Tang Dynasty literature

[reitia]

Hello to all my new friends in the Art and Literature Forum!

 

I am a writer and researcher. Recently I discovered the wonderful, beautiful culture of Classical China. The dynasties which interest me most are Han, Sui and Tang. It is my wish to learn everything I can about the delightful literature of this period, especially the prose works such as novels, short stories, biographies and history written in these three dynasties. Where I live, in a small town, it's not easy to find classical Chinese literature in translation. I'm looking for books...particularly selections from the Chuanqin stories...in English, French or Italian translations. Please, can anyone tell me where to find complete translations of classical Chinese prose (online, also)?

[abhoriel]

Well, I know you specifically mention prose, but Tang in particular is famous for its poetry so I would recommend checking that out!

 

To answer your question, see this fantastic website:

http://ctext.org/

 

Edit: Not everything on there has English translations, but many of the texts do

[Hofmann]

You won't find any novels; the first was in the 11th century.

[reitia]

Dear abhoriel and Hofmann,

 

Thanks very much for answering my post. As for Tang poetry: I enjoy it indeed, and have already read considerable selections in English translation. But it's the early Chinese prose fiction which most intrigues me. I see in the Chuanqin literature a trend toward novellistic techniques. Although the majority of these fascinating stories are brief, they have well-constructed plots and, frequently, keen characterization (at least the ones I've read; these tales are not easy to find in translation).

 

As for the very first novel: this is a controversial question. The ancient Greeks were already composing works of prose fiction at least 100 B.C. Chariton's "Callirhoe" is certainly one of the earliest true novels which we are fortunate to possess. Lady Murasaki's "Tale of Genji" is an early Japanese monogatari...but not the first of its kind; it is only the most brilliant. I suspect that prior to the composition of "Genji" there must have existed novel production in China, albeit in sporadic form. After the fall of the Tang Dynasty, these pioneer novels would have become lost (according to my theory).

[mouse]

"Novel" is the standard translation of the term xiaoshuo (小說). Nowadays it is entirely synonymous with the English term, but in the pre-20th century era it referred to a type of long-form story written in the vernacular. They're very similar to Western novels at first glance, but there are key differences regarding how they were written (usually by multiple authors and based on oral stories) and their position in literature (the term xiaoshuo could be translated as "minor discourse" and reflects their low status as literature at the time). It's conventional to refer to these vernacular fictions as novels, so you won't find anyone describing chuanqi or the like as novels because they were written in the classical language.

 

Here is a translation of one of the most famous chuanqi stories, if you haven't read it already: Yingying Zhuan

 

Another genre you might be interested in are the bianwen (變文) or "transformation texts". These were discovered in the Dunhuang cave complex and date back to no later than the Tang dynasty. Unlike chuanqi they're written in the vernacular of the time. Your best bet for reading translations of them in English is to find a copy of Arthur Waley's Ballads and Stories from Tun-huang. 

[Geiko]

What is Chuanqin literature or Chuanqin stories? 

 

Edit: It was just a misspelling problem, I've just read mouse's post where it's spelled correctly (Chuanqi), and I've been able to google it. Thank you!

Edited November 4, 2015 at 04:19 PM by Geiko

[mouse]

 

 

What is Chuanqin literature or Chuanqin stories?

 

I assumed that was a typo and the OP meant to write chuanqi (傳奇).

[reitia]

Dear Mouse and Geiko,

 

I hadn't realized that I'd misspelled Chuanqi...Believe me, I DO know that CHUANQI is the correct form, but I tend to type very fast and sometimes make orthographical errors.

 

In my latest post, I indicated that Chuanqi stories...in their essential form, not in their language...seem to be heading toward novellistic forms. If this literary genre had survived longer, it might have developed into true novels.

 

As for the literature from Dunhuang, this is fascinating. Numerous important manuscripts, in various languages, have been discovered in this outpost town. There was once a considerable Sogdian/Iranic presence in Dunhuang, especially in Tang times. Have you read the famous Sogdian Letters, found in Dunhuang inside an ancient leather mailbag? These are intriguing, as they describe the commercial relations between the Chinese and the Sogdians, from Dunhuang to Chang'an.

 

Best wishes.

