Chinese+Iiterature

=Chinese literature=


 * Chinese literature** extends thousands of years, from the earliest recorded dynastic court archives to the mature fictional novels that arose during the Ming Dynasty to entertain the masses of literate Chinese. The introduction of widespread woodblock printing during the Tang Dynasty (618–907) and the invention of movable type printing by Bi Sheng (990–1051) during the Song Dynasty (960–1279) rapidly spread written knowledge throughout China. In more modern times, the author Lu Xun (1881–1936) is considered the founder of //baihua// literature in China.

Classical texts
Main articles: Chinese classics and List of Chinese language poets There is a wealth of early Chinese literature dating from the Hundred Schools of Thought that occurred during the Eastern Zhou Dynasty (770-256 BCE). The most important of these include the Classics of Confucianism, of Daoism, of Mohism, of Legalism, as well as works of military science and Chinese history. Note that except for the books of poems and songs, most of this literature is philosophical and didactic; there is little in the way of fiction. However, these texts maintained their significance through both their ideas and their prose style. The Confucian works in particular have been of key importance to Chinese culture and history, as a set of works known as the //Four Books and Five Classics// were, in the 12th century CE, chosen as the basis for the Imperial examination for any government post. These nine books therefore became the center of the educational system. They have been grouped into two categories: the //Five Classics//, allegedly compiled by Confucius, and the Four Books, which were compiled in the 12th century CE. The //Five Classics// include: The //Four Books// include: the //Analects of Confucius//, a book of pithy sayings attributed to Confucius and recorded by his disciples; //Mencius//, a collection of political dialogues; the //Doctrine of the Mean//, a book that teaches the path to Confucian virtue; and the //Great Learning//, a book about education, self-cultivation and the Dao. Other important philosophical works include the Mohist //Mozi//, which taught "inclusive love" as both an ethical and social principle, and //Hanfeizi//, one of the central Legalist texts.
 * 1) The //I Ching//, or //Book of Changes//, a divination manual attributed to the mythical emperor Fu Xi and based on eight trigrams. The //I Ching// is still used by adherents of folk religion.
 * 2) The //Classic of Poetry//, a collection of folk songs, festival and ceremonial songs, and religious hymns and eulogies.
 * 3) The //Record of Rites// (a recreation of the original //Classic of Rites//, which was lost in the Imperial book purge), which describes ancient rites and court ceremonies.
 * 4) The //Classic of History//, a collection of documents and speeches allegedly written by rulers and officials of the early Zhou period and before. It contains the best examples of early Chinese prose.
 * 5) The //Spring and Autumn Annals//, a historical record of Confucius' native state, Lu, from 722 to 479 BCE.

The Chinese kept consistent and accurate court records after the year 841 BC, with the beginning of the Gonghe regency of the Western Zhou Dynasty. The earliest known narrative history of China was the //Zuo Zhuan//, which was compiled no later than 389 BC, and attributed to the blind 5th century BC historian Zuo Qiuming. The //Classic of History// is thought to have been compiled as far back as the 6th century BC, and was certainly compiled by 300 BC, the latest date for the writing of the Guodian Chu Slips unearthed in a Hubei tomb in 1993. The //Classic of History// included early information on geography in the chapter of the //Yu Gong//.The //Bamboo Annals// found in 281 AD in the tomb of the King of Wei, who was interred in 296 BC, provide another example; however, unlike the //Zuo Zhuan//, the authenticity of the early date of the //Bamboo Annals// is in doubt. Another early text was the political strategy book of the //Zhan Guo Ce//, compiled between the 3rd and 1st centuries BC, with partial amounts of the text found amongst the 2nd century BC tomb site at Mawangdui. The oldest extant dictionary in China is the //Erya//, dated to the 3rd century BC, anonymously written but with later commentary by the historian Guo Pu (276–324). Other early dictionaries include the //Fangyan// by Yang Xiong (53 BC – 18 AD) and the //Shuowen Jiezi// by Xu Shen (58–147 AD). One of the largest was the //Kangxi Dictionary// compiled by 1716 under the auspices of the Kangxi Emperor (r. 1661–1722); it provides definitions for over 47,000 characters. Although court records and other independent records existed beforehand, the definitive work in early Chinese historical writing was the //Shiji// (史記/史记), written by the Han Dynasty court historian Sima Qian (145 BC-90 BC). This groundbreaking text laid the foundation for Chinese historiography and the many official Chinese historical texts compiled for each dynasty thereafter. Sima Qian is often compared to the Greek Herodotus in scope and method, because he covered Chinese history from the mythical Xia Dynasty until the contemporary reign of Emperor Wu of Han while retaining an objective and non-biased standpoint. This was often difficult for the official dynastic historians, who used historical works to justify the reign of the current dynasty. He influenced the written works of many Chinese historians, including the works of Ban Gu and Ban Zhao in the 1st and 2nd centuries, and even Sima Guang's 11th-century compilation of the //Zizhi Tongjian// (資治通鑒/资治通鉴), presented to Emperor Shenzong of Song in 1084 AD. The overall scope of the historiographical tradition in China is termed the Twenty-Four Histories, created for each successive Chinese dynasty up until the Ming Dynasty (1368–1644); China's last dynasty, the Qing Dynasty (1644–1911), is not included.

