2. Chinese literature developed over a long period of time
Chinese writers have produced volumes of poems, short
stories and novels based on religious concepts and principles.
During the Tang Dynasty, the great poets Li Po and Tu Fu
became popular. Tu Fu became known for his poem about war
and bitter human experiences. Li Po, a friend of Tu Fu’s wrote
lyrical poetry about love. Li Yian, a woman poet also became
famous.
The Chinese are not only good poets but good novelist as
well. The Hung-lou Meng and Chin P’ing Mei are 2 of China’s
great literary masterpieces . The former deals with the
collapse of rightious family, while the latter tells of the
complex life of a businessman.
3. Ssuma Chien is China’s great historian. He was also an
astronomer and calendar expert. He was the first to write a
comprehensive history of China, thus earning the title of “Father
of Chinese story.
Lu Hsun introduced modern Chinese literature. Aside from being
a critic , he became the leader of Modern Cultural Revolution.
One of his famous works is “A Madman’s Diary” which serves as
Lu Hsun’s “decleration of war” against Chinese Literature
4. Iran is home to great writers whose works parallel the world’s
great literary legacies. Ferdowsi (or Ferdausi), one of Iran’s
greatest poets, wrote the beloved Sahnameh (Book of Kings
or Epics of Kings) which is composed of 60,000 rhyming
couplets. Rustam, the warrior in the myth of ancient persia, is
the main charachte in Ferdowsi’s epic.
Omar Khayyam, another persian poet, became famous for his
Rubaiyat. He was also an astronomer and philosopher. The
Rubaiyat, which is betterknown as the Rubaiyat of Omar
Khayyam, is an Arabic word which means “ quatrain”, a poem
of four verses in a stanza.
5. Sadi is one of Persia’s novelist. He wrote the classic
Gulistan ( Garden of Roses) regarded as Persia’s pride in
the field of free verse
6. China has greatly influenced early Japanese literature.
Japanese . Japanese poetry, stories and essays have been
patterned after the literary works of Chinese writers or were
also translated into Chinese classical language.
The Tale of Genji or Genji Morogatori, a novel about Prince
Genji and written by Lady Shikibu Murasaki, is an example of
an early form of Japanese literature. Contemporary themes
deal with the contradiction of concepts of the modern
western world and old traditional Japan. Examples are the
Moroki Sisters by Tanizaki Junichiro and the Thousand Cranes
by Yasunari Kawabata.
7. The Japanese are known for the haiku, an unrhymed verse
from having three lines containing usually five, seven and five
syllables, respectfully. A traditional haiku writer tackles the
theme pertaining to nature, while other writers tell their life
stories.
8. Sumerian literature is the oldest literature in the world. The
Sumerians invented the first writing system, beginning with
cuneiform logograms, which evolved into a syllabary writing
system. The Sumerian language remained in official and
literary use in the Akkadian and Babylonian empires, even
after the spoken language disappeared from the population;
literacy was widespread, and the Sumerian texts that students
copied heavily influence later Babylonian literature.
9. Sumerian literature has not been handed down to us directly,
rather it has been rediscovered through archaeology.
Nevertheless, the Akkadians and Babylonians borrowed much
from the Sumerian literary heritage, and spread these
traditions throughout the middle east, influencing much of
the literature that followed in this region, including the Bible.
10. Indian literature refers to the literature produced on the Indian
subcontinent until 1947 and in the Republic of India thereafter.
The Republic of India has 22 officially recognized languages.
The earliest works of Indian literature were orally transmitted.
Sanskrit literature begins with the Rig Veda a collection of sacred
hymns dating to the period 1500–1200 BCE. The Sanskrit epics
Ramayana and Mahabharata appeared towards the end of the
first millennium BCE. Classical Sanskrit literature flourished in
the first few centuries of the first millennium CE, as did the Tamil
Sangam literature, and the Pāli Canon.
11. In the medieval period, literature in Kannada and Telugu
appears in the 9th and 11th centuries respectively. Later,
literature in Marathi, Bengali, various dialects of Hindi, Persian
and Urdu began to appear as well. Early in the 20th century,
Bengali poet Rabindranath Tagore became India's first Nobel
laureate. In contemporary Indian literature, there are two
major literary awards; these are the Sahitya Akademi
Fellowship and the Jnanpith Award. Seven Jnanpith awards
each have been awarded in Hindi and Kannada, followed by
five in Bengali, four in Malayalam and three in
Gujurati,Marathi and Urdu.
