Asian LiteratureBy Group 1

Chinese Literature Chinese literature developed over a long period of time Chinese

writers have produced volumes of poems, short stories and novels based on religious concepts and principles.

During the Tang Dynasty, the great poets Li Po and Tu Fu became popular. Tu Fu became known for his poem about war and bitter human experiences. Li Po, a friend of Tu Fu’s wrote lyrical poetry about love. Li Yian, a woman poet also became famous. The Chinese are not only good poets but good novelist as well. The Hung-lou Meng and Chin P’ing Mei are 2 of China’s great literary masterpieces . The former deals with the collapse of rightious family, while the latter tells of the complex life of a businessman.

Ssuma Chien is China’s great historian. He was also an astronomer and calendar expert. He was the first to write a comprehensive history of China, thus earning the title of “Father of Chinese story.

Lu Hsun introduced modern Chinese literature. Aside from being a critic , he became the leader of Modern Cultural Revolution. One of his famous works is “A Madman’s Diary” which serves as Lu Hsun’s “decleration of war” against Chinese Literature

Chinese Literature

Iranian Literature Iran is home to great writers whose works parallel the world’s

great literary legacies. Ferdowsi (or Ferdausi), one of Iran’s greatest poets, wrote the beloved Sahnameh (Book of Kings or Epics of Kings) which is composed of 60,000 rhyming couplets. Rustam, the warrior in the myth of ancient persia, is the main charachte in Ferdowsi’s epic.

Omar Khayyam, another persian poet, became famous for his Rubaiyat. He was also an astronomer and philosopher. The Rubaiyat, which is betterknown as the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, is an Arabic word which means “ quatrain”, a poem of four verses in a stanza.

Sadi is one of Persia’s novelist. He wrote the classic Gulistan ( Garden of Roses) regarded as Persia’s pride in the field of free verse

Iranian Literature

Japanese Literature

China has greatly influenced early Japanese literature. Japanese . Japanese poetry, stories and essays have been patterned after the literary works of Chinese writers or were also translated into Chinese classical language.

The Tale of Genji or Genji Morogatori, a novel about Prince Genji and written by Lady Shikibu Murasaki, is an example of an early form of Japanese literature. Contemporary themes deal with the contradiction of concepts of the modern western world and old traditional Japan. Examples are the Moroki Sisters by Tanizaki Junichiro and the Thousand Cranes by Yasunari Kawabata.

The Japanese are known for the haiku, an unrhymed verse from having three lines containing usually five, seven and five syllables, respectfully. A traditional haiku writer tackles the theme pertaining to nature, while other writers tell their life stories.

Japanese Literature

Sumerian Literature

Sumerian literature is the oldest literature in the world. The Sumerians invented the first writing system, beginning with cuneiform logograms, which evolved into a syllabary writing system. The Sumerian language remained in official and literary use in the Akkadian and Babylonian empires, even after the spoken language disappeared from the population; literacy was widespread, and the Sumerian texts that students copied heavily influence later Babylonian literature.

Sumerian literature has not been handed down to us directly, rather it has been rediscovered through archaeology. Nevertheless, the Akkadians and Babylonians borrowed much from the Sumerian literary heritage, and spread these traditions throughout the middle east, influencing much of the literature that followed in this region, including the Bible.

Sumerian Literature

Indian Literature 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 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 first millennium BCE. Classical Sanskrit literature flourished in the first few centuries of the first millennium CE, as did the Tamil Sangam literature, and the Pāli Canon.

In the medieval period, literature in Kannada and Telugu appears in the 9th and 11th centuries respectively. Later, literature in Marathi, Bengali, 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 contemporary Indian literature, there are two major literary awards; these are the Sahitya Akademi Fellowship and the Jnanpith Award. Seven Jnanpith awards each have been awarded in Hindi and Kannada, followed by five in Bengali, four in Malayalam and three in Gujurati,Marathi and Urdu.

Indian Literature

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