Chinese literature final

 The flag of China was officially adopted on October 1,
1949.
 The red of the Chinese flag symbolizes the communist
revolution, and it's also the traditional color of the people.
 The large gold star represents communism,
 The four smaller stars represent the social classes of the
people.
 In addition, the five stars together reflect the importance
placed on the number five in Chinese thought and history.

The People's Republic of China
Area: 9,600,000 sq. km
Population: 1.3 billion
Capital City: Beijing
National Flag: Five-Stars-Red-Flag
Location: middle and East Asia, bounded on the east by
the Pacific Ocean
Territorial Seas: the Bohai Sea, the Yellow Sea, the East
China Sea, and the South China Sea
Climate: mainly continental monsoon climate (Tibet:
vertical climate zone)

PEOPLE: HAN CHINESE (93.3%), PLUS 55
ETHNIC GROUPS LIKE MIAO, LI, MONGOLIAN
LANGUAGE: MANDARIN CHINESE (PUTONGHUA)
BASED ON BEIJING DIALECT, PLUS LOCAL
DIALECTS
MAIN RELIGIONS AND BELIEFS: OFFICIALLY
ATHEIST, CONFUCIANISM, BUDDHISM,TAOISM,
ISLAM (OVER 22 MILLION), CATHOLICISM (OVER
4 MILLION) AND PROTESTANTISM (OVER 10
MILLION)

CURRENCY AND MONETARY
UNIT: RENMINBI/YUAN
FORM OF GOVERNMENT: SYSTEM OF NATIONAL
PEOPLE'S CONGRESS
ADMINISTRATIVE DEMARCATIONS:
23 PROVINCES, 5 AUTONOMOUS REGIONS, 4
MUNICIPALITIES, AND 2 SPECIAL
ADMINISTRATIVE REGIONS
CHINESE PRESIDENT: HU JINTAO

 Chinese history is generally
divided into dynasties or periods
during which particular family or
group of people reigned.
 Chinese states were unified into a
large empire with a central
government.
HISTORICAL CONTEXT
歷史背景

 The Chinese empire lasted foe over
two thousand years surviving
periods of internal turmoil, attacks
from outside invaders and the rise
and fall of numerous dynasties
 The poet T’ao Ch’ien lived during
the period known as the Six
Dynasties (220 A.D – 581 A.D),
one of the most tumultuous eras in
the Chinese History.

 Shang Dynasty (about 1700-1050 BC) -
Development of Chinese Writing
 The first dynasty for which there is
historical record and archaeological
evidence is the Shang Dynasty.
 It was a small empire in northern central
China.
 No documents from that country survive,
but there are archaeological finds of
hieroglyphic writing on bronze wares and
oracle bones.
 The hieroglyphic writing system later
evolved into ideographic and partly-
phonetic Chinese characters.
SHANG DYNASTY (ABOUT 1700-1050 BC)

 Their dynasty lasted for about 800
years,
 The great literary works of
philosophy and religion that became
the basis for Chinese religious and
social belief stem from what is
called the Spring and Autumn Period
(770-476) and the Warring States
Period (475-221).
 Taoism, Confucian literature, and
other prominent religious and
philosophical schools all emerged
during these periods.
CHOU DYNASTY (1045-255 BC)
BASIC PHILOSOPHICAL AND RELIGIOUS LITERATURE

 The Dynasty had big armies and
conquered the others.
 Once the Ch’in emperor had control, he
wanted to keep it, and they squelched any
opposition to his authority.
 A big philosophical and religious school
then was called Mohism.
 An early form of Buddhism was also
established in China at that time, but
their temples and literature were
destroyed and even less is known about
them.
CH’IN DYNASTY (221-206 BC)
LITERARY DISASTER AND LEGALISM

 The Han Dynasty era lasted for 400
years.
 At the beginning of the era,
Confucianism was revived. Confucian
texts were rewritten and
republished.
 The resulting ideology was the
official ideology of the Han Dynasty
and influenced political thinking
afterwards.
 The era’s major contributions were
historical texts and scientific works.
HAN DYNASTY (206 BC – 220 AD)
SCIENTIFIC AND HISTORICAL TEXTS

