Literature Wénxué 文学

◀ LIN Biao Comprehensive index starts in volume 5, page 2667.

From the earliest times in China verse domi- description and imagery throughout the history of Chi- nated literary composition, while forms of nese poetry. The most authoritative edition, by Mao Heng opera and prose fiction developed into the and his son, Mao Chang, in the late first or early second most ambitious genres beginning in the four- century ce, stresses the relationship of the poems to emotion as distinct from other forms of composition. teenth century. Experiments with features TheChuci comprises a second early tradition of verse of Western literature in the early twentieth known as the sao form, which is associated with the century grew steadily into a highly Western- ancient state of Chu (770–721 bce) or with the region ized array of literature that largely displaced (roughly modern Hunan Province). In sao the natural im- pre-twentieth-century forms. agery alluding to moral qualities that is also often found in the Shijing is more lush and ultimately part of a visionary, shamanic world of spirits, souls, and deities through which the living and the dead journey in search of emo- rior to the Han dynasty (206 bce –220 ce) musi- tional and spiritual fulfillment. Such a world frames the cal lyrics alone were discussed as a class of com- first poem attributed to a historical figure, the “Li sao” position apart from history and philosophy, and (Encountering Sorrow) by Qu Yuan, who describes a fan- prose narratives, whether factual or fictive, appeared al- tastic journey: Qu, having been slandered by fellow Chu most entirely embedded in the work of historians and courtiers who want the king to reject Qu’s proposal for philosophers. The most ancient poetic texts are found in a strategic alliance, sets out upon his exile in search of a the Shijing (Book or Classic of Poetry or Songs) and the deity to validate his moral stature. Chuci (Elegies of Chu). The 305 extant lyrics in the Shijing The records of the Han dynasty preserved samples date between 1000 and 700 bce, when the Zhou dynasty of anonymous folk ballads (yuefu) of varying line length (1045–256 bce)court collected them from different re- collected by the imperial Music Bureau and also shi verse gions of the realm. Written largely in four-word, rhymed composed in a new form of five-syllable lines. Eventu- lines, the shi (verses) vary in length and range from eulo- ally members of the cultural elite composed in yuefu gies for royal ancestral rites to depictions by unknown and five-syllable-line shi style, among them Cai Yan (Cai authors of daily routines and intimate life. The Chinese Wenji, b. 177 ce), one of the earliest female poets credited philosopher Confucius (551–479 bce)praised them for by name, who recounted her lengthy captivity in a foreign their contributions to moral philosophy, and later phi- tribe in a five-syllable-line shi poem. At the same time the losophers and poets quoted them widely, giving them a sao form inspired members of the cultural elite to create prominent place in the curriculum of Confucian educa- a variant in rhymed prose, or prose poetry, called fu. The tion. The verses thereby greatly influenced techniques of fu prose-poem began in homage to Qu Yuan as a way to 1332

