WRITTEN REPORT IN CHINESE LITERATURE

Chinese literature has formed five distinctive characteristics during more than 3,000 years of
development:

1. Literature's role and significance have always been given great emphasis in its long course of
development.

Confucius (551' 479 BC) first claimed that "poetry may serve to inspire, to reflect, to
communicate and to admonish."

Cao Pi, Emperor of the Kingdom of Wei in the Three Kingdoms period, also attached great
importance to creative writing. He believed that written works could help rule a country, and
said: "Writing is a great undertaking beneficial to the management of the country. Life is short
and the fame never lasts, but writings are immortal."

Du Fu, a great poet of the Tang Dynasty was more direct in elaborating on the role of poetry.
He said that the fundamental purpose of poetry was to purify social morals.

And Bai Juyi, another famous poet of the Tang Dynasty, said: "Writings are created in order to
point out the errors of current ills and offer curative advice."

These remarks by ancient poets, writers and literary critics produced profound influences on the later
development of Chinese literature. Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping, assimilating with discernment the
rational parts of these assertions on literature's role, put fotward a more definitive slogan: "Art serves
workers, peasants and soldiers; art serves the people and socialism." Under this guidance, literature in
the liberated areas made memorable achievements. And modern Chinese literature, especially the
new literature, has attained unprecedented development and prosperity.

2. Chinese literature is an open literature which constantly brings in new ideas in literary forms
and styles.

For example, the form of poetry was developed from the four-character poem to the five and
seven-character poem, and its style was developed from classical style to modern style, Lushi
(standard form of poetry), and free verse poetry; and prose was developed from pre-Qin
prose to Han rhyming prose, parallel prose and classical prose (as emerged in the movement
for "The Revival of Classical Prose"). The kinds and forms of modern prose today are even
more diversified.

In terms of genres, Chinese literature encompasses shi poetry of the Tang Dynasty, ci poetry
of the Song Dynasty, Yuan drama, and novels of the Ming and Qing dynasties. Several
thousands years of development shows that Chinese literature is always in a state of change
and innovation.

One thing needs to be pointed out is that China is a nation of high rationality and can treat the
changes and revolutions in literature forms dialectically. A new form of literature does not necessarily
cancel out the previous one. For example, after the seven-character octave and seven-character
quatrain occupied the dominant place in the poetry world, five- and four-character poems did not
become extinct; on the contrary, they have Survived even till today. Another example, the creation of
moden verse is encouraged these days, but there still is great enthusiasm for writing classical-style
poems among modern writers. Moreover, shi poetry and ci poetry co-exist peacefully in today's
literary field. In Song Dynasty, ci poetry took an overwhelming place, but many other poems also
gained great popularity.

3. Chinese literature pays great attention to learning from, and converges with, the world's advanced
and progressive literature. The Chinese nation has always been enthusiastic towards foreign culture.
As early as in the Southern and Northern dynasties, Chinese began to translate Buddhist scriptures. In
the Tang Dynasty, the eminent monk Xuan Zang went thousands of miles to India to search for and
translate Buddhist scriptures into Chinese. In the Qing Dynasty, Lin Shu, who was a juren (a
successful candidate in the imperial examination at the provincial level in the Ming and Qing
dynasties) during the Guangxu's reign, translated more than 170 European and American novels into
Chinese. After new China was founded, many marvelous Soviet and Eastern European novels were
translated and introduced to China. Since China began to institute reform and opening, a powerful
upsurge has taken place in the publishing of excellent international literary works and literary theory.

Chinese intellectuals, especially writers and artists, have shown amazing wisdom and creativity in
learning from the world's progressive literature, reflected in the following aspects:

(1) The introduction of new art forms, as demonstrated by the short stories of Lu Xun and novels of
Mao Dun, the modern poetry of Guo Moruo, Wen Yiduo and Xu Zhimo, and the stage plays of Cao Yu.

(2) Learning from foreign art forms and carrying out reforms in traditional Chinese literary forms, i.e.
the modernization of old Chinese literary forms. For example, Zhao Shuli's new storytelling-style
novel, Liu Shaotang's legend-style novel and Liji's folksong narrative poems.

(3) The creation of new forms through absorbing useful efements from both Chinese and Western
literary forms. For example, the opera White-haithed Girl is a combination of western opera, stage
play, traditional Chinese opera and yangko dance (a popular rural folk dance); while many skits,
suddenly popular on stage and television are a hybrid of special expressive methods borrowed from
the one-act play, Chinese crosstalk, as well as artistic styles from film and TV, giving them strong
vitality.

