Chinese literature boasts over 3,000 years of continuous tradition, characterized by its unique writing system using characters. Prominent genres include poetry, essays, fiction, and drama, with significant historical figures like Confucius influencing its development. The literature continues to evolve, reflecting China's cultural richness and historical transformations through various dynastic periods.

1. Chinese Literature
Prepared by: RHEA MAE B. QUINICOT

2. Introduction
 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. It
is the use of characters, not letters as in
Western languages, that is most
important in the Chinese language

3.  The dominance of the written
language has had significant
effects on the development of the
literature. In handwriting or in
print, a piece of literature has
visual appeal. This has given rise to
the great respect that calligraphy
enjoys in China, where it has been
regarded for at least 16 centuries
as a fine art comparable to
painting.

4.  The main disadvantage of written
Chinese is the great number of
characters it contains: Even basic
reading and writing require a
knowledge of more than 1,000
characters.
 But even with this disadvantage,
Chinese has been a potent factor in
shaping and maintaining a cultural
continuity for millions of people.

5.  China has a very old and rich tradition in
literature and the dramatic and visual
arts. Early writings generally derived
from philosophical or religious essays
such as the works of Confucius (551-
479 BC) and Lao-tzu (probably 4th
century BC).
 After the fall of a dynasty, for example,
a grand history of the late dynasty was
commissioned and written by scholars
in the next dynasty.

6.  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;

7.  China also produced poetry, novels,
and dramatic writings from an early
date. Poetry, example became well
established as a literary form during the
T'ang Dynasty, from AD 618 to 907.
 Chinese literature has its own values
and tastes, its own reigning cultural
tradition and its own critical system of
theory.

8.  Drama is another old and important
literary form. Chinese drama usually
combines vernacular language with
music and song and thus has been
popular with the common people.
 A variety of popular and standard
themes are presented in Peking Opera,
which is probably the best known of
several operatic traditions that
developed in China. Chinese opera is a
favorite artistic and cultural medium

9.  Early Chinese novels often
stressed character development
and usually centered on an
adventure or supernatural
happening;
 "Dream of the Red Chamber',
probably China's most famous
novel.

10.  China's literary tradition continues to
the present, though much 20th-century
writing has concentrated on efforts to
reform or modernize China.
 To many Westerners, Chinese literature
remains a hidden seam in the rich
strata of Chinese culture.
 For 3500 years, they have woven a
variety of genres and forms
encompassing poetry, essays, fiction
and drama;

11. Four Main Periods:
 Classical literature,
 Contemporary literature,
 Modern literature; and
 Present day literature.

12. Classical Literature
 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.

13.  The most important poetic work
produced during the classical period
was the Shih Ching (Book of Poetry), an
anthology of ancient poems written in
four-word verses and composed mostly
between the 10th and the 7th centuries
bc.
 The Shih Ching is classified as the third
of the Five Classics; legend has it that
Confucius himself selected and edited
the 305 poems that constitute the
work.

14.  The other half of the Shih Ching is made
up of dynastic songs and court poems.
These songs and poems give a colorful
picture of the life and manners of the
Chinese feudal nobility, just as the folk
poems depict the simple and yet
bountiful life of the peasantry.
 The aristocratic, or court, style finds its
best expression, however, in a group of
poems known as the elegies of Ch'u.

15.  A feudal state in south-central China,
Ch'u was the home of Ch'ü Yüan (343–
277 bc), the first great Chinese poet.
 A noble by birth, Ch'ü Yüan wrote Li Sao
(Encountering Sorrow), a long,
autobiographical poem full of historical
allusions, allegories, and similes, lyrically
expressed and concerned with the
intimate revelation of a poetic soul
tormented because it has failed in its
search for a beautiful ideal.

16. Prose
 The seminal works of Chinese prose are those
that, with the Shih Ching, constitute the Five
Classics. These are the I Ching (Book of
Changes), a divination text; the Shu Ching
(Book of History), a miscellanea of ancient
state documents; the Li Chi (Book of Rites), a
collection of ritual and governmental codes;
and the Ch'un Ch'iu (Spring and Autumn
Annals), a history of the state of Lu from 722
to 481 bc.
 From the 6th to the 3d century bc, the first
great works of Chinese philosophy appeared.