 The T’ang Dynasty had a big empire that
benefited from trade with the west
along the Silk Road, battled with the
Tibetan Empire, and experienced the
growing influence of organized Buddhist
religions.
 This era’s main contribution to Chinese
literature was in the poetry of Dufu, Li
Bai and many other poets. Dufu and Li
Bai are often thought of as China’s
greatest poets.
T’ANG DYNASTY (618-907)
EARLY WOODBLOCK PRINTING AND POETRY

 Military technology greatly advanced. They
traded little with the west due to the
presence of warring Muslim states on the
old trade routes.
 There wasn’t territorial expansion, but the
empire was continuously attacked by
nomadic tribes and countries around them.
 So the era is divided into two eras called
the Northern Sung (960-1127) and Southern
Sung (1127-1279) eras.
SUNG DYNASTY (960-1279)
EARLY WOODBLOCK PRINTING, TRAVEL LITERATURE, POETRY,
SCIENTIFIC TEXTS AND THE NEO-CONFUCIAN CLASSICS

 The Chinese rebelled against the
Mongols, and the Ming Dynasty era
began about 1368.
 One of the four great classics
called Journey to the West about a
monk going to India was written
during this time of isolation.
 Novels were the era’s main
contribution.

MING DYNASTY (1368-1644)
NOVELS

 The Mongols established the very rich
Yuan Dynasty.
 The Mongols were nomadic people who
herded cattle north of the Tang Empire
and wandered over a large area fighting
on horseback.
 It was a big empire with high technology,
a big population and a big army.
 It was an era of some historically
renowned dramatic playwrights and
novelists who wrote in vernacular
language.
YUAN DYNASTY (1279-1368)
DRAMA AND GREAT FICTIONAL NOVELS

CHINESE LITERATURE
1000 B.C.- A.D.1890
Know contentment
And you will suffer no disgrace;
Know when to stop
And you will meet with no danger.
You can then endure.
- the Tao Te Ching

 Poetry is a part of everyday life throughout the
history of China
 Poets have been among the most highly
regarded members of Chinese Society
 2nd -12th centuries A.D. the main Chinese
poetic form was the Shih Ching ( The Book of
Songs)
 Even the number of lines , each of which has the
same number of words
 Often expressed personal emotions
 Many have brooding or trouble tone , but can
express contentment
LITERARY CONTEXT
文藝上下文

 Contrast between Chinese and Western
modes of philosophic thinking
 Western philosophers seek out the being of
things, the essential reality lying behind
appearances
 Chinese principal and establishment and
cultivation of harmonious relationships within
their social structures
 Chinese thinking is far more concrete , this
worldly and above all, practical.
CHINESE PHILOSOPHY
中國哲學

 Chinese attitudes and beliefs
were shaped by 3 religious and
philosophical schools:
 Taoism
 Confucianism
 Buddhism
CULTURAL CONTEXT
文化背景

 Tao- path or the way
 Stresses freedom , simplicity and the
mythical contemplation of nature
(“Tao”)
 Force that controlled the universe
 Beyond the scope of human concerns
, but can see its workings by
observing nature
TAOISM
道教

 Avoid human desires
 Not educating
 Not honoring men of worth or
encourage cleaver to act
 Cause jealousy and greed
 Opposite of Confucianism
TAOISM
道教

 How people act – moral behavior
 Social relations based on
subordination: family ruled by
authoritarian father , state ruled by
authoritarian king.
 Respect and obey those with superior
status
 However, governed by the concept
ren – with a loving attitude towards
others
CONFUCIANISM
儒

 Tried to teach students to become
true gentlemen- morally and
spiritually
 Must conduct oneself in a virtuous
manner, those in power serve as
models
 Heaven is the supreme moral
authority , which dictates how one
must live.
CONFUCIANISM
儒

 To lead a moral life
 To be mindful and aware of thoughts
and actions
 To develop wisdom and
understanding
 Life is sorrow and sorrow is caused by
desires
 Rid self of desires
 Does not claim to be God
 Attain enlightenment through
meditation
BUDDHISM
佛教

