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Ancient Zhejiang Literature
2006-7-3 18:22:42
    Zhejiang became a strong and independent kingdom in The Spring and Autumn Period. However, the literature then was still underdeveloped.
    In Western Han and Eastern Han dynasties, the accomplishment of Yue's Destruction and History of Wu & Yue made the start of the Zhejiang folk literature and novels. In Eastern Han Dynasty, the Shangyu native Wang Chong was considered the first literature commenter who criticized the superstitious thoughts and promoted atheism in his philosophic works Discourses Weighed in the Balance. Wang Chong's works were easy, fluent and without much adornment and he protested that the articles should be balanced in form and content, and with original creations and various styles which had great impact on later development of literature theories.
    After the Three Kingdoms period, Zhejiang literature became very active and made many outstanding achievements.
    As for novel, in Wei, Jin, Northern and Southern dynasties, there were many novels about weird people and things, such as Gan Bao's Searching Spirits and other writers' works Qixie Stories, Sequel of Qixie Stories, Jealousy and Folk Tales, etc.
    As for prose, in Eastern Jin dynasty, Wan Xizhi, who resided in Huiji County then, was famous for his natural and fluent style and presented the works represented by Preface of Lanting Collections.
    As for poem, in Southern dynasty, the Shangyu native poet Xie Lingyun was good at depicting the beautiful landscape of River South (south Yangtze River region) and wrote the Xie Kangle's Collection. His poems were widely spread, promoted the change of the Chinese poetry styles and influenced the later development of Chinese poetry. He was considered the originator of the landscape style poets.

    As for literature theory, the Yongming Style poems and the relevant poetry theory on "four tunes and eight faults" invented by Shen Yue(a Deqing native) provided the fundamental for the ancient poems and occupied an important position in the history of ancient Chinese literature theory. And the tales of Lanke Hill and Tiantai Hill were widely spread in the folks.

    In Tang dynasty, because of the development of economy, Zhejiang literature became more active. Poems and legendaries had been prevailing in the period.
    As for poem, Luo Binwang (a Jinhua native), one of the "Four Great Poets of Early Tang Dynasty", wrote Luo Linhai Collection¡¡among which some were energetic and some sad. He was good at writing poems with both seven and five characters to a line. He made the first try of the so-called Frontier Fortress poems in Tang dynasty in his works Come Out to Border Area in Early Autumn and Sun Sets In Borderline City. In peak period of Tang Dynasty, the Xiaoshan native He Zhizhang wrote a lot of poems among which Return Home When Old was the most well known. In mid Tang Dynasty, Qian Qi, one of the "ten talents" of the time, was famous for his Qian Kaogong Collection. He always put his feelings naturally into the poems that depicted landscapes. Besides, the Deqing native Meng Jiao was famous for the poem Traveling Son's Song. Sentence like "Little and weak as the grass leaf, can he pay back the benevolent sunshine of the spring" was known to every household. He enjoyed equal fame with poet Jia Dao. They were both ascetic poets hence the nick name of the duo "Cold Jiao Thin Dao". In late Tang dynasty, the Fuyang native Luo Yin wrote the Jia Yi Collection among which the poems like Bee, Willow and Money Flower criticized the society and paid sympathy to the common peoples. In addition, monks like Hanshanzi, Guan Xiu and Jiao Ran publicized their collections and works too.
    Besides, the Wuzhou native Zhang Zhi's five-poem set Fisher announced the beginning of the Zhejiang Ci poem. Soon later, the Chun'an native Huanpu Song's Ci poems were collected into the earliest Ci collection Among The Flowers.