17. Poetry
 In ancient China, people had profuse feelings
to express when historical events took place,
both joyful or of grief.
 Classical literature possesses a profound
culture, and is the epitome of the spirit,
morals and wisdom of the Chinese people.
 Classical poetry cares a great deal for rhythm.
Poetry is one of the earliest artistic forms as
well as the most fully developed in China.

18. Dynasties
 Shang (bea)
 Zhou
 Chin

19. Han
 Chu Ci, or The Songs of the South,
is another important poem
collection which appeared 300
years after The Classic of Odes.
 Chu Ci, as the book's name
indicates, is derived from the
songs of the southern state Chu
during the Warring States Period
(476 BC - 221 BC).

20.  Qu Yuan, who furthered the
development of the new poem style, is
famed as a great patriotic poet and
politician in the Chu state.
 This poetry book changed the simple
and brief style of The Classic of Odes,
and completely distinctive.
 The ancient poetry really enlightened
the poets that came after with its
romanticism.

21.  Yuefu in Han Dynasty (206 BC -
220) is a creation of the lower
class working people.
 The most prominent works are Mo
Shang Sang, Zhan Cheng Nan (War
in the South of Town), Orphan's
Song, and A Pair of Peacocks
Southeast Fly.

22.  The Han Dynasty Ode is another
popular style that originated in the
first unprecedented powerful
empire - Han. It is an artistic
reflection of the optimism and
self-reliance of that time.
 The Han Dynasty (206 BC to AD
220) actively promoted the
restoration and teaching of the
Classics.

23.  In 124 BC a national university was
opened for the purpose of
teaching Confucianism.
 It was also during the Han period
that the Classics became
established as the basis of Chinese
education.
 Literature flowered again during
the Han Dynasty.

24.  Traditional poetry and prose
forms, especially the Fu prose
poems, flourished. But the most
notable achievement came with
the reactivation of the Yueh Fu, or
Music Bureau, in 125 BC.
 The most outstanding folk ballad
of the period, about AD 200, was
`Southeast the Peacock Flies'.

25.  The major prose authors of the Han
Dynasty were Liu An, Ssu-ma Ch'ien,
and Pan Ku.
 Liu An was a prince of Huai-nan in the
2nd century BC.
 The work attributed to him, but
probably done under his patronage, is
`The Master of Huai-nan'.
 The masterpiece of the period was the
`Shih-chi', meaning "Historical
Records," of Ssu-ma Ch'ien.

26.  It was completed in about 85 BC
and took 18 years to produce. It
contains a record of events and
personalities for the previous
2,000 years.
 It was the first attempt at a
national history in China, and it set
the pattern for the histories of
dynasties in the following
centuries.

27.  In the next century Ssu-ma Ch'ien
was followed as historian by Pan
Ku, who was born about AD 32
and died about AD 92.
 He was also a poet, soldier, and
the author of `Han shu', meaning
"History of the Former Han
Dynasty."

28. Six Dynasties and the Sui
Dynasty (AD 221 to 618).
 Xin Dynasty Eastern HanThree
Kingdoms 220–280 Wei, Shu &
WuJin Dynasty 265–
420 Western Jin16 Kingdoms
304–439 Eastern JinSouthern
& Northern Dynasties
 Sui dynasty

29. Six Dynasties and the Sui
Dynasty (AD 221 to 618).
 The major poet of this era was
T'ao Ch'ien (365-427).
 He was a master of the five-
word line and has been called
the first of China's great
nature poets because most of
his writings deal with rural
activities.

30.  The 3rd and 4th centuries were,
for prose writers, a time of
individuality and partial rejection
of slavish imitation of past models.
 Lu Chi (261-303) was a renowned
poet and literary critic who
emphasized originality in creative
writing.
-ex. Wen Fu

31.  The revolt against imitative writing
was also expressed in a 5th-
century style called "pure
conversation," an intellectual
discussion on lofty matters.
 In the 6th century the first book of
literary criticism, `Carving of the
Literary Dragon', was published by
Liu Hsieh (465-522).