reflect on the misfortunes of official service, but as a ve- (communicating the unusual or romances), a category hicle for elaborate vocabulary it was then appropriated to that included famous love stories. describe the pleasures and wonders of imperial life. The increasing stylization of language in the fu resulted in a form of parallel prose written in alternating phrases of Later Poetic Forms four and six syllables, known as the “four-six style” (siliu wen or pianti wen), which would last as an important style The interaction of Chinese empires with central Asia re- until the early twentieth century. sulted in even more innovations than the legacy of Bud- dhism, and these innovations included new forms of poetry. The first of these was lüshi (regulated verse), in- Prose Narrative spired by the prosody of Indian Sanskrit poetry, a genre studied by Shen Yue (441–513). This form dictated an ar- The expansion of Daoist thought and its interaction with rangement of phonological tones within rhymed lines the arrival of Buddhism from central Asia during the Han of five or seven syllables, organized in parallel couplets dynasty stimulated imagination about both the geogra- and normally limited to either eight lines or four lines phy of exotic regions and the realms of the supernatural. (jueju). Its most celebrated practitioner, Du Fu (712–770), The court scholar Liu Xin (46 bce–23 ce) compiled the acquired a reputation that has lasted to the present. Like fantastic geography of the Shanhai jing (Classic of Hills all writers before the Yuan dynasty (1279–1368), Du Fu and Seas) as information on arcana (mysterious bits of served as an official, and his devotion in his verse to the knowledge) and anomalies necessary to governing the welfare of the empire made him the epitome of the poet empire. After the collapse of the Han dynasty the num- as scholar-official. No topic represented in his poetry, ber of published collections of short anecdotes of spirits whether history, landscape, or daily life, was removed increased, many edited by men of official standing writ- from considerations of affairs of state or the needs of its ing unofficially, such as the 464 stories that an official subjects. Du Fu’s ability to bring what was considered a historian, Gan Bao (317–420), published, not among his plain, often humorous, voice and a Confucian sense of historical records but under the title Sou shen ji (Search mission to a form as ornate as regulated verse fulfilled for the Supernatural). Buddhist- and Daoist-inspired fundamental criteria for evaluating poetry that had been biographies, imitating the form but varying from the articulated in previous centuries in major studies of the content of official historical biographies, also appeared, art, such as the Shi pin (Evaluation of Poetry) by Zhong as did biographical anecdotes, also departing from offi- Rong (469?–518) and Wenxin diaolong (Literary Mind and cial historical accounts, most famously in the studies of the Carving of Dragons) by Liu Xie (b. 465). personal qualities attributed to historical figures in Shi Yet, in Du Fu’s own time the most popular poet (al- shuo xin yu (New Anecdotes of Tales of the World) by though not admired by the Tang court) was a follower of a prince, Liu Yiqing (420–479). The single most famous Daoism, Li Bai (Li Bo, 701–762). In Li Bai’s poetry land- story handed down from the post-Han North and South scape offers a release from historically defined duty and Dynasties (220–589) still inspires contemporary writing. an inspiration to envision a realm of Daoist deities and This is the “Tao hua yuan” (Peach Blossom Spring), which resources to unlock the alchemical secrets of immortal- the poet Tao Qian (Tao Yuanming, 365–427) included in ity, invoking an intimacy between his wine-inebriated his sequel collection to Gan Bao’s supernatural tales; it is a persona and the cosmos. Ultimately, the pairing of Du Daoist-inspired story of a fisherman who discovers a uto- Fu with Li Bai as the two greatest poetic geniuses served pian community of refugees that has remained unknown the tradition of the cultural elite themselves as the keep- for centuries. The growing body of prose narratives set in ers both of the Confucian society and the Daoist knowl- known historical and geographic contexts, but devoted edge of cosmic existence. Nor did this tradition exclude to characters and situations not confirmed by official re- appreciation of Buddhism as a layman, exemplified most cords, developed during the Tang dynasty (618–907 ce) famously in the poetry of a contemporary official, Wang into vividly and intimately depicted stories called chuanqi Wei (701–761).

By the late ninth century central Asia again contrib- for “song-story”) of Buddhist proselytizers in the tenth uted to poetry through a new musical form for which the century known in Chinese as bianwen (transformation lyrics were known as ci (song lyrics). Composed for enter- texts). These popular tales were written down in the ver- tainment, often by professional women entertainers, each nacular in which they were recited and sung, providing tune required a different form, and each lyric was known a major early example of spoken language at a time when by the title of the tune for which it was written. Although writing remained dominated by classical and literary women as professional entertainers had composed shi styles commonly used among the cultural elite. By the poetry, such as the gifted public relations courtesan of twelfth century performance had also developed into mu- a governor of Sichuan Province, Xue Tao (770–830), the sic theater in varying forms. After the consolidation of the newer ci form was initially regarded as outside the range Mongol Yuan dynasty the northern zaju (variety act) op- of writing by which men of the cultural elite were evalu- era dominated, offering vernacular dialogue interspersed ated as scholar-officials. The ability of Li Qingzhao (1083– with songs in the qu verse form according to prescribed 1149?) to evoke the pleasures of her youthful life with her suites. The centerpiece isXi xiang ji (Western Chamber) husband, then the sadness of widowhood and aging, as by Wang Shifu, a romantic comedy of illicit love between well as to theorize about poetry, made her the most fa- a poor, young scholar and the daughter of the widow of mous woman poet in Chinese history. But men writing a powerful official. The most prolific and revered -play in the ci form to express emotion—the sadness of Li Yü wright, Guan Hanqing, is best known for his operas of (937–978) over the loss of his kingdom, for example, and common people struggling against injustice, epitomized the exquisitely sympathetic observations of courtesans by crime and court case melodramas, such as Dou E yuan by Qin Guan (1049–1100)—were not listed among the (Injustice to Dou E), in which an innocent woman allows greatest male poets, despite their talent. This divide, one of formal and gender and social conventions, was broken by Su Dongpo (Su Shi, 1037–1101) when he began writing and distributing ci poetry on occasions and on top- Historical illustration of Wenchang, the god ics that called for shi verse. Moreover, his shi poems both of literature. acknowledged and broke free of the models established by the Tang poets. His innovations inspired generations of writers since, among them Chinese Communist Party leader Mao Zedong, who in the twentieth century used the ci form for some of his most famous poems on revolu- tion and conquest. By the thirteenth century musical inspiration for verse was shifting again, this time to a form known asqu, similar to ci but written in sets of new tunes for the growing genre of music theater. Thus, although volumes of single verses in qu form were published, the most famous authors were the playwrights of the thirteenth-century music theater.