4. A diversity of literary schools have developed freely and compete on an equal basis with each other.
This has always been a positive tradition of Chinese literature. As early as the Spring and Autumn
Period and the Warring States Period, Chinese ideological and Cultural circles had witnessed a
situation of "a hundred schools" of thought contending with each other. During this period four famous
schools emerged:

Confucianism,Mohism, Taoism, and the Legalist School.

A number of important works representative of ancient human civilization came forth in this period,
including: Analects, Mencius, XunZi,LaoZi,Zhuangzi, and Hanfeizi. Later, during more than 2,000 years
of history, many more literary schools appeared, such as the "Gentle-' School, the "Heroic" School, the
JiangXi School, the Chaling School, the Gong'an School, the Parallelism School, the "Tfue Colors"
School, the Wujiang School, the Linchuan School, the jingling School, the Tongcheng School, the
ChangZhou School, and the yuanyang hudtie pai ("Mandarin Duck and Butterfly" School).

In the development of the modern novel, there has also been the New Sensualism School, the Native
School, the Social Analysis School, the Beijing School, and the july School. in the development of
modern poetry there have emerged the july School and the Nine-leaf Poets.

"The Potato School" and the "Hehuadian School" came up after the founding of new China. It is the
nature of literary creation that gives rise to a situation of many literature genres vying with each other
And this kind of phenomenon also marks the prosperity and vitality of literary undertakings.

Chairman Mao, observing the law of literary creation, further put forward, in his important work, "On
the Correct Handling of Contradictions Among the People" (published in February of 1 957), the
guideline: "Let a hundred flowers blossom and a hundred schools of thought contend." In expounding
this guideline, Chairman Mao said: "Letting a hundred flowers blossom and a hundred schools of
thought contend is the policy for promoting progress in the arts and sciences and a flourishing socialist
culture in our land. Different forms and styles in art should develop freely and different schools in
science should contend freely. We think that it is harmful to the growth of art and science if
administrative measures are used to impose one particular style of art or school of thought and to ban
another Questions of right and wrong in the arts and sciences should be settled through free
discussion in artistic and scientific circles and through practical work in these fields. They should not
be settled in an over-simplistic manner"

In contemporary times Chinese literary schools with nationwide influences include: the Native School
represented by Liu Shaotang, and the Urban Life School represented by Deng Youmei and others. The
formation and flourishing of diversified genres in contemporary Chinese literary circles shows that the
massive potential of Chinese writers and artists have been brought into full play, which also provides
great momentum for propelling forward the development of Chinese socialist literature.
5. In the development of Chinese literature, folk literature has always developed side by side with
scholarly literature and greatly driven the development and prosperity of Chinese literature as a
whole. Taking The Book of Poetry as an example, feng(songs) belongS to folk literature while song
(hymns) belongs to scholarly literature, and ya (odes and epics) has characteristics of both folk and
scholarly literature. Therefore, The Book of Poetry is a perfect blending of both folk literature and
scholarly literature. Ci poetry and san-qu songs (lyrical poems set to music) started as forms of folk
literature and were later developed into scholarly literature. "Storytelling scripts" also appeared as a
form of folk literature in its early stages. It changed to a novel form during the Ming and Qing
dynasties, to become the leading form of Chinese literature ever since.

The close relationship between folk literature and scholarly literature has been further reinforced and
developed during the socialist period. Every year the state has organized writers and artists to learn
about the common people's lives all over the country, with the aim of leading Chinese writers and
artists to build and maintain close links with folk literature and folk Culture.

http://www.chinastyle.cn/literature/characteristics-of-chinese-ancient-literature.htm

 In Chinese cultures, color symbolism is very important. This applies

to funeral flowers as well. While fresh cut flowers are appreciated,
artificial flowers are also acceptable, particularly if you are traveling a
long distance to attend the funeral.
 1. Chinese Literature is one of the major literary heritages of the world with an
uninterrupted history of more than 3000 years dating back in 14 th century BCE
2. Its medium, the Chinese language has retained its unmistakable identity in both spoken
and written aspects in spite of changes in pronunciation
3. There was no disruption in China’s literary heritage
4. It profoundly influenced the literary traditions of other Asian countries particularly
Korea, Japan, and Vietnam.
5. Written and recorded. Chinese literature especially poetry is recorded in handwriting or
in print and provides to make an aesthetic appeal to the reader. Meaning, I write it, I
create a poem, I write it, and it has to look really good kaya meron tayong tinatawag na
calligraphy. What is calligraphy and ito yung 2 nd characteristics niya.
6. Visually Appealing.
Visual appeal has given rise to the elevated status of calligraphy in China where it has
been regarded as a fine art comparable to painting. It is continued to be hand in their
homes of the common people as well as the elite.

