Chinese literature extends back thousands of years, from the earliest recorded dynastic court archives to the mature fictional novel 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 like never before. In more modern times, the author Lu Xun (1881-1936) would be considered the founder of modern baihua literature in China.

Two distinct traditions exist in Chinese literature: the literary and the vernacular, or colloquial. The latter can be traced back more than a thousand years before the Christian era and has existed almost continuously until modern times. Consisting originally of poetry and later of drama and fiction, it grew to include histories and popular stories and tales, as well. Folk or vernacular literature was long considered beneath the notice of members of the scholar and official class, who were the arbiters of literary taste. Their own polished and highly stylized writings set the standards for the orthodox literary tradition that began about 2000 years ago. Not until the 20th century did colloquial literature gain the support and esteem of the intellectual class.

Chinese literature may be divided into three major historical periods that roughly correspond to those of Western literary history: the classical period, from the 6th century BC through the 2nd century AD; the medieval period, from the 3rd century to the late 12th century; and the modern period, from the 13th century to the present.

The Classical Period

The oldest examples of Chinese writing are inscriptions on bones and tortoise-shells, dating probably from the 14th century BC. The inscriptions represent divinations performed for the kings of the Shang dynasty (1766-1027 BC), the earliest confirmed dynasty. Although not literature in the strictest sense, they represent the earliest specimens of Chinese script, which became the vehicle for all subsequent Chinese literature.

The classical period in Chinese literature corresponds to the same period in Greek and Roman literature. The formative stages took place during the 6th to the 4th century BC, at the time of the Zhou (Chou) dynasty (1027-256 BC). This period encompassed the work of Confucius (Kongfuzi, or K'ung Fu-tzu), Mencius (Mengzi, or Meng-tzu), Laozi (Lao-tzu), Zhuangzi (Chuang-tzu ), and many other great Chinese philosophers. It culminated in the compilation of the Five Classics, or Confucian Classics, and other philosophical treatises. In the following centuries of the classical period, the Confucian canon was fixed, and Confucianism became the orthodox teaching, establishing a classical tradition that was to last until the present century.

The compilation of the wealth of classical literature, dating from the Eastern Zhou Dynasty (256-770 BCE) and including the Classics, is attributed to Confucius. Among the most important classics in Chinese literature is the book of changes, a manual of divination based on eight trigrams attributed to the mythical emperor Fu Xi. The I Ching is still used by adherents of folk religion. The Classic of Poetry is made up of 305 poems divided into 160 folk songs; 74 minor festal songs, traditionally sung at court festivities; 31 major festal songs, sung at more solemn court ceremonies; and 40 hymns and eulogies, sung at sacrifices to gods and ancestral spirits of the royal house. The Classic of History is a collection of documents and speeches alleged to have been written by rulers and officials of the early Zhou period and before. It contains the best examples of early Chinese prose. The Record of Rites, a restoration of the original Classic of Rites lost in the 3rd century BC, describes ancient rites and court ceremonies. The Spring and Autumn Annalsis a historical record of the principality of Lu, Confucius' native state, from 722 to 479 B.C.. It is a log of concise entries probably compiled by Confucius himself. The Analects of Confucius is a book of pithy sayings attributed to Confucius and recorded by his disciples. There were also important Daoist classics that were written in later periods, such as the Huainanzi written by Liu An in the 2nd century BC, during the Han Dynasty. The Huainanzi was also one of the earliest Chinese texts to cover topics of Chinese geography and topography.

In the realm of martial classics, the Art of War by Sun Tzu in the 6th century BC marks the first milestone in the tradition of Chinese military treatises written in following ages, such as the Wujing Zongyao 1044 AD) and the Huolongjing written before 1375 when Liu Ji died, preface in 1412 AD). Furthermore, the Art of War is perhaps the first to outline guidelines for effective international diplomacy. The other two works, the Wujing Zongyao and Huolongjing, are invaluable written works for the understanding of the gradual development of early Chinese gunpowder warfare.