Oral and Performing Literature Music theater, or forms of opera, developed into the most ambitious genre of performing literature, the earliest written examples of which are thechantefable (French

herself to be executed for a crime in order to spare her newer form of music theater that came to be known as mother-in-law, also wrongly accused. Jingju (Peking [Beijing] Opera). Featuring more ambi- The growing interest in and patronage of opera among tious movement in the acrobatics of stage combatants, ruling families and officials eventually brought greater Jingju turned decidedly toward performance art and status to playwrights, especially after a southern form away from literary ambition. of opera, eventually known as chuanqi (romance), developed a new musical form in an expanded and more elaborate drama. In 1367, as the Yuan dynasty was fall- Fiction ing to the Ming dynasty (1368–1644), a retired official, Gao Ming, completed a southern opera entitled Pipa ji The attention that oral and performing literature paid (Lute); it remains one of China’s most enduring opera both to the drama of ordinary folk and to exciting his- stories. The plot involves a young man, Cai Bojie, who torical figures provided a great impetus to the develop- must leave his wife Wuniang and his parents to take his ment of vernacular and semivernacular fiction from at civil service examination in the capital; after placing first least the fourteenth century, when the first novels are in the exams he is implored to stay and marry the daugh- known to have appeared. While the short story (huaben) ter of a high-ranking official. Wuniang, enduring hard- greatly expanded vivid accounts of ordinary people, cul- ship, takes care of Cai’s parents throughout a period of minating in the three collections (Sanyan) written by an famine (some trickery and deception keeps Cai unaware official, Feng Menglong (1574–1646), the novel at first of their plight). When the parents die Wuniang goes to provided elaborate syntheses of sources on historically the capital to be reunited with her husband, taking her based legends already popular in theaters. The earliest lute to earn some money along the way. The Ming court of the widely read novels, Sanguo yanyi (Romance of the viewed the dilemma of the male protagonist—whether Three Kingdoms), attributed to Luo Guanzhong but later to obey his emperor or serve his parents—with enthusi- commonly read in an edition edited by Mao Zonggang in asm, thus promoting the high status of opera among the 1622–1623, gathers a wide range of sources on the heroes cultural elite. of warfare after the collapse of the Han dynasty. The his- As a literary form opera reached its peak after musical torical genre exemplified byThree Kingdoms was followed revisions known as kunqu (Kun songs) in mid- sixteenth by the inspiration of legend, as in the masterfully written century; kunqu were often so lengthy that a complete but brutal novel of bandit life, Shuihu zhuan (Water Mar- performance could often take more than a single day. gin or Outlaws of the Marsh; earliest known edition 1540), Tang Xianzu (b. 1550) is the acknowledged master of this and then by historical fantasy in Xiyou ji (Journey to the era of opera. His Mudan ting (Peony Pavilion), about the West; earliest extant edition 1592) by Wu Cheng’en, in power of passionate love first to take the life of a young which a monkey endowed with magical powers is made girl through love sickness and then to restore her through to accompany a monk, known in actual history, and his the lover of her dreams, runs to fifty-five scenes. The vi- companions on a journey to central Asia in search of tality of kunqu as a literary form lasted through the sev- Buddhist texts. enteenth century, when Hong Sheng completed Chang In the early seventeenth century various editions of sheng dian (Palace of Eternal Youth, 1688) about the ru- the novel Jin ping mei (Plum in the Golden Vase) were pub- inous but irresistible love of the Tang dynasty emperor lished, depicting the life of a wealthy, corrupt pharma- Ming Huang for his consort, Yang Guifei. Also Kong cist and his wives and concubines. Although it is most Shangren, a descendent of Confucius, authored Taohua famous for its pornographic passages (excised from all shan (Peach Blossom Fan, 1699) about the fall of the twentieth-century editions), it would inspire later novels Ming dynasty. During the eighteenth century patronage of domestic life. Thus, the relationship of one young boy of the theater increasingly turned to short performances with his sisters, female cousins, and maid servants in the of scenes abstracted and revised from the operas of pre- extended household of an aristocratic family provides vious centuries. Toward the end of the century Qing the main narrative in the most famous novel, known al- dynasty (1644–1912) royalty showed a preference for a ternately as Shitou ji (Story of the Stone) and Hong lou

