ASIAN LITERATURE

I. CHINA
• The history of Chinese literature extends thousands of
years, from the earliest recorded dynastic court
archives to the mature vernacular fiction novels that
arose during the Ming dynasty to entertain the masses
of literate Chinese.
• The introduction of widespread woodblock printing
during the Tang dynasty (618–907) and the invention of
movable type printing by Bi Sheng (990–1051) during
the Song dynasty (960–1279) rapidly spread written
knowledge throughout China. In more modern times,
the author Lu Xun (1881–1936) is considered the
founder of baihua literature in China.
• The Ming dynasty, officially the Great Ming, was the
ruling dynasty of China from 1368 to 1644 following the
collapse of the Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming
dynasty was the last imperial dynasty of China ruled by
Han Chinese.
• The Tang Dynasty is considered a golden age of
Chinese arts and culture. In power from 618 to 906 A.D.,
Tang China attracted an international reputation that
spilled out of its cities and, through the practice of
Buddhism, spread its culture across much of Asia.
BI SHENG
• Bì Shēng was a Chinese artisan and inventor of the
world's first movable type technology, one of the Four
Great Inventions of Ancient China. Bi Sheng's system
was made of Chinese porcelain and was invented
between 1041 and 1048 during the medieval Song
dynasty.
Two forms of literature in china:
• I. PROSE- Neo-classical style of prose influenced prose
writing for the next 800 years.
• II. POETRY- it is the most highly regarded literary genre in
china; Divided into shi, ci, and qu. There is also kind of
prose-poem.
5 Famous Chinese Writer
A. Gou Moruo
• Guo Moruo, Wade-Giles romanization Kuo Mo-jo,
original name Guo Kaizhen, (born November 1892,
Shawan, Leshan county, Sichuan province, China—
died June 12, 1978, Beijing), Chinese scholar, one of the
leading writers of 20th-century China, and an important
government official.
• The new-style poems that Guo published in Shishi
xinbao (“New Journal on Current Affairs”) were later
compiled into the anthology Nü shen (1921;
“Goddess”). Its publication laid the first cornerstone for
the development of new verse in China. In the same
year, Guo, together with Cheng Fangwu, Yu Dafu, and
Zhang Ziping, gave impetus to the establishment of the
Creation Society, one of the most important literary
societies during the May Fourth period in China.
• Guo’s translation of Goethe’s Sorrows of Young
Werther gained enormous popularity among Chinese
youth soon after its publication in 1922. He became
interested in the philosophy of the Japanese Marxist
Kawakami Hajime, one of whose books he translated in
1924, and Guo soon embraced Marxism. Although his
own writing remained tinged with Romanticism, he
declared his rejection of individualistic literature, calling
for a “socialist literature that is sympathetic toward the
proletariat.”
B. Wen Yiduo
• Wen was born Wén Jiāhuá on 24 November 1899 in
present-day Xishui County, Huanggang, Hubei. After
receiving a traditional education he went on to
continue studying at the Tsinghua University.
• In 1922, he traveled to the United States to study fine
arts and literature at the Art Institute of Chicago. It was
during this time that his first collection of poetry,
Hongzhu ( "Red Candle"), was published. In 1925, he
traveled back to China and took a university teaching
post. In 1928, his second collection, Sishui (, "Dead
Water"), was published. In the same year he joined the
Crescent Moon Society and wrote essays on poetry. He
also began to publish the results of his classical Chinese
literature research.
C. Mo Zi
• Most historians believe that Mozi was a member of the
lower artisan class who managed to climb his way to
an official post. It is known, however, that his parents
were not affectionate towards him and showed him
very little love. Mozi was a native of the State of Lu
(today's Tengzhou, Shandong Province), although for a
time he served as a minister in the State of Song.[6] Like
Confucius, Mozi was known to have maintained a
school for those who desired to become officials
serving in the different ruling courts of the Warring
States.[7]
• Mozi was a carpenter and was extremely skilled in
creating devices (see Lu Ban). Though he did not hold
a high official position, Mozi was sought out by various
rulers as an expert on fortification. He was schooled in
Confucianism in his early years, but he viewed
Confucianism as being too fatalistic and emphasizing
too much on elaborate celebrations and funerals
which he felt were detrimental to the livelihood and
productivity of common people. He managed to
attract a large following during his lifetime which
rivaled that of Confucius.
