CHINESE LITERATURE - oldest dynasty
 Chinese civilization – one of the few ancient
civilization to have its individual writing concept.
 The Chinese language has over 20,000 characters the
average Chinese only learns about 5,000 of these in
his lifetime.
 Flag of China was originally adopted on October 1,
1949
 The red of the Chinese flag symbolizes the Communist
Revolution, and also the tradition color of the people.
 The large gold star represent Communism and
Communism means a way of organizing a society in
which a government own
 The four smaller stars represent the social classes of
the people.
 The Republic of China has an area of 9, 597 million
sq. km. and the capital city of China is Beijing.
 The religions and beliefs of Chinese people are Islam
over 22 million, Catholicism is 4 million and
Protestant over 10 million.
 There are also Atheist who doesn’t believe in God.
 Confucianism - an ethical teaching founded by
Confucius.
 Confucius is a Chinese Teacher, editor, politician and
philosopher of the spring and autumn period of
Chinese history.
 The opposite of Confucianism is Taoism and the
most important religion that encompasses a variety
of tradition and beliefs and spiritual practices largely
based on teaching attributed to the Buddha.
 Culture and traditions of Chinese in wedding.
 Red is the color of wedding in China because they
believe it signifies love, joy, and prosperity to
seclusion.
 Seclusion means away from other people.
 The wedding day is carefully chosen to astrological
signs.
 The most important event in China is the Chinese
New Year and they are celebrating it on the 1st day of
the year in lunar calendar, usually between late in
January or early February.
 They also have the Lantern Festival and they are
celebrating it on the 15th day of the 1st Lunar
Calendar and in the 5th of 5th Lunar Month they are
celebrating the Dragon Boat Festival.
The Chinese has 7 dialects and these are:
1. Mandarin
2. Cantonese
3. Hakka
4. Wu
5. Min
6. Xiang
7. Gan
Dynasty in China
1. Shang Dynasty ( 1700-1050 BC) – Development of
Chinese Writing
- 1st dynasty
- hieroglyphics writing on bronze wares and
oracle bones
- it evolved into ideographic and partly-
phonetic Chinese characters.
2. Zhou Dynasty ( 1045-225 BC) – Basic Philosophical
and religious Literature
- major literary achievements originated in the
late Spring and Autumn period and Warring
State period.
3. Qin Dynasty (221-206 BC)
– Literary Disaster and Legalism
*Mohism – big philosophical and religious school
*Li Si – Qin emperor who introduced a writing system
and developed into Modern Chinese writing.
*Legalism – philosophical school.
4. Han Dynasty (206 – 220 BC) – Scientific and
Historical Text
- Era’s major contributions were historical texts and
scientific works.
*Sima Qian – wrote Historical Records
*Historical records – major history concerning the
overall history of China from Shang Dynasty to Han
Dynasty
*Cai Lun – 1st person in the world to create writing
paper.
5. Tang Dynasty (618-907) – Early Woodblock Printing and
Poetry
*Dufu and Li Bai – China’s greatest poets.
*Li Bai – one of the greatest Romantic poets.
*Dufu – one of the greatest Realists poets.
6. Song Dynasty (960-1279) – Early Woodblock Printing,
Literature, Poetry, Scientific texts and the Neo- Confucian
Classics
*5 Classics and 4 Books – written in the classical language.
*Shen Kuo and Su Song – both work scientific treatises
*Shen Kuo– discovered the concepts of true north and
magnetic declination.
*Su Song – famous for his hydraulic-powered astronomical
clock tower.
7. Yuan Dynasty (1279-1368) – Drama and Great
Fictional novels
• Guan Hanquing – one of the best playwrights of the
times.
• Mid Summer Snow – one of the most popular drama
pieces.
• The Romance of the Three Kingdoms and Water
Margin – two of the four greatest novels in Chinese
Literature.
• The Romance of the Western Chamber by Wang
Shifu – one of the best romantic dramas ever written
in China.
8. Ming Dynasty (1368- 1644) – Novels
• - Journey to the West by Wu Cheng’en – based on
the historical journey of a Buddhist to India.
9. Qing Dynasty (1644- 1911) – Novels and Pre –modern
Literature
• *Manchus – established the last dynasty.