    As for novel, the Deqing native Shen Jiji's legendaries Inside the Pillow and Ren's Tale inspired the inditement of later literature, especially drama plays. The Huzhou writer Shen Yazhi was a great yield writer and famous for such detailed and vivid legendaries as Qin Dream Tales, Strange Dream tales, Legend of Feng Yan and Resentment in Middle Xiang Province. The Jinyun native Du Guangting's novel Legend of the Dragon-like Mustached Knight was brilliant in the use of art skills as well as the descriptions of the characters. Yuezhou native Zhu Qingyu excelled at portraying subtle mental activities in his mystery novel Voice of the Nether World. And the novel Friends Meeting in Cloud Stream by Fan Lu and Drunken Days by Huangpu Song were both of high readabilities
    As for prose, Han Yuan Collection written by Jiaxing native Lu Zhi started the vogue of ancient prose which jointed the parallel style with prose style, and the practice with the theory in writing the political thesis. After the Ancient Prose Movement promoted by Han Yu and Liu Zongyuan in mid Tang Dynasty, Han Yu's students Huangpu Ti and Shen Yazhi developed the prose with their works Huangpu Chizheng Collection and Shen Xiaxian Collection. In late Tang Dynasty, Luo Yin's book Rumors was an ironical prose collection. Together with Pi Rixiu and Lu Guimeng's works, Luo Yin's prose was praised by Lu Xun as the glitter and sharp edge from the dirty pond and could be regarded as the origin for later scribbles.
    As for literature theory, Luo Binwang insisted that the poems should be written with true feelings; later Jiao Ran wrote the book of On Poems to discuss the metaphorical lead-ins and styles; in Shen Yazhi's Seeing Off Han Jinglue and Huangpu Ti's Answers to Student Li's Questions, they emphasized that the prose should be original, unique and valuable.
    Thanks to the prosperous economy during the Wu & Yue Kingdom period and especially in Southern Song dynasty when Hangzhou was chosen as the capital, the typography and private book collection had been developed quickly thus providing the soil for the further development of literature.
    There were many important poets in Zhejiang in Southern Song Dynasty. The Lin'an native Qian Wei was the representative of the Xikun style poems and he was the major writer of the collection Xikun Chanting Collection; the Hangzhou native Li Pu was the representative of the anchoretic style poems and wrote the book Lin Hejin Poems Collection which mainly delineated the charming West Lake and the leisure life styles. The sentence in his Plums In Hillside Garden "sparse branch reflection sways in the shallow clear pond, and light fragrance flows in dim moonlight" was always considered best description about plum flowers. The Qiantang woman poet Zhu Shuzhen wrote the book Sadness Collection. Among the "Four Standouts of Southern Song Dynasty (i.e. You Mao, Yang Wanli, Fan Chengda and Lu You)", the Shanyin native and patriotic poet Lu You made the most outstanding achievements on poems. He wrote the Jianan Poems Collection in which there were a lot of famous and imposing poems like Reading the War Tactics in the Evening, Jincuo Sword, Anger, Moon Over Mt.Guanshan, Wild Storms on October 4th, Step Out the Garden in the Cool Wind at a Autumn Dawn, To My Son, Peasant's Sigh, Tour in Shanxi Village, After Rain in Lin'an and Shen's Garden, etc. Some of his poems were sturdy, some with sympathy to the common people, some delineated the leisure life style after his retirement and the last one poured his sorrows of his love tragedy. Lu You wrote his poems with different styles and versifications, and presented a lot of excellent lines, especially poems with seven characters to a line. His poems enjoyed a high reputation in the ancient literature history. In the mid Southern Song Dynasty, "The Four Standouts of Yongjia", i.e. Xu Ji, Xu Zhao, Wen Juan and Zhao Shixiu, and the Huangyan native Dai Fugu advocated to learn from the late Tang Dynasty's poems thus made some changes to the poems of Song Dynasty.
    In Northern Song and Southern Song Dynasties, there were 216 Ci poets in Zhejiang. This was nearly 1/4 of the national total number of Ci poets of the time according to The Details of Northern Song and Southern Song Dynasties' Poets written by Tang Zhuizhang in modern times. The Huzhou native Zhang Xian invented the Slow Ci style which started the change on the Ci poem form. In his masterpiece Zhang Ziye Ci Poems, he used the word Ying (means Shadow) constantly and neatly, so people gave him a nickname Zhang San Ying. The Jiangshan native Mao Pang wrote Ci poems in broad, natural and clear tones. His poems were spread widely by the people and collected in the book Dongtang Ci among which Painful Farewell was the most well known. In late Northern Song Dynasty, the Qiantang native Zhou Bangyan, good at both music and Ci poems, absorbed all the advantages of the relevant art forms and put the Ci composing skills and forms onto a whole new stage. He himself became the key person in the Song Dynasties and was called "the great master". In his collections Jade Flakes and Meicheng Long & Short Lines, he depicted love, travel and political situation in strict rhythms and elegant tones. Some lines in his poems like Meditating On The past In Jinlin City and Zhangtai Road were classics of Ci poems.
