China: Notable Writers (and their Most Famous Works and Notable Biographical Information and Information about their Works) and Literary Terms and Concepts (inc. Genres)

1000’s BCE - 600’s BCE - Shi Jing / Book of Songs (All Facts)

• Collection of ancient Chinese poems

• Some of its most archaic verses came from the sacrificial hymns used in the ancestral temples of the Shang Dynasty

• Some of its verses from later written work range from court love poetry to peasant folk-songs

• Was essential reading for the education Chinese, particularly for those involved in political life

• Quotations from its verses became common currency in the complicated political world of the feudal states China was divided into

• Included dynastic hymns which described elaborate ceremonies in the temples of the royal clans, folk songs which recorded peasant festival, complaints from soldiers at the frontlines, and love songs for the “spring matchmaking games”

274 BCE - Ch’u Tz’u / Songs of Ch’u (All Facts)

• Collection of poems

• Compiled in the namesake principality in the basin of the Yangtze River

339 BCE - 278 BCE - Ch’u Yuan (All Facts)

• Chinese poet and aristocrat that lived and worked in the Chu State during the Warring States Period of the Zhou Dynasty

• Many of his works are featured in the Ch’u Tz’u or “Songs of Ch’u”

• Was renowned for the lyric beauty of his poetry

• His brilliance, however, aroused jealousy among less-gifted men and a campaign was mounted against him by fellow poets

  • The slanders against him were believed and he, in disgrace, committed suicide

239 BCE - Master Lu’s Spring and Autumn Annals (All Facts)

• Work of a team of scholars who were brought together to summarize all their knowledge from statecraft to philosophy and from agriculture to music

• One of the longest early Chinese texts at over 100,000 words