• Against Confucianism
• The ethical and political works of motse
• Book of odes
d. Zhuang zi
• The Zhuangzi is named for and attributed to Zhuang
Zhou—usually known as "Zhuangzi", from the Mandarin
Chinese Zhuāngzǐ (meaning "Master Zhuang")—a man
generally said to have been born around 369 BC at a
place called Meng in the state of Song (around
present-day Shangqiu, Henan Province), and to have
died around 301, 295, or 286 BC.[1][2][3][4] Almost nothing
is concretely known of Zhuangzi's life. He is thought to
have spent time in the southern state of Chu, as well as
in Linzi, the capital of the state of Qi.[2] Sima Qian's
Records of the Grand Historian (Shiji 史記), the first of
China's 24 dynastic histories, has a biography of
Zhuangzi, but most of it seems to have simply been
drawn from anecdotes in the Zhuangzi itself.[
• The Zhuangzi consists of a large collection of
anecdotes, allegories, parables, and fables, which are
often humorous or irreverent in nature.
• The great happiness
• On arranging things
• Zhuangzi Dreamed he was a butterfly
E. Sima Qian
• Sima Qian ( c. 145 – c. 86 BC) was a Chinese historian
of the early Han dynasty (206 BC – AD 220). He is
considered the father of Chinese historiography for his
Records of the Grand Historian, a general history of
China in the Jizhuanti style covering more than two
thousand years beginning from the rise of the
legendary Yellow Emperor and the formation of the first
Chinese polity to the reigning sovereign of Sima Qian's
time, Emperor Wu of Han.
• Annals of spring and autumn
• The records of grand historian (shiji)
• Rhapsody in lament for gentlemen who do not meet their time
• Sima Qian was born at Xiayang in Zuopingyi (around
present-day Hancheng, Shaanxi Province) around 145 BC,
though some sources give his birth year as around 135 BC.[4]
Around 136 BC, his father, Sima Tan, received an
appointment to the relatively low-ranking position of "grand
historian" (tàishǐ , alt. "grand scribe" or "grand
astrologer").[5][6] The grand historian's primary duty was to
formulate the yearly calendar, identifying which days were
ritually auspicious or inauspicious, and present it to the
emperor prior to New Year's Day.[6] Besides these duties, the
grand historian was also to travel with the emperor for
important rituals and to record the daily events both at the
court and within the country.[7] By his account, by the age
of ten Sima was able to "read the old writings" and was
considered to be a promising scholar.[7] Sima grew up in a
Confucian environment, and Sima always regarded his
historical work as an act of Confucian filial piety to his
father.[7]
II. EGYPT
• The history of Egypt has been long and wealthy, due to
the flow of the Nile River with its fertile banks and delta,
as well as the accomplishments of Egypt's native
inhabitants and outside influence. Much of Egypt's
ancient history was a mystery until the secrets of
ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs were deciphered with the
discovery and help of the Rosetta Stone. Among the
Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, is the Great
Pyramid of Giza. The Library of Alexandria was the only
one of its kind for centuries.
• Egyptian novelist and poets were among the firsts to
experiment with modern styles of Arabic literature and
the forms they developed have been widely imitated
throughout the middle east.
• Vernacular poetry is the most popular literary genre
among Egyptians. Egyptians where the first culture to
develop a book. The Nile had a strong influence on the
writing of the ancient Egyptians.
Literary forms in Egypt:
• a. Secular literature- short stories
• b. Instructive literature- Wisdom texts
• c. poems
• d. Biographical and historical texts
• e. Scientific treaties- Mathematical and medical texts
5 Famous Egyptians Writers:
a. Nawal El Saadawi
• Nawal El Saadawi ( born 27 October 1931) is an
Egyptian feminist writer, activist, physician, and
psychiatrist. She has written many books on the subject
of women in Islam, paying particular attention to the
practice of female genital mutilation in her society. She
has been described as "the Simone de Beauvoir of the
Arab World".[
• She is founder and president of the Arab Women's
Solidarity Association[3][4] and co-founder of the Arab
Association for Human Rights.[5] She has been awarded
honorary degrees on three continents. In 2004, she won
the North–South Prize from the Council of Europe. In
2005, she won the Inana International Prize in Belgium,[6]
and in 2012, the International Peace Bureau awarded
her the 2012 Seán MacBride Peace Prize.
• Memoirs of woman doctor
• The hidden face of Eve
• God dies by the nile
b. Ahmed Fouad Negm
• Ahmed Fouad Negm was born in Sharqia, Egypt, to a
family of fellahin. His mother, Hanem Morsi Negm, was
a housewife, and his father Mohammed Ezat Negm, a
police officer. Negm was one of seventeen brothers.
Like many poets and writers of his generation, he
received his education at the religious Kutaab schools
managed by El-Azhar.