    After the Southward Move of Song Dynasty, Zhejiang became the most active place for Ci poems compositions and most famous Ci poets of late Song Dynasty were presented by Zhejiang Province. As a refugee, the most famous woman Ci poet Li Qingzhao applied a simple, straightforward style in her Ci poems to reveal her sadness and the feeling to the enemy occupied homeland. She traveled many place like Hangzhou, Jinhua, Shaoxing and Siming, accomplished the Jade Washing Collection and finally died in Zhejiang. Another woman poet Zhu Shuzhen's style was similar to Li's, in her collection Sadness Ci, she took down a lot of tragedy marriages in such poems like Mid Spring, Goodbye To Spring, etc. Li Qingzhao and Zhu shuzhen were very important female poets in the literature history. The poems of Lu You and Chen Liang were most positive and patriotic ones. Joining the army and pursuing career was Lu You's favorite subject matters, but he also did wonderfully in depicting sad and lingering grieves after his failed marriage. After the Poyang native Jiang Kui made his home in Huzhou and Hangzhou, his talent in composing Ci poems caused a stir in the literature circle then. The Ningbo native Wu Wenyin inherited the style promoted by Zhou Bangyan and wrote Dreams By The Window. He strictly followed the rhythms but in the course of doing so, his works maybe over ornate. Experienced the turn from Southern Song to Yuan Dynasties, Wang Yisun (the author of Beyond Flowers) kept good relationships with Ci masters like Zhang Yan ( the author of White Clouds Among Cliffs) and Zhou Mi (the author of Grass-made Windows) and wrote many poems to mourn his conquered homeland.
    As for prose, the Qiantang native Shen Kuo of northern Song Dynasty wrote the Changxing Collections among which the book Sketchbook of Dream Brook collected lots of science materials then and was the most characteristic science work along the history. In Southern Song Dynasty, many famous writers left us their works: Lu You edited the Southern Weihe River Corpus (totaling 41 volumes), which included the most famous 6-volume traveling notes Entering Shu Region and the top essays Old Teacher's Notes; the Yueqing native Wang Shipeng wrote Plum Brook Collection; the Yiwu native Zong Ze wrote Zong Ze's Brief Collection; the Jinhua native Lu Zuqian wrote Donglai Collection and the Yongkang native Chen liang wrote Long Chuan Corpus.
    As for novel, the Qiantang native QianYi wrote the sketchbook The life of a Yue Woman and The Tale Of The Black Robe and novel New Book In Southern Region; the Qiantang native Shen Kuo wrote Clear Night Stories; the Wuzhou native Fang Shao wrote Reaching Home; the Wuxing native Zhou Mi wrote the sketchbook collections like Qidong Folk Stories, Old Stories About Wulin and Miscellaneous About the Year of Gui Xin. In the later inditement of dramas and novels, there were many materials taken out from the book Qidong Folk Stories; and Old Stories About Wulin became the important local material for annals on Hangzhou.
    As for literature theory, the Taizhou native Chen Kui wrote The Principles of Writing; the Jinhua native Lv Zuqian wrote The Essentials of Ancient Prose; the Yongjia native wrote the book Study Notes; the Wuxing native Zhou Mi wrote Elegant Discussions in Haoran Room. These were all important works on literature theories. Zhang Yan's Source of Ci Poems made comparatively systemic observations on the rhymes, inditements and appreciations of Ci poems and became the key work in the area. There were lots of poetics like Dai Fugu's Ten Keys To Poetics, the Qiantang native Fan Xiwen's Night Rain Fell Into the Bed and Jiang Kui's Baishi Taoist's Poetics, etc.
