Masterpieces of

World Literature
ASIA
Notable Writers

Cao Xueqin
Real Name: Cao Zhan
Pen Name:  Mengruan
Country of Origin: China
Year of Birth: 1715 in China
Year of Death: 1764 in near Beijing, China
Genres: Novel, Family Saga

Cáo Xuěqín; was a Chinese writer during the Qing dynasty. He is best known as the author of Dream of the Red
Chamber, one of the Four Great Classical Novels of Chinese literature. His given name was Cáo Zhān and his courtesy
name was Mèngruǎn.

He is the author of Hongloumeng (Dream of the Red Chamber), generally considered China’s greatest novel. A partly

autobiographical work, it is written in the vernacular and describes in lingering detail the decline of the powerful Jia family
and the ill-fated love between Baoyu and his cousin Lin Daiyu. The author finished at least 80 chapters of the novel before
his death.

Chikamatsu Monzaemon
Real Name: Sugimori Nobumori
Pen Name: Chikamatsu
Country of Origin: Japan
Year of Birth: 1653 Echizen, Japan
Year of Death: January 6, 1725 (aged 72), Osaka, Japan
Genre: Historical Romances and Domestic Tragedies

Chikamatsu Monzaemon was a Japanese dramatist of jōruri, the form of puppet theater that later came to be known as
bunraku, and the live-actor drama, kabuki. The Encyclopædia Britannica has written that he is "widely regarded as the
greatest Japanese dramatist".

Chikamatsu was born into a samurai family, but his father apparently abandoned his feudal duties sometime between
1664 and 1670, moving the family to Kyōto. While there, Chikamatsu served a member of the court  aristocracy. The origin
of his connection to the theatre is unknown. Yotsugi Soga (1683; “The Soga Heir”), a jōruri, is the first play that can be
definitely attributed to Chikamatsu. The following year he wrote a Kabuki play, and by 1693 he was writing exclusively for
actors. In 1703 he reestablished an earlier connection with the jōruri chanter Takemoto Gidayū, and he moved in 1705
from Kyōto to Ōsaka to be nearer to Gidayū’s puppet theatre, the Takemoto-za.

Confucius
Real Name: Kong Qiu
Pen Name: Confucius
Country of Origin: State of Lu (near present-day Nanxin Town, Qufu, Shandong, China)
Year of Birth: 551 BC State of Lu (near present-day Nanxin Town, Qufu, Shandong, China)
Year of Death: 479 BC (aged 71–72) State of Lu
Genre: Moral Philosophy, Social Philosophy, and Ethics

Confucius; born Kǒng Qiū; was a Chinese philosopher and politician of the Spring and Autumn period. The philosophy of
Confucius, also known as Confucianism, emphasized personal and governmental morality, correctness of social
relationships, justice, kindness, and sincerity.
Confucius, also known as K’ung Fu-tzu, was a Chinese philosopher, teacher and political figure. His teachings, preserved
in the Analects, focused on creating ethical models of family and public interaction and setting educational standards.
After his death, Confucius became the official imperial philosophy of China, which was extremely influential during the
Han, Tang and Song dynasties.

It was whilst he was teaching in his school that Confucius started to write. Two collections of poetry were the Book of
Odes (Shijing or Shi king) and the Book of Documents (Shujing or Shu king). The Spring and Autumn Annals (Lin Jing or
Lin King), which told the history of Lu, and the Book of Changes ( Yi Jing or Yi king) was a collection of treatises on
divination.

Jose Rizal
Real Name: José Protacio Rizal Mercado y Alonso Realonda
Pen Name: Pepe, Jose Rizal, Dr. Jose P. Rizal, Laong Laan, Dimasalang, May Pagasa
Country of Origin: Philippines
Year of Birth: June 19 1861 (Calamba, Laguna, Philippines)
Year of Death: December 30, 1896 (Bagumbayan, Manila, Philippines)
Genre: Novels, Essay, Poetry and Plays

José Protasio Rizal Mercado y Alonso Realonda was a Filipino nationalist and polymath during the tail end of the Spanish
colonial period of the Philippines. He is tagged as the national hero of the Filipino people.

Rizal was a polymath, skilled in both science and the arts. He painted, sketched, and made sculptures and woodcarving.
He was a prolific poet, essayist, and novelist whose most famous works were his two novels,  Noli Me Tángere and its
sequel, El Filibusterismo.

Khalil Gibran
Pen Name: Kahlil Gibran
Country of Origin: Lebanon
Year of Death: 1931
Genres: Prose, Poetry

Gibran Khalil Gibran, usually referred to in English as Kahlil Gibran, was a Lebanese-American writer, poet and visual
artist, also considered a philosopher although he himself rejected the title.

Khalil Gibran was a writer, artist and poet who is regarded as the third bestselling poet of all time. His sales rank only
behind William Shakespeare and Lao-Tsu. The poems that he wrote were primarily about the spirituality of love.