© 2009 by Berkshire Publishing Group LLC 1336 Berkshire Encyclopedia of China 宝库山中华全书 meng (Dream of the Red Chamber or Dream of Red Man- the novel Wei cheng (Fortress Besieged, 1945) by Qian sions), attributed to Cao Xueqin but believed to have been Zhongshu (1910–1998), whose wife, Yang Jiang (b. 1911), revised after his death for its published editions in 1791 wrote popular spoken dramas. and 1792. After 1949 and the founding of the People’s Repub- lic of China, writers under both the Kuomintang (Guo- mindang, Chinese Nationalist Party) on Taiwan and the Twentieth-Century Literature Chinese Communist Party on the mainland pursued themes of their civil war. During the 1960s university The variety of novels increased throughout the nine- students in Taiwan began to turn to modernist fiction, teenth century, and novels increased in numbers after best known through the short stories of Bai Xianyong (b. 1900 as Confucian culture waned and the cultural elite 1937), Taibeiren (People of Taipei, 1971), and the novels of began to shift toward responding to Western cultures. Wang Wenxing (b. 1939), Jia bian (Family Catastrophe, In 1917 scholars educated overseas rebelled entirely 1973) and Beihai de ren (Backed against the Sea, 1981). A against the cultural leadership of older generations, politically dissident literature followed in the 1970s, then first in an essay by Hu Shi (1891–1962) that advocated a large, diverse movement in the 1980s and 1990s to restore eliminating the use of classical Chinese and then in dominance in literature to the subethnic populations his- a vernacular short story by Lu Xun (Zhou Shuren, torically inhabiting the island, then feminist literature 1881–1936), “Kuangren riji” (Madman’s Diary, 1918), before the turn of the century. which condemned Confucian moral vision after the Movements such as those on Taiwan remained dis- manner of the German philosopher Friedrich Nietz- tinctly minor trends or were completely suppressed on sche’s critique of Christianity in Europe. Although the the mainland. Until the late 1970s, after the end of Mao- tradition of Chinese poetry maintained some status, ist leadership, literature largely followed concepts de- Chinese writers turned largely to writing fiction for veloped in the Soviet Union in support of agricultural newspapers and magazines following Western models. collectivization, representing the history of the revolu- A series of partially autobiographical novels by young tion and providing models of good workers, peasants, writers struggling with modernity in the 1920s culmi- and soldiers. Ding Ling (Jiang Bingzhi, 1904–1986), a nated in Jia (Family, 1931–1932) by the anarchist Ba Jin widowed veteran of the revolutionary movements, pro- (1904–2005). The first playwright to write full-length duced the most noted novels of this period, Taiyang zhao spoken dramas that were successful with audiences, zai Sangganhe shang (Sun Shines on the Sanggan River, Cao Yu (Wan Jiabao, 1910–1996), also focused on fam- 1948), about the challenges of land reform. The shift in ily conflicts. During the 1930s novels dealt increasingly cultural policy from such prescriptions to a proscriptive with political issues. Mao Dun (Shen Yanbing, 1896– censorship in the late 1970s led to a wide range of cre- 1981) promoted the growing Marxist vision of the col- ativity, from the modernist verse by poets such as Bei lapse of capitalism during the Great Depression in Ziye Dao (Zhao Zhenkai, b. 1949) to fiction featuring satire (Midnight, 1933); the plight of the poor was explored by Wang Shuo (b. 1958), social criticism and alternative in Luotuo Xiangzi (Camel Lucky Boy or Rickshaw, 1937) history by Mo Yan (b. 1956), a major new emphasis on by Lao She (Shu Qingchun, 1898–1966). The period of female subjectivity by Wang Anyi (b. 1954) and other the War of Resistance against Japan (1937–1945, known women writers, and views inspired by ethnic minority outside China primarily as the Second Sino-Japanese cultures, such as the novels of Tibetan culture by Alai (b. War) produced important propaganda, most famously 1959). Visionary literature of a collective unconscious ap- the Communist innovative opera depicting a peasant peared in Ling shan (Soul Mountain, 1990) by a modernist girl exploited by a landlord, Bai mao nü ( White-Haired writer living in France, Gao Xingjian (b. 1940), who in Girl, 1945), but also some of the most admired fiction 2000 was awarded the first Nobel Prize for Literature of life among the educated elite of the occupied city of given to a Chinese writer. Shanghai, including the short stories of Zhang Ailing (Eileen Chang, 1920–1995) in Chuanqi (Romances) and Edward M. GUNN