[evn108]

If you want to read two really informative, recently published and scholarly books about Tang narratives, check out "Literati Storytelling in Late Medieval China" by Manling Luo and "Shifting Stories: History, Gossip, and Lore in Narratives from Tang Dynasty China" by Sarah M. Allen.  

 

In spite of being for an academic audience, I found both very readable and engaging. They focus mostly on the social aspects of literary composition in this period, but feature many translations of stories that have never been rendered in English before. Since they are both published by academic presses, they might not be very affordable, but you should be able to get them at the library. If you're interested in the culture and history behind literary writing in this period I think you will really like them.

 

Luo's book focuses more on major themes and issues discussed throughout Tang chuanqi, and Allen's is mostly about how these stories were recorded and transmitted, and how the stories transformed as they were passed along to new audiences. 

[reitia]

Dear evn108,

 

Thank you very much for telling me about these titles.

 

I live in Italy, where it is not easy to find scholarly publications in English; certain major Italian universities might possess the two titles you mentioned, but few academic institutions here have faculties of Oriental Literature.

 

Are the complete texts of these two books available online?

 

I am mostly interested in Chuanqi as psychological literature... Chinese prose authors of the Tang period could be amazingly modern in character portrayal and analysis. The Chuanqi stories, with their complex plots and keen understanding of human emotions, in my opinion are surely precursors of genuine novels. Only the fact that so many Chuanqi tales were adapted for the stage may have prevented them from evolving into full-blown novels: as with Japanese Kabuki, Chuanqi in its theatrical form must have ultimately appealed more to the general public than novelistic fiction.

 

Please let me know what you think about this.

[mouse]

Reitia, have you read Steven Moore's book on the novel? Your ideas remind me of his. I don't agree with him or you that it is useful to apply the term "novel" in a serious way to all long-form prose works in history. It's fine for informal discussions, but the term novel came about at a particular time to refer to a particular thing, and it's anachronistic to apply it to works that pre-date the term, let alone to works completely unrelated to the rise of the novel in Western Europe. I think it makes more sense to generalise them as works of literature, as it avoids the use of a technical term like "novel". 

 

You also need to be careful with modern conceptions of the psychological. Tang dynasty readers would have no concept of the individual as we do. Later you get the rise of the so-called "cult of qing" during the Ming dynasty which squares more with our current understanding of individual(istic) psychology (and romantic love, of course). If I was going to make an analogy between chuanqi and a modern narrative form, then I would compare them to urban legends. They're tales to thrill and excite. They may involve emotions, but they don't deal with the psychological depths of characters in the way that novels do. Of course, unlike most urban legends, chuanqi tend to be beautifully told, which is another part of their appeal.

[mouse]

I just had a thought: Arthur Waley translated some chuanqi in a book called More Translations From the Chinese. Here it is on Project Gutenberg. You can find the aforementioned 'Yingying zhuan' and another famous chuanqi tale, Bai Xingjian's 'The Story of Miss Li'.

 

Note: Waley used Wade-Giles instead of pinyin to transliterate Mandarin pronunciation, so Bai Xingjian is parsed as Po Hsien-Chien. He also adhered to the shibboleth of pronouncing the surname Bai as Bo, which comes out as Po in Wade-Giles. Confusing, I know.

[reitia]

Hello mouse,

 

Certainly, not all long-form prose works are novels. Some may be fictionalized biographies, or popularized chronicles, or hagiographical narrations with supernatural elements. Nevertheless, true novels pre-date "Pamela" and "Moll Flanders" by many centuries, although these mid-18th century English works have often been described as the first novels ever written. The ancient Greeks were already experts in this genre. One of the earliest surviving novels...Chariton's "Callirhoe"...is the exquisitely woven story of a sensitive, noble, misunderstood young woman who faced hardship and suffering with the greatest dignity. This novel, with its deep, sympathetic understanding of human nature, was composed about 200 A.D., if not even earlier.

 

Not long after the Tang heyday, Japanese authors of the Heian Dynasty were creating authentic novels; the splendid Tale of Genji, a brilliant portrayal of a totally amoral man, is the most famous of these, but there are numerous others, in which clever characterization prevails. It is interesting to note that most of these Heian novels were written by women.

 

"Psychology" was not born with Freud or the Realist school of literature. The human psyche, in all times and places, has always been what it is today. The perceptive Tang fiction writers understood, and depicted, human emotions as well as Dickens and Hugo ever did.

