The document provides an overview of major works and authors in three Asian literatures: Chinese, Japanese, and Indian. For Chinese literature, it highlights Du Fu and Li Bai as two of China's greatest poets from the Tang Dynasty. For Japanese literature, it discusses Kakinomoto Hitomaro's tanka and chōka poems in the Man'yōshū anthology, and Matsuo Bashō's haiku verses. For Indian literature, it notes the epics Mahabharata and Ramayana, and the fable collection Panchatantra.
The document provides an overview of major works and authors in three Asian literatures: Chinese, Japanese, and Indian. For Chinese literature, it highlights Du Fu and Li Bai as two of China's greatest poets from the Tang Dynasty. For Japanese literature, it discusses Kakinomoto Hitomaro's tanka and chōka poems in the Man'yōshū anthology, and Matsuo Bashō's haiku verses. For Indian literature, it notes the epics Mahabharata and Ramayana, and the fable collection Panchatantra.
The document provides an overview of major works and authors in three Asian literatures: Chinese, Japanese, and Indian. For Chinese literature, it highlights Du Fu and Li Bai as two of China's greatest poets from the Tang Dynasty. For Japanese literature, it discusses Kakinomoto Hitomaro's tanka and chōka poems in the Man'yōshū anthology, and Matsuo Bashō's haiku verses. For Indian literature, it notes the epics Mahabharata and Ramayana, and the fable collection Panchatantra.
The document provides an overview of major works and authors in three Asian literatures: Chinese, Japanese, and Indian. For Chinese literature, it highlights Du Fu and Li Bai as two of China's greatest poets from the Tang Dynasty. For Japanese literature, it discusses Kakinomoto Hitomaro's tanka and chōka poems in the Man'yōshū anthology, and Matsuo Bashō's haiku verses. For Indian literature, it notes the epics Mahabharata and Ramayana, and the fable collection Panchatantra.
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At the end of this lesson, you should be able to:
name some major works and their writers in three major national literatures of Asian literature, namely, Chinese, Japanese, and Indian, and analyze a few selected literary works representative of the literature it belongs.
What is Asian literature?
What are some of the major works in Chinese, Japanese, and Indian literatures and who wrote them?
Asian Literature Asian literature refers to the body of literature produced in the countries in Asia.
Chinese Literature This body of works is in Chinese. It has more than 50 000 published works in a wide range of topics. Du Fu (712–770) is considered as China’s greatest poet. He was known for his works of lüshi. A lüshi has eight lines, each of which has five or seven syllables following a strict tonal pattern. It became widely popular during the Tang Dynasty (618–907 CE), the golden age of art and literature in Chinese history. Li Bai (701–762), also called Li Po, rivaled Du Fu for the title of China’s greatest poet. Unlike Du Fu, he wrote less formal verse forms. A famous drinker, he frequently celebrated drinking in his poetry.
Japanese Literature This body of works is mostly in Japanese, except the early writings which were written in Chinese. Kakinomoto Hitomaro, Japan’s first literary figure, was known for his works of tanka and chōka. The tanka, the basic form of Japanese poetry, has five lines in five-seven-five-seven- seven syllable pattern. On the other hand, the chōka has alternating lines of five and seven syllables and ends with an extra line of seven syllables. Having no definite length, it can have from seven lines to 150. Hitomaro’s works were included in Man’yōshū, the oldest anthology of Japanese poetry which was produced during the Nara Period (710–784). Matsuo Bashō (1644–1694) was regarded as the supreme haiku poet. Emerged from the early Tokugawa period (1603–1770), the haiku is composed of three lines with five-seven- five syllable pattern. It originated from the hokku, the first three lines of a renga, a poem usually with a hundred linked verses. Bashō’s verses appear with his travel accounts like The Narrow Road to the Deep North (1694).
Indian Literature This body of works is produced in India in a variety of vernacular languages like Sanskrit, Hindi, Punjabi, Tamil, and Urdu. The Mahabharata is an Indian epic written in Sanskrit. It is the longest poem in history with about 100 000 couplets. It is traditionally ascribed to an Indian sage named Vyasa. The Hindus regard the epic as both a text about dharma (the Hindu moral law) and a history. Bhagavadgītā, the most celebrated of its episodes, gives spiritual guidance. The Ramayana is another Indian epic in Sanskrit. The sage Valmiki was traditionally regarded as its author. It is shorter than Mahabharata, with some 24 000 couplets. The Panchatantra is a collection of Indian animal fables. Originally written in Sanskrit, it is a mixture of prose and verse. The stories are attributed to Vishnusharman, a learned Brahmin.
