century.

The graphic nature of the written aspect of the Chinese language has
produced a number of noteworthy effects upon Chinese literature and its
diffusion: (1) Chinese literature, especially poetry, is recorded in handwriting or
in print and purports to make an aesthetic appeal to the reader that is visual
as well as aural. (2) This visual appeal of the graphs has in fact given rise to
the elevated status of calligraphy in China, where it has been regarded for at
least the last 16 centuries as a fine art comparable to painting. Scrolls of
calligraphic renderings of poems and prose selections have continued to be
hung alongside paintings in the homes of the common people as well as the
elite, converting these literary gems into something to be enjoyed in everyday
living. (3) On the negative side, such a writing system has been an
impediment to education and the spread of literacy, thus reducing the number
of readers of literature, for even a rudimentary level of reading and writing
requires knowledge of more than 1,000 graphs, together with their
pronunciation. (4) On the other hand, the Chinese written language, even with
its obvious disadvantages, has been a potent factor in perpetuating the
cultural unity of the growing millions of the Chinese people, including
assimilated groups in far-flung peripheral areas. Different in function from
recording words in an alphabeticphonetic language, the graphs are not
primarily indicators of sounds and can therefore be pronounced in variant
ways to accommodate geographical diversities in speech and historical
phonological changes without damage to the meaning of the written page. As
a result, the major dialects in China never developed into separate written
languages as did the Romance languages, and, although the reader of a
Confucian Classic in southern China might not understand the everyday
speech of someone from the far north, Chinese literature has continued to be
the common asset of the whole Han Chinese people. By the same token, the
graphs of China could be utilized by speakers of other languages as their
literary mediums.
The pronunciation of the Chinese graphs has also influenced the development
of Chinese literature. The fact that each graph had a monophonic
pronunciation in a given context created a large number of homonyms, which
led to misunderstanding and confusion when spoken or read aloud without the
aid of the graphs. One corrective was the introduction of tones or pitches in
pronunciation. As a result, metre in Chinese prosody is not concerned with the
combination of syllabic stresses, as in English, but with those of syllabic

tones, which produce a different but equally pleasing cadence. This tonal
feature of the Chinese language has brought about an intimate relationship
between poetry and music in China. All major types of Chinese poetry were
originally sung to the accompaniment of music. Even after the musical scores
were lost, the poems were, as they still are, more often chantedin order to
approximate singingthan merely read.
BRITANNICA STORIES

Chinese poetry, besides depending on end rhyme and tonal metre for its
cadence, is characterized by its compactness and brevity. There are no epics
of either folk or literary variety and hardly any narrative or descriptive poems
that are long by the standards of world literature. Stressing the lyrical, as has
often been pointed out, the Chinese poet refrains from being exhaustive,
marking instead the heights of his ecstasies and inspiration or the depths of
sorrow and sympathy. Generally, pronouns and conjunctions are omitted, and
one or two words often allude to highly complex thoughts or situations. This
explains why many poems have been differently interpreted by learned
commentators and competent translators

The line of demarcation between prose and poetry is much less distinctly
drawn in Chinese literature than in other national literatures. This is clearly
reflected in three genres. The fu, for example, is on the borderline between
poetry and prose, containing elements of both. It uses rhyme and metre and
not infrequently also antithetic structure, but, despite occasional flights into the
realm of the poetic, it retains the features of prose without being necessarily
prosaic. This accounts for the variety of labels given to the fu in English by
writers on Chinese literaturepoetic prose, rhyme prose, prose poem,
rhapsody, and prose poetry.
Another genre belonging to this category is pianwen (parallel prose),
characterized by antithetic construction and balanced tonal patterns without
the use of rhyme; the term is suggestive of a team of paired horses, as is
implied in the Chinese word pian. Despite the polyphonic effect thus
produced, which approximates that of poetry, it has often been made the
vehicle of proselike exposition and argumentation. Another genre, a peculiar

mutation in this borderland, is the baguwen (eight-legged essay). Now

generally regarded as unworthy of classification as literature, for centuries
(from 1487 to 1901) it dominated the field of Chinese writing as the principal
yardstick in grading candidates in the official civil-service examinations. It
exploited antithetical construction and contrasting tonal patterns to the limit by
requiring pairs of columns consisting of long paragraphs, one responding to
the other, word for word, phrase for phrase, sentence for sentence.

