Chinese Literature by EAS: January 2015

Brief Introduction of Journey to the West

Brief Introduction of Journey to the West

The Journey to the west is a chinese classic novel about gods and demons. It was one of the 4 classical fiction (together with Red Chamber Dream, Romance of 3 kingdoms and Water Margin). In the novel, it describe the story of Tang venerable Xuan Zang's travel to the western land to obtain the buddhist scriptures. It displayed the traditional theme of punishing the evil while praising the good. The book was roughly written during mid Ming dynasty (16th century) and had been translated into many other foreign languages.

The characters in the novel such as Monkey "Sun Wu kong 孙悟空", Tang Seng 唐僧, Pig "Zhu Ba Jie 猪八戒", Sand Monk "Sha Seng 沙僧" etc as well as stories such as "Creating Havoc in the heavenly court (大闹天宫)", "3 times hitting white bone demon (三打白骨精)", "Fire Mountain (火焰山) are popular among the folks. The novels had been themes of chinese opera, movies, animation, comics etc.

Most regarded the author of the novel as Wu ChengEn (吴承恩)

Historical Origin of the novel

The character Tang Seng was based on a real historical figure Xuan Zang who lived during Tang dynasty. In the novel however his story had become fictionalized. In 629, Xuan Zang went on a pilgrimage tour to India to learn about the buddhism and obtain buddhist scripture. His disciple compiled a book called "Travel Records of Western Region (大唐西域记)". After Xuan Zang's death, his two other disciples Hui Li 慧立 and Yan Cong 严悰 compiled another book called "Biography of Compassion Monastery San Zhang Venerables (大慈恩司三藏法师传)" in order to honor their master's record. In the book, there are also some legendary aspects of Xuan Zang, which was regarded as the start of the legendary story in "Journey to the West". After that, his story began to be spread among the folks.

By late Tang and 5 dynasties period, there were various records of the story of Xuan Zang going to the west. Today's Dunhuang murals in which Xuan Zang obtained his scripture was originated during Western Xia period. It already indicated monkey's face. During Southern Song period, the published "Da Tang San Zang Qu Jing Shi Hua 大唐三藏取经诗话" also had a monkey. In other various opera of Song and Yuan dynasty such as "Er Lang Shen Shuo Qi Tian Da Shen 二郎神锁齐天大圣" all had origins of "Journey to the West". By Ming era, the Journey to the West was written.

Theme of the Novel

The essential theme of the novel is fantasy (about gods and demons). The main character Sun Wu Kong was a monkey. At the same time, the novel also reflect a combination of 3 religions as one, namely Buddhism, Daoism and Confucianism. It combined the heaven of the Daoism, the deity system of hell and sea together with the western paradise of the buddhism. At the same time, it also projected the loyalty and filial piety of heavenly beings. Journey to the West also came up with the view "one should take turn to be emperor, next year will be my home", and at the same time, the heavenly deity system was a reflection of the Ming political society.

In his book "Chinese Novel Historical Overview (中国小说史略)", Lu Xun once commented that the Journey to the west was a reflection of one's life. When a person was young, he would be active and daring to rebel, he can disobey any form of rules and power. But once the person was fixed onto a leader, he would follow the rules and overcome all the temptations and obstacles in life (81 obstacles) and will finally achieve 'enlightenment'. This person is of course referring to the main character Sun Wukong who was later 'tamed'.

Chinese Characters

Chinese characters, also known as Hanzi (漢字) are one of the earliest forms of written language in the world, dating back approximately five thousand years. Nearly one-fourth of the world’s population still use Chinese characters today. As an art form, Chinese calligraphy remains an integral aspect of Chinese culture.

Origin of Chinese Characters

As one kind of the most ancient characters, Chinese characters have played a significant role in the development of Chinese culture. Originally, ancient Sumerian and ancient Egyptian symbols existed, but only Chinese characters remain today.

Based on pictographs, Chinese characters combine shapes with sounds and connotations to form unique, block-shaped characters that carry meaning. Archaeological researchers discovered many such signs carved on earthenware excavated from Banpo Village in Xi'an City and Jiangzhai Village in Lintong. The etchings were carved during the Yangshao Culture Period some 6,000 years ago. More than 4,000 years ago, people living in Tai'an area of Shangdong Province also carved signs on earthenware. The character "旦"(dàn),meaning dawn, for instance; the sun (日) rises upwards, crossing the mountains and passing through cloud layers to tell people a new day has begun. It is safe to say that the earthenware signs are the first Chinese characters, which originated from drawings.

Evolution of Chinese Characters

Chinese charaters have evolved from Jiaguwen (甲骨文) (inscription on tortoise shells and animal bones) to today's characters over a long process. Jiaguwen of the Shang Dynasty (c. 1765-1112BC) is a group of Chinese characters that resemble drawings.

In the Shang Dynasty and Western Zhou Dynasty (1121-771BC), there were also inscriptions on bronzeware called Zhongdingwen (钟鼎文)， which also resembled drawings. After the first emperor of the Qing Dynasty (221-207BC) unified China, he also unified Chinese characters and introduced Xiaozhuan (小篆) (lesser seal script) --- a very beautiful style of characters.

Since the Xiaozhuan script was very time-consuming, people of the Qin further simplified the characters and created a new style, Lishu (隶书) (offical script). In the Han Dynasty (206BC-AD8), Lishu -- including another type of calligraphy, Caoshu (草书) (grass script), followed by Xingshu (行书) (running script)-- became the main general typeface. The official script broke away from the pictographic element of ancient Chinese characters laying the foundations for Kaishu (楷书) (regular script).

Kaishu came into being in the late Han Dynasty and was based on Lishu. After Kaishu appered, the block-shaped Chinese characters were finalized Kaishu has been used ever since. Kaishu is standard calligraphy that has been used for the longest period of time, still today. For the students in Chinese schools, they are required to write the Chinese characters in Kaishu as the regular script.

The evolution of the Chinese character for dragon (long 龍) is illustrated below:

Oracle Bone Inscriptions refers to the writings inscribed on the carapaces of tortoises and mammals during theShang Dynasty (1600 – 1046 B.C.). This is the earliest form of Chinese characters. Because Oracle Bone inscriptions mainly recorded the art of divination, this script is also called bu ci (卜辭), divination writings. Over one thousand of the over four thousand characters inscribed on excavated oracle bones have been deciphered.
Bronze Inscriptions are the characters inscribed on bronze objects, such as ritual wine vessels, made during the Shang (1600 – 1046 B.C.) and Zhou (1046 – 256 B.C.) dynasties. Over two thousand of the nearly four thousand collected single characters from these bronze objects are now understood.
Small Seal Characters refer to the written language popular during theQin Dynasty (221-207 B.C.). In the Warring States Period (475-221 B.C.), different scripts were in use in different parts of the Chinese empire. Following the conquest and unification of the country, the first emperor of the Qin Dynasty simplified and unified the written language. This unification of the written language during the Qin Dynasty significantly influenced the eventual standardization of the Chinese characters.
Official Script is the formal written language of the Han Dynasty (206 B.C. – 220 A.D.). Over time, curved and broken strokes gradually increased, becoming distinct characteristics of this style. Official Script symbolizes a turning point in the evolution history of Chinese characters, after which Chinese characters transitioned into a modern stage of development.
Regular Script first appeared at the end of the Han Dynasty. But it was not until the Southern and Northern Dynasties (420-589 A.D.) that Regular Script rose to dominant status. During that period, regular script continued evolving stylistically, reaching full maturity in the early Tang Dynasty (618-907 A.D.). Since that time, although developments in the art of calligraphy and in character simplification still lay ahead, there have been no more major stages of evolution for the mainstream script.
Cursive Writing first appeared at the beginning of the Han Dynasty. The earliest cursive writings were variants of the rapid, freestyle form of Official Script. Cursive Writing is not in general use, being a purely artistic, calligraphic style. This form can be cursive to the point where individual strokes are no longer differentiable, and characters are illegible to the untrained eye. Cursive Writing remains highly revered for the beauty and freedom it embodies.
Freehand Cursive (or semi-cursive writing) appeared and became popular during the Three Kingdoms Period (220-280 A.D.) and the Jin Dynasty (265-420 A.D.). Because this style is not as abbreviated as Cursive Writing, most people who can read Regular Script can read semi-cursive. Some of the best examples of semi-cursive are found in the work of Wang Xizhi (321-379 A.D.), the most famous calligrapher in Chinese history, from the Eastern Jin Dynasty (316-420 A.D.).
Simplified Chinese characters (Jianti Zi, 简体字) are standardized Chinese characters used in Mainland China. The government of the People’s Republic of China began promoting this form for printing use in the 1950s ’60s in an attempt to increase literacy. Simplified characters are the official form of the People’s Republic of China and in Singapore; traditional Chinese characters are still used in Hong Kong, Macau and the Republic of China (Taiwan). Since 1954, over 2,200 Chinese characters have been simplified.

Other Examples of Evolution of Chinese Characters

Introduction to Chinese Literature

China possesses one of the world's major literary traditions. Its texts have been preserved for over 3,000 years. Reverence for the past has influenced the preservation of these cultural sources, and may have influenced the invention of woodblock printing in the 9th century and movable type printing in the 12th century. The practice of collecting and reproducing libraries has also played a major role in the transmission of literary tradition. Most important, China can boast an unbroken cultural tradition based on the Chinese script as a language — a written medium — independent of spoken dialectic difference. As literary language became increasingly removed from spoken language, it became less vital and literature took a natural turn toward imitation. Indeed, after the formative classical period that began with Confucius, the literary history of China becomes one of imitation-with-variations of different models. Literature also thus becomes more elitist, for an understanding or appreciation of a text may require familiarity with the models being alluded to.

The Zhou Dynasty (1045-255 BC) is known for its surviving religious and philosophical texts. In the Qin Dynasty (221-206 BC), texts of an influential political philosophy called Legalism were written. Han Dynasty (206 BC – 220 AD) authors contributed important poetry and scientific and historical texts. The Tang Dynasty (618-907) poets were considered the best of all the eras in Chinese history, and literature was more widely published by early woodblock printing. During the Song Dynasty era (960-1279), travelers wrote travel literature, more literary poetry was written, the Neo-Confucian Classics were codified, and administration officials did advanced scientific research and published advanced scientific texts. In the Yuan Dynasty (1279-1368), great dramas and classic fictional novels in the vernacular language were written. In the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), some more important novels were written. In the last dynasty called the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), some more great novels were written; and at the end of that era, there was pre-modern literature. During the modern era (1912-present), the literature was westernized and used for political purposes. The long unbroken stream of Chinese literature is hard to summarize. Major works survive of a variety of genres including poetry, classic fictional novels, scientific and historical works, Neo-Confucian Classics and other ancient classical texts; and in the modern era, writers wrote about social and political change incorporating Western ideas and utilizing Western literary forms.

Contribution of Each Dynasty to the Chinese Literature

1. Shang Dynasty (1700-1050 BC) : Development of Chinese Writing
2. Zhou Dynasty (1045-255 BC) : Basic Philosophical and Religious Literature
3. Qin Dynasty (221-206 BC) : Literary Disaster and Legalism
4. Han Dynasty (206 BC – 220 AD) : Scientific and Historical Texts
5. Tang Dynasty (618-907) : Early Woodblock Printing and Poetry
6. Song Dynasty (960-1279) : Early Woodblock Printing, Travel Literature, Poetry, Scientific Texts and the Neo-Confucian Classics
7. Yuan Dynasty (1279-1368) : Drama and Great Fictional Novels
8. Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) : Novels
9. Qing Dynasty(1644-1911) : Novels and Pre-modern Literature
10. Modern Era (1912-present) :Westernized Literature