Further Reading Mackerras, C. (Ed.). (1983). Chinese theater: From its ori- gins to the present day. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Chang, Sung-sheng Yvonne. (2004). Literary culture in Press. Taiwan: Martial law to market law. New York: Colum- Mair, V. H. (Ed.). (2001). The Columbia history of Chinese bia University Press. literature. New York: Columbia University Press. Hong, Zicheng. (2007). A history of contemporary Chinese McDougall, B. S. (1997). The literature of China in the twen- literature (M. M. Day, Trans.). Boston: Brill. tieth century. New York: Columbia University Press. Hsia, Chih-tsing. (1971). A history of modern Chinese fic- Nienhauser, W. (Ed.). (1986–1998). The Indiana companion tion. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. to traditional Chinese literature (2 vols.). Bloomington: Hsia, Chih-tsing. (1996). The classic Chinese novel: A criti- Indiana University Press. cal introduction. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University East Owen, S. (Ed. & Trans.). (1996). An anthology of Chi- Asia Program. (Original work published 1968) nese literature: Beginnings to 1911. New York: W. W. Lau, Joseph S. M., Hsia, Chih-tsing, & Lee, Leo Ou-fan. Norton. (1981). Modern Chinese stories and novellas, 1919–1949. Sieber, P. (2003). Theaters of desire: Authors, readers, and New York: Columbia University Press. the reproduction of early Chinese song-drama, 1300– Lau, Joseph. S. M., & Ma, Yau-Woon. (Eds.). (1978). Tra- 2000. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. ditional Chinese stories: Themes and variations. New Wang, David Der-wei. (1997). Fin-de-siecle splendor: Re- York: Columbia University Press. pressed modernities of late Qing fiction, 1849–1911. Stan- Lee, Leo Ou-fan. (Ed.). (1985). Lu Xun and his legacy. ford, CA: Stanford University Press. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Watson, B. (1962). Early Chinese literature. New York: Co- Press. lumbia University Press. Liu, W., & Yucheng Lo, I. (1975). Sunflower splendor: Three Yeh, M. (1991). Modern Chinese poetry: Theory and practice thousand years of Chinese poetry. Bloomington: Indi- since 1917. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. ana University Press. Yu, Pauline. (1987). The reading of imagery in the Chinese Mackerras, C. (1975). The Chinese theatre in modern times: poetic tradition. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University From 1840 to the present day. London: Thames and Press. Hudson.

Trees have already been made into a boat. 木已成舟

Mù yǐ chéng zhōu

Little Red Book (Quotations from Chairman Mao Zedong) ▶