    As for folk literature, some Southern Drama and Story-Telling scripts appeared in the period. The Wenzhou Jiushan Writers' Association edited the script Zhang Xie, the No. 1 Scholar; the Guhang Writers' Association edited Little Butcher Sun and a scholar from the Guhang Writers' Association edited Wrong Career; the scholars from the Yongjia Writers' Association edited The Tale Of White Rabbit. It was at this time that the vernacular Short Story of Song Dynasty was separated from the sketch and legendary and became an important anabranch of Chinese literature.
image Lu You

    In Yuan dynasty, the San-Qu (type of opera popular in the Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties with tonal patterns modeled on tunes drawn from folk music) became the representative form of Zhejiang Literature. The Qingyuan writer Zhang Kejiu was the representative of the Clear & Beautiful Styled San-Qu writers who wrote the Xiaoshan Yuefu with a characteristic flavor of the River South. Cooperated with Guan Yunshi, the Jiaxing writer Xu Zaisi wrote the Acid and Sweet Yuefu in an elegant and delicate tune. In late Yuan Dynasty, a lot of northern writers like Zheng Guangzu, Qiao Ji and Guan Yunshi moved to Zhejiang thus made Zhejiang the center of San-Qu gradually.
    The Southern operas began to prosper then in Zhejiang. Among the Four Major South Opera Plays, i.e. The Tale of the Thornwood Hairpin, The Tale of White Rabbit, The Tale of Bowing in Salute to the Moon and The Tale of Killing the Dog, three plays were presented by the Zhejiang writers. In the end of Yuan Dynasty, the Rui'an native Gao Zecheng's play The Tale Of The Lute elevated the south operas greatly.
    In late Yuan Dynasty, the Za-Ju center had been moved southwards to Hangzhou, so did a lot of northern Za-Ju writers like Guan HanQin and Ma Zhiyuan. And, a lot of local Za-Ju writers also wrote many famous plays like Fan Kang's Chen Jikang Realized Tao on a Bamboo Boat and Jin Renjie's Xiao He Chasing Han Xin At A Moony Night, etc.
    In the Same period, the highly developed Singing-and-Talking Literature provided the base for the development of the pop river novels. The Romance Of The Three Kingdoms and The Heroes Of the Marshes were two major pop river novels in late Yuan and early Ming Dynasties period and were developed from the Singing and Talking Literature by Luo Ganzhong and Shi Na'an who were considered to be the Hangzhou natives.
    Besides, the Wujiang native Lu Fuzhi developed Zhang Yan's theory about Ci poems in his book Ci Principles, Zhong Sicheng's Records Of Spirits was also a important work on operas; the Chuzhou native Chen Yiceng wrote the books like Writing Theory and Poem Collections.

    In Ming & Qing Dynasties, Zhejiang literature had been developed into many different art forms. As for river novels, there were Sequel of The Pilgrimage Journey To The West, The Post Pilgrimage Journey To The West and Yue Fei's Life; as for vernacular Chinese short story, the so-called "Two Volumes of Amazing Stories" by Ling Mengchu was the most influencial collection and the Two Collections About The West Lake and Apparition were also very popular then; as for legendary, the Qiantang native Ju You's novel collection Trimming The Lampwick was the representative one then; as for minute novel, the Ming dynasty writer Tian Rucheng's Minute of The Travel To The West Lake and Sequel Minute of The Travel to The West Lake were very interesting and the Qing dynasty writer Liang Shaoren's Essays Of Liangbanqiuyu Hut was of high art value; As for anecdote novel, the Shanyin writer Zhang Dai's novels Memories About the Dreams in Tao Hut and Searching Dreams Of the West Lake were classics of the Ming Dynasty; as for mystery novels, the Qing Dynasty writer Yuan Mei's Silence was the most famous one; and Di An San Ren's Yu Jiao Li and Ping Shan Leng Yan were very famous romantic novels. The Hangzhou female writer Che Duansheng's The Destiny of Second Life was a sinuosity and delicate 7-character rhymed rhapsody written in 20 chapters and 80 volumes.
