History of Chinese literature

The Chinese literature has been one of China’s richest heritage.
It is the only country in the world with a literature written in one language for more than 3,000 consecutive years. This continuity results largely from the nature of the written language itself. It is the use of characters, not letters as in Western languages, that is most important in the Chinese language. The characters stand for things or ideas and so, unlike groups of letters, they cannot and need never be sounded. Thus Chinese could be read by people in all parts of the country in spite of gradual changes in pronunciation, the emergence of regional and local dialects, and modification of the characters .
In handwriting or in print, a piece of literature has visual appeal. This has given rise to the great respect that calligraphy enjoys in China, where it has been regarded for at least 16 centuries as a fine art comparable to painting.
China has a very old and rich tradition in literature and the dramatic and visual arts. Early writings generally derived from philosophical or religious essays such as the works of Confucius (551-479 BC) and Lao-tzu (probably 4th century BC). These writings were often about how people should act and how the society and political system should be organized and operated. A strong tradition of historical writing also evolved. After the fall of a dynasty, for example, a grand history of the late dynasty was commissioned and written by scholars in the next dynasty.
In 213 BC, it is believed, the emperor, Shih Huang Ti ordered the burning of all texts that appeared threatening to him. Whether the books were actually burned or simply kept from the people is uncertain. The result was the same: It was necessary during the next dynasty to reconstruct the texts of the Classics.
Two of the greatest poets in all Chinese literature lived during the T'ang Dynasty: Li Po (701-762) and Tu Fu (712-770). Li Po was a romantic who celebrated such things as drinking, friendship, and nature as well as solitude and the passage of time. His work showed a great deal of imagination and a fresh approach to old themes. Tu Fu also celebrated the beauties of nature and bemoaned the passage of time, but he was also a satirist and critic. In `The Army Carts' he condemned the senselessness of war, and in `The Beautiful Woman' he made fun of the luxuriousness of the imperial court. Tu Fu's great reputation in literature comes in part from his expert use of all types of poetic style. His mastery of the regulated verse form was unmatched.
Most Ming literature in both prose and poetry was traditional, imitative, and old-fashioned. Two schools of writing challenged this trend, claiming that literature should change with the age instead of slavishly imitating the past. The influence of these schools did not last long, however.
In native prose fiction two works stand out. P'u Sung-ling (1640-1715) wrote a collection of supernatural tales entitled `Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio'. The other is one of the great novels in world literature--`Dream of the Red Chamber', by Ts'ao Chan (1715?-63). Partly autobiographical and written in the vernacular, it describes in sometimes lengthy detail the decline of a powerful family and the ill-fated love between two young people.
A much later novel, `The Travels of Lao Ts'an', by Liu E (1857-1909), was significant because it pointed up the problems inherent in the weakening dynasty, which was soon to be overthrown by revolution. The book was published in 1904-07.