Sima Qian laid the ground for professional Chinese historiography more than 2,000 years ago.
The Chinese wrote consistent and accurate records at court 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. There was also the Bamboo Annals found in 281 AD in the tomb of the King of Wei, who was interred in 296 BC. However, unlike the Zuo Zhuan, the authenticity of the early date of the Bamboo Annals is doubtful. 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, 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. He is often compared to the Greek Herodotus in scope and method, as he covered Chinese history from the mythical Xia Dynasty up until the contemporary reign of Emperor Wu of Han, while pertaining an objective and non-biased standpoint (which is often difficult for the official dynastic histories who used historical works to justify the reign of the current dynasty). His influence was far and wide and impacted the written works of many Chinese historians, including the works of Ban Gu and Ban Zhao in the 1st and 2nd centuries, or even Sima Guang in the 11th century with his enormous compilation of the Zizhi Tongjian 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), as China's last dynasty, the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), is not included.

There were also large encyclopedias produced in China throughout the ages. The Yiwen Leiju encyclopedia was completed by Ouyang Xun in 624 during the Tang Dynasty, with aid from scholars Linghu Defen and Chen Shuda. In the Song Dynasty alone, the compilation of the Four Great Books of Song (10th century - 11th century) begun by Li Fang and finalized by Cefu Yuangui represented a massive undertaking of written material covering a wide range of different subjects. This included the Extensive Records of the Taiping Era (978), the Imperial Readings of the Taiping Era (983), the Finest Blossoms in the Garden of Literature (986), and the Prime Tortoise of the Record Bureau (1013). Although these Song Dynasty Chinese encyclopedias featured millions of written Chinese characters each, their aggregate size paled in comparison to the later Yongle Encyclopedia (1408) of the Ming Dynasty, which had a total of 50 million Chinese characters.[2] Yet even this size was trumped with later Qing Dynasty encyclopedias, such as the printed Gujin Tushu Jicheng (1726). This Qing encyclopedic compilation features over 100 million written Chinese characters in over 800,000 pages, printed in 60 different copies using copper-metal Chinese movable type printing. Other great encyclopedic writers and content include the polymath scientist Shen Kuo (1031-1095) and his Dream Pool Essays, the agronomist and inventor Wang Zhen (fl. 1290-1333) and his Nongshu, and the minor scholar-official Song Yingxing (1587-1666) and his Tiangong Kaiwu.

Classical Poetry

The most important poetic work produced during the classical period was the Shi Jing (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 and ascribed to the semi-legendary Qu Yuan (ca. 340-278 B.C.) and his follower Song Yu (fourth century B.C.). The songs in this collection are more lyrical and romantic and represent a different tradition from the earlier Shijing.

The aristocratic, or court, style finds its best expression, however, in a group of poems known as the elegies of Chu (Ch'u). A feudal state in south-central China, Chu was the home of Qu Yuan (Ch' Yan), the first great Chinese poet. A noble by birth, Qu Yuan wrote Li Sao (On 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. Other poems by Qu Yuan are equally rich in images and sentiment, and they form a body of romantic poetry entirely different from the simple, realistic poetry of the Shi Jing.

The Shi Jing 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. Instead of glorifying gods and heroes, as was the custom of other cultures, many of these poems sing of the daily life of the peasants, their sorrows and joys, their occupations and festivities. These poems mark the beginning of the vernacular tradition in Chinese poetry and are characterized by simplicity of language and emotion. They make up about one-half of the book. The other half of the Shi Jing 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 court poems were originally sung to music and accompanied by dance; Chinese poetry and music were closely linked from earliest times.

During the Han Dynasty (206 B.C.-A.D. 220), this form evolved into the fu, 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 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 poetry. During the 400 years of the Han dynasty the romantic and realistic modes developed into schools of poetry with many followers. The verses of Qu, which were irregular in form, initiated a new literary genre, the fu, or prose poem. Chinese poetry was further enriched by the folk songs collected by the Music Bureau (Yuefu, or Yeh-fu), an institution founded about the 2nd century BC.

Classical poetry reached its zenith during the Tang Dynasty (A.D. 618-907). The early Tang period was best known for its "lushi" (regulated verse), an eight-line poem with five or seven words in each line; Zi (verse following strict rules of prosody); and jueju (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. One of the best known of the later Tang poets was Bai Juyi (772-846), whose poems were an inspired and critical comment on the society of his time. Li Yun (789-831) was an eclectic poet, writing mainly "Palace poetry". The great compilation of Tang poetry is the Quantangshi, or complete Tang Poems, though this was not achieved until 1705 CE, during the Qing Dynasty.

