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Literary Classics
Place 2 sur 10
「L'écriture est affaire de mille ans ; seul le cœur en connaît les gains et les pertes.」
Du Classique des vers et des Chants de Chu aux Quatre Grands Romans classiques, l’écho de mille ans d’encre et de pinceau.
「L'écriture est affaire de mille ans ; seul le cœur en connaît les gains et les pertes.」
01The Vernacular Movement was the core pivot of Chinese literature's transition from classical to modern during the late Qing and May Fourth periods. Starting from the late Qing vernacular newspapers and the early calls for unity of speech and writing, the article traces Hu Shi's theoretical breakthroughs in the literary revolution, the standardization of the national language and literary language, the reconstruction of genre order and creative achievements, the generational turnover of writers, and the emergence of modern literary institutions, finally discussing the unfinished nature and legacy of the Vernacular Movement. Supported by specific documents, figures, and dates, the full text examines the Vernacular Movement within the complex network of enlightenment, education, and print media, revealing its multi-source historical trajectory and internal tensions.
2026-09-14 · 116 min de lecture
02The Ming and Qing dynasties were the culmination of narrative art in classical Chinese fiction. The chapter system emerged from the prompt-books of Song and Yuan storytelling, was established through Romance of the Three Kingdoms and Water Margin, and branched into distinctive narrative grammars in historical romance, gods and demons, and social life genres. This article examines the structural function of chapter divisions and headings, the truth-fiction contract of historical romance, the spatial construction of gods-and-demons novels, the everyday narrative of social-life fiction, and the contributions of the commentary tradition to narrative theory, tracing the evolution of Ming and Qing fiction from the storytelling arena to the scholar's desk.
2026-09-14 · 166 min de lecture
03The tradition of landscape and pastoral poetry began with Tao Yuanming's return to the fields for self-redemption in the Eastern Jin, passed through Xie Lingyun and Xie Tiao who opened up the clear sounds of landscape, and reached its full spiritual genealogy in the High Tang with Wang Wei integrating Chan into poetry and Meng Haoran writing pastoral verse as a commoner. In the Mid-Tang, Wei Yingwu and Liu Zongyuan continued with a cool, expansive brush, while in the Song dynasty Fan Chengda and others expanded it into long scrolls of pastoral customs. This article traces this thread, revealing its threefold dimensions of 'return, observation, and integration' and its interaction with metaphysics, Chan Buddhism, and painting theory, and explores its echoes in East Asia and contemporary significance.
2026-09-14 · 143 min de lecture
04From the Tang to the Qing dynasty, the imperial examinations selected officials based on poetry, prose, and classical exegesis, creating a sustained and massive demand for literature; woodblock printing matured during the Tang-Song transition, allowing literary texts to circulate at low cost and in large quantities. This article examines how these two forces combined on both the demand and supply sides, and, drawing on examples such as the publication of the Wen Xuan, the compilation of encyclopedias, the rise of poetry criticism, the popularity of annotated editions, and the expansion of publishing networks, explains how media transformation pushed literature from elite circles down to urban readers, and in turn reshaped literary forms, reading practices, and mechanisms of canonization, ultimately leading to a new literary ecology under the institutional changes of the late Qing and the impact of modern printing.
2026-09-14 · 137 min de lecture
05The Literary Mind and the Carving of Dragons was completed at the end of the Qi Dynasty of the Southern Dynasties. Liu Xie used parallel prose to discuss fifty chapters, constructing a complete system covering ontology, genre theory, creation theory, and criticism theory. It takes Yuan Dao, Zheng Sheng, and Zong Jing as the hub, with a genealogy of more than thirty genres as the skeleton, explores the creative mind and style generation in Shen Si and Ti Xing, and establishes critical methods in Zhi Yin and Liu Guan. It summarizes literary experience from the pre-Qin to Qi-Liang periods, moving literary criticism from scattered evaluations to systematic construction, and profoundly influenced later literary theory and twentieth-century Dragon Studies.
2026-09-13 · 147 min de lecture
06The composition and canonization of the Four Great Classical Novels was a process of layered accumulation. Song-Yuan storytelling and plain tales provided the narrative skeleton; from the late Yuan and early Ming to the mid-Qing, Luo Guanzhong, Shi Nai'an, Wu Cheng'en, Cao Xueqin, and others compiled and finalized the texts. Through commercial printing, literati commentary, and textual evolution, they rose from popular storytelling to literary classics. This article examines the textual genealogies of the four works, authorship controversies, commentary mechanisms, and the establishment of their canonical status by modern scholarship and education, revealing their textual openness and cultural vitality.
2026-09-13 · 152 min de lecture
07The two paths of Song ci, the graceful and the heroic, originated from the banquet music tradition and the Huajian Ji's positioning as a genre of eroticism when the ci form first took shape in the late Tang and Five Dynasties. The graceful ci, deepened by Yan Shu, Ouyang Xiu, Liu Yong, Zhou Bangyan, and Li Qingzhao, reached refinement in music and lyricism. In the mid-Northern Song, Su Shi treated ci as poetry and founded the heroic school; after the Jingkang Incident, Zhang Yuangan, Zhang Xiaoxiang, Lu You, and others used ci to express the pain of home and country. Xin Qiji pushed heroic ci to its peak, forming the Xin school of ci poets. The separation of ci from music and changes in literati identity provided the social soil for heroic ci. The two are not absolutely opposed and often blend in the same writer's work, together constituting the diverse and flourishing landscape of Song ci.
2026-09-13 · 159 min de lecture
08Spanning about 130 years from the early Tang to the High Tang, this article traces how Tang poetry moved from the lingering style of the Six Dynasties toward its peak. It examines the Four Talents of the Early Tang and their breakthroughs and limitations in relation to the poetic style of Qi and Liang, Shen Quanqi and Song Zhiwen's codification of recent-style prosody, Chen Zi'ang's advocacy of wind and bone along with Zhang Ruoxu's evocative imagery as forerunners of the High Tang, then analyzes the coexistence of the landscape-and-pastoral and frontier schools during the Kaiyuan and Tianbao eras, and concludes with Li Bai's free and unruly imagination and Du Fu's synthesis of regulated verse, arguing that the peak of Tang poetry was the product of formal accumulation, the return of wind and bone, the impetus of the times, and mutual inspiration among poets.
2026-09-13 · 141 min de lecture
09Chu Ci, centered on Qu Yuan's works, is rooted in the shamanistic sacrificial culture and dialect folk songs of the Chu region. It broke through the four-character realistic tradition of the Classic of Poetry and laid the spiritual foundation of Chinese romantic literature. In Li Sao and Nine Chapters, Qu Yuan established a highly personalized lyrical subject and, through the symbolic system of fragrant herbs and beautiful women, firmly linked natural imagery with political ethics. Its mixed-line style, the regulating function of the particle 'xi,' and grand chapter structure created a new form of long lyrical expression. Through the canonization process of compilation by Liu Xiang, chapter-and-verse commentary by Wang Yi, and discernment of Sao by Liu Xie in the two Han dynasties, Chu Ci became a literary source standing alongside the Classic of Poetry. Its romantic imagination and individual spirit deeply influenced later poetry and
2026-09-13 · 128 min de lecture
10The 305 poems of The Book of Songs span from the early Western Zhou to the mid-Spring and Autumn period, gathered through the collection and presentation of poems, compiled by music officials and rectified by Confucius, and revered as one of the Five Classics in the Han dynasty. Feng, Ya, and Song correspond respectively to local songs, royal court music, and ancestral temple hymns, reflecting the ritual and music system and regional cultures; the Major and Minor Ya preserve Zhou epics and political discourse of changing times, while the Three Song serve both religious and political functions. Fu, Bi, and Xing evolved from methods of using poems to methods of composing them, and successive Confucian and literary interpretations together shaped their canonical status.
2026-09-13 · 199 min de lecture
À propos de cette rubrique
La généalogie de la culture chinoise, née d'un simple trait sur les os oraculaires, s'est développée en branches luxuriantes poétiques, calligraphiques, lyriques, de jardins et des vingt-quatre solstices. Les trois traditions confucéenne, bouddhique et taoïse débattent et s'enrichissent mutuellement sous le même toit. Les lettrés utilisent le pinceau non seulement pour écrire mais aussi pour peindre, tandis que le peuple transforme la philosophie en solstices et coutumes.
Cette section présente cet arbre généalogique à travers dix thèmes spéciaux : du langage et l'écriture à l'origine, jusqu'aux arts et artisanat vestimentaires à l'extrémité ; des hauteurs de la philosophie et de la pensée, aux réalités des fêtes traditionnelles. Comprendre cette généalogie donne sens à chaque temple, chaque spectacle et chaque plat que vous rencontrerez lors de votre voyage.
