General Characteristics

 Through cultural contacts,

Chinese literature has profoundly
influenced the literary traditions of
other Asian countries, particularly
Korea, Japan, and Vietnam.
 Some writers adopted the Chinese language as their chief literary
medium, at least before the 20th century.
 The pronunciation of the Chinese graphs has also influenced the
development of Chinese literature.
 Each graph had a monophonic pronunciation in a given context
created a large number of homonyms, which led to
misunderstanding and confusion when spoken or read aloud.
 One corrective was the introduction of tones or pitches in
pronunciation.
 Metre in Chinese prosody is not concerned with the combination
of syllabic stresses, as in English, but with those of syllabic tones,
which produce a different but equally pleasing cadence.
 This tonal feature of the Chinese language has brought about an
intimate relationship between poetry and music in China. All major
types of Chinese poetry were originally sung to the
accompaniment of music.
The graphic nature of the written aspect of the Chinese language has

produced a number of noteworthy effects upon Chinese literature and its

diffusion:

1) Chinese literature, especially poetry, is

recorded in handwriting or in print and

purports to make an aesthetic appeal to

the reader that is visual as well as aural.

2) This visual appeal of the graphs has in

fact given rise to the elevated status of

calligraphy in China, where it has been

regarded for at least the last 16 centuries as a fine art comparable

to painting.

3) On the negative side, such a writing system has been an

impediment to education and the spread of literacy, thus reducing

the number of readers of literature, for even a rudimentary level of

reading and writing requires knowledge of more than 1,000

graphs, together with their pronunciation.

4) The Chinese written language, even with its obvious

disadvantages, has been a potent factor in perpetuating the

cultural unity of the growing millions of the Chinese people,

including assimilated groups in far-flung peripheral areas. The

graphs are not primarily indicators of sounds and can therefore be

pronounced in variant ways to accommodate geographical

diversities in speech and historical phonological changes without

damage to the meaning of the written page.