Classical poetry
Among the earliest and most influential poetic anthologies was the Chuci (楚辭，楚辞) (//Songs of Chu//), made up primarily of poems ascribed to the semi-legendary Qu Yuan (屈原) (ca. 340-278 B.C.) and his follower Song Yu (宋玉) (fourth century B.C.). The songs in this collection are lyrical and romantic and represent a different tradition from the earlier Shijing. During the Han Dynasty (206 B.C.-A.D. 220), this form evolved into the //fu// (賦，赋), a poem usually in rhymed verse except for introductory and concluding passages that are in prose, often in the form of questions and answers. The era of disunity that followed the Han period saw the rise of romantic nature poetry, which was heavily influenced by Taoism. The Han Chinese astronomer, mathematician, and inventor Zhang Heng (78–139 AD) was also largely responsible for the early development of //Shi// (詩，诗) poetry. Classical poetry reached its zenith during the Tang Dynasty (A.D. 618–907), and thus this type of poetry is known as Tang poetry. The early Tang period was best known for its //lushi// 律诗 (regulated verse), an eight-line poem with five or seven words in each line; //Zi// (verse following strict rules of prosody); and //jueju// （绝句）(truncated verse), a four-line poem with five or seven words in each line. The two best-known poets of the period were Li Bai (701–762) and Du Fu (712–770). Li Bai was known for the romanticism of his poetry; Du Fu was seen as a Confucian moralist with a strict sense of duty toward society. Later Tang poets developed greater realism and social criticism and refined the art of narration. Among the best-known of the later Tang poets was Bai Juyi (772–846), whose poems were a critical commentary on the society of his time. Li Yun (789–831) was an eclectic poet, writing mainly "Palace poetry". The Quantangshi, or complete Tang Poems (全唐詩) was not fully compiled until 1705 CE, during the Qing Dynasty. Subsequent writers of classical poetry lived under the shadow of their Tang predecessors, and although there were many poets in subsequent dynasties, none reached the level of this period. [//by whom?//] As the classical style of poetry became more stultified, a more flexible poetic medium, the //ci// (詞，词), arrived on the scene. The ci, a poetic form based on the tunes of popular songs, some of which were of Central Asian origin, was developed to its fullest by the poets of the Song Dynasty (960–1279 AD). The Song era poet Su Shi (1037–1101 AD) mastered the ci, shi, and fu forms of poetry, as well as prose, calligraphy, and painting. As the ci gradually became more literary and artificial, //Sanqu//, a more free form based on dramatic arias, developed. The use of sanqu songs in drama marked an important step in the development of vernacular literature.

Early prose
Early Chinese prose was deeply influenced by the great philosophical writings of the Hundred Schools of Thought (770-221 BCE). The works of Mo Zi (墨子), Mencius (孟子) and Zhuang Zi (莊子) contain well-reasoned, carefully developed discourses that reveal much stronger organization and style than their predecessors. Mo Zi's polemic prose was built on solid and effective methodological reasoning. Mencius contributed elegant diction and, like Zhuang Zi, relied on comparisons, anecdotes, and allegories. By the third century BCE, these writers had developed a simple, concise and economical prose style that served as a model of literary form for over 2,000 years.

Later prose
During the Tang period, the ornate, artificial style of prose developed in previous periods was replace by a simple, direct, and forceful prose based on examples from the Hundred Schools (see above) and from the Han period, the period in which the great historical works of Sima Tan and Sima Qian were published. This neoclassical style dominated prose writing for the next 800 years. It was exemplified in the work of Han Yu 韓愈 (768–824), a master essayist and strong advocate of a return to Confucian orthodoxy; Han Yu was later listed as one of the "Eight Great Prose Masters of the Tang and Song." The Song Dynasty saw the rise in popularity of "travel record literature" (//youji wenxue//). Travel literature combined both diary and narrative prose formats, it was practiced by such seasoned travelers as Fan Chengda (1126–1193) and Xu Xiake (1587–1641) and can be seen in the example of Su Shi's //Record of Stone Bell Mountain//. After the fourteenth century, vernacular fiction became popular, at least outside of court circles. Vernacular fiction covered a broader range of subject matter and was longer and more loosely structured than literary fiction. One of the masterpieces of Chinese vernacular fiction is the 18th-century domestic novel //Dream of the Red Chamber// (紅樓夢).