Chinese prose writing has been diverted into two streams, separated at least
for the last 1,000 years by a gap much wider than the one between folk songs
and so-called literary poems. Classical, or literary, prose (guwen, orwenyan)
aims at the standards and styles set by ancient writers and their distinguished
followers of subsequent ages, with the Confucian Classics and the early
philosophers as supreme models. While the styles may vary with individual
writers, the language is always far removed from their spoken tongues.
Sanctioned by official requirement for the competitive examinations and
dignified by traditional respect for the cultural accomplishments of past ages,
this medium became the linguistic tool of practically all Chinese prose writers.
Vernacular prose (baihua), in contrast, consists of writings in the living tongue,
the everyday language of the authors. Traditionally considered inferior, the
medium was piously avoided for creative writing until it was adopted by
novelists and playwrights from the 13th century on.

ORIGINS: C. 1400221 BCEtoc

The oldest specimens of Chinese writing extant are inscriptions on bones and
tortoise shells dating back to the last three centuries of the Shang
dynasty (18th12th centuries BCE) and recording divinations performed at the
royal capital. These inscriptions, like those engraved on ceremonial bronze
vessels toward the end of the Shang period, are usually brief and factual and
cannot be considered literature. Nonetheless, they are significant in that their
sizable vocabulary (about 3,400 characters, of which nearly 2,000 have been
reliably deciphered) has proved to be the direct ancestor of the modern
Chinese script. Moreover, the syntactical structure of the language bears a
striking resemblance to later usages. From the frequent occurrences in the
bone inscriptions of such characters as dance and music, drum and

chimes (of stone), words and southern (airs), it can safely be inferred
that, by the Shang dynasty, songs were sung to the accompaniment of dance
and music, but these songs are now lost.

Early Chinese literature does not present, as the literatures of certain other
world cultures do, great epics embodying mythological lore. What information
exists is sketchy and fragmentary and provides no clear evidence that an
organic mythology ever existed; if it did, all traces have been lost. Attempts by
scholars, Eastern and Western alike, to reconstruct the mythology of antiquity
have consequently not advanced beyond probable theses. Shang dynasty
material is limited. Zhou dynasty (c. 1046256 BCE) sources are more
plentiful, but even these must at times be supplemented by writings of the Han
period (206 BCE220 CE), which, however, must be read with great caution.
This is the case because Han scholars reworked the ancient texts to such an
extent that no one is quite sure, aside from evident forgeries, how much was
deliberately reinterpreted and how much was changed in good faith in an
attempt to clarify ambiguities or reconcile contradictions.
The early state of Chinese mythology was also molded by the religious
situation that prevailed in China at least since the Zhou conquest (c. 11th
century BCE), when religious observance connected with the cult of the
dominant deities was proclaimed a royal prerogative. Because of his temporal
position, the king alone was considered qualified to offer sacrifice and to pray
to these deities. Shangdi (Supreme Ruler), for example, one of the prime
dispensers of change and fate, was inaccessible to persons of lower rank. The
princes, the aristocracy, and the commoners were thus compelled, in
descending order, to worship lesser gods and ancestors. Though this situation
was greatly modified about the time of Confucius in the early part of the 5th
century BCE, institutional inertia and a trend toward rationalism precluded the
revival of a mythological world. Confucius prayed to Heaven (Tian) and was
concerned about the great sacrifices, but he and his school had little use for
genuine myths.
Nevertheless, during the latter centuries of the Zhou, Chinese mythology
began to undergo a profound transformation. The old gods, to a great extent
already forgotten, were gradually supplanted by a multitude of new ones,
some of whom were imported from India with Buddhism or gained popular
acceptance as Daoism spread throughout the empire. In the process, many

early myths were totally reinterpreted to the extent that some deities and
mythological figures were rationalized into abstract concepts and others were
euhemerized into historical figures. Above all, a hierarchical order, resembling
in many ways the institutional order of the empire, was imposed upon the
world of the supernatural. Many of the archaic myths were lost; others
survived only as fragments, and, in effect, an entirely new mythological world
was created.
These new gods generally had clearly defined functions and definite personal
characteristics and became prominent in literature and the other arts.
The myth of the battles between Huangdi (The Yellow Emperor) andChiyou
(The Wormy Transgressor), for example, became a part of Daoist lore and
eventually provided models for chapters of two works of vernacular
fiction, Shuihuzhuan (The Water Margin, also translated as All Men Are
Brothers) and Xiyouji (1592; Journey to the West, also partially translated
asMonkey). Other mythological figures such as Kuafu and
the Xiwangmusubsequently provided motifs for numerous poems and stories.
Historical personages were also commonly taken into the pantheon, for
Chinese popular imagination has been quick to endow the biography of a
beloved hero with legendary and eventually mythological traits. Qu Yuan, the
ill-fated minister of the state of Chu (771221 BCE), is the most notable
example. Mythmaking consequently became a constant, living process in
China. It was also true that historical heroes and would-be heroes arranged
their biographies in a way that lent themselves to mythologizing.