 Solutions to our problems are within
ourselves
 Beliefs are incorporated into poetry
through symbols, imagery and
language of Chinese Literature
 Quietude and calmness is a central
notion in Buddhist thought
BUDDHISM
佛教

TRADITION AND CULTURE
傳統與文化

 Red is the Color of Weddings in China
 Red is central to the wedding theme of
China. It signifies love, joy and
prosperity and is used in a variety of
ways in Chinese wedding traditions.
 The bride's wedding down is often red,
as are the wedding invitations, and
wedding gift boxes or envelopes for
cash gifts. Even the bride and groom's
homes are decorated in red on the
wedding day.
CHINESE WEDDING TRADITIONS
中國的傳統婚禮

 Before the Chinese Wedding Day
 Before her wedding celebration, a Chinese bride traditionally
goes into seclusion with her closest friends. This Chinese
custom gives the bride-to-be some time to symbolically mourn
the loss of her friends and family.

 Some time before the couple are married, the
groom's family carries wedding gifts in red
baskets and boxes to the bride's house.
 One of the baskets will contain "uang susu" or
'milk money'. Others will contain personal things
for the bride, so that on her wedding day all of
her personal belongings will be in the groom's
house.
 The bride takes the gifts to another room where
they are sorted through. Three days before the
wedding day, women from the bride's family
reciprocate, bearing gifts -- including some
'returns'-- in red wrappings to the groom's
family.

 The Day of the Wedding Ceremony
 Wedding anniversaries in China, are
carefully chosen according to astrological
signs. It is also customary for couples to
be married on the half-hour or their
wedding day rather than at the top of the
hour.
 In this way, the couple begins their new
lives together on an 'upswing', while the
hands of the clock are moving up, rather
than down.

 Event: Chinese New Year
Date: The first day of a year in
lunar calendar, usually between
late Jan and early Feb
 Activities: fireworks display,
visiting and greeting, Yangke
dancing, lion and dragon dancing,
holding temple fairs and many
other great folklore-inspection
events.
CHINESE FESTIVALS
中國節日

 This was a time for the Chinese to
congratulate each other and
themselves on having passed
through another year, a time to
finish out the old, and to welcome in
the new year.
 Common expressions heard at this
time are: GUONIAN to have made it
through the old year, and BAINIAN to
congratulate the new year.
CHINESE FESTIVALS
中國節日

 Event: Lantern Festival Date: 15th of
the first lunar month
 Activities: Lanterns expositions,
garden parties, firework displays and
folk dances.
 The New Year celebrations ended on
the 15th of the First Moon with
the Lantern Festival.
 In the legend, the Jade Emperor in
Heaven was so angered at a town for
killing his favorite goose, that he
decided to destroy it with a storm of
fire.
CHINESE FESTIVALS
中國節日

 Event: Dragon Boat Festival
 Date: Date: 5th day of the 5th
lunar month
 Activities: Dragon Boat races and
eating Zong Zi (pyramid shaped
rice wrapped in reed or bamboo
leaves
CHINESE FESTIVALS
中國節日

 Event: Mid-Autumn FestivalDate: 15th of
the 8th lunar month
 Activities: Dragon Boat racing, enjoying
moonlight and eating moon cakes.
 Probably the second most important
festival in the Chinese calendar, Zhong qiu
has ancient origins.
 Abundant meals are eaten during the
festival and moon cakes, round pastries
filled with nuts, dried fruits, preserved
flowers, sesame and/or marinated beef or
bacon are eaten.
CHINESE FESTIVALS
中國節日

 Event: Qing ming Date: 12th of the
3rd lunar month, usually around
April 4th or 5th.
 Activities: Cleaning ancestors'
graves and holding memorial
ceremonies, spring outing, and flying
kites
 This is a time when ice and snow has
gone and plants are beginning to
grow again, and is a time for respect
to ancestors
 . Qing Ming is often marked by an
indulgence of the Chinese passion
for kite flying.
CHINESE FESTIVALS
中國節日