Subsequent writers of classical poetry lived under the shadow of their great Tang predecessors, and although there were many fine poets in subsequent dynasties, none reached the level of this period. As the classical style of poetry became more stultified, a more flexible poetic medium, the ci, arrived on the scene. The ci, a poetic form based on the tunes of popular songs, some 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 ci, shi, and fu forms of poetry, as well as prose, calligraphy, and painting.

As the ci gradually became more literary and artificial after Song times, Chinese Sanqu poetry, 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

The seminal works of Chinese prose are those that, with the Shi Jing, constitute the Five Classics. These are the Yi Jing (I Ching, Book of Changes), a divination text; the Shu Jing (Shu Ching, Book of History), a collection of ancient state documents; the Li Ji (Li Chi, Book of Rites), a collection of ritual and governmental codes; and the Chunqiu (Spring and Autumn Annals), a history of the state of Lu from 722 to 481BC. From the 6th to the 3rd century BC, the first great works of Chinese philosophy appeared. Foremost are the Analects of Confucius, aphoristic sayings compiled by his disciples; the eloquent disputations of Mencius, a Confucian scholar; the Daode Jing (Tao-te Ching, Classic of the Way and Its Virtue), attributed to Laozi, the founder of Daoism; and the high-spirited essays of Zhuangzi, the other great Daoist philosopher. Also important, for their prose style as well as their philosophic import, are the essays of Mozi (Mo-tzu), Xunzi (Hsn-tzu) and Han Fei (Han Fei-tzu). The Shi Ji (Shih Chi, Records of the Historian) of Sima Qian (Ssu-ma Ch'ien), a monumental work dealing with all Chinese history up to the Han dynasty, provided the pattern for a long series of dynastic histories compiled over a period of about 2000 years. In political and moral philosophy, the Confucian scholars also set the precedent for the literary tradition in Chinese prose, and a standard literary language was adopted, which gradually became divorced from the spoken language. In this period of the Han rulers, the scholars were incorporated into the state bureaucracy. Appointments to all important official positions were based on mastery of the Confucian Classics. This practice continued with few interruptions until the 20th century AD and hardened the literary tradition into a national cult.

The proponents of the Hundred Schools of Thought in the Warring States Period and Spring and Autumn periods made important contributions to Chinese prose style. The writings of Mo Zi (Mo Di, 470-390 B.C.), Mencius (Meng Zi; 372-289 B.C.), and Zhuang Zi (369-286 B.C.) contain well-reasoned, carefully developed discourses and show a marked improvement in organization and style over what went before. Mo Zi is known for extensively and effectively using methodological reasoning in his polemic prose. Mencius contributed elegant diction and, along with Zhuang Zi, is known for his extensive use of comparisons, anecdotes, and allegories. By the third century B.C., these writers had developed a simple, concise prose noted for its economy of words, which served as a model of literary form for over 2,000 years.

The Tang period also saw a rejection of the ornate, artificial style of prose developed in the previous period and the emergence of a simple, direct, and forceful prose based on Han and pre-Han writing. The primary proponent of this neoclassical style of prose, which heavily influenced prose writing for the next 800 years, was Han Yu (768-824), a master essayist and strong advocate of a return to Confucian orthodoxy. The literary category of 'travel record literature' that became popular during the Song Dynasty employed the use of prose (as well as diary and narrative format), and included such seasoned veterans of travel experience as Fan Chengda (1126-1193) and Xu Xiake (1587-1641). A great literary example of this would also be Su Shi's Record of Stone Bell Mountain from the 11th century.

Vernacular fiction became popular after the fourteenth century, although it was never esteemed in court circles. Covering a broader range of subject matter and longer and less highly structured than literary fiction, vernacular fiction includes a number of masterpieces. The greatest is the 18th century domestic novel Dream of the Red Chamber .

Medieval Period

From the beginning of the medieval period in the 3rd century AD until the 7th century, China was not only divided into warring states but suffered invasions by Tatar tribes as well. Nevertheless, these centuries in China were by no means as barren of literary production as was the corresponding period in the history of western Europe known as the Dark Ages. The spread of Buddhism from India, the invention of printing, and the flowering of poetry and prose illuminated the entire period and made it one of the most brilliant in Chinese literary history.

