Chinese Literature Essay

1. Shang Dynasty ( virtually 1700-1050 BC)Development of Chinese Writing* Historical record and archaeological turn up are present in this date. * Hieroglyphic writing system after evolved into ideographic and partly-phonetic Chinese characters. 2. Zhou Dynasty (1045-255 BC)Basic Philosophical and Religious literary productions* The bulky 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 compass point (770-476) and the Warring States Period (475-221). * Taoism, Confucian literature, and other prominent religious and philosophic schools all emerged during these 2 periods or the so called One Hundred Schools of Thought. * They rate that most of the philosophical and religious works of that time were landed. If there were owing(p) fictive take fors created, they provoke been lost. 3. Qin Dynasty (221-206 BC)Literary Disaster and Legalism* A big philosophical and religious s chool so was called Mohism. * An early form of Buddhism was as well naturalised in China at that time. * The emperor treasured to reduce and destroy the One Hundred Schools of Thought * So the discussion Burning and interment of Scholars was a literary disaster. * The Qin Dynasty understructureardized the compose unmingledal Language. * The Qin Emperor favour a philosophical school that was called Legalism (). 4. Han Dynasty (206 BC 220 AD)scientific and Historical Texts* Confucian texts were rescripted and republished. Confucianism was mixed with the Legalism philosophy of Li Si. * Sima Qian wrote Historical Records that is a major account statement c at a timerning the overall history of China from originally the Shang Dynasty until the Han Dynasty. * The Han Dynasty era was one of the dickens main hotspot eras for scientific and adept advance. * Two or troika mathematical texts showing advanced mathematics for the times were written. 5. Tang Dynasty (618-907) adva nce(prenominal) Woodblock Printing and Poetry* This eras main contribution to Chinese literature was in the poem of Dufu, Li Bai and many other poets. 6. form Dynasty (960-1279) Early Woodblock Printing, Travel Literature, Poetry, Scientific Texts and the Neo-Confucian Classics * Has made remarkable scientific and technical advances. * Invention of movable type which helped to spread knowledge since printed material could be published much quickly and cheaply. * Travel literature in which authors wrote close to their trips and about various(a) destinations became frequent perhaps because the texts could be cheaply bought. * The Confucian Classics were codified and used as test material for the entrance psychometric test into the elite bureaucracy, advanced scientific texts and atlases were published, and important poems were written.* The Five Classics and four Books were written in the written Classical Language which include ** Five Classics* The Book of Changes,* The Clas sic of Poetry,* The Record of Rites* The Classic of History, and* The Spring and Autumn Annals* Four Books* The Analects of Confucius* The Doctrine of the Mean* The Great Learning* Analects of Confucius* .Shen Kuo (10311095) is utter to have discovered the concepts of true north and magnetic declination towards the northbound Pole * Su pains (10201101) wrote a treatise called the Bencao Tujing with information on medicine, botany and zoology. * Song poet named Lu is thought to have written almost 10,000 poems. Su Tungpo is regarded as a great poet of the Northern Song era. Here is a stanza he wrote The moonlight rounds the red mansionStoops to silk-pad doorsShines upon the sleeplessBearing no grudge wherefore does the moon tgoal to be full when pot are aside?7. kwai Dynasty (1279-1368)Drama and Great Fictional Novels* An era whereof some historically renowned dramatic playw secures and novelists who wrote in vernacular run-in. * The Yuan Zaju style of opera was similar to th eir shadow plays. Perhaps the playwrights adopted the plots and the features. The music of the Zaju operas was called Yuan Qu (Yuan Music). * aft(prenominal) the Yuan Dynasty, the operatic style developed into the Painted Faces style of Chinese opera that was popular until modern times. * Guan Hanqing is regarded as one of the best playwrights of the times. He wrote Midsummer Snow that was one of the most popular drama pieces. * The vision of the Western sleeping accommodation was written by Wang Shifu. It is considered one of the best romanticist dramas ever written in China. * Novels were another outstanding achievement of the Yuan era. 8. Ming Dynasty (1368-1644)Novels* The Journey to the West is based on the historical journey of a Buddhist to India during the Tang era to learn Buddhist teachings and bring rear end scriptures and information. 9. Qing Dynasty (1644-1911)Novels and Pre-modern Literature* In the 19th ascorbic acid, foreign literature and the West became give w ay known. In the middle of this era, the last of Chinas four great classic novels was written called Dream of the Red Chamber () and near the end of the era, modernistic literature developed. * Educated Chinese had easier access to foreign literature, and they were to a greater extent influenced by Western culture.Chinese Literatures1. Chinese Classical Prose* Prose writing in past and pre-modern China differed from poetry in that it was less rigidly coordinate and wasnt equal verses in a song or like one of the common styles of poetry. But compared to English prose, literary prose before the division 1900 was often much more formalised. * Classical prose can be shared into triad types called * Piantiwen style or parallel prose style is more formalized style of prose writing * Guwen style is less formal and more old-fashioned style* Vernacular style which is used in operatic dramas and in the Four Classic Novels of Chinese literature.2. Chinese Poetry* Poetry has been a fav orite literary genre for thousands of age. Poetry isnt taken very seriously in the West, especially in the last two vitamin C years, but Chinese ancient poetry is still read and ancient Chinese poets are honored. * in that respect are Five major Kinds of Major Ancient Poetic Styles * Shi poems are composed of couplets. They are poems of two more coupled lines. The two lines of a couplet usually rhyme and catch rhythmically and complement each other tonally. Modern Mandarin just now has five tones, but ancient languages usually had more, so the tonal rhythms are generally lost. * Ci poetry can be described as poems that have patterns of syllables and tonal patterns. In making a Ci poetry, a poet chooses words that fit a specific pattern. These patterns may have once been part of a song. But the music has been lost. There are various patterns that provided affective settings for various effects or moods.