CHINESE

LITERATURE
 • INTRODUCTION

• Chinese civilization is one of the oldest civilizations in the

world. There is documented evidence of the Shang dynasty,
which goes all the way back to 1765 B.C., and China's
legendary history goes back even further. The basis of Chinese
classical civilization was established solidly during the Chou,
Ch'in, and Han dynasties, and nearly all that came after that
until about the nineteenth century fits neatly into the pattern of
dynastic rise, expansion, disintegration, and fall. The unity of
this pattern was firmly based on Confucianism.

• Confucianism, while not a strict religion, serves the basic needs

that religion often fulfills in the West. It provides the Chinese
with a moral order and a sense of order for the universe.
Confucianism helps individuals understand their place in the
world and guides appropriate behavior. Additionally, it
contributes to political and social philosophy in Chinese society.

• Classical Chinese literature, particularly during the pre-Qin and

early imperial periods, is deeply influenced by Confucian
thought.
 CONFUCIUS
• also known Kong Fuzi or Kongzi in Chinese, is a central figure in Chinese literature
and philosophy. He lived during the Spring and Autumn Period of ancient China
(around 551–479 BCE) and was a teacher, philosopher, and thinker. Confucius' ideas
laid the foundation for Confucianism, a major school of thought that has profoundly
influenced Chinese literature, culture, and philosophy.
• Confucius, a wise thinker, shared his teachings through sayings remembered by his
followers. These sayings, known as Analects, were later compiled into a book,
possibly with some additions. In these teachings, Confucius emphasized virtues,
which are positive character traits we should aim for. The most important virtue is
Filial Piety, highlighting the respect children owe to their parents, and this extends to
other relationships like wives to husbands, sisters to brothers, and everyone to
ancestors. The belief is that cultivating such virtue at home would also positively
influence how individuals behave in matters of state and society.
 On filial piety
• Mang asked what filial piety is. The Master said, "It is being
obedient." Soon after, as Fan Chi was driving him, the Master told him
"Mang asked me what filial piety is, and I answer him 'being
obedient." Fan Chi asked, "What exactly did you mean?" The Master
replied, "That parents, when alive, should be served according to
ritual; that, when dead, they should be buried according to ritual; and
that they should be sacrificed to according to ritual." Ziyou asked what
filial piety is. The Master said, "The filial piety of now-a-days means
providing nourishment for one's parents. But dogs and horses likewise
are able to do something along that line for their own kind. Without
reverence, what is there to distinguish the one support given from the
other?"
 On Goodness
• The Master said, "A youth, when at home, should behave well toward his
parents, and when abroad, respectfully to his elders. He should be earnest
and truthful. He should overflow in love to all, and cultivate the friendship
of the good. When he has time and opportunity, after doing those things, he
should study the polite arts." The Master said, "With coarse rice to eat, with
water to drink, and my bended arm for a pillow, I still have joy in the midst
of these things. Riches and honours acquired by unrighteousness are to me
as a floating cloud." Zhonggong asked about perfect virtue. The Master
said, "When abroad, behave to everyone as if you were receiving an
important guest; treat people as if you were assisting at a great sacrifice; do
not do to others as you would not wish done to yourself. Thereby you will
let no murmuring rise against you in the country, and none in the family..."
 On the Gentleman
• Confucius took the notion of the gentleman, as one who owned land and had some political power, and reworked it into a
moral notion which captures the essence of the good life. The graciousness and self-discipline which characterize such a
gentleman are fostered by, and expressed in, ritual and music. But this also leads to many detailed guidelines about how to
dress and how to perform the rituals. (The counterpart would be rules of etiquette in our society.) Why is ritual supposed to
be important? What happens to otherwise virtuous traits without such ritual? The Master said, "Riches and honours are
what men desire; but if they cannot be obtained in the proper way, they should be let go. Poverty and meanness are what
men dislike; but if they cannot be avoided in the proper way, they should not be avoided. If a gentleman abandons virtue,
how can he fulfill the requirements of his title? A gentleman not, even for the space of a single meal, act contrary to virtue.
Even in moments of haste, and in times of danger, he clings to virtue." The Master said, "A gentleman, well studied in
literature, and abiding by the rules of ritual, will not go very wrong." "When gentlemen perform well all their duties to their
relations, the people are inspired to virtue. When they remain true to their old friends, the people are preserved from
irresponsible behavior." The Master said, "A gentleman points out the admirable qualities of men and does not point out
their bad qualities. A petty man does just the opposite." The Master said, "A gentleman is distressed by his lack of ability,
but he is not distressed by men's not knowing him." The Master said, "What the gentleman demands is something of
himself. What the petty man demands is something of others." A gentleman does not wear a deep purple or a puce color,
nor in his at-home clothes does he wear red. In warm weather, he wears a single-layered garment, either of coarse or fine
texture, but when going out he wears it over another garment. He wears lambskin with a garment of black, fawn with