Poetry
The first anthology of Chinese poetry, known as the Shijing (Classic of
Poetry) and consisting of temple, court, and folk songs, was given definitive
form somewhere around the time of Confucius (551479 BCE). But its 305
songs are believed to range in date from the beginning of the Zhou dynasty to
the time of their compiling.
The Shijing is generally accounted the third of the Five Classics (Wujing) of
Confucian literature. The other four are: the Yijing (Classic of Changes), a
book of divination and cosmology; the Shujing (Classic of History), a
collection of official documents; the Liji (Record of Rites), a book of rituals
with accompanying anecdotes; and the Chunqiu (Spring and Autumn
[Annals]), a chronological history of the feudal state of Lu, where Confucius
was born, consisting of topical entries of major events from 722 to 481 BCE.

The Five Classics have been held in high esteem by Chinese scholars since
the 2nd century BCE. (For a discussion of the Yijing and Shujing, see
belowProse.)
The poems of the Shijing were originally sung to the accompaniment of music,
and some of them, especially temple songs, were also accompanied by
dancing. (In all subsequent periods of Chinese literary history, new trends in
poetry were profoundly influenced by music.) Most of the poems of
theShijing have a preponderantly lyrical strain whether the subject is hardship
in military service or seasonal festivities, agricultural chores or rural scenes,
love or sports, aspirations or disappointments of the common folk and of the
declining aristocracy. Apparently, the language of the poems was relatively
close to the daily speech of the common people, and even repeated attempts
at refinement during the long process of transmission have not spoiled their
freshness and spontaneity. In spite of this, however, when the songs are read
aloud and not sung to music their prevailing four-syllable lines conduce to
monotony, hardly redeemed by the occasional interspersion of shorter or
longer lines.
If there ever was an epic tradition in ancient China comparable to that of early
India or the West, only dim traces of it persist in the written records.
TheShijing has a few narrative poems celebrating heroic deeds of the royal
ancestors, but these are rearranged in cycles and only faintly approximate the
national epics of other peoples. One cycle, for example, records the major
stages in the rise of the Zhou kingdom, from the supernatural birth of its
remote founder to its conquest of the Shang kingdom. These episodes, which,
according to traditional history, cover a period of more than 1,000 years, are
dealt with in only about 400 lines. Other cycles, which celebrate later military
exploits of the royal Zhou armies, are even briefer.
The Shijing exerted a profound influence on Chinese poetry that, generally
speaking, has stressed the lyrical rather than the narrative element; a
dependence more on end rhymes for musical effect than on other rhetorical
devices; regular lines, consisting of a standard number of syllables; and the
utilization of intonation that is inherent in the language for rhythm, instead of
the alternation of stressed and unstressed syllables as is the norm in Western
poetry. The high regard in which this anthology has been held in China results
both from its antiquity and from the legend that Confucius himself edited it. It

was elevated in 136 BCE to the position of a major classic in the Confucian
canon.
Meanwhile, another type of poetry, also originating in music and dance, had
developed in the south, in the basin of the Yangtze River, an area dominated
by the principality of Chuhence the generic appellation Chuci, or songs of
Chu. These southern songs, though adorned with end rhymes like the songs
of the Shijing, follow a different metrical pattern: the lines are usually longer
and more irregular and are commonly (though not always) marked by a strong
caesura in the middle. Their effect is thus rather plaintive, and they lend
themselves to chanting instead of singing. The beginning of this tradition is
obscure because most of the early samples were eclipsed by the brilliant
4th/3rd-century-BCE compositions of the towering genius Qu Yuan, Chinas
first known poet.
Among some 25 elegies that are attributed to Qu Yuan, the most important
and longest is Lisao (On Encountering Sorrow), which has been described
as a politico-erotic ode, relating by means of a love allegory the poets
disappointment with his royal master and describing his imaginary travels in
distant regions and the realms of heaven, in an attempt to rid himself of his
sorrow. Qu Yuan committed suicide by drowning himself in the Miluo River,
and his tragic death, no less than his beautiful elegies, helped to perpetuate
the new literary genre. In contrast to the poems of the Shijing, which had few
successful imitators, the genre created by Qu Yuan was cultivated for more
than five centuries, and it also experienced later revivals.