* Ge means song. Ge poems are the words to a song that can be sung. There were folk songs as well as songs composed by the literate person and educated composers. * Qu is the style of music and song in the operas or Mongolian Music. The songs from the operas and popular songs were a poetic style that was also popular in later eras. The poetic style is freer of form. * Fu is the fifth major style of poetry . These are descriptive poems that contain both prose and couplets. These were popular about 1,500 years to 2,000 years ago. Often poets included rare or unusual written characters from preceding eras in their poems.* The greatest ancient poets are thought to lived in the Tang, Song, and Han eras. The following were considered to be the exemplary poets * Du Fu (712-770) liked to economize in a structured form of poetry that was called Lu Shi or regulated poetry. He is thought of as one of the greatest realist poets of China. His poems reflect the hard realities of war, people dying next to rich rulers, and primitive rural life. Here is a famous cou plet Behind redden doors stink wine and contentBut upon the road die frozen men.* Li Bai (701-762) liked to write in a free form poetry like that of more ancient times. This kind of poetry was called Gu Shi (). He wrote about places he visited and things he saw. He is described as a romantic poet. * Su Tungpo (1037-1101) is also called Su Shi. He is regarded as a great poet of the Northern Song era (960-1127). More than 2,000 of his poems survive. Here is a stanza he wrote The moon rounds the red mansionStoops to silk-pad doorsShines upon the sleeplessBearing no grudgeWhy does the moon tilt to be full when people are apart?3. Chinese Scientific Texts* Chinese science texts give an idea of the state of knowledge in the dynastic eras. During several eras,Chinese scientists and inventors led the world in various fields. * Suan Shu Shu (Computation and numbers racket Book). It shows how to solve arithmetic problems that officials or people doing business face. * Jiuzhang Suanshu (Nine Chapter Computation Book). The book features basic algebra such as finding cube roots and square off roots. Negative numbers are also used.* Zhoubi Suan Jing (The Arithmetical Classic of the Gnomon and the poster Paths of Heaven) about astronomical problems. It is give tongue to text has a mathematical inference for the Gougu Theorem ( a2 + b2 = c2) that is known as the Pythagorean Theorem in the West. A method of find out the distance of the sun from the earth by using a right angled triangle is described. * The second period of rapid scientific and technological advancement was the Song era. Two men in particular stand out Shen Kuo (10311095) and Su Song (10201101) both wrote scientific treatises about their research and about various fields.4. Chinas Classic Novels* Four long assumed novels are usually thought to be the best novels in Chinese literature. And the following two novels set a standard for classical literary works.* The Romance of the Three KingdomsThe Romance of the Three Kingdoms is a semi-historical work said to be written by Luo Guan Zhong. It is historical fiction about the lives and struggles of rulers and the wars at the end of the Han Dynasty and in the Three Kingdoms Period. The novel describes the machinations, court intrigues, and the shifting alliances of the three kingdoms that emerged from the Han Empire. * Water MarginWater Margin is about the lives and ideals of a theme of characters who fought against the corrupt Song Dynasty that the Mongols conquered. It is said it was written in vernacular language by Shi Nai An. The setting of the novel is during the Northern Song Dynasty era before the northern part of the Song Empire was overrun by a northern tribe and before the Mongols conquered the whole area. Water Margin is resonating of the story of Robin Hood. Likewise, there may have been actual outlaws, and popular legends and stories later grew. But Water Margin is probably more fictional and less historically accurate than The Romance of the Three Kingdoms * The other two novels.* Journey to the WestThe long tale about a barbarian journey to the west of a group that went to India was written at a time that the Silk Road land routes were blocked by Mongol and Moslem countries. Perhaps one of the reasons the novel was popular was that people during the Ming era wanted to travel to the west, but they couldnt. The latter Ming Dynasty was isolationist. In the novel, a great intelligent monasticey and a small band of characters protects a defenseless monk during his journey. Buddha commissioned the monk to help India that had fallen into gross sin and immorality. The potter and other characters have magical skills. Journey to the West is thought to have been published anonymously by Wu Chengen in the 16th century though scholars have doubt about the authorship. * The Dream of the Red ChamberThe fourth major novel that made an impact on Chinese history and literature is The Dream of the Red Chamber . It was the last of the Four Classic Novels to be written. It is about the fortunes and lives of the people of two branches of a clan in the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) era. The two families had adjacent compounds. It is appreciated because it gives a view into the lives of two sentiment families of that time. One of the members of the clan was made a concubine of an emperor. But then the imperial court turned against the two families.