 Confucius once said: "Eating is
the utmost important part of life".
 Food is a central part of the
Chinese culture.
 Chinese cuisine is one of the
greatest methods of cooking.
 The Chinese people enjoy eating
good food at all levels of society,
so cooking has developed into a
very sophisticated art.
CHINESE FOOD AND COOKING
中國食品和烹飪

 Vegetables are the main
ingredients.
 The Chinese people like well-
prepared food.
 Chinese also like to eat together, a
tradition that can be traced back a
long time ago.
 Tea drinking is an integral part of
Chinese life and the Chinese food
experience.
CHINESE CUISINE IS NOTED FOR THE
FOLLOWING CHARACTERISTICS:

 A good education has always been highly
valued in China, as the people believe that
education ensures not only the future and
development of the individual but also the
family and the country as a whole.
 The great master Confucius taught that 'it
is a pleasure to learn something and to try it
out at intervals'. Similarly, numerous
students have been convinced that 'reading
books excels all other careers'.
EDUCATION
教育

 As far back as the Shang Dynasty
(16th century BC - 11th century BC),
inscriptions on bones or tortoise
shells were the simple records of
teaching and learning.
 In the Western Zhou Dynasty (11th
century BC - 771 BC), nobles built
schools to teach their children, as
their offsprings would be the
officials of the future, while those
who were gifted but of poor families
could but dream of approaching
state affairs.
EDUCATION
教育

 The development of education system led to a
form of evaluation that became the means by
which dynastic China appointed those with
talents as officials.
 In general, this process can be divided into
three periods - 'chaju' and 'zhengpi' in the
Han Dynasty, the 'jiupin zhongzheng' system
from Han to the Northern and Southern
Dynasties, and the Imperial Examination
which survived from the Sui Dynasty (589 -
618) right through to the last feudal dynasty
Qing Dynasty (1644 - 1911).
EDUCATION
教育

 Chinese ( 漢語 ) comprises of seven main dialects,
Mandarin (官話), Cantonese (廣州話, 廣府話), Hakka (客
家話), Wu (吳語), Min (閩語), Xiang (湘語), and Gan (贛
語) .
 The variety of Mandarin based on the speech in the
capital Beijing is the official national language of
mainland China and is termed Pŭtōnghuà, Common
language (普通話).
 The de facto common language in Hong Kong and
overseas Chinese communities is Cantonese.
Amongst the official languages of Taiwan are
Mandarin, Taiwanese, and Hakka .
THE CHINESE LANGUAGE
中國語言

 All varieties of Chinese belong to the
Sino-Tibetan family of languages.
Members of the Sinitic family are
typically tonal, meaning that different
tones, or intonations, distinguish words
that otherwise are pronounced
identically.
 Chinese by origin is monosyllabic. The
vocabulary of dialects more recent in the
linguistic tree such are Mandarin tend to
become more polysyllabic (compound
words) as an adjustment to the loss of a
number of sounds compared to ancient
Chinese.
THE CHINESE LANGUAGE
中國語言

THE CHINESE ALPHABET
中國字母表
 In the Chinese alphabet, small letters are written like capital
letters, and vice versa.
A 诶 ēi
B 比 bǐ
C 西 xī
D 迪 dí
E 伊 yī
F 艾弗 ài fú
G 吉 jí
H 艾尺 ài chǐ
I 艾 ài
J 杰 jié
K 开 kāi
L 艾勒 ài lè
M 艾马 ài mǎ
N 艾娜 ài nà
O 哦 ó
P 屁 pì
Q 吉吾 jí wú
R 艾儿 ài ér
S 艾丝 ài sī
T 提 tí
U 伊吾 yī wú
V 维 wéi
W 豆贝尔维 dòu bèi ěr wéi
X 艾克斯 yī kè sī
Y 吾艾 wú ài
Z 贼德 zéi dé

 The 100 yuan note has pictures
of four of the founders of the
People's Republic of China.
From right to left these are:
Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai, Liu
Shaoqi, and Zhu De.
CHINESE MONEY AND COUNTING
中國貨幣和計數