Prose
Prior to the rise of the philosophers in the 6th century BCE, brief prose writings
were reported to be numerous, but of these only two collections have been
transmitted: the Shu, or Shujing (Classic of History), consisting of diverse
kinds of primitive state papers, such as declarations, portions of charges to
feudal lords, and orations; and the Yi, or Yijing (Classic of Changes), a
fortune-telling manual. Both grew by accretion and, according to a very
doubtful tradition, were edited by Confucius himself. Neither can be
considered literature, but both have exerted influence on Chinese writers for
more than 2,000 years as a result of their inclusion in the Confucian canon.
The earliest writings that can be assigned to individual authorship, in the
loose sense of the term, are the Laozi, or Daodejing (Classic of the Way of
Power), which is attributed to Laozi, who is credited with being the founder

of Daoism and who might have been an older contemporary of Confucius; and
the Lunyu (Conversations), or Analects (selected miscellaneous passages),
of Confucius. Neither of the philosophers wrote extensively, and their
teachings were recorded by their followers. Thus, the Laozi consists of brief
summaries of Laozis sayings, many of which are in rhyme and others in
polished prose to facilitate memorization. Likewise, the Analects is composed
of collections of the sages sayings, mostly as answers to questions or as a
result of discussions because writing implements and materials were
expensive and scarce. The circumstances of the conversations, however,
were usually omitted, and as a consequence the masters words often sound
cryptic and disjointed, despite the profundity of the wisdom.
By about 400 BCE, writing materials had improved, and a change in prose
style resulted. The records of the discourses became longer, the narrative
portions more detailed; jokes, stories, anecdotes, and parables, interspersed
in the conversations, were included. Thus, the Mencius, or Mengzi, the
teachings of Mencius, not only is three times longer than the Analects of
Confucius but also is topically and more coherently arranged. The same
characteristic may be noticed in the authentic chapters of the Zhuangzi,
attributed to the Daoist sage Zhuangzi, who (as stated in the epilogue of
theZhuangzi)
in paradoxical language, in bold words, and with subtle profundity, gave free play to his imagination
and thought.Although his writings are inimitable and unique, they seem circuitous and innocuous.
Although his utterances are irregular and formless, they are unconventional and readable.

The first example of the well-developed essay, however, is found neither in

the Mencius nor in the Zhuangzi but in the Mozi, attributed to Mo Di, orMozi, a
predecessor of Mencius and Zhuangzi, whose singular attainments in logic
made him a forceful preacher. His recorded sermons are characterized by
simplicity of style, clarity of exposition, depth of conviction, and directness of
appeal.
The prose style continued to be developed by such outstanding philosopheressayists as Xunzi and his pupil, the Legalist Hanfeizi. The peak of this
development, however, was not reached until the appearance of the first
expertly arranged full-length book, Lshi Chunqiu (The Spring and Autumn
[Annals] of Mr. L), completed in 240 BCE under the general direction of L

Buwei. The work, 60 essays in 26 sections, summarizes the teachings of the

several schools of philosophy as well as the folklore of the various regions of
China.
Chinese literature - Children's Encyclopedia (Ages 8-11)
People from different parts of China sometimes cannot understand each others
speech, but they all can read Chinese literature. That is because the Chinese
language is written using thousands of complicated characters that stand for things
or ideas instead of sounds. Chinese is one of the worlds oldest written languages,
with a history dating back more than 3,000 years.
Chinese literature - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up)
China is the only country in the world with a literature written in one language for
more than 3,000 consecutive years. This continuity results largely from the nature of
the written language itself. In a Western language such as English, the letters stand
for sounds that make up words, so the written language is closely tied to the spoken
language. This is not the case in Chinese. The characters in written Chinese stand
for words or parts of words on the basis of meaning, not sounds. Thus, people in all
parts of the country have been able to read Chinese in spite of gradual changes in
pronunciation and the emergence of different regional and local spoken dialects and
languages. Because the written characters have tended to keep the language stable,
Chinese never developed into distinctly separate written languages as did Latin in
southern Europe with the formation of the several Romance languages. Today, there
are many different forms of spoken Chinese, but they all share the same written
language. (See also China, "Chinese Language").