Chinese Literature

SHANG DYNASTY

Development of Chinese Writing

The first dynasty for which there is historical record

and archaeological evidence is the ____ Dynasty.

The hieroglyphic writing system later evolved into

ideographic and partly-phonetic Chinese characters.

ZHOU DYNASTY

Basic Philosophical and Religious Literature.

Taoism, Confucian literature, and other prominent

religious and philosophical schools all emerged

during this period. Probably most of the philosophical and religious

works of that time were destroyed. If there were

great fictional books created, they have been lost.

The main contributions of this period to Chinese

literature were the prose works of the Confucian

Classics and the Taoist writings, and preserved

poems and songs

QIN DYNASTY

An early form of Buddhism was also established in

China at this time, but the temples and literatures were

destroyed.

On the other hand, the ____ Dynasty standardized the

written Classical Language. It is said that a minister of

the ____ emperor named Li Si introduced a writing

system that later developed into modern Chinese writing.

HAN DYNASTY

The historical records of China was written during this

time – overall history.

Scientific texts were also thought to be important during

this time, thought it doesn’t seem that the information

was widely known or well known afterwards.

TANG DYNASTY

This era’s main contribution to Chinese literature was in

the poetry of Dufu, Li Bai and many other poets.

SONG DYNASTY

This period helped to spread knowledge

since printed material could be published more

quickly and cheaply.

Travel literature in which authors wrote about their trips

and about various destinations became popular.

Another contribution to the literature of China was the

poetry of the ____ era. A Southern Song poet named Lu

is thought to have written almost 10,000 poems.

YUAN DYNASTY

Dramatic operatic theaters with human actors speaking

in vernacular language was a favorite form of

entertainment, and some of China’s best dramatic scripts

were written then.

The ____ “Zaju” style of opera was similar to shadow

plays.

Novels were another outstanding achievement of the

____ era.

MING DYNASTY

A book that is one of the four great classics called

Journey to the West about a monk going to India was

written during this time.

Novels were the era’s main contribution.

QING DYNASTY

In the 19th century, foreign literature and the West

became better known.

In the middle of this era, the last of China’s four great

classic novels was written called Dream of the Red

Chamber (红楼梦);

In the near end of this era, modernistic literature

developed.

MODERN ERA

The national government wanted women to have more

of an equal status in society, and women writers and

scholars were taken more seriously.

There were a lot of politically oriented literature

printed.

After the Communist victory, only literature approved

by the government was allowed.