His major book, The Prophet, has sold millions of copies worldwideThe most celebrated Lebanese-American poet ever
was Khalil Gibran. He was a consummate artist who wanted to change the world and open hearts to spirituality through
his art.

Lao-tzu
Pen Name: Lao tzu
Country of Origin: China
Year of death : Unknown, 6th century – 4th century BC
Genre: Poetry

Laozi, also rendered as Lao Tzu and Lao-Tze, was an ancient Chinese philosopher and writer. He is the reputed author of
the Tao Te Ching, the founder of philosophical Taoism, and a deity in religious Taoism and traditional Chinese religions.

Lao-Tzu (also known as Laozi or Lao-Tze) was a Chinese philosopher credited with founding the philosophical system of
Taoism. He is best known as the author of the Tao-Te-Ching, the work which exemplifies his thought. The name by which
he is known is not a personal name but an honorific title meaning `Old Man’ or `Old Teacher’ and there has been
countless speculation as to whether an individual by that name ever existed or whether Lao-Tzu is an amalgam of many
different philosophers. The historian Durant writes, “Lao-Tze, greatest of the pre-Confucian philosophers, was wiser than
Teng Shih; he knew the wisdom of silence, and lived, we may be sure, to a ripe old age – though we are not sure that he
lived at all” (652). If he did exist, he is thought to have lived in the 6th century BCE.

Lu Xun
Real Name: Zhou Shuren
Pen Name: Lu xun
Country of Origin: Shaoxing, Zhejiang,Qing dynasty China
Year of Death: 19 October 1936
Genres: Poem, Short Story

Lu Xun was the pen name of Zhou Shuren, a Chinese writer, essayist, poet, and literary critic. He was a leading figure of
modern Chinese literature. Writing in Vernacular Chinese and Classical Chinese, he was a short story writer, editor,
translator, literary critic, essayist, poet, and designer.

Lu Xun is considered the greatest in 20th-century Chinese literature, who was also an important critic known for his sharp
and unique essays on the historical traditions and modern conditions of China.

Li Po
Pen Name: Li Po / Li Bai
Country of Origin: China
Year of Death: 762 Dangtu, Tang Empire (now Ma'anshan, Anhui, China)
Genre: Poetry

Li Bai, also known as Li Bo, courtesy name Taibai, was a Chinese poet acclaimed from his own day to the present as a
genius and a romantic figure who took traditional poetic forms to new heights.

Li Po (701-762), one of the most popular Chinese poets, was noted for his romantic songs on wine, women, and nature.
His writings reflect the grandeur of the T'ang dynasty at the height of its prosperity.

Matsuo Bashό
Real Name: Matsuo Chūemon Munefusa
Pseudonym: Matsuo Bashό
Country of Origin: Japan
Genre: Poetry

Matsuo Bashō, born 松尾 金作, then Matsuo Chūemon Munefusa, was the most famous poet of the Edo period in Japan.
During his lifetime, Bashō was recognized for his works in the collaborative haikai no renga form; today, after centuries of
commentary, he is recognized as the greatest master of haiku.

Murasaki Shikibu
Pen Name: Murasaki Shikibu
Country of Origin: Japan
Genre: Novel

Murasaki Shikibu was a Japanese novelist, poet and lady-in-waiting at the Imperial court during the Heian period. She is
best known as the author of The Tale of Genji, widely considered to be the world's first novel, written in Japanese
between about 1000 and 1012.

She's considered the world's first novelist, but we're not even sure of her name. "Murasaki" may or may not have been
adopted from the name of a female character in her most famous work, The Tale of Genji. "Shikibu" indicates her father's
office in the Japanese imperial government at one time.

Nick Joaquin
Real Name: Nicomedes Marquez Joaquin
Pen Name: Quijano de Manila (“Manila Old-Timer”)
Country of Origin: Philippines
Genres: Novel, Poetry, Playwrite, Essay, Biography

Nicomedes "Nick" Márquez Joaquín was a Filipino writer and journalist best known for his short stories and novels in the
English language. He also wrote using the pen name Quijano de Manila. Joaquín was conferred the rank and title of
National Artist of the Philippines for Literature.

Omar Khayyam
Real name: Ghiyath al-Din Abu al-Fath'Umar ibn Ibrahim al-Nisaburi al-Khayyami
Pen name: Omar Khayyam
Country of origin: Khorasan (now Iran)
Genres: Poetry

Omar Khayyam was a Persian mathematician, astronomer, philosopher, and poet. He was born in Nishabur, in
northeastern Iran, and spent most of his life near the court of the Karakhanid and Seljuq rulers in the period which
witnessed the First Crusade.
English-speaking readers know of his extraordinary work through the translation of his collection of hundreds of quatrains
(or rubais) in Rubaiyat, an 1859 work on the "the Astronomer-Poet of Persia".

Rabindranath Tagore
Real Name: Rabindranath Tagore
Pen Name: Bhanu Singha Thakur (Bhonita)
Country of Origin: India
Year of Birth and Death: 1861-1941
Genre: Poetry
Rabindranath Tagore FRAS, also known by his pen name Bhanu Singha Thakur, and also known by his sobriquets
Gurudev, Kabiguru, and Biswakabi, was a polymath, poet, musician, artist and ayurveda-researcher from the Indian
subcontinent.