• *The Dream of the Red Chamber – last of China’s
four great classic novels.
4 Classes of Literature
1. The Chinese Classical Literature (1644- 1911)
- refers to the earliest period and covers works from 3,000
years ago to the late Qing dynasty and is virtually unbroken
strands enduring dynastic changes. Written in ancient form of
language that is very different from present day Chinese, it
needs to be carefully studied to be understand.
2. Chinese Modern Literature
 - refers to the period from the Opium War in
1840 to the may fourth movement in 1919.
*Opium War- this is the war between two wars in the mid
19thcentury involving Anglo Chinese dispute over the British.
-people observed the impact of Western thought as
foreigners poured China and established their colonies,
novels, poetry and other works begun to appear with the
theme of patriotism and revelation of social literature.
3. Contemporary Literature (1919-1949)
- spanned period from 1919 to
the foundation of modern in 1949 and took on a new vigor
despite the fact that Chinese was in the checkered and
complicated times.
4. Present Age Literature (1949- present)
- evolved since the establishments
of the People’s Republic in 1949 during this time.
- there was a Logjam as a consequence of the
cultural resolution that lasted for near 10
years that era is now long past and we now
have a favorable turn events and a great
number of responsible written works.
GENRES IN CHINESE POETRY
• a. shih
• an even number of lines
• the same number of words in each line, in the most
cases 5 or 7.
• the occurrence of rhymes at the end of the even-
numbered lines.
• b. sao
• was inspired by li sao or 'encountering sorrow', a
poem for lamentation by Chu Yuan.
• ● It was an unusually long poem consisting of 2 parts
〇 an autobiographically account that is Confucian in
overtones
〇 a narration of an imaginary journey undertaken by the
persona
• c. fu
• partially expository and partly descriptive involving
single thought or sentiment usually expressed in a
reflective manner.
• d. lu-shih
• or "regulation poetry"
• it is an octave consisting of five or seven syllabic
verses rhymes
• The first 4 lines of this poem is the ching (scene)
while the remaining four lines describe the ch'ing
(emotion).
• e. chueh-chu
• or truncated poetry
• shorter version of the lu-shih
• contains only 4 lines with twenty or twenty-eight
syllables or characters which draw vivid pictures of
natural beauty.
• f. tzu
• It is not governed by a fixed number of verses nor a
fixed number of characters per verse.
• CONVENTIONS OF CHINESE THEATER
• Chinese drama maybe traced to the song and dances
of the chi (wizards) and the wu (witches)
The 4 Principal Roles in Chinese Theater
• SHENG
• are the leading male actors
• represent scholars, statemen, warrior patriots and the
like
• Categories of Sheng
• Laosheng who wear beards and represent old men.
• Xiaosheng represent young men.
• Wusheng is a martial character for roles involving
combat.
• ●Ching / Jing
• are usually assigned the roles of brave warriors,
bandits, crafty and evil ministers, upright judges, loyal
statemen, at times god-like and supernatural beings.
• ●Chau / Ch'ou
• is the clown or jester who is not necessarily a fool and
may also do serious or evil character.
• ● Tau / Dan
• are the women's roles
• Categories of Tau / Dan
• Guimen Dan is the role of the virtuous lady. It is also
known as Qingyi or Zhengdan. They are normally
mature and sometimes married women.
• Hua Dan is a lively, vivacious young female character.
• Wu Dan martial role specializes in fighting with all
kinds of weapons.
• Lao Dan are older women. They have their own set of
movements and gestures and singing styles,
distinguished against the Guimen Dan.
• Unlike Greek plays, classical Chinese plays do not
follow the unities of time, place and action.
• Chinese drama conveys an ethical lesson
• There are two types of speeches:
• dialogue, usually in prose, and the monologues.
• ● Chinese plays are long
• Music is an integral part of classical drama.
• The poetic dialogue, hsieh tzu (wedge), is placed at
the beginning or in between acts and is an integral
part of the play.
Dramatic conventions that serve to identify the
nature and function of each character.
• ◆ Make-up identifies the characters and
personalities
• ◆ Costumes help reveal types and different colors
signify ranks and status
• ● Action reflects highly stylized movements.