Medieval Poetry

During periods of social and political upheaval, from the 3rd to the 7th century, poets found refuge and consolation in nature. Some were hermits who created a so-called field-and-garden school of poetry; others produced some of the best Chinese folk lyrics, such as the love poems attributed to Ziye (Tzu-yeh), a woman poet who wrote the Ballad of Mulan, celebrating the adventures of a woman soldier disguised as a man; and The Peacock Flew to the Southeast, a long narrative of tragic family love, written in plain but vivid language. The greatest poet of these troubled centuries was Tao Qian (T'ao Ch'ien, also known as Tao Yuanming, or T'ao Yan-ming), who excelled in writing of the joys of nature and the solitary life. His Peach Blossom Fountain became the classic expression of the poet's search for a utopia.

The greatest Chinese poetry was created during the Tang (Tang) dynasty (618-907), a period of general peace and prosperity ending in a decline. Despite the passage of more than ten centuries, as many as 49,000 Tang poems by 2200 poets have survived. The three most famous poets were Wang Wei, Li Bo (Li Po), and Du Fu (Tu Fu). They started their lives in the early splendor of the Tang era but lived through the subsequent troubled years of war and rebellion. Wang Wei, a meditative philosopher and painter with Buddhist inclinations, depicted the serenity of nature's beauty; it has been said that poetry is in his pictures and pictures are in his poems. Li Bo, a leader of the romantic school, rebelled against poetic conventions, as he did against society in general. Passionate and unruly, he embraced the realm of the immortals, whence, he claimed, he had been exiled to this world. Li Bo was at his best when he sang of love and friendship; of the delights of wine; and of the strange, majestic, and awe-inspiring aspects of nature. His friend and rival Du Fu, on the other hand, was conscientious and painstaking in his efforts to achieve startling realism. A humanitarian and historian, Du Fu recorded faithfully and intimately his worldly attachments, his family affections, and an infinite love for humanity, as well as the injustices of the age. The realism of Du Fu's work influenced another Tang poet, Bo Juyi (Po Ch-i), who viewed poetry as a vehicle for criticism and satire. This moralistic tendency, developed in succeeding centuries by other poets, was broadened to include didactic and philosophical disquisitions. In general, however, Chinese poetry was essentially lyrical.

Rhyme had always been an essential part of Chinese poetry, but verse forms did not become well established until the Tang poets. The typical poem of the Tang period was in the so-called shi form, characterized by the five-word or seven-word line, with the rhyme usually falling on the even lines. The shi verse form evolved from the four-word verse of the Shi Jing.

The Tang period also produced a new poetic form called the ci (tz'u). Although each ci may have lines of varying length, the number of lines, as well as their length, is fixed according to a definite rhyming and tonal pattern. The writing of ci, which is somewhat analogous to putting new words to popular melodies, requires a great deal of skill. The melodies employed were usually of foreign origin.
During the Song (Sung) dynasty (960-1279) the ci reached its greatest popularity. Initially the trend was toward longer ci, written to be sung to popular tunes and commonly dealing with themes of love, courtesans, or music. Su Dongpo (Su Tung-po,), the best-known ci poet of China, liberated the ci from the rigid forms that music had imposed on it and introduced more virile subjects. In the 11th century more and more nonmusical ci were written, that is, ci written with no intention that they would be sung. In the late 11th to the 13th century, however, the tradition of writing musical ci was revived. The great Chinese poet Li Qingzhao (Li Ch'ing-chao) is renowned for ci concerning her widowhood.

Medieval Prose

Chinese prose also prospered in the Tang dynasty. Chief among the Tang prose masters was Han Yu, who advocated a return to simple and straightforward writing in the classical style, as a reaction to the artificial prose of his time. As a result of Han Yu's efforts, political and philosophical treatises, informal essays, and tales of the marvelous were all written in the neoclassical style. The latter represent some of the early specimens of Chinese literary fiction.