    As for opera, legendary operas had been prevailing in the Ming Dynasty during the period from about 1522 to 1620. There were famous playwrights like Zhou Chaojun, Tu Long and Gao Lian who wrote the plays The Tale of Red Plum, The Tale of Colored Hair and The Tale of the Jade Hairpin respectively. In Qing Dynasty, the Qiantang native Hong Sheng wrote The Hall of Eternal Life and Lanxi native Li Yu wrote the Ten Tones of An Old Fisherman With Bamboo Hats among which The Hall of Eternal Life was the most precious gem of the Chinese opera. Furthermore, there were lots of good Za-Ju plays of the period, for example, the Huiji native Xu Wei's Four Sounds of Apes and Meng Chensun's Peach Blossom and Beauty in Ming Dynasty, and Haining writer Chen Yujiao's Go Beyond the Great Wall, etc
image The Hall Of Eternal Life, the edition printed in Biqi Straw Workshop in Qing Dynasty.

    Although there had been some tune play scripts during this period, they made little achievements.
    As for prose, there were such masters like Song Lian and Liu Ji in early Ming Dynasty. Liu Ji's allegory collection Yu Li Zi was an outstanding work and spread widely among the people, especially the most well known story "Golden Coat Outside (Fair Appearance) and Worn-out Cotton Inside (Poor Quality)". Other writers like Fang Xiaoru, Mao Kun (one of the members of the Tang &Song School) and Xu Wei were also very famous for their prose. The Qing Dynasty writer Yuan Mei emphasized the internal anima of the articles and presented the book Collection of Xiao Cang Shan Fang. The Yuyao native Wang Shouren and Huang Zongxi insisted the prose must be meaningful and readable. 
   
    As for poem and Ci, the so-called Zhejiang School of Poem and Ci were quite influential in history. The Jiaxing native Zhu Yizun was creative and energetic who absorbed the creams form the Tang style and Jiangxi School's Huang Tingjian's style and developed the Zhejiang poems. The Qiantang native Li E and Jiaxing native Qian Zai were two local leaders of poem development. Yuan Mei's poems were agile and with a unique flavor. During the middle of Qing Dynasty, there were different schools of Zhejiang Ci poems like Ten Masters Of Xi Ling, Liuzhou School and Western Zhejiang Ci School. Liuzhou School was formed by a Zhu's clan of Jiashan County which made some efforts to the change of the Zhejiang Ci poems. Western Zhejiang Ci School was famous for its elegant and delicate Ci poems and led the trends for about a hundred year in Qing Dynasty, Zhu Yizun and Li E as its representative poets.
    As for literature theory, the Ming Dynasty writer Mao Kun's Collection of The Eight Masters Of Tang & Song Dynasties was very influential; Xu Wei injected his real self into his articles and criticized the trend of returning to the ancients; there were such poetics like Hu Yinglin's Poem Sou (poem collection), Hu Zhenheng's Tang Yin Gui Qian, Zhu Yizun's Jing Zhi Ju Poetics, Li E's Song Poem Records, Yuan Mei's Sui Yuan Poetics, Ci poetics like Zhang Zongsu's Ci Records, Tan Xian's Fu Tang Ci Poetics and tune principle collections like Xu Wei's Southern Ci Volume, Lu Tiancheng's Tune Appreciation, Wang Jide's Tune Temperament, Shen Defu's Gu's Miscellaneous about Tunes, Yi Biaojia's Yuan Shan Tang Tune Appreciation and Li Yu's Notes of Leisure and novel theory collections like Ling MengChu's Preface of the Amazing Tales, Hu Yinglin's Mt. Shaoshi Notes, Yu Ji's Preface of Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio, Qi Liaosheng's Preface of Red Chamber Dreams and Yu Yue's Preface of Seven Knights and Five Righteous Persons , etc.
    Besides, there were lots of folk tales in Ming and Qing Dynasties. There were character tales depicting the deeds of Liu Bowen, Qi JIguang, Hai Rui and Zhu Danxi; Buddhism and Tao character tales about Guanyin Bodhisattva and Ji Gong Monk. In Qing Dynasty, the Qiantang writer Zheng Xundan wrote the first Chilren's rhyme book of China, -- Sound of Heaven Collection.