CHINESE

LITERATURE
SURVEY OF AFRO-ASIAN LITERATURE
 BACKGROUND

• Chinese literature, the body of works written in

Chinese, including lyric poetry, historical and didactic
 writing, drama, and various forms of fiction.
 BACKGROUND
• Chinese literature is one of the major literary heritages of the world, with an uninterrupted history of
more than 3,000 years, dating back at least to the 14th century BCE. Its medium, the 
Chinese language, has retained its unmistakable identity in both its spoken and written aspects in
spite of generally gradual changes in pronunciation, the existence of regional and local dialects, and
several stages in the structural representation of the written graphs, or “characters.” Even the partial
or total conquests of China for considerable periods by non-Han Chinese ethnic groups from outside
the Great Wall failed to disrupt this continuity, for the conquerors were forced to adopt the written
Chinese language as their official medium of communication because they had none of their own.
Since the Chinese graphs were inherently nonphonetic, they were at best unsatisfactory tools for the
transcription of a non-Chinese language, and attempts at creating a new alphabetic-phonetic written
language for empire building proved unsuccessful on three separate occasions. The result was that
after a period of alien domination, the conquerors were culturally assimilated (except the Mongols,
who retreated en masse to their original homeland after the collapse of the Yuan [or Mongol] dynasty
 in 1368). Thus, there was no disruption in China’s literary development.
 BACKGROUND

• Since the Chinese graphs were inherently nonphonetic, they were

at best unsatisfactory tools for the transcription of a non-Chinese
language, and attempts at creating a new alphabetic-phonetic
written language for empire building proved unsuccessful on three
separate occasions. The result was that after a period of alien
domination, the conquerors were culturally assimilated (except the
Mongols, who retreated en masse to their original homeland after
the collapse of the Yuan [or Mongol] dynasty in 1368). Thus, there
was no disruption in China’s literary development.
 GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS

• Through cultural contacts, Chinese literature has

profoundly influenced the literary traditions of other
Asian countries, particularly Korea, Japan, and
Vietnam. Not only was the Chinese script adopted for
the written language in these countries, but some
writers adopted the Chinese language as their chief
literary medium, at least before the 20th century.
 GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS

• The graphic nature of the written aspect of the Chinese language has produced
a number of noteworthy effects upon Chinese literature and its diffusion: (1)
Chinese literature, especially poetry, is recorded in handwriting or in print and
purports to make an aesthetic appeal to the reader that is visual as well as
aural. (2) This visual appeal of the graphs has in fact given rise to the elevated
status of calligraphy in China, where it has been regarded for at least the last
16 centuries as a fine art comparable to painting. Scrolls of calligraphic
renderings of poems and prose selections have continued to be hung alongside
paintings in the homes of the common people as well as the elite, converting
these literary gems into something to be enjoyed in everyday living.
 GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS

• (3) On the negative side, such a writing system has been an impediment to 
education and the spread of literacy, thus reducing the number of readers of
literature, for even a rudimentary level of reading and writing requires
knowledge of more than 1,000 graphs, together with their pronunciation. (4)
On the other hand, the Chinese written language, even with its obvious
disadvantages, has been a potent factor in perpetuating the cultural unity of the
growing millions of the Chinese people, including assimilated groups in far-
flung peripheral areas. Different in function from recording words in an
alphabetic–phonetic language, the graphs are not primarily indicators of
sounds and can therefore be pronounced in variant ways to accommodate
geographical diversities in speech and historical phonological changes without
damage to the meaning of the written page. 
 GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS

• As a result, the major dialects in China never developed into separate

written languages as did the Romance languages, and, although the
reader of a Confucian Classic in southern China might not
understand the everyday speech of someone from the far north,
Chinese literature has continued to be the common asset of the whole
Han Chinese people. By the same token, the graphs of China could
be utilized by speakers of other languages as their literary mediums.
 CHARACTERISTICS AND
BACKGROUND
(FROM OTHER SOURCE)

• early folk songs established the shi (shih) form that

crystallized during the Han dynasty and dominated for
the next 1,200 years. Beginning with the simple
complaints and longings expressed in rhymed couplets
of folk songs, this form gradually became more and
more complex, or "regulated," until it took years of
study to master its formal rules of composition.
 CHARACTERISTICS AND BACKGROUND
(FROM OTHER SOURCE)

• The short story, which began to develop during the Tang

dynasty, at first emphasized either historical events or
supernatural happenings which could not be related in a
formal historical work. The notion of fiction as connected to
history persisted, yet more imaginative and rationally
inexplicable, culminating in China's greatest novel, The
Dream of the Red Chamber or The Story of the Stone, which
is at once autobiographical and realistic, and at the same time
imaginative and mystical.
 CHARACTERISTICS AND BACKGROUND
(FROM OTHER SOURCE)

• Drama, one of China's least well-developed genres, had its

origins also in popular entertainment. The high point of elite
drama was during the Yuan dynasty, when intellectuals
dispossessed by the Mongol invaders turned to the
composition of drama both to productively employ their taste
and erudition and also to covertly criticize the foreign
government. During the following centuries, dramas tended
to become longer, and the opera dominated. Spoken drama
was not generally conspicuous until the 20th century.
 CHARACTERISTICS AND BACKGROUND
(FROM OTHER SOURCE)

• By the beginning of the 20th century, the movement to modernize and westernize
China's literature became very popular. The formal classical language, which by then
survived only in written texts, was replaced by the vernacular spoken language as a
literary medium. Experiments with free verse and sonnet forms, short
autobiographical stories and interior monologues, spoken drama and radio or film
scripts were influenced by western models rather than by classical Chinese tradition.
However, the theme of China's plight dominated 20th-century Chinese literature, and
for the past six decades the pendulum has frequently swung back and forth between
western imitation and modernized styles versus Chinese foundation and conservative
techniques. Whereas classical Chinese literature was often valued for its craft and
erudition, post-1919 Chinese literature has been evaluated largely in terms of its
social and political relevance.
 CHARACTERISTICS AND BACKGROUND
(FROM OTHER SOURCE)

• Much Chinese literature of the 1920s and 1930s both exposed national social problems
and also expressed writers' doubts about finding viable solutions to these problems.
• In 1942 Mao Zedong, in his "Talks at Yenan on Literature and Art," emphasized to his
fellow communist revolutionaries that the goal of literature was neither to reflect the dark
side of society nor to express the author's own private feelings or artistic inspirations.
Instead, he said, literature and art should inspire the masses by presenting positive
examples of heroism and socialist idealism. It should also be written in the public voice
and style of the workers, peasants, and soldiers, not of the elite intellectuals.
• During the Cultural Revolution period (1966-76), Mao's principle that literature and art
should serve the people and promote socialism was most rigidly adhered to. The fiction
of Hao Ran (Hao Jan) constitutes an excellent example of this tendency.