white, and fox with yellow. His fur dressing gown should be long, but with the right sleeve short. His nightclothes must be
half again as long as his body. When staying at home, he wears thick furs of the fox or the badger. So long as he is not in
mourning, he wears all the trimmings of his girdle.... He does not wear lamb's fur or a black cap when making a visit of
condolence. And on the first day of the month he must put on his court robes and present himself at court.
 On Ritual and Music
• The Master said, "If a man lacks the human virtues, what has he to do with ritual?
If a man lacks the human virtues, what has he to do with music?" The Master said,
"Respectfulness, without the rules of ritual becomes laborious bustle; carefulness,
without the rules, becomes timidity; boldness becomes insubordination;
straightforwardness becomes rudeness." The Master said, "It is by the Odes that a
man's mind is aroused, by the rules of ritual that his character is established, and by
music that he is perfected [finished]..." Education is, of course, important to
Confucius, as one needs to learn the traditions and profit from the wisdom of the
past. Government can then be carried on by "moral force," as opposed to requiring
military or legal force. As to religion, Confucius does not challenge it, but he
doesn't put his hope in it either. His stress is always on living well, which means
living properly, here and now and by our own actions. Which is more important for
an orderly state: food, weapons, or a government that one can trust?
 On Education
• The Master said, "Anyone learning without thought is lost; anyone
thinking but not learning is in peril." The Master said, "Yu, shall I
teach you what knowledge is? When you know a thing, to realize that
you know it; and when you do not know a thing, to allow that you do
not know it: this is knowledge." The Master said, [I have been] "a
transmitter and not a maker, believing in and loving the ancients..."
When the Master went to Wei, Ran Yu acted as driver of his carriage.
The Master observed, "How numerous the people are!" Ran Yu asked,
"When they are more numerous, what more shall be done for them?"
"Enrich them," was the reply. "And when they have been enriched,
what more shall be done?" The Master said, "Instruct them."
 On Government
• The Master said, "To rule a country of a thousand chariots requires reverent attention to business,
sincerity, economy in expenditures, and love for men, as well as the employment of the people only
in the right seasons." The Master said, "If the people are governed by laws and punishment is used
to maintain order, they will try to avoid the punishment but have no sense of shame. If they are
governed by virtue and rules of propriety [ritual] are used to maintain order, they will have a sense
of shame and will become good as well." Ji Kang Zi asked Confucius about government, saying,
"What do you say to killing those who are unprincipled [i.e., the immoral] for the good of those
who are principled?" Confucius replied, "Sir, in carrying on your government, why should you use
killing at all? Let your obvious desires be for what is good, and the people will be good. The
relation between superiors and inferiors is like that between the wind and the grass: the grass is
bound to bend when the wind blows across it." Zigong asked about government. The Master said,
"The requisites of government are that there be sufficient food, sufficient military equipment, and
the confidence of the people in their ruler." Zigong said, "If one had to dispense with one of those
three, which should be given up first?" "The military equipment," said the Master. Zigong again
asked, "If one had to dispense with one of the two remaining, which should be given up?" The
Master answered, "Give up the food. From of old, death has always been the lot of men; but if the
people have no faith in their rulers, they cannot stand."
 On Religion
• Someone asked the meaning of the great sacrifice. The
Master said, "I do not know. Anyone who knew its
meaning would find it as easy to govern the kingdom as
to look on this," and he pointed to the palm of his hand.
Zilu asked about serving the ghosts of the dead. The
Master said, "Until you are able to serve men, how can
you serve their ghosts?" When Zilu ventured to ask
about death, the answer was: "While you do not know
life, how can you [hope to] know about death?"
 Planting a Pear Tree
• A countryman was one day selling his pears in the market. They were unusually sweet and fine
flavored, and the price he asked was high. A Taoist priest in the rags and tatters stopped at the
barrow and begged one of them. The countryman told him to go away, but as he did not do so he
began to curse and swear at him. The priest said, "You have several hundred pears on your barrow;
I ask for a single one, the loss of which, Sir, you would not feel. Why then get angry?" The on-
lookers told the countryman to give him an inferior one and let him go, but this he obstinately
refused to do. There upon the beadle of the place, finding the commotion too great, purchased a
pear and handed it to the priest. The latter received it with a bow and turning to the crowd said,
"We who have left our homes and given up all that is dear to us are at a loss to understand selfish
niggardly conduct in others. Now I have some exquisite pears which I shall do myself the honor to
put before you." Have somebody asked, "Since you have pears yourself, why don't you eat those?"
"Because," replied the priest, "I wanted one of those pips to grow them from." So saying, he
munched up the pear; and when he had finished took a pip in his hand, unstrapped a pick from his
back, and proceeded to make a hole in the ground, several inches deep, wherein he deposited the
pip, filling in the earth as before. He then asked the bystanders for a little hot water to water it
with, and one among those who loved a joke fetched him some boiling water from a neighboring
shop.

