21st second

• Chinese Language


  • Monosyllabic - Each word has only one syllable
  • Polysyllabic - a word that has more than three syllables
• Chinese language first recorded about 5,000 years ago
• Chinese Writing

  • Has no alphabet
  • Consists of about 50,000 characters
  • Made up of ideographs
  • Chinese has to learn how to write (draw) 214 signs
  • Chinese words or signs is written from top to bottom
• Earliest Chinese literature dates back to 1,000 B.C
• Five Classic Books


  • The Book of Changes (I-Ching or Yi-Jing) - The book of divination
  • The Book of History (Shujing) - Book of Documents, speeches by major figures and records of events in ancient China
  • The Book of Rites (Lijing) - collection of texts describing social forms, administration, and ceremonial rites of Zhou dynasty
  • The Book of Odes (Shijing) - earliest collection of Chinese poetry, 3 sections: Feng (songs), Ya (odes), Song (hymns)
  • The Spring and Autumn Annals (Chunqui) - the court chronicle of the Zhou Dynasty state of Lu, from 722 BCE to 481 BCE
• Four Greatest Poets (Tang Dynasty)

  • Wang Wei - regarded as one of the most distinguished men of arts and letters of his era,
  • Li Po (Li Bai) - his poetry is known for its clear imagery and conversational tone
  • Tu Fu (Du Fu)-best known for his mastery of the "lüshi
  • Po Chu l (Bai Juyi)- ballads and satirical poems that can be understood by common people
• During the 1200s, drama and fiction developed as important forms of Chinese Literature
• Chinese plays

  Resembles as European Opera combining singing and dancing with dialogue
• Modern Chinese Literature


  • Developed after the 1800s when European missionaries and traders travelled to China
  • 1994- Chinese communist came to power after Civil War, ordered writers to create works that could easily be understood by peasants (agricultural laborers, soldiers, and workers)
  • The major literary and intellectual fashions of today's Chia have grown out of "Cultural Fever" of the 1980's
  • The 1990's have witnessed an even greater variety of styles, themes, and genres
  • Writings of the '90s reflects less of self-conscious debt to foreign authors
• Sinofication / Sinification

  'Sinosphere' of 'Sinophone' or 'Sinographic' communication, designating China and those of its neighbouring states that adopted and adapted Chinese-character writing: Korea, Vietnam, Japan