Chinese Flashcards
for 3500 years, the Chinese have woven a variety of genres and forms encompassing poetry, essays, fiction and drama; each in its own way reflecting the social climate of its day through the high spirit of art
Chinese Literature
-main disadvantage of written Chinese is the great number of characters contains: Even basic reading and writing require a knowledge of more than 1,000 characters
-but even with this disadvantage, Chinese has been a potent factor in shaping and maintaining a cultural continuity for millions of people
Reading Chinese Literature
-
earliest artifact of Chinese writing appears on oracle bones , animal bones used for sacred divination
-writing on these bones are pictographs , which use pictures in place of letters
-known as jiaguwen , and is believed to have been barely changed from the rules of writing still used today
Shang Dynasty (1600 BC-1050 BC)
-around 105 BC, paper was invented , helping maintain writing and literature
-many works of Chinese poetry, literature, religion, and medicine survived this period due to the use of paper
-was still expensive due to the time-consuming nature of hand-writing each piece
-during this time most written poetry used a folklore song style, emulating the oral storytelling that came before -due to the popularity of Confucius , philosophical works became more widespread as well
Han Dynasty (206 BC-AD 220)
-invention of woodblock printing , similar to a wood stamp, allowed printing to become quick, accessible, and widespread, leading to higher levels of writing and reading literacy among the lower classes
-popularity led to new styles, specifically the rise in what is now considered classical Chinese poetry
-classical Chinese poetry moves away from the folklore song style, and looks at everyday topics and utilizes more modern techniques like imagery and persona
Tang Dynasty (AD 618-907)
-prose around this time began to utilize more novels using vernacular writing and mirroring more closely to the type of novels read today
-novels began to move away from the philosophical works that emerged from the Han Dynasty , and focused less on philosophical teachings
Ming Dynasty (AD 1368-1644)
-Tu fu
-greatest Chinese poet of all time
-wrote the poem “The Ballad of the Army Cats” which is about conscription—and with hidden satire that speaks of the noticeable luxury of the court
Du Fu
-Li Bai
-Chinese poet who is a competitor of Du Fu as China’s greatest poet
-he was romantic in his personal life and his poetry
-his works are known for its conversational tone and vivid imagery
-wrote the poem “Alone and Drinking under the Moon” that deals with the ancient social custom of drinking
Li Po
-he was a poet, painter, musician , and statesman during the Tang dynasty (the golden ages of the Chinese cultural history)
-founder of the respected Southern school of painter-poets
-many of his best poems were inspired by the local landscape just like the Bamboo Woods
Wang Wei
-a fictionist who won the 2012 Nobel Prize for Literature
-his first novel was “Red Sorghum”, and still his best-known work
-tells the story of the Chinese battling Japanese intruders as well as each other during the 1930s
-relates the story of a family in a rural area in Shandong Province during this turbulent time
Mo Yan
-world-acclaimed short story writer and considered as a champion for Chinese meta-fictional or postmodernist writing
-his widely acclaimed novel “To Live” describes the struggles endured by the son of a wealthy land-owner while historical events caused and extended by the Chinese Revolution are fundamentally altering the nature of Chinese society
YU HUA
