The Historical Roots of Chinese Literature
Chinese literature extends thousands of years. The Chinese people have valued literature highly and have had a god of literature in their pantheon named Wen Chang. Wen Chang kept track of all the writers in China and what they produced to reward or punish them according to how they had used their talents.
Exactly when writing was first used in China is not known since most writing would have been done on perishable materials like wood, bamboo, or silk. The bureaucracy of China came to rely on written records but eventually writing was used for self-expression to create some of the greatest literature in the world. Paper was invented in 105 BC during the Han Dynasty (206 BC—220 AD), and the process of woodblock printing developed during the Tang Dynasty (618—907 AD), and by that time China had already developed an impressive body of literary works.
The Classic of Poetry: A Timeless Literary Treasure
The Ancient Chinese Literature includes collections of poetry, historical works, religious writings, and novels.
The Classic of Poetry, also Shijing, translated variously as The Book of Songs, is the oldest existing collection of Chinese poetry, comprising 305 works dating from the 11th to 7th centuries BC. It was compiled by the ancient sage Confucius (551—479 BC) and cited by him as a model of literary expression, for, despite its numerous themes, the subject matter was always “expressive of pleasure without being licentious, and of grief without being hurtfully excessive”.
The Classic of Poetry is one of the Five Classics which contains 305 poems that are classified as popular songs, ballads, courtly songs, and eulogies.
Four versions of Shijing came into existence after the Qin Dynasty ruler Shihuangdi ordered the famous burning of the books in 213 BC. The only surviving version contains introductory remarks by Mao Chang, a scholar who flourished in the 2nd century BC.
Tang Dynasty Poetry: The Pinnacle of Chinese Poetic Achievement
Tang Dynasty was marked by cultural prosperity of cosmopolitan style and it is regarded as the golden age of Chinese art and literature. Characterized by stability, progress, and harmony, Tang China became one of the greatest empires in the medieval era.
Tang Dynasty poetry played a key part in the daily life of the Chinese society and it is considered to be the absolute culmination in Chinese poetry. In order to pass civil service examinations, scholars were required to master skills in the composition of poetry.
According to the pre-eminent collection of Tang poetry entitled Complete Tang Poems, there were around 49,000 surviving poems divided into 900 volumes and written by a total of 2,200 poets.
Li Bai and Du Fu are two most famous poets in Tang Dynasty. Their poems mirror the extravagant lives of the imperial court as well as contradictory feelings prompted by the Tang military campaigns.
Li Bai authored around 1,000 extant poems and 34 of them are included in the popular anthology 300 Tang Poems . T h e m o st f a m o u s poems written by Li Bai include Thoughts on a Still Night, which features in school texts in present day China as well as Waking from Drunkenness on a Spring Day, a poem which celebrates the pleasure of drinking wine.
His friend, Du Fu, often referred to as the Poet-Sage, wrote nearly 1,500 poems with themes such as history, military tactics, painting and morality.
The Four Great Classical Novels: Epitomes of Ancient Chinese Fiction
Written during the Ming and Qing Dynasties, Water Margin, Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Journey to the West and A Dream of Red Mansions are considered the greatest and most influential novels of Ancient China. The stories are very popular in China and have been retold many times in Chinese opera, movies, and modern books.
The Water Margin, a book also called the Outlaws of the Marsh, tells the story of 108 outlaws during the Song Dynasty who gather together to do good.
Romance of the Three Kingdoms is a book which tells a romanticized story of the Three Kingdoms including such real historical characters as Liu Bei and Cao Cao. It also includes historical events such as the Battle of Red Cliffs.
Journey to the West is a story which tells the adventures of a Buddhist monk who travels to India in search of sacred books.
A Dream of Red Mansions is a complex book with many characters covering the rise and fall of a Chinese family during the Qing Dynasty.