The first group of tales written in the vernacular tradition appeared in the Tang period. In an attempt to spread their religion, Buddhist preachers wrote stories for the common people in colloquial language and evolved a form of narrative known as bianwen, sometimes translated as "popularization," which marked the beginning of popular fiction in China.

In the 11th century, although few examples of the ancient tradition of storytelling had been preserved, a revival of interest in the art took place, and it was practiced with much skill during the Song dynasty (960-1279), a period of spectacular literary achievement. During this medieval period, storytelling became a popular form of entertainment. The stories told by the professional entertainers, each of whom specialized in a certain type, not only were written down but also were printed in storybooks, called huaben, which later inspired the longer novels of China.

In the literary tradition, the revival of the terse classical style initiated by Han Yu was carried on during the Song dynasty by Ouyang Xiu (Ou-yang Hsiu) and Su Xun (Su Hsn), among others. The former is distinguished for his essays on Confucian philosophy, politics, and history, but he is better known for his breathtaking descriptions of the landscapes of China. Su Xun's witty essays were generally regarded as the ultimate in classical stylistic accomplishment.

Miming, singing, and dancing had existed from ancient times, but the drama proper did not develop until the later Middle Ages. As early as the Tang period, however, actors had been prominent among the popular entertainers and were organized into professional companies that performed in theaters built to accommodate as many as several thousand people.

Contemporary Period

The contemporary period began in the 13th century and continues in the present. Initially, it was characterized by a vigorous vernacular literature that preceded by several centuries the appearance of modern colloquial literatures in the West. The growth of Chinese fiction and drama during the Yuan (Yan or Mongol) dynasty (1279-1368) may have been the result of the refusal of many scholars to serve the Mongol regime; instead they turned their talents to new fields, such as fiction and drama. Vernacular literature continued to develop through the modern period, until it finally coalesced with a new and more inclusive literary movement in the early years of the 20th century.

Since the 13th century Chinese drama has followed a pattern of local development, with the most popular of local dramas acquiring national importance. The Yuan drama, a creation of northern China, relies on northern dialect in dialogue and song. The lute is the chief instrument used, and the songs, which constitute the poetic portion of the play and are generally considered more important than the dialogues, are written in the qu (ch'), a new poetic form more flexible and expressive than the previously mentioned shi of the Han period and the ci of the Tang period. A Yuan play has four parts, corresponding to the four acts of a Western play; often an additional short act that serves as a prelude and sometimes as an interlude is added.

In the 14th century the art of vernacular fiction reached a new height in China. Two of the earliest Chinese novels of this period, Sanguozhi Yanyi (San-Kuo-Chih Yen-i, Romance of the Three Kingdoms), a historical novel of wars and warriors, and Shuihu Zhuan (Shui-hu Chuan, Water Margin, known to the West as All Men Are Brothers), a novel of the adventures of bandit-heroes, may be called the prose epics of the Chinese people. As composite works of folk art created from oral tradition and bearing the stamp of genius of a number of writers, they differ from the works of individual novelists. Generally, Chinese novels of both types are immensely long, vast in scope, and vivid in characterization and description. All these characteristics are found also in Hongloumeng (Hung-lou Meng, Dream of the Red Chamber), a realistic novel by Cao Xueqin (Ts'ao Hseh-ch'in), which vividly details the prosperity, decline, and redemption of a rich official family.

Many important collections of short stories appeared in the 17th century, consisting of compilations handed down from an earlier period or of works by contemporary writers. Like the novels, the stories are colloquial in style and realistic in presentation, giving an intimate picture of Chinese society. The most popular anthology is Jingu Qiguan (Chin-ku Ch'i-kuan, Marvelous Tales of the Past and Present), which consists of 40 stories.

As the modern age progressed, the vernacular tradition became ever larger and richer. Conventional literature, on the other hand, was less fruitful, although it continued to be cultivated by members of the scholarly gentry, some of whom were fine writers. Literary orthodoxy was, however, no longer capable of producing more than stereotypes. This decline in the literary tradition continued until the beginning of the 20th century, when it became obvious to Chinese writers that they had to seek new inspiration. Stimulated by the literature of the West, Chinese writers, led by Hu Shi, started a literary revolution known as the Chinese Renaissance in an attempt to urge the written use of colloquial language and to heighten its status as a means of scholarly expression.

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