 Kong Qui, better known as Confucius,
was born in 551 B.C. in the Lu state
of China. His teachings, preserved in
the Analects, focused on creating
ethical models of family and public
interaction, and setting educational
standards. He died in 479 B.C.
Confucianism later became the
official imperial philosophy of China,
and was extremely influential during
the Han, Tang and Song dynasties.
CONFUCIUS
孔子

 An anthology of brief passages that
present the words of Confucius and his
disciples.
 Describe Confucius as a man, and recount
some of the events of his life.
 The Analects includes twenty books, each
generally featuring a series of chapters
that encompass quotes from Confucius,
which were compiled by his disciples after
his death.
THE ANALECTS OF CONFUCIUS
孔子的“論語”

 "The Master said, 'At fifteen I set my heart
upon learning. At thirty, I had planted my
feet firm upon the ground. At forty, I no
longer suffered from complexities. At fifty, I
knew what were the biddings of Heaven. At
sixty, I heard them with docile ear. At
seventy, I could follow the dictates of my
own heart; for what I desired no longer
overstepped the boundaries of right.'"
Book II, Ch.4, p. 88
THE ANALECTS
“論語”

 "The Master said, 'From the very poorest
upwards - beginning even with the man who
could bring no better present than a bundle
of dried flesh - none has ever come to me
without receiving instruction.'"
Book VII, Ch. 7, p. 124
THE ANALECTS
“論語”

 "The Master said, 'A horn-gourd that is
neither horn nor gourd! A pretty horn-gourd
indeed, a pretty horn-gourd indeed.'"
Book VI, Ch.23, p. 120
THE ANALECTS
“論語”

 Po Chu-i was a gentleman poet and
government official during the golden
age of the Tang dynasty in China.
 Po Chu-i eventually retired to a
monastery when he was in his 50s.
One of his legs was paralyzed at the
end of his life.
 His poetry often has the easy, retiring
quality of Chan poetry of the time.
PO CHU-I
白居易

 Lao Tzu ("old man" or "old sage") was the ancient
author of Tao Te Ching, the most widely translated
Chinese work of all time and the classic book of
the religion or philosophy known as Taoism.
 A general history of China from the first century
B.C. describes Lao Tzu as an older contemporary
and teacher of Confucius (551-479 B.C.).
 It says he wrote the two-volume Tao Te Ching at
the request of the keeper of a "pass" while on a
westward journey.
 Lao Tzu takes a more mystical approach to tuning
into the natural order of things as a way of
achieving personal and social harmony.
LAO TZU
老子

 T'ao Ch'ien (365-427) was one of China's
foremost poets in the five-word shih style,
and his influence on subsequent poets
was very great.
 Also known as T'ao Yüan-ming
 One of T'ao's best-known poems is a
debate among "Substance, Shadow, and
Spirit, " who speak respectively for
hedonism, Confucian fame, and a kind of
Taoist stoicism which accepts life in its
totality
T'AO CH'IEN
錢陶鑄

 Tu Fu was a great Chinese poet of the T'ang
dynasty, a family that ruled China from 618 to
907.
 He is known as a poet-historian for his
portrayal of the social and political disorders
of his time and is also noted for his artistry
and craftsmanship.
 His poetry he introduces an intense, dramatic,
and touching personalism through the use of
symbols and images, irony and contrast.
TU FU
國節

ordered chopsticks
made of ivory
When King Chow

Chi Tzu
was most
perturbed
For he
feared
that once the king
had ivory
chopsticks

but would want cups
of rhinoceros
and jade
horn
HE WOULD NOT BE CONTENT WITH EARTHENWARE,

and instead of
beans
and vegetables
he would insist on such
delicacies as elephant's
tail
and baby
leopard

He would hardly be willing
either to wear rough
homespun
or live under a thatched roof
but would demand silks and splendid mansions.

It is fear
of what this
will lead to
" said Chi Tzu

that upsets me
Five years later, indeed
King chow

had a
garden filled with meat
tortured his subjects with hot irons

and caroused in a
lake of wine.
And so he lost his kingdom.

REPORTERS
Mark Bahian
Franzelle Mae G. Lignes
Kevin Malinda

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