[reitia]

Dear mouse,

 

Thank's for the info about Waley's work. His translations have often been criticized...Alas, it seems that he sometimes re-worked part of his material, and omitted those sections which he personally disliked! At least, he did this when translating the Tale of Genji.

[Guest realmayo]

If by "novel" we simply use the dictionary definition then it's very broad indeed and we're not talking a genre.

 

Reitia I'm not so convinced that "The Chuanqi stories, with their complex plots and keen understanding of human emotions, in my opinion are surely precursors of genuine novels. Only the fact that so many Chuanqi tales were adapted for the stage may have prevented them from evolving into full-blown novels"

 

... because that suggests that evolution into a full-blown novel is some kind of natural or normal to-be-expected process of development and improvement; but is there any reason to think that novels as we commonly see them would have developed widespread popularity if, say, Greece/Europe never existed? Even though the novel developed into a wildly popular prose form in the West, I don't necessarily think that humans are designed to inevitably invent and love the novel...

[Guest realmayo]

You also need to be careful with modern conceptions of the psychological. Tang dynasty readers would have no concept of the individual as we do.

 

I'm sure this is true, and even today the "we" depends to a (much smaller) extent on where in the world we live.

 

I was googling "cult of qing" and came across this abstract http://static-content.springer.com/lookinside/art%3A10.1007%2Fs40647-014-0043-x/000.png which claims psychological realism for the English novel but not for the Ming.

[Angelina]

(And the "we" can change, it is not static, Mx. is being introduced in English now (I think the sound is too weird to really take off), this might change the way people who speak English experience the world. )

One big change in Chinese literature started with 《狂人日记》

Written in first person singular it started a more westerner way of thinking, less qing, more individualism. Tang Dynasty literature was influenced by foreign cultures too.

[Guest realmayo]

Other than Buddhism, how was Tang Dynasty literature influenced by foreign cultures? Did writing styles change?

[reitia]

Hello realmayo, Hello Angelina,

 

In response to your comments, first of all I would like to say that people all over our planet have spontaneously written novels, from ancient times on. The Greeks had no real models to use; their only antecedents were historical accounts and myths, so we might say that they invented the novelistic genre. But not all fiction authors have drawn their inspiration from Greek or even European models. Human beings seem to be natural storytellers, and over the centuries, methods of narration have been remarkably homogeneous. Our earliest forms of pre-literary expression...in all cultures...were always fireside tales, fables, songs to the accompaniment of one or more more musical instruments. From these brief oral narrations, longer legends and epic cycles eventually took form. As soon as man learned to write, he began to eagerly record his thoughts and deeds upon durable material. Historically speaking, there can be no doubt that there was a natural sequence from short literary works to more extensive: heroic episodes became lengthy epics, short stories bloomed into full-blown novels, as man's power of observation and formal expression grew. This, in my viewpoint, is a logical consequence of the increase of cultural/intellectual refinement within a society.

 

I really must insist that man is always man; he is not just a vague cipher in the lumpenproletariat, but always and forever a unique INDIVIDUAL. At different times and in different cultures, he might have distinct perceptions or interpretations of what PERSONALITY is; but he has always recognized the importance of the psyche and its motivation of INDIVIDUALS. There could be no interesting, meaningful fictional literature at all if the characters were not INDIVIDUALIZED, if a psychological approach...albeit embryonic...were not employed.

 

Foreign influence during the Tang Dynasty was far more evident in the graphic arts, music and dance, than it was in literature. The nations with which Tang China had closest contact were not famous for their literary productions: Sogdian literature, now lost, seems to have consisted mostly of mythical- epic poetry, and the Turkic tribes apparently left no written literature at all. Something of profane Indian literature must have influenced Tang fictional prose. But Chinese literature of that era appears predominantly as a sparkling outburst of NATIONAL creativity, the culmination of a long development from Han times onward, in which many literary forms were created and expanded.

[Angelina]

Other than Buddhism, how was Tang Dynasty literature influenced by foreign cultures? Did writing styles change?

Of course, it changed a lot, mostly rhyme patterns.

The nations with which Tang China had closest contact were not famous for their literary productions:

I don't think so, there was definitely contact between Hellenic culture and Chinese culture during this time.