Pertemuan 17 & 18 Kesusastraan China

1. Pertemuan 17 & 18 Kesusastraan China Matakuliah : E1154/ Seni & Budaya China Tahun : 2008

2. Chinese Literature

10. Fengshen Yanyi : 封神演義; The Investiture of the Gods or The Creation of the Gods), also known as Fengshen Bang (Chinese: 封神榜), is one of the major Vernacular Chinese novels written in the Ming Dynasty. The story deals with the decline of the Shang Dynasty and rise of the Zhou Dynasty, intertwining numerous elements of Chinese mythology, including gods and goddesses, Chinese immortals, and spirits. It is, to an extent, representative and descriptive of life in China at the time, where religion played a major role in everyday life. The authorship of Fengshen Yanyi is attributed to Xu Zhonglin (許仲琳; 许仲琳) (d. 1566) or Lu Xixing (陸西星; 陆西星) Illustrations of Fengshen Yanyi. Left:Bi Gan and Wen Zhong; Right: King Zhou and Daji

14. Jin Ping Mei (Chinese: 金瓶梅; literally "The Plum in the Golden Vase", also translated as The Golden Lotus) is a Chinesenaturalisticnovel composed in the vernacular (baihua) during the late Ming Dynasty. The author was Lanling Xiaoxiao Sheng, a clear pseudonym. • Earliest versions of the novel exist only in handwritten scripts; the first block-printed book was released only in 1610. The more complete version today comprises one hundred chapters. • Jin Ping Mei is sometimes considered to be the fifth classical novel after the Four Great Classical Novels. It is the first full-length Chinese fictional work to depict sexuality in a graphically explicit manner, and as such has a notoriety in China akin to Fanny Hill or Lady Chatterley's Lover in English.

15. Pan Chin-lien was a woman of easy virtue, and Hsi-men Ch'ing was determined to seduce her. They talked congenially during dinner, and their passion grew. A few days later, encouraged by Wang P'o, they began their affair in her bedroom. In the bedroom, P'an Chin-lien and Hsi-men Ch'ing heard her shout. They had no time to play tricks, so P'an Chin-lien quickly ran to the door and pressed herself against it, and Hsi-men Ch'ing hid himself under the bed.

16. Dream of the Red Chamber, The Red Chamber Dreams or A Dream of Red Mansions (红楼梦) also known as The Story of the Stone (Traditional Chinese: 石頭記; Simplified Chinese: 石头记; pinyin: Shítóu jì) is one of the masterpieces of Chinese fiction and one of the Chinese Four Great Classical Novels. It was composed sometime in the middle of the 18th century during the Qing Dynasty. It is attributed to Cáo Xuěqín (Cao Zhan). • The novel is believed to be semi-autobiographical, mirroring the fortunes of Cao's own family. As the author details in the first chapter, it is intended to be a memorial to the women he knew in his youth: friends, relatives and servants. • The novel is remarkable not only for its huge cast of characters (most of them female) and psychological scope, but also for its precise and detailed observation of the life and social structures typical of 18th-century Chinese aristocracy.

17. Romance of the Three Kingdoms ( 三國演義) • written by Luo Guanzhong in the 14th century, is a Chinese historical novel based upon events in the turbulent years near the end of the Han Dynasty and the Three Kingdoms era, starting in 168 and ending with the reunification of the land in 280.[1] • It is acclaimed as one of the Four Great Classical Novels of Chinese literature, with a grand total of 800,000 words, 1191 characters, and 120 chapters. Story • It must be understood that one of the greatest achievements of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms is the extreme complexity of its stories and characters. The novel is studded with numerous "mini-stories", many of which could be developed into full-length novels in their own right (the Battle of Red Cliffs and the treatment of Guan Yu by Hua Tuo being two examples). As such, the following effort only serves as a very high level summary of the entire story: • Three Heroes of Three Kingdoms, silk painting by Sekkan Sakurai (1715-1790). This painting is usually hung in the offices of businessmen to show that they are trustworthy, just as these brothers were to each other.