32.  Two other 6th-century prose
masters were Yang Hsien-chih,
author of `Record of Buddhist
Temples in Lo-yang', and Li
Tao-yuan, author of
`Commentary on the Water
Classic'.

33. Tang Dynasty
 Poetry in the Tang Dynasty (618 -
907) is an unparalleled system and
reaches the pinnacle in the
development of the poem.
 is considered China's golden age
of poetry.
 Its dazzling value consists of an
ideal combination of thoughts and
art.

34.  In later study of literature, it is
spoken of as being representative
of the whole classical literature
along with two other styles of
poetry –
 Tang Shi,
 Song Ci,
 Yuan Qu (Poetry in the Tang
Dynasty, Ci in the Song Dynasty,
and Qu in the Yuan Dynasty).

35.  As for quantity, a total of over
50,000 poems have been
collected and no one has any idea
how many more have been lost.
 Depending upon the period of its
development poetry dating from
the Tang Dynasty, can be
classified into four groups, namely
early Tang Dynasty, Flourishing
Tang, Mid-Tang and late Tang
Dynasty.

36. Early Tang
 In the early Tang Dynasty, most of
the poets followed the style of
their forebears and created a
blend of the characteristics of the
north and south.
 Eventually the field of literature
was refreshed and became more
vigorous as a result of those who
are known as The Four Talents -
Wang Bo, Yang Jiong, Luo
Binwang, and Lu Zhaolin,.

37.  Poems of the period known as
the flourishing Tang Dynasty
enjoyed a golden environment
owing to the wise reign,
prosperous economy, and the
prevailing strength of
diplomacy.
 The era endowed poets with
broad horizons, positive and
unrestrained emotion, and
innovative inspiration.

38. There are many representatives
we can enumerate:
 Li Bai enjoys the title of the
'Supernatural Being of Poem' .
 Even now his 'Jing Ye Si'
(Thoughts on the Silent Night)
is quite popular and nearly
everyone knows it even
children as young as two years
of age.

39.  Du Fu, known as the 'Saint
of Poem', was strict in his
use of metrical verses.
 His Deng Gao (Climbing Up)
achieved the perfection of
sheer professionalism.

40.  Wang Wei, the poet of landscape,
has written lots of elegant and
exquisite verses, such as 'bright
moon lighting on the pine forests,
clear water found running on the
stones'.
 Cui Hao created the best of the
seven-worded regulated poems -
The Yellow Crane Tower with the
verse 'yellow crane flies and never
back, white cloud floats away for
thousand years'.

41.  Cen Shen was skillful in his
descriptions of colorful scenes
in the then northwest China
and his famous sentence
conveying the delight with
snow 'just like the sudden
spring wind overnight blows,
thousands of pear trees come
to bloom' .

42. Mid-Tang
 In the Mid-Tang Dynasty,
numerous poets came to
prominence.
 The poets also subsequently
diverted the attention from state
affairs to the trivialities of daily life,
and from the glorification of
landscapes to the anchorage of
spirits and hopes.

43.  Poets like Liu Zongyuan and Wei
Yiwu expressed themselves
through the plain depiction of
sights around them.
 Another renowned literary figure is
Bai Juyi. His The Old Charcoal
Seller fully satirized the dark social
reality.
 And the Chang Hen Ge (Song of
Eternal Lament)

44. Late Tang dynasty
 In late Tang Dynasty, with the
deterioration of government,
the poems reflected more and
more the hopeless and
helpless feelings of the people
in a heavy way.
 The most talented poets were
Li Shang Yin and Du Mu.

45. Other Information about
Tang Dynasty
 Two of the greatest poets in all
Chinese literature lived during the
T'ang Dynasty: Li Po (701-762) and
Tu Fu (712-770).
 Li Po was a romantic who
celebrated such things as drinking,
friendship, and nature as well as
solitude and the passage of time.

