Essays on Chinese Literature

Life sometimes resembles an infinite storm without any rainbow and sunshine in the end. Every new day it tests people’s will by various ordeals and trials. Ill luck, for example, can change the whole life upside down. All the challenges and struggles, however, fall to people’s lot for a reason. Only overcoming different hardships, it is possible to understand the true taste of life. In fact thanks to hard times, we become stronger and more confident personalities who are able to enjoy every moment of life to the full. Thus, people should learn to use various problems ...

Introduction

It’s called a fugue state. A fugue state is characterized by a complete removal from, or interruption of, a person’s identity and a personal history. A fugue state is not always permanent, but during the episode, a person can completely forget who they are, and can assume a completely new identity for themselves. Usually, the fugue state isn’t even diagnosed until a person can recall their identity after the fugue state has ended (Costandi). This is a perfect metaphor for Death Fugue, a novel by Sheng Keyi. In her novel, she explores the events related to ...

Traditional Chinese painting is reffered to as “guo hua” Chinese painting is closely linked to the means with which it is produced. The most used materials were ink and glue, that had to be rubbed to the necessary consistency with adding some water. The paint was applied with a brush made of animals’ hair and a stick of bamboo. As a basis of the painting there was used a sheet of silk or paper with spongy surface, due to which paintings were not subjected to correction. Thereby, the artist had to carry out his work with a high level ...

Dream of the Red Chamber or The Story of the Stone by Cao Xueqin is considered the first Chinese feminist literary work. It is a classic written in the middle of the Qing Dynasty. The novel privileged the female as compared to the male characters. Cao Xueqin attaches significance to women as evidenced by the presence of multiple female characters. The novel explores the contours of a fading feudal system and the social crisis that it is has to contend with. Most of all, it is a celebration of womanhood. Cao wrote the novel to remember women who were ...

The May Fourth Movement and Chinese Literature

China has a long and rich history that stretches over several centuries. Part of that history, naturally, is a rich cultural history that includes a fine literary tradition. Unfortunately, most of that literary tradition is not well known to the West. Modern Chinese literature, that which is popular in the Western world, developed as a result of the cultural revolution that began with the May Fourth Movement. The May Fourth Movement was part of a cultural and political revolution in China that led to the birth of a new intellectual class in China as well as an opening up ...

The story “The Jest that leads to disaster” is a Chinese short story that addresses the ways in which people make jokes and the dire impact that these jokes can have on people’s lives. These jokes can leads to a number of disasters. The persons who have made the jokes or who are the recipients of these jokes are often left to face these deadly consequences. This stems from the Huaben or Huapen genre which is a reflection of the Chinese narrative type that features a short and a long story within one story. But, these two stories ...

Ching K’o was a guest in Prince Tan’s house, an assassin who would kill for his host and a noble man who did not renegade on his promises.. He was an expert in martial arts, spiritually disciplined and loyal to the core. Ssu-ma mentions Ching K’o in his book Shiji as an assassin who attempt to kill the Chin king failed. The short story about Ching K’o is reminiscent of Chinese short stories of that era. The principles espoused in the stories and by the characters share no similarity with their European counterparts and the ...

Hua Bai, whose real name is Chen Youhua, was born on 1930, November the 20th, in Xinyang, in the Henan Province. His father was killed in 1938 by Japanese soldiers who had invaded China: this fact was certainly crucial for his later political positions. He enrolled at the Art Department of the School of Xinyang and in 1946 he published his first works on the local newspapers; the following year he directed, always in a local newspaper, the extra page of art and literature, where he published, along with some young progressives, writings of various literary genre. After these early ...

Introduction

A general rise in incidences of climate change has got the world scheming and planning for various remedies. The world has become so much aware of its surrounding after the realization that future generations will still depend on the very earth they are using. Management practices and mitigation efforts have been headlined and put into various government policies to ensure that sustainability is attained. Various intergovernmental and regional meetings have made it a habit to discuss and incorporate climatic issues into their various agendas. In as much as all this noble activities and efforts are aimed at ensuring a sustainable ...

Enlightenment, love, experience, and even chaos and the brutality of war- the word ‘war’ here used to include a wide array of conflicts and disagreements that result in various kinds of brutality- are central themes in many philosophical discussions. Many of these discussions discern these aspects, but also find the interrelationship between them, either implicitly or explicitly. The readings in class: Shirane’s Traditional Japanese Literature, De Barry’s discussions in the Sources of East Asian Tradition, among others do the same, offering their various insights into these elements and more (often implicitly). But most importantly, these sources show that, ...

Introduction

China is a country that is located in East Asia that has a very large territory. It has a very huge population. Thus, the country has an enormous ancient history. Its history has been dated back about four thousand years ago. It is regarded as one of the greatest ancient civilizations around the world. In addition, it is one of the few countries that still hold its culture that was inspired by its history. The Chinese culture has been preserved for thousands of years. Thus, the people of China still observe the culture that was founded by the ancient Chinese. These cultural ...

<Student Name> <Name and Section # of course> <Instructor Name> The Sui, Tang and Song dynasty are three of the most prominent dynasties in the Chinese history. The major political, social economic changes that took place in each dynasty term are compiled as follows.

Sui Dynasty

Political Changes The Sui dynasty is remembered for its political importance. It lasted for 29 years and marked the building of the Great Canal and the restoration of the Great Wall. These architectural demands required the peasants to pay more tax. It ended in 618 after a ferocious rebellion. ...

Modern fiction has often been marked by experts as being defined by the rise of first-person narration. First-person narration offers a variety of advantages to the author, but in addition to having advantages, it also offers unique pitfalls for writers who are utilizing it when they are creating fiction. The problem with the first-person narrative is that the “I”-- the speaker, the narrator of the piece-- must be compelling and believable, even if he or she is unreliable as a narrator. Everyone has an internal monologue, and if the narrator’s internal monologue strays too far from what is believable ...

The story of Ying-Ying entails a young woman Ying-Ying who was being court by a maiden from a very good family. The young woman was in love with a man named Zhang. Zhang, according to the story, is a virtuous scholar who holds to his personal principles. The play shows that he was a proud of his bookish rigidity even though he came from a family where he did not witness passionate.

He came from a family where he never saw any body concerned with his life and now he has met a beautiful woman who he wishes to love and marry. He did not marry her because ...