Unique characteristics in pre-Qin period prose was prevailing. During that time, writings were
characterized by profuse expression of true feelings, and the flexibility of the formats and patterns

A Wife Mourns For Her Husband

by Confucius
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The dolichos grows and covers the thorn,

O’er the waste is the dragon-plant creeping.
The man of my heart is away and I mourn–
What home have I, lonely and weeping?

Covering the jujubes the dolichos grows,

The graves many dragon-plants cover;
But where is the man on whose breast I’d repose?
No home have I, having no lover!

Fair to see was the pillow of horn,

And fair the bed-chamber’s adorning;
But the man of my heart is not here, and I mourn
All alone, and wait for the morning.

While the long days of summer pass over my head,

And long winter nights leave their traces,
I’m alone! Till a hundred of years shall have fled,
And then I shall meet his embraces.

Through the long winter nights I am burdened with fears,

Through the long summer days I am lonely;
But when time shall have counted its hundreds of years
I then shall be his–and his only!

The poem is all about true love. Marriage is said to be a lifetime commitment to a man. The pain and
happiness of marriage are said to be the spices of married life. But what if you have to say good bye for
a reason? Would it be fair if death separates the couple?

This is what I always tell to my husband: "What if death comes our way? Would you choose to have
another lover?" Sounds crazy right? But that is the reality of life. Our topic about death always ended
with a romantic activity... the night ended with a smile...

As I closed my eyes at night I always say a prayer that God will open my eyes in the morning with my
husband's embraces and kisses.

FROM YT

Confucius

Chinese teacher, editor, politician, and philosopher of the spring and autumn period of Chinese
history.Get it from book.

After reading the poem, there are elements and devices of poetry that are being emphasized.

Speaker of the poem: wife

Content: all about the mourning of the wife on her beloved husband’s absence

Theme: true love, it depicts the sorrow and anguish of the wife whose husband is gone

You may notice in every stanza, mostly at the end of the first and thrird line have a rhythm

The period of mourning for a father had been fixed at three years—interpreted as
twenty-seven months—before the time of Confucius. The following is his statement
about it and the reason for it: "It is not till a child is three years old that it is allowed
to leave the arms of its parents. And three years' mourning is universally observed
throughout the empire." 
- One of the works that belongs to the Analects of Confucious
 - These were rhyming words in every line and it consists of five lines with four
stanzas
- Since this is one of the works which belongs to the analects of Confucius, the
statements or phrases that were used are usually simple an like common
sense. This is the reason why they said that analects of Confucius are good for
foreigners because it contains easy to understand text.
- This poem could be all about longing for someone as how the wife on the
poem longs for her husband
- Fact: the teachings and philosophies of Confucius only made known to the
world thousands of years after his death
CHARACTERISTICS
EXPLANATION 1: Since writing was developed by the Chinese it had a significant impact on
the culture. Ebrey writes, "In China, as elsewhere, writing once adopted has profound effects on
social and cultural processes(26)." The bureaucracy of China came to rely on written records
and, culturally, expression of personal thoughts and feelings was made possible through poetry
and prose, creating some of the greatest literature in the world.

https://www.ancient.eu/Chinese_Literature/

China has a unique distinction of being the only country that has had literature written consecutively for
three thousand years in just one language.

The Chinese language is said to be one of the most meaningful of languages, and the fact that its history
in literature is so intriguing, comes to no surprise. Every letter in the Chinese alphabets stands for an idea
or a symbol that has been engrossed in the wonderful literature of the infamous Chinese writers, artists
and philosophers who graced the great land over the years (Larson, 1998)

. China?s literature continues to shine even to date. Most of the writings post the 20th century has aimed
to bring reforms to the traditional China. It has aimed to modernize the country. Even Lu Xun?s literature
eventually focused on changing the mind-sets of people (Link, 1983).

VZ