Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 04.djvu/761

CHINESE LANGUAGE. 663 CHINESE LANGUAGE. there is about an Alcaic stanza in Latin. But in the hands of the most gifted this artiticiality is altogether concealed by art, and the ^ery tram- mels of tone and rhyme appear to be necessary aids and adjuncts to success." The names of famous poets in this era are legion, and it would be dillicult as well as useless to enumerate them. Anthologies of the period are numerous, and always studied for tlieir famous poems, as they are set as standards for imitation. The 'Com- plete Collection,' published in 1707, contains nearly 50,000 poems of all sorts arr.onged in 900 books. Chief among their poets must, however, be mentioned Li Po (705-762) and Tu Fn (712- 770). The former, a sort of Chinese Anacreon, enjoyed immense popularity, became a spoiled child of the imperial [lalace, where he performed prodigies of impromptu verse-making when too drunk to stand, fell a victim to Court intrigue, and was drowned at last, very appropriately, in a maudlin attempt to kiss the moon"s reflection in a river. Rather curiously, the Chinese, though a temperate people, are passionately fond of songs in praise of wine and rejoice in a long array of poets who were more or less drunkards. On the other hand, their literature as a whole is singularly pure, standing in this respect high among those of Orientals, though social life among them is far from clean, and obscenity in familiar intercourse is often if not always con- doned. Li Po's contemporary. Tu Fu. was also a Court officer and favorite, and likewise com- pelled to retire. His career resembled that of Villon and ended in the mire, but his name has been for a thousand years a household word in Asia. One of his verses will serve as a sample of the stimmum bo»u»t of Chinese poetic art and as an illustration of what is admired in the four- line lyric epigram: " White gleam the gullp across the darkling tide, On the green liillH the scarlet flriwers hura; Alas I I see another spring has died . . . When will it come, the day of my return?" It is perhaps creditable to Chinese institutions that many of their great writers have been men of official rank. In a land where the road to office has long lain through the study of letters this has resulted in efforts more or less serious on the part of every mandarin to 'write,' and produced in the aggregate a long list of respect- able works. Among these the poet, philosopher, and statesman Han Yu (768-824), of the dynasty of T'ang, stands preeminent as a model of nobility of character, ability in high office, and remark- able elevation of literary style. His career is familiar to every well-read Chinaman, one of his compositions being customarily read by the bier as a part of the funeral service, while an- other, his protest to the Emperor on the subject of receiving a bone of Buddha with imperial honors, an ode which caused him a long banish- ment, is one of the favorite 'pieces' for reading in the language. Several women emerge from the ob- scurity of female life in this time and take their places among the famous men of letters in China, a galaxy which knows neither creed nor sex, ■which stands or falls only by the great test of an approved style. The literary life of China decreases in origi- nality and power after the great T'ang period, but some phases of its Later periods are notable for various reasons. The Sung and some minor d'nastie3 cover the Tenth and Twelfth centuries, during which renewed attention was paid to his- tory, and Sz'-nia Kwang (lOltl-SU) and Cbu llsi (li;!0-1200) nourished. The latter, one of the most remarkable minds China ever produced, is famous not only as a historian, but as a philoso- pher, and it is his original interpretations of the classics that constitute the system or code com- monly called Confucianism by foreigners. The rise of metaphysical sjx'culation may be said to be the distinguishing nuirk of this era, williin which, however, no phatie of literature or learn- ing was neglected and during which the inven- tion of block printing (Tenth Century) gave gre.at imjietus to book-making and the formation of lil)raries. The Mongols themselves added nothing to China's intellectual life, but their dynasty is marked by the introduction of the drama and of novels. Both of these forms of literature are as imjjortant now in China as elsewhere, and it is remarkable, in view of the passion common to all Asiatics alike for the story, that the art of fiction in its two high- est forms slvould have been so tardy in develop- ing here. Chinese plays, contrarj' to the notion accepted in tht West, are usuallj' very short, their plots being often ingenious and highly melodramatic, but seldom complicated. No scen- ery is used, and some of the accepted conventions are naively frank. The plays follow each other without change of scene or interniission, the ses- sions, like school hours in China, lasting all day long. Xovels under the Ming (1308-1044) and present dynasties absorb increasing attention and show great ability, though the plol^s are often too long and intricate and the characters too numer- ous to suit the taste of Europeans. Their short stories are, at their best, altogether admirable, if their almost invariable introduction of the su- pernatural be allowed, some of them, like the Strimge Sturies (1079), ranking among the world's best conies. China, like modern Europe, has during recent centuries passed through the encyclopa>dic age, when scholars have devoted themselves to amassing great repertories of the literature, knowledge, and wit of past genera- tions. Xo country, in fact, surpasses this em- pire in the wealth and variety of her diction- aries and encyclopedias of all kinds, but these can hardly be called literature. Nor does the often scurrilous wit of their proverbs and gross wall-literature — anonymous placards frequently found on street-corners — call for mention in an account of Chinese letters. The intellectual rec- ord of the race is, on the whole, one to be proud of and deserves more attention than it has yet received from Western scholars. BlBLlooRM-nv. On the language, consult the crajnmars of Williams (Canton. 18421 : Schott (Berlin. 1S.'>7): ^Martin (Shanghai. 1863): and .Tulien (Paris. 1870) : and the dictionaries of Morrison (Shanshai. 18051 : Mcdhurst (Shan2- hai, 1847-481 ; Williams (Shanghai. 1874) : and Oiles (Sh.nnL'bai. 1S!)2). Also Edkins. Chinri's Place in Philnlnqy (London. 1S711: Ball. The Arrntlinn AfTinitiex of Chinese (London, 1885) ; Terrien de Lacoiiperie. The Lonfiuaijes of China Before the Chinese (London, 1887); and Wal- ters, Essays on the Chinese Language (Shang- hai. 1880). Chief among translations of important works stand: Ix'gge. Chinese Classics, (new ed., 8 vols., Oxford. 1803-951 : also in Vols. III.. XVl., XXVII., and XXVIII. of Muller's Sacred Books