18. The Red Detachment of Women The "Eight model plays" ( 八个样板戏; bā gè yàng bǎn xì) were the only operas and ballets that were permitted during the Cultural Revolution in China (1966-1976). Although they were limited in number, there were in fact more than eight. They all have communist or revolutionary themes.

19. Chinese Poetry • Chinese Poetry is the most highly regarded literary genre in China. Traditionally, it is divided into shi (詩), ci (詞) and qu (曲). • There is also a kind of prose-poem called fu (賦). • All the traditional forms of Chinese poetry are rhymed, but not all rhymed texts in ancient China are classified as poetry - for instance, lines from I Ching are often rhymed, but it is not considered poetry. • During the modern period, there also has developed free verse in Western style. "Quatrain on Heavenly Mountain" by Emperor Gaozong

20. Classical poetry • During the Han Dynasty, the Chu Ci-type of lyrics evolved into fu. During the Six Dynasties, fu remained a major poetic genre, and together with shi formed the twin generic pillars of Chinese poetry until shi began to dominate during the Tang dynasty. • From the Han Dynasty onwards, a process similar to the origins of Shi Jing produced the yue fu (樂府 "Music Bureau") poems. Many of them are composed of lines of five-character (五言) or seven-character (七言). These two forms of shi were to dominate Chinese poetry until the modern era. They are divided into the original gushi and jintishi. The latter is a stricter form developed in the early Tang dynasty with rules governing the structure of a poem. The greatest writers of gushi and jintishi are often held to be Li Bai and Du Fu respectively. • Towards the end of the Tang dynasty, the ci lyric became more popular. Ci are literally new lyrics made up to fit to pre-existing tunes. Each of the tunes had music that was often lost, but retained a metre unique to the tune. Thus, each ci written is labelled "To the tune of [Tune Name]" (調寄[詞牌]), fits the metre and rhyme of the tune, and may or may not have been sung. Most closely associated with the Song Dynasty, ci most often expressed feelings of desire, often in an adopted persona, but the greatest exponents of the form (such as Li Houzhu and Su Shi) used it to address a wide range of topics. • As the ci gradually became more literary and artificial after Song times, Chinese Sanqu poetry (散曲), a freer form, based on new popular songs, developed.

21. Later classical poetry • Hand-painted Chinese New Year's duilian (對聯 "couplet"), a by-product of Chinese poetry, pasted on the sides of doors leading to people's homes, at Lijiang City, Yunnan • After the Song Dynasty, both shi and ci continued to be composed until the end of the imperial period, and to a lesser extent to this day. However, for a number of reasons, these works have always been less highly regarded than those of the Tang dynasty in particular. • Firstly, Chinese literary culture remained in awe of its predecessors: in a self-fulfilling prophecy, writers and readers both expected that new works would not bear comparison with the earlier masters. • Secondly, the most common response of these later poets to the tradition which they had inherited was to produce work which was ever more refined and allusive; the resulting poems tend to seem precious or just obscure to modern readers. • Thirdly, the increase in population, expansion of literacy, wider dissemination of works through printing and more complete archiving vastly increased the volume of work to consider and made it difficult to identify and properly evaluate those good pieces which were produced. • Finally the 1920s saw the rise of vernacular literature, particularly opera and novels, which increasingly became the main means of cultural expression.

22. Modern poetry • Modern Chinese poems (新詩 "new poetry") usually do not follow any prescribed pattern. Poetry was revolutionized after the May Fourth Movement when writers try to use vernacular styles closer to what was being spoken (baihua) rather than previously prescribed forms. Early 20th-century poets like Xu Zhimo, Guo Moruo and Wen Yiduo sought to break Chinese poetry from past conventions by adopting Western models; for example Xu consciously follows the style of the Romantic poets with end-rhymes. • In the post-revolutionary Communist era, poets like Ai Qing used more liberal running lines and direct diction, which were vastly popular and widely imitated. • In the contemporary poetic scene, the most important and influential poets are in the group known as Misty Poets, who use oblique allusions and hermetic references. The most important Misty Poets include Bei Dao, Gu Cheng, Duo Duo, and Yang Lian, all of whom were exiled after the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989.