• When his father died, he went to live with his uncle
Hussein in Zagazig, but was placed in an orphanage in
1936 where he first met famous singer Abdel Halim
Hafez. In 1945, at the age of 17, he left the orphanage
and returned to his village to work as a shepherd. Later,
he moved to Cairo to live with his brother who
eventually kicked him out only to return to his village
again to work in one of the English camps while helping
with guerilla operations
c. Muhammad Husayn Haykal
• Haekal was born in Kafr Ghannam, Mansoura, Ad
Daqahliyah in 1888. He obtained a B.A. in Law in 1909 and
a PhD from the Sorbonne University in Paris in 1912. While a
student in Paris, he composed what is considered the first
authentic Egyptian novel, Zaynab. After returning to Egypt,
he worked as a lawyer for 10 years, then as a journalist. He
was elected as editor-in-chief of Al Siyasa newspaper, the
organ of "The Liberal Constitutionalist party" for which he
was also an adviser. In 1937, he was appointed as Minister
of State for the Interior Ministry in the Muhammad
Mahmoud Pasha's second government. Then he was
appointed as a Minister of Education where he introduced
several reforms, including decentralization, by establishing
educational zones and making programs and curricula
nationally oriented. He was greatly influenced and inspired
by the comprehensive reforms of Mohammad Abduh,
Ahmad Lutfy El Sayed and Qasim Amin. One of his protegés
was the historian Husayn Fawzi al-Najjar
d. Naguib Mahfouz
• Mahfouz was born into a lower middle-class Muslim
Egyptian family in Old Cairo in 1911. He was the seventh
and the youngest child, with four brothers and two sisters, all
of them much older than him. (Experientially, he grew up an
"only child.") The family lived in two popular districts of Cairo:
first, in the Bayt al-Qadi neighborhood in the Gamaleya
quarter in the old city, from where they moved in 1924 to
Abbaseya, then a new Cairo suburb north of the old city,
locations that would provide the backdrop for many of
Mahfouz's later writings. His father, Abdel-Aziz Ibrahim,
whom Mahfouz described as having been "old-fashioned",
was a civil servant, and Mahfouz eventually followed in his
footsteps in 1934. Mahfouz's mother, Fatimah, was the
daughter of Mustafa Qasheesha, an Al-Azhar sheikh, and
although illiterate herself, took the boy Mahfouz on
numerous excursions to cultural locations such as the
Egyptian Museum and the Pyramids
e. Salah Jaheen
• Jaheen was born in Shobra district, Cairo in 1930 to a
middle-class family. He studied law in Cairo University. In
1955, he started working for the Egyptian weekly magazine
"Rose al-Yousef" as a cartoonist. A year later, he moved to
the new magazine "Sabah el-Khair" for which he became
the editor-in-chief, then he joined Al-Ahram.
• He wrote several plays for the puppet theatre. He was also
known for his nationalist and patriotic songs that marked
the revolutionary era of Gamal Abdel Nasser role, many of
which were performed by the famous Egyptian singer
Abdel Halim Hafez. The poet was highly inspired by the 1952
Revolution and was sometimes known as the semiofficial
poet of the revolution.[2] However, after Egypt's defeat in
the 1967 war and Gamal Abdel Nasser death in 1970 he
suffered from a severe depression. In one interview, he said
that with the death of Nasser in 1970 and the sudden shift in
political orientation he felt increasingly like Hamlet, with
Sadat embodying the treacherous Claudius.[3]
• In addition to political poetry, Jahin's poems frequently
contain metaphysical and philosophical themes,
questioning the purpose of human life, the nature of
good and evil, human and divine will and the limits of
human pursuit of freedom and happiness.[1]
• In 1965, Jaheen was awarded the Egyptian Order of
Science and Arts of the First Class. He died in 1986 at
the age of 55.
III. INDIA
• Indian literature refers to the literature produced on the
Indian subcontinent until 1947 and in the Republic of
India thereafter. The Republic of India has 22 officially
recognized languages.
• The earliest works of Indian literature were orally
transmitted. Sanskrit literature begins with the oral
literature of the Rig Veda a collection of sacred hymns
dating to the period 1500–1200 BCE. The Sanskrit epics
Ramayana and Mahabharata appeared towards the
end of the 2nd millennium BCE. Classical Sanskrit
literature developed rapidly during the first few
centuries of the first millennium BCE,[1] as did the Tamil
Sangam literature, and the Pāli Canon.
• In the medieval period, literature in Kannada and
Telugu appeared in the 9th and 11th centuries
respectively.[2] Later, literature in Marathi, Odia and
Bengali appeared. Thereafter literature in various
dialects of Hindi, Persian and Urdu began to appear as
well. Early in the 20th century, Bengali poet
Rabindranath Tagore became India's first Nobel
laureate in literature. In contemporary Indian literature,
there are two major literary awards; these are the
Sahitya Akademi Fellowship and the Jnanpith Award.
