Chinese Literature

I. INTRODUCTION Two distinct traditions exist in Chinese literature: the literary and the vernacular, or colloquial. The latter can be traced back more than a thousand years before the Christian era and has existed almost continuously until modern times. Consisting originally of poetry and later of drama and fiction, it grew to include histories and popular stories and tales, as well. Folk, or vernacular, literature was long considered beneath the notice of members of the scholar-official class, who were the arbiters of literary taste. Their own polished and highly stylized writings set the standards for the orthodox literary tradition that began about 2000 years ago. Not until the 20th century did colloquial literature gain the support and esteem of the intellectual class. Chinese literature may be divided into three major historical periods that roughly correspond to those of Western literary history: the classical period, from the 6th century BC through the 2nd century AD; the medieval period, from the 3rd century to the late 12th century; and the modern period, from the 13th century to the present. II. CLASSICAL PERIOD The oldest examples of Chinese writing are inscriptions on bones and tortoiseshells, dating probably from the 14th century BC. The inscriptions represent divinations performed for the kings of the Shang dynasty (1766?-1027? BC), the earliest confirmed dynasty. Although not literature in the strictest sense, they represent the earliest

specimens of Chinese script, which became the vehicle for all subsequent Chinese literature. The classical period in Chinese literature corresponds to the same period in Greek and Roman literature. The formative stages took place during the 6th to the 4th century BC, at the time of the Zhou (Chou) dynasty (1027?-256 BC). This period encompassed the work of Confucius (Kongfuzi, or K'ung Fu-tzu), Mencius (Mengzi, or Meng-tzu), Laozi (Lao-tzu), Zhuangzi (Chuang-tzu ), and many other great Chinese philosophers. It culminated in the compilation of the Five Classics, or Confucian Classics, and other philosophical treatises. In the following centuries of the classical period, the Confucian canon was fixed, and Confucianism became the orthodox teaching, establishing a classical tradition that was to last until the present century. A. Poetry The most important poetic work produced during the classical period was the Shi Jing (Shih Ching, Book of Poetry), an anthology of ancient poems written in four-word verses and composed mostly between the 10th and the 7th centuries BC. The Shi Jing is classified as the third of the Five Classics; legend has it that Confucius himself selected and edited the 305 poems that constitute the work. Instead of glorifying gods and heroes, as was the custom of other cultures, many of these poems sing of the daily life of the peasants, their sorrows and joys, their occupations and festivities. These poems mark the beginning of the vernacular tradition in Chinese poetry and are characterized by simplicity of language and emotion. They make up about one-half of the book. The other half of the Shi Jing is made up of dynastic songs and court poems. These songs and

poems give a colorful picture of the life and manners of the Chinese feudal nobility, just as the folk poems depict the simple and yet bountiful life of the peasantry. The court poems were originally sung to music and accompanied by dance; Chinese poetry and music were closely linked from earliest times. The aristocratic, or court, style finds its best expression, however, in a group of poems known as the elegies of Chu (Ch'u). A feudal state in south-central China, Chu was the home of Qu Yuan (Ch' Yan), the first great Chinese poet. A noble by birth, Qu Yuan wrote Li Sao (On Encountering Sorrow), a long, autobiographical poem full of historical allusions, allegories, and similes, lyrically expressed and concerned with the intimate revelation of a poetic soul tormented because it has failed in its search for a beautiful ideal. Other poems by Qu Yuan are equally rich in images and sentiment, and they form a body of romantic poetry entirely different from the simple, realistic poetry of the Shi Jing. During the 400 years of the Han dynasty (206BC-AD220) the romantic and realistic modes developed into schools of poetry with many followers. The verses of Qu, which were irregular in form, initiated a new literary genre, the fu, or prose poem. Chinese poetry was further enriched by the folk songs collected by the Music Bureau (Yuefu, or Yeh-fu), an institution founded about the 2nd century BC. B. Prose The seminal works of Chinese prose are those that, with the Shi Jing, constitute the Five Classics. These are the Yi Jing (I Ching, Book of Changes), a divination text; the Shu Jing (Shu Ching, Book of History), a collection of ancient state documents; the Li Ji

(Li Chi, Book of Rites), a collection of ritual and governmental codes; and the Chunqiu (Spring and Autumn Annals), a history of the state of Lu from 722 to 481BC. From the 6th to the 3rd century BC, the first great works of Chinese philosophy appeared. Foremost are the Analects of Confucius, aphoristic sayings compiled by his disciples; the eloquent disputations of Mencius, a Confucian scholar; the Daode Jing (Tao-te Ching, Classic of the Way and Its Virtue), attributed to Laozi, the founder of Daoism; and the high-spirited essays of Zhuangzi, the other great Daoist philosopher. Also important, for their prose style as well as their philosophic import, are the essays of Mozi (Mo-tzu), Xunzi (Hsn-tzu) and Han Fei (Han Fei-tzu). The Shi Ji (Shih Chi, Records of the Historian) of Sima Qian (Ssu-ma Ch'ien), a monumental work dealing with all Chinese history up to the Han dynasty, provided the pattern for a long series of dynastic histories compiled over a period of about 2000 years. In political and moral philosophy, the Confucian scholars also set the precedent for the literary tradition in Chinese prose, and a standard literary language was adopted, which gradually became divorced from the spoken language. In this period of the Han rulers, the scholars were incorporated into the state bureaucracy. Appointments to all important official positions were based on mastery of the Confucian Classics. This practice continued with few interruptions until the 20th century AD and hardened the literary tradition into a national cult. III. MEDIEVAL PERIOD From the beginning of the medieval period in the 3rd century AD until the 7th century, China was not only divided into warring states but suffered invasions by Tatar tribes as well. Nevertheless, these centuries in China were by no means as barren of literary production as was the corresponding period in the history of western Europe

known as the Dark Ages. The spread of Buddhism from India, the invention of printing, and the flowering of poetry and prose illuminated the entire period and made it one of the most brilliant in Chinese literary history. A. Poetry During periods of social and political upheaval, from the 3rd to the 7th century, poets found refuge and consolation in nature. Some were hermits who created a so-called field-and-garden school of poetry; others produced some of the best Chinese folk lyrics, such as the love poems attributed to Ziye (Tzu-yeh), a woman poet who wrote the Ballad of Mulan, celebrating the adventures of a woman soldier disguised as a man; and The Peacock Flew to the Southeast, a long narrative of tragic family love, written in plain but vivid language. The greatest poet of these troubled centuries was Tao Qian (T'ao Ch'ien, also known as Tao Yuanming, or T'ao Yan-ming), who excelled in writing of the joys of nature and the solitary life. His Peach Blossom Fountain became the classic expression of the poet's search for a utopia. The greatest Chinese poetry was created during the Tang (Tang) dynasty (618907), a period of general peace and prosperity ending in a decline. Despite the passage of more than ten centuries, as many as 49,000 Tang poems by 2200 poets have survived. The three most famous poets were Wang Wei, Li Bo (Li Po), and Du Fu (Tu Fu). They started their lives in the early splendor of the Tang era but lived through the subsequent troubled years of war and rebellion. Wang Wei, a meditative philosopher and painter with Buddhist inclinations, depicted the serenity of nature's beauty; it has been said that poetry is in his pictures and pictures are in his poems. Li Bo, a leader of the romantic school,

rebelled against poetic conventions, as he did against society in general. Passionate and unruly, he embraced the realm of the immortals, whence, he claimed, he had been exiled to this world. Li Bo was at his best when he sang of love and friendship; of the delights of wine; and of the strange, majestic, and awe-inspiring aspects of nature. His friend and rival Du Fu, on the other hand, was conscientious and painstaking in his efforts to achieve startling realism. A humanitarian and historian, Du Fu recorded faithfully and intimately his worldly attachments, his family affections, and an infinite love for humanity, as well as the injustices of the age. The realism of Du Fu's work influenced another Tang poet, Bo Juyi (Po Ch-i), who viewed poetry as a vehicle for criticism and satire. This moralistic tendency, developed in succeeding centuries by other poets, was broadened to include didactic and philosophical disquisitions. In general, however, Chinese poetry was essentially lyrical. Rhyme had always been an essential part of Chinese poetry, but verse forms did not become well established until the Tang poets. The typical poem of the Tang period was in the so-called shi form, characterized by the five-word or seven-word line, with the rhyme usually falling on the even lines. The shi verse form evolved from the four-word verse of the Shi Jing. The Tang period also produced a new poetic form called the ci (tz'u). Although each ci may have lines of varying length, the number of lines, as well as their length, is fixed according to a definite rhyming and tonal pattern. The writing of ci, which is somewhat analogous to putting new words to popular melodies, requires a great deal of skill. The melodies employed were usually of foreign origin.

During the Song (Sung) dynasty (960-1279) the ci reached its greatest popularity. Initially the trend was toward longer ci, written to be sung to popular tunes and commonly dealing with themes of love, courtesans, or music. Su Dongpo (Su Tung-po,), the best-known ci poet of China, liberated the ci from the rigid forms that music had imposed on it and introduced more virile subjects. In the 11th century more and more nonmusical ci were written, that is, ci written with no intention that they would be sung. In the late 11th to the 13th century, however, the tradition of writing musical ci was revived. The great Chinese poet Li Qingzhao (Li Ch'ing-chao) is renowned for ci concerning her widowhood. B. Prose Chinese prose also prospered in the Tang dynasty. Chief among the Tang prose masters was Han Yu, who advocated a return to simple and straightforward writing in the classical style, as a reaction to the artificial prose of his time. As a result of Han Yu's efforts, political and philosophical treatises, informal essays, and tales of the marvelous were all written in the neoclassical style. The latter represent some of the early specimens of Chinese literary fiction. The first group of tales written in the vernacular tradition appeared in the Tang period. In an attempt to spread their religion, Buddhist preachers wrote stories for the common people in colloquial language and evolved a form of narrative known as bianwen, sometimes translated as "popularization," which marked the beginning of popular fiction in China.

In the 11th century, although few examples of the ancient tradition of storytelling had been preserved, a revival of interest in the art took place, and it was practiced with much skill during the Song dynasty (960-1279), a period of spectacular literary achievement. During this medieval period, storytelling became a popular form of entertainment. The stories told by the professional entertainers, each of whom specialized in a certain type, not only were written down but also were printed in storybooks, called huaben, which later inspired the longer novels of China. In the literary tradition, the revival of the terse classical style initiated by Han Yu was carried on during the Song dynasty by Ouyang Xiu (Ou-yang Hsiu) and Su Xun (Su Hsn), among others. The former is distinguished for his essays on Confucian philosophy, politics, and history, but he is better known for his breathtaking descriptions of the landscapes of China. Su Xun's witty essays were generally regarded as the ultimate in classical stylistic accomplishment. Miming, singing, and dancing had existed from ancient times, but the drama proper did not develop until the later Middle Ages. As early as the Tang period, however, actors had been prominent among the popular entertainers and were organized into professional companies that performed in theaters built to accommodate as many as several thousand people. IV. MODERN PERIOD The modern period began in the 13th century and continues in the present. Initially, it was characterized by a vigorous vernacular literature that preceded by several centuries the appearance of modern colloquial literatures in the West. The growth of

Chinese fiction and drama during the Yuan (Yan or Mongol) dynasty (1279-1368) may have been the result of the refusal of many scholars to serve the Mongol regime; instead they turned their talents to new fields, such as fiction and drama. Vernacular literature continued to develop through the modern period, until it finally coalesced with a new and more inclusive literary movement in the early years of the 20th century. Since the 13th century Chinese drama has followed a pattern of local development, with the most popular of local dramas acquiring national importance. The Yuan drama, a creation of northern China, relies on northern dialect in dialogue and song. The lute is the chief instrument used, and the songs, which constitute the poetic portion of the play and are generally considered more important than the dialogues, are written in the qu (ch'), a new poetic form more flexible and expressive than the previously mentioned shi of the Han period and the ci of the Tang period. A Yuan play has four parts, corresponding to the four acts of a Western play; often an additional short act that serves as a prelude and sometimes as an interlude is added. In the 14th century the art of vernacular fiction reached a new height in China. Two of the earliest Chinese novels of this period, Sanguozhi Yanyi (San-Kuo-Chih Yen-i, Romance of the Three Kingdoms), a historical novel of wars and warriors, and Shuihu Zhuan (Shui-hu Chuan, Water Margin, known to the West as All Men Are Brothers), a novel of the adventures of bandit-heroes, may be called the prose epics of the Chinese people. As composite works of folk art created from oral tradition and bearing the stamp of genius of a number of writers, they differ from the works of individual novelists. Generally, Chinese novels of both types are immensely long, vast in scope, and vivid in

characterization and description. All these characteristics are found also in Hongloumeng (Hung-lou Meng, Dream of the Red Chamber), a realistic novel by Cao Xueqin (Ts'ao Hseh-ch'in), which vividly details the prosperity, decline, and redemption of a rich official family. Many important collections of short stories appeared in the 17th century, consisting