Rabindranath Tagore, Bengali Rabīndranāth Ṭhākur, (born May 7, 1861, Calcutta [now Kolkata], India—died August 7,
1941, Calcutta), Bengali poet, short-story writer, song composer, playwright, essayist, and painter who introduced new
prose and verse forms and the use of colloquial language into Bengali literature, thereby freeing it from traditional models
based on classical Sanskrit. He was highly influential in introducing Indian culture to the West and vice versa, and he is
generally regarded as the outstanding creative artist of early 20th-century India. In 1913 he became the first non-
European to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature. His poetic songs were viewed as spiritual and mercurial, however his
elegant prose and magical poetry remain largely unknown outside Bengal.He is sometimes referred to as “the Bard of
Bengal”.

Rabindranath Tagore was a polymath, poet, musician, and artist from the Indian subcontinent. He reshaped Bengali
literature and music, as well as Indian art with contextual modernism in the late 19 th and early 20th centuries. Author of
the profoundly sensitive, fresh, and beautiful verse of “Gitanjali”.

Sa'di
Real Name: Abu-Muhammad Muslih al-Din bin Abdallah Shirazi
Pen Name: Saa'di
Country of Origin: Shiraz, Iran
Year of Birth and Death:1921
Genre: Poetry

Abū-Muhammad Muslih al-Dīn bin Abdallāh Shīrāzī, better known by his pen name Saadi, also known as Saadi of Shiraz,
was a major Persian poet and prose writer of the medieval period. He is recognized for the quality of his writings and for
the depth of his social and moral thoughts.

Sa'di is recognized for the quality of his writings and for the depth of his social and moral thoughts. Sa'di is widely
recognized as one of the greatest poets of the classical literary tradition,earning him the nickname “Master of Speech”
among Persian scholars, considered one of the 100 greatest books of all time according to The Guardian. The thirteenth-
century poet is regarded as one of the greatest figures iin Persian literature.

Valmiki
Birth Name: Ratnakara
Pen Name: Valmiki
Country of Origin: India
Year of Birth and Death:
Genre: Poetry

Valmiki is celebrated as the harbinger-poet in Sanskrit literature. The epic Ramayana, dated variously from 5th century
BCE to first century BCE, is attributed to him, based on the attribution in the text itself. He is revered as Ādi Kavi, the first
poet, author of Ramayana, the first epic poem.

Valmiki was the composer of the first Sanskrit poem (the Adikavya) known the world over as the epic Ramayana (Story of
Lord Rama), hence he is called the Adikavi or First Poet - the Poet of Poets of India. He was born along the banks of the
Ganges in ancient India to a sage by the name of Prachetasa. His birth name was Ratnakara. He apparently got lost in
the jungles as a child and was found by a hunter who raised him as his own son. When he grew up he became a hunter
like his foster father but also took to being a bandit to supplement his livelihood. Once it so happened he met the
Maharishi Narada and tried to rob him. However Narada convinced him of the evil of his ways and converted him into a
'Brahmarishi' or religious scholar. He narrated the story of Rama (Ramayana) to him and asked him to write it down for
posterity. Ratnakara did penance for many years and an ant-hill grew around him. Hence his new name 'Valmika' which in
Sanskrit means an ant-hill. He came out of the anthill and penned the great epic sometime between the 4th and the 2nd
century BC. "As long as there are rivers and mountains in the world, people will read the Ramayana."

Vyasa
Real Name: Krishna Dvaipayana or Vedavyasa
Pen Name: Vyasa
Country of Origin: India
Year of Birth and Death: c. 1475 BCE - c.1525 BCE
Genre: Poetry

Vyasa is the legendary author of the Mahabharata, Vedas and Puranas, some of the most important works in the Hindu
tradition. He is also called Veda Vyāsa or Krishna Dvaipāyana. The festival of Guru Purnima is dedicated to him.

Vyasa, (Sanskrit: “Arranger” or “Compiler”)also called Krishna Dvaipayana or Vedavyasa, legendary Indian sage who is
traditionally credited with composing or compiling the Mahabharata, a collection of legendary and didactic poetry worked
around a central heroic narrative. In India his birthday is celebrated as Guru Purnima, on Shukla Purnima day in the
month of Ashadha (June–July).

Wang Wei
Real Name: Wang Wei
Pen Name: Caoyi daore (Taoist in the straw coat)
Wang Youcheng
Mojie
Country of Origin: Jinzhong ,China
Year of Birth and Death: 701 AD - 761 AD
Genre: Poetry

Wang Wei was a Chinese poet, musician, painter, and politician during the Tang dynasty. He was one of the most famous
men of arts and letters of his time. Many of his poems are preserved, and twenty-nine were included in the highly
influential 18th-century anthology Three Hundred Tang Poems.

Greatest Literary Masterpieces