Late Qing (1895–1911)
Scholars now tend to agree that modern Chinese literature did not erupt suddenly in the New Culture Movement (1917–23). Instead, they trace its origins back at least to the late Qing period (1895–1911). The late Qing was a period of intellectual ferment sparked by a sense of national crisis. Intellectuals began to seek solutions to China's problems outside of its own tradition. They translated works of Western expository writing and literature, which enthralled readers with new ideas and opened up windows onto new exotic cultures. Most outstanding [//by whom?//] were the translations of Yan Fu (严复) (1864–1921) and Lin Shu (林纾) (1852–1924). In this climate, a boom in the writing of fiction occurred, especially after the 1905 abolishment of the civil service examination when literati struggled to fill new social and cultural roles for themselves. Stylistically, this fiction shows signs of both the Chinese novelistic tradition and Western narrative modes. In subject matter, it is strikingly concerned with the contemporary: social problems, historical upheaval, changing ethical values, etc. In this sense, late Qing fiction is modern. Important novelists of the period include Wu Woyao (吴沃尧) (1866–1910), Li Boyuan (李伯元) (1867–1906), Liu E (刘鹗) (1857–1909), and Zeng Pu (曾朴) (1872–1935). The late Qing also saw a "revolution in poetry" (诗界革命), which promoted experimentation with new forms and the incorporation of new registers of language. However, the poetry scene was still dominated by the adherents to the Tongguang School (named after the Tongzhi and Guangxu reigns of the Qing), whose leaders — Chen Yan (陈衍), Chen Sanli (陈三立), Zheng Xiaoxu (郑孝胥), and Shen Zengzhi (沈曾植) — promoted a Song style in the manner of Huang Tingjian. These poets would become the objects of scorn by New Culturalists like Hu Shi, who saw their work as overly allusive, artificial, and divorced from contemporary reality. In drama, the late Qing saw the emergence of the new "civilized drama" (文明戏), a hybrid of Chinese operatic drama with Western-style spoken drama. Peking opera and "reformed Peking opera" were also popular at the time.

Republican Era (1911–1949)
The literary scene in the first few years after the collapse of the Qing in 1911 was dominated by popular love stories, some written in the classical language and some in the vernacular. This entertainment fiction would later be labeled "Mandarin Ducks and Butterfly" fiction by New Culturalists, who despised its lack of social engagement. Throughout much of the Republican era, Butterfly fiction would reach many more readers than its "progressive" counterpart. In the course of the New Culture Movement (1917–23), the vernacular language largely displaced the classical in all areas of literature and writing. Literary reformers Hu Shi (胡適) (1891–1962) and Chen Duxiu (陳獨秀) (1880–1942) declared the classical language "dead" and promoted the vibrant vernacular in its stead. Hu Shi once said, "A dead language can never produce a living literature." [//citation needed//] In terms of literary practice, Lu Xun (1881–1936) is usually said to be the first major stylist in the new vernacular prose that Hu Shi and Chen Duxiu were promoting. Though often said to be less successful than their counterparts in fiction writing, poets also experimented with the vernacular in new poetic forms, such as free verse and the sonnet. Given that there was no tradition of writing poetry in the vernacular, these experiments were more radical than those in fiction writing and also less easily accepted by the reading public. [//by whom?//] Modern poetry flourished especially in the 1930s, in the hands of poets like Zhu Xiang (朱湘), Dai Wangshu (戴望舒), Li Jinfa (李金发), Wen Yiduo (闻一多), and Ge Xiao (葛萧). Other poets, even among the May Fourth radicals (e.g., Yu Dafu), continued to write poetry in classical styles.

Maoist Era (1949–1976)
After coming to power in 1949, the Communists gradually nationalized the publishing industry, centralized the book distribution system, and brought writers under institutional control through the Writers Union. A system of strict censorship was implemented, with Mao's "Yan'an Talks" as the guiding force. Periodic literary campaigns targeted figures such as Hu Shi and Hu Feng (胡风) who did not toe the Party line on literature. Socialist realism became the uniform style. Conflict, however, soon developed between the government and the writers. The ability to satirize and expose the evils in contemporary society that had made writers useful to the Communist Party of China before its accession to power was no longer welcomed. Even more unwelcome to the party was the persistence among writers of what was deplored as "petty bourgeois idealism," "humanitarianism", and an insistence on freedom to choose subject matter. This conflict came to a head in the Hundred Flowers Campaign (1956–57). Mao Zedong encouraged writers to speak out against problems in the new society. Having learned the lessons of the anti-Hu Feng campaign, they were initially reluctant; soon, however, a flurry of newspaper articles, films, and literary works drew attention to such problems as bureaucratism and authoritarianism within the ranks of the party. Now aware of the level of discontent toward the new regime by intellectuals, Mao decided to reverse the Hundred Flowers liberalization, a crackdown now referred to as the Anti-Rightist Movement (反右运动). Many intellectuals were attacked. At the time of the Great Leap Forward, the government increased its insistence on the use of socialist realism and combined with it so-called revolutionary realism and revolutionary romanticism. Authors were permitted to write about contemporary China, as well as other times during China's modern period——as long as it was accomplished with the desired socialist revolutionary realism.