• The priest poured over the place where he had made a hole and every eye was
fixed upon him when sprouts were seen shooting up, and gradually growing larger
and larger. By-and-by, there was a tree with branches sparsely covered smelling
pears hanging in great profusion. These the priest picked and handed round the
assembled crowd until all were gone. When he took his pick and hacked away for
a long time at the tree, finally cutting it down. This he shouldered, leaves and all,
and sauntered quietly away. Now, from the very beginning, our friend the
countryman had been amongst the crowd, straining his neck to see what was
going on, and forgetting all about his business. At every one of his pears was
gone. He then knew that those the old fellow had given away so freely were really
his own pears. Looking more closely at the barrow, he also found that one of the
handles was missing, evidently having been newly cut-off. Boiling with rage, he
set out in pursuit of the priest, and just as he turned the corner, he saw the lost
barrow-handle laying under the wall being in fact the very pear-tree that the priest
had cut-down. But there were no traces of the priest much to the amusement of the
crown in the market-place.
 P'u Sung-ling
• That is, of the religion of Tao, a system of philosophy
founded some six centuries before the Christian era by a man
name Lao-tzu "old boy," who was said to have been born
with white hair and a beard. It is now but a shadow of its
former self, and is corrupted by the grossest form/s of
superstition borrowed from Buddhism, which has in its turn
adopted many of the forms and beliefs of Taoism the two
religions are hardly distinguishable one from the other.
 In Praise of Bean Curd
• It is here, there, everywhere. Wherever there are Chinese, there is bean curd. Make it sweet or salty, sour or hot; make a soup of
it or a main dish-there is nothing to which it is not equal. "Its whiteness appeals to the eye, its softness to the touch, its blandness
to taste," says author Meng Yao. "Cook it with other things and it absorbs their flavor; eat it by itself and it has an individuality
that is irresistible."
• Bean curd enhances the appeal of any food; it makes cherries seem redder, wood fungus blacker, spinach greener. With ham,
shad, bamboo shoots, mushrooms, oxtail, lamb innards, chicken blood, and pig brain, it has standing love affairs. When you're
too busy to cook or your appetite is jaded, a dish of bean curd mixed with other ingredients is capable of 72 transformations
without losing its own character.
• "Better to eat bean curd than meat; it is thriftier and more nourishing." goes a Kiangsu saying. Bean curd contains about half the
protein of such meats as beef and pork but costs only a fraction of their price. Its unsaturated vegetable fat is better for your
health too, than the saturated fat of beef or pork. No wonder another name of bean curd is "vegetarian meat." And since it
contains few carbohydrates, bean curd can be eaten by those who want to lose weight. It contains as much calcium as milk;
pregnant women and babies thrive on it.
• Legend has it that Empress Dowager Tsu His, of the Ching Dynasty, kept 49 steamers of bean curd embedded with pearls
perking in the royal kitchen. It took 49 days for the pearls to be done and she has a dish every day, believing that it did wonders
for her looks.
• Basically, bean curd is made by soaking soya beans in water for four to eight hours- the higher the atmospheric temperature the
shorter the soaking time. The beans are then crushed between millstones, with water added, and the resulting "milk" boiled.
Gypsum, rich in calcium sulphate, or thick brine containing magnesium chloride, magnesium sulphate, and sodium sulphate is
added to curdle milk and the excess water pressed of.
• Bean curd has won a place in Chinese Culture; having come to stand for honesty. poverty, and hard work.
Frequently encountered in Chinese novels and plays are the industrious, thrifty old couple who sell bean curd for a
living. Bean curd is also entrenched in the Chinese language. A "bean curd beauty" means a girl from a poor family;
a "bean curd official" is an honest one.
• It is possible but rare for someone to weary of too much bean curd. Writer Liang Yung-jo recalls that as a child of
the great plains of China he was confronted with so much bean curd that he grew to abhor it. But one cold winter
night during the Sino-Japanese War, he stopped off at small railway town, hungry, thirsty, and cold. He heard
someone hawking bean curd. Rushing to the stall, he swallowed three bowls of bean curd soup with chives and
sesame oil. It was then that he realized just how good bean curd could taste and he became a lifelong bean curd
lover.
• "In Peking," he recalls, "I have had bean curd cooked in an earthen pot, bean curd in milky soup, and stinking bean
curd. In Hang chow, I had bean curd cooked with fish head and seasoned dry bean curd made to look and taste like
meat and fish, which shows versatile it is."
• Writer Tse Min confesses a similar tender feeling for bean curd, saying that it has influenced his attitude in life.
"When friends are dejected or do something wrong, when they're rude or miss an appointment," Tse Min said,
"That's when you need to have the bean curd idea: flexibility. If you want to be happy in the marriage or with
friends, you need the bean curd attitude: adaptability. Bean curd is a commoner's food, but it is not at all common. It
is a food that has a deep philosophy."