Eight Jnanpith Awards each have been awarded in
Hindi and Kannada, followed by five in Bengali and
Malayalam, four in Odia, four in Gujarati, Marathi,
Telugu and Urdu,[3][4] two each in Assamese and Tamil,
and one in Sanskrit.
• Sanskrit literature refers to texts composed in Sanskrit
language since the 2nd-millennium BCE. Many of the
prominent texts are associated with Indian religions, i.e.,
Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism, and were composed
in ancient India. However, others were composed
central, East or Southeast Asia and the canon includes
works covering secular sciences and the arts. Early
works of Sanskrit literature were transmitted through an
oral tradition for centuries before they were written
down in manuscript form.
• In contemporary indian literature, there are two major
literary awards Sahitya Akademi Fellowship and the
Jnanpith Award.
• The Sahitya Akademi Fellowship is an Indian literary
honour bestowed by the Sahitya Akademi, which is the
Indian National Academy of Letters.[1] The Akademi
states that, "the highest honour conferred by the
Akademi on a writer is by electing him as its Fellow.
5 Famous Indian writers
a. Bankim Chandara Chatterjee
• Bankimchandra Chatterjee or Bankimchandra Chatjee was an
Indian writer, poet and journalist. He was the composer of Vande
Mataram, originally in Sanskrit stotra personifying India as a
mother goddess and inspiring activists during the Indian
Independence Movement.
b. Premchand
• Dhanpat Rai Shrivastava, better known by his pen name Munshi
Premchand, was an Indian writer famous for his modern Hindi-
Urdu literature. He is one of the most celebrated writers of the
Indian subcontinent, and is regarded as one of the foremost
Hindi writers of the early twentieth century
c. Rabindranath Tagore
• Rabindranath Tagore FRAS, and also known by his sobriquets
Gurudev, Kabiguru, and Biswakabi, was a polymath, poet,
musician, and artist from the Indian subcontinent. He reshaped
Bengali literature and music, as well as Indian art with Contextual
Modernism in the late 19th and early 20th centuries
d. Arundhati Roy
• Suzanna Arundhati Roy is an Indian author best known
for her novel The God of Small Things, which won the
Man Booker Prize for Fiction in 1997 and became the
biggest-selling book by a non-expatriate Indian author.
She is also a political activist involved in human rights
and environmental causes.
e. Anita Desai
• Anita Desai, born Anita Mazumdar is an Indian novelist
and the Emerita John E. Burchard Professor of
Humanities at the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology. As a writer she has been shortlisted for the
Booker Prize three times.
IV. JAPAN
• Early works of Japanese literature were heavily
influenced by cultural contact with China and Chinese
literature, often written in Classical Chinese. Indian
literature also had an influence through the separation
of Buddhism in Japan.
• Japanese literature developed into a separate style in
its own rights as Japanese writers began writing their
own works about japan.
• Since japan reopened its ports to western trading and
diplomacy in the 19th century, western and eastern
literature have strongly affected each other; this
influence is still seen today.
5 Famous Japanese writers
a. Murasaki Shikibu(Lady Murasaki)
• Murasaki Shikibu was a Japanese novelist, poet and
lady-in-waiting at the Imperial court during the Heian
period. She is best known as the author of The Tale of
Genji, written in Japanese between about 1000 and
1012.
• The tale of gengi
• Murasaki shikibu diary
• The murasaki shikibu collection
b. Sei Shonagon
• Sei Shōnagon was a Japanese author, poet and a
court lady who served the Empress Teishi around the
year 1000 during the middle Heian period. She is the
author of The Pillow Book.
c. Haruki Murakami
• Haruki Murakami is a Japanese writer. His books and
stories have been bestsellers in Japan as well as
internationally, with his work being translated into 50
languages and selling millions of copies outside his
native country.
• The wind up bird chronicles
• The elephant vanishes after the quake
• Norwegian wood
d. Yukio Mishima
• Yukio Mishima is the pen name of Kimitake Hiraoka, a
Japanese author, poet, playwright, actor, model, film
director, nationalist, and founder of the Tatenokai.
Mishima is considered one of the most important
Japanese authors of the 20th century.
• He wrote the confessions of a mask thirst for love &
sailor who fell from grace with the sea.
• Confessions of a mask thirst for love
• The sailor who fell from grace with the sea
e. Yasunari Kawabata
• Yasunari Kawabata was a Japanese novelist and short
story writer whose spare, lyrical, subtly-shaded prose
works won him the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1968, the
first Japanese author to receive the award. His works
have enjoyed broad international appeal and are still
widely read.
• He also wrote the snow country, beauty and sadness, &
the house of the sleeping beauties