Post-Mao (1976–present)
The arrest of Jiang Qing and the other members of the Gang of Four in 1976, and especially the reforms initiated at the Third Plenum of the Eleventh National Party Congress Central Committee in December 1978, led writers to take up their pens again. Much of the literature in what would be called the "new era" (新时期) discussed the serious abuses of power that had taken place at both the national and the local levels during the Cultural Revolution. The writers decried the waste of time and talent during that decade and bemoaned abuses that had held China back. At the same time, the writers expressed eagerness to make a contribution to building Chinese society. This literature, often called "the literature of the wounded," contained disquieting views of the party and the political system. Intensely patriotic, these authors wrote cynically of the political leadership that gave rise to the extreme chaos and disorder of the Cultural Revolution. Some of them extended the blame to the entire generation of leaders and to the political system itself. The political authorities were faced with a serious problem: how could they encourage writers to criticize and discredit the abuses of the Cultural Revolution without allowing that criticism to go beyond what they considered tolerable limits? During this period, a large number of novels and short stories were published. Literary magazines from before the Cultural Revolution were revived, and new ones were established to satisfy the appetite of the reading public. There was a special interest in foreign works. Linguists were commissioned to translate recently published foreign literature, often without carefully considering its interest for the Chinese reader. Literary magazines specializing in translations of foreign short stories became very popular, especially among the young.

Book market
The book market in China traditionally orders books during bookfairs, because the country lacks a national book ordering system. In 2006, 6.8 million titles were sold, not including an unknown number of banned titles, bootleg copies and underground publishing factories. Seven percent of all publishers are located in Shanghai. Because the industry lacks a national distribution system, many titles from publishers in the provinces can only be found there. The central publishing houses belonging to ministries or (other) government institutions have their main seat at Beijing (40 percent of all publishers). Most regional publishing houses are situated in the capitals of the provinces. Universities also have associated presses. Private publishing is tolerated. 220,000 books were published in 2005. Among 579 publishers – almost five times more than thirty years ago – 225 are supervised by ministries, commissions or the army; 348 are controlled by agencies; and six are even more independent. On the other hand 100,000 private bookstores bring in the half of the income of the book industry.

Early female writers
//Cai//, or literary talent, is an attribute describing profound lyricism, deep intellectuality and analytic skill. Although it was acknowledged that both women and men possessed //cai//, the phrase //nuren wuchai bian shi de// (for women, lack of literary talent is a virtue summarizes the dominant sentiment that the literary field was traditionally a domain for men. Despite this belief, works authored by women play an integral part throughout Chinese history. There were a number of women writers prior to the twentieth century who were respected by the intelligentsia of their era, even if much of their work was considered less important than men's work in general. Female writers helped to bring forth themes such as romance, marriage, gender roles and the politics surrounding women.

Twentieth century writers and feminism
The beginning of the century marked a period of growing unrest for women as the feminist movement took hold. Women of this period were faced with the dilemma of protesting oppressive ideals stemming from Confucian ideology or remaining true to their family and maintaining peace and order. Literary discourse at the time was highly influenced by this social movement. Women writers of the time authored works reflecting the feminist sentiment and the issues that came with revolution. Zhang Ailing, Lu Yin, Shi Pingmei and Ding Ling, were four of the most influential feminist writers of the time. In the 1920s and 1930s, Freudian psychoanalysis gained favor with Chinese feminists looking to study gender relationships, thus becoming a topic of many feminist writers throughout the early and mid portions of the 20th century. When Mao came to power in 1949, he addressed the issue of women's rights and tried to establish women's equality through the "iron girls" of national development ideal.. Through this philosophy, long-standing practices such as foot binding, prostitution and trafficking of women were abolished. Women were given the opportunity to own land, divorce, and join the military and other employment fields. The establishment of this ideology, however, did not liberate women; instead, it undermined the feminine voice by forcing women to take a male-oriented stance on public and domestic policy. Literature authored during this time reflects the restrictive and masculine perspective of women writers during this period. This "Mulanian" style of writing submerged true feminine identity, rendering the female perspective neglected and hidden in the male dominated political and aesthetic arenas. There were some exceptions to this rule, such as Yuan Qiongqiong, who wrote about women’s issues and how much women could accomplish without men.