A Brief History of Ancient Chinese Literature

A Brief History of Ancient Chinese Literature is a book for advanced level students of Chinese, since it is written only in Chinese characters and its subject, ancient Chinese literature, requires an advanced level of vocabulary.

The author, Xu Zongcai, divides Chinese literature into eight historical periods of time, pre-Qin, Han, the Wi dynasty, Jin, south and north, Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing. For each of these time periods he includes a revision of the contemporary literature and the most important pieces of literature and their authors. Of course these include The Classic of Poetry (诗), Records of the grand Historian Sima Qian (史记), the theatre play The injustice to Dou E (窦娥冤) or Dream of the Red Chamber (紅樓夢), among others. The reader will also be introduced to the great poets Li Bai, Du Fu and Bai Juyi.