Medieval Chinese
Literature (Volume B)
Background
Period of Disunion (220–589)
• Han Empire crumbles
• “Way of Great
Peace,” 184
• Three Kingdoms
Period
• Shu, Wu, and Wei
• invasion by nonChinese in 316
Buddhism
•
•
•
•
Four Noble Truths
Eightfold Path
conversion in China
relationship to
Confucian beliefs
• Silk Road
transmission
Daoism
• Master Texts of Laoizi
and Zhuangzi
• Daoist practices
• relation to Buddhism
• recluse culture
• “Seven Sages of the
Bamboo Grove”
• Tao Gian
Sui and Tang Dynasties (589–907)
• Chang’an, the old
northern capital
• canal between the
Yangzi and Yellow
rivers
• grid pattern for
urban design
• tea and printing
• Buddhism
• Buddhist Diamond
Sutra, 868
Tang Decline (755)
• civil service exam
• changes in poetic
style
• Wang Wei, Li Bo, Du
Fu
• Yuan Zhen, “The
Story of Yingying”
• Emperor Xuanzong
and Yang Guifei, 755
• Bo Juyi, “Song of
Lasting Regret”
Song Dynasty (960–1279)
• loss of aristocratic
power
• Hangzhou court
• Mongol invasion
• printing technology
• reexamination of the
Confucian classics
• Li Qingzhao, “song
lyrics”
Tang China
Test Your Knowledge
Which of the following contributed to the
weakening of the Han Empire (206 B.C.E—
220 C.E.)?
a. natural disasters
b. a poorly organized army
c. inflation
d. emigration
Test Your Knowledge
What religion spread widely, and quickly,
throughout China, prior to the Tang and
Song dynasties?
a. Christianity
b. Buddhism
c. Islam
d. Zoroastrianism
Test Your Knowledge
The Sui Dynasty united, at least in part, an
otherwise disjointed Chinese nation by
building what?
a. the Great Wall of China
b. a bridge linking the east and west
c. a canal between two major rivers
d. trade routes to the north and south
Test Your Knowledge
Which of the following was invented under
the Tang Dynasty?
a. printing
b. fireworks
c. the auto loom
d. dynamite
Test Your Knowledge
Printed in 868, which of the following is
considered to be the oldest printed book?
a. the Kama Sutra
b. the Tao
c. the Vulgate Bible
d. the Buddhist Diamond Sutra
This concludes the Lecture
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The Norton Anthology
of World Literature
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