46.  Tu Fu also celebrated the beauties
of nature and bemoaned the
passage of time, but he was also a
satirist and critic.
 Tu Fu's great reputation in
literature comes in part from his
expert use of all types of poetic
style.

47.  Chinese prose also underwent a
stylistic reform during the T'ang
period. The major change was
brought about by Han Yu (768-
824).
 He promoted classic Confucian
doctrines at a time when they had
begun to fall into neglect because
of the rising popularity of
Buddhism and Taoism.
 At his death he was honored with
the title "Prince of Letters."

48. Sung Dynasty
 Ci in the Song Dynasty (960 - 1279)
indicates another type of poetry at
that time. It came into being in the
Tang Dynasty and reached its summit
in the Song literature.
 This type of poem is akin to lyrics
created for musical accompaniment
as the meter varies in the way that the
words had to match the rhythm of the
music.

49.  Ci, depending upon its length, can
be divided into Xiao Ling (small-
sized, less than 58 characters),
Zhong Diao (middle-sized, 59 - 90
characters), and Chang Diao (long-
sized, more than 91 characters).
 Each Ci has a title as well as a Cipai
which is the name of the tonal
pattern and decides the rhythm
and form of a verse.

50.  Poets in the Song Dynasty
developed Ci that was deeper in
content and broader in form.
 Those who made a great
contribution were Liu Yong, Su
Shi, Yan Shu, Li Qingzhao, Xin Qiji,
etc.
 Generally speaking, Ci has two
main genres - Wanyue (graceful
and mild) and Haofang (bold and
unconstrained).

51.  Ci of Wanyue genre endows
delicate things with exquisite
feeling and elegance.
 The most famous verses are 'How
helpless I see the flowers falling,
the swallows seem to know winter
is coming again' by Yan Shu.
 Ci of Haofang genre began to be
popular since the creation by Su
Shi who changed Ci into a lyrical
art.

52. Other information about
Sung Dynasty
 During the Sung Dynasty,
especially in the 11th century, the
tz'u form of poetry and song was
brought to its greatest heights,
particularly through the efforts of
China's best woman poet, Li
Ch'ing-chao (1081-1141).
 Her early poems dealt with the
joys of love and were intensely
personal.

53.  The prose reform continued under
followers of Han Yu, and poetry of
the conventional type continued
to be written by members of rival
literary schools. The only real
innovation came with the use of
everyday speech in local dialects in
storytelling.
 This style opened new vistas in
prose fiction in later periods,
though its use was at first
despised by professional writers

54. Modern Chinese Literature
 The literary reform movement that
began with these and other “calls to
arms” was an important part of the
larger New Culture Movement for
cultural and sociopolitical reform,
which was greatly strengthened by a
student protest on May 4, 1919, against
the intellectual performance of the
Chinese delegates to the Paris Peace
Conference formally terminating World
War I.

55. The first fruits of this movement were
seen in 1918 and 1919 with the
appearance in Xinqingnian of such stories
as “Kuangren riji” (“The Diary of a
Madman”), a Gogol-inspired piece about
a “madman” who suspects that he alone
is sane and the rest of the world is mad,
and “Yao” (“Medicine”), both by Zhou
Shuren. Known by the pseudonym Lu
Xun, Zhou had studied in Japan and, with
his younger brother, the noted essayist
Zhou Zuoren, had become a leader of the
literary revolution soon after returning to
China. Lu Xun’s acerbic, somewhat
Westernized, and often satirical attacks
on China’s feudalistic traditions
established him as China’s foremost critic
and writer.

56. In 1920 Shen Yanbin,
better known later as Mao
Dun, and others established
the Wenxue Yanjiuhui
(“Literary Research
Association”), generally
referred to as the “realist” or
“art-for-life’s-sake” school,
which assumed the
editorship of the established
literary magazine Xiaoshuo
yuebao (Short Story
Monthly).

57. Political events of the mid-1920s,
in which Nationalist, communist,
and warlord forces clashed
frequently, initiated a shift to the
left in Chinese letters, culminating in
1930 in the founding of the Zuoyi
Zuojia Lianmeng (“League of Left-
Wing Writers”), whose membership
included many influential writers.
1927–37

58.  Mao Dun was the prototypical
realist. The subjects of his
socially mimetic tableaux
included pre-May Fourth urban
intellectual circles, bankrupt
rural villages, and, in perhaps
his best-known work, Ziye
(1933; Midnight), metropolitan
Shanghai in all its financial and
social chaos during the post-
Depression era.

59.  Poetry of the 1930s
underwent a similar
politicization, as more and
more students returned from
overseas to place their pens in
the service of the “people’s
resistance against feudalism
and imperialism.” The lyrical
verse of the early Crescent
Moon poets was replaced by a
more socially conscious poetry
by the likes of Ai Qing, Tian
Jian, and Zang Kejia that
appealed to the readers’
patriotic fervour.

60.  During the Sino-Japanese War
(1937–45), most writers fled to
the interior, where they
contributed to the war effort
by writing patriotic literature
under the banner of the
Zhonghua Quanguo Wenyijie
Kangdi Xiehui (“All-China Anti-
Japanese Federation of
Writers and Artists”), founded
in 1938 and directed by Lao
She.
The War Years: 1937–49

61.  Literature on the China mainland
from 1949 through much of the
1970s was largely a reflection of
political campaigns and ideological
battles. This state of affairs can be
traced to Mao Zedong’s 1942 “Zai
Yan’an wenyi zuotanhui shang de
jianghua” (“Talks at the Yan’an
Forum on Literature and Art”), in
which he articulated his position that
literature, which existed to serve
politics, was to be popularized while
the people’s level of literary
appreciation was gradually being
elevated.
1949–76

62.  The accusatory “scar literature,” a sort of
national catharsis that immediately
followed the 10-year “holocaust,” gave
way to more professional and more daring
writing, as exemplified in the stories of
Wang Meng, with their stylistic
experiments in stream of consciousness,
and of Bai Hua, with their sharp political
criticism of the previous 20 years; the
symbolic “obscure” poetry of Bei Dao and
others; the relatively bold dramas, both for
the stage and for the screen, of several
playwrights such as Gao Xingjian, who,
after becoming a French citizen in 1994,
won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2000;
and the innovative investigative reportage
of Liu Binyan.
After the Cultural Revolution

63. Chinese literature has had a huge impact on
world literature due to its rich intellectual, lyrical,
and narrative traditions. Its emphasis on harmony,
balance, and profound emotional expression has
enhanced world literary traditions. Confucius and
Laozi's philosophical works influenced both
Eastern and Western thought. Chinese poetry,
notably from the Tang Dynasty, established high
standards for lyrical beauty and reflection.
Classical novels such as "Journey to the West"
and "Dream of the Red Chamber" include
intricate storylines and cultural perspectives. The
brief and evocative style of Chinese literature has
impacted various literary genres, like Japanese
haiku. Chinese literature's universal themes and
profound insights cross cultural borders. This
universality enables it to connect with readers all
across the world. Its translations and
modifications have enabled cultural interaction.
Conclusion

64.  Li, T., Goldblatt, H. C., Wilhelm, H., & Nienhauser, W. H. (1998,
July 20). Chinese literature | History, Authors, Classics, Books,
Characteristics, & Facts. Encyclopedia Britannica.
https://www.britannica.com/art/Chinese-literature
 Mark, E., & Bai, L. (2024). Chinese literature. World History
Encyclopedia.
https://www.worldhistory.org/Chinese_Literature/
 Meredith, A. (2023, December 13). Chinese Literature from
Ancient Times to the Present Day. CLI.
https://studycli.org/chinese-culture/chinese-literature/
 Pang, K. (2024, July 18). History of Chinese literature, China
Literature in Ancient Time. China Highlights - Since 1998!
https://www.chinahighlights.com/travelguide/culture/history-
of-chinese-literature.htm
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