Chinese Literature, Ancient and Classical

Introduction

Chapter 1: Antiquity

I. Origins

II. Let one hundred flowers bloom, Let the hundred schools of thought contend!

1. Mo zi and the Logicians

2. Legalism

3. The Fathers of Taoism

III. The Confucian Classics

Chapter 2: Prose

I. Narrative Art and Historical Records

II. The Return of the Ancient Style

III. The Golden Age of Trivial Literature

IV. Literary Criticism

Chapter 3: Poetry

I. The Two Sources of Ancient Poetry

1. The Songs of Chu

2. Poetry of the Han Court

II. The Golden Age of Chinese Poetry

1. From Aesthetic Emotion to Metaphysical Flights

2. From Age of Maturity

3. The Late Tang

III. The Triumph of Genres in Song

Chapter 4: The Literature of Entertainment: The Novel and Theater

I. Narrative Literature Written in Classical Chinese

II. The Theater

1. The Opera-theater of the North

2. The Opera-theater of the South

III. The Novel

1. Oral Literature

2. Stories and Novellas

3. The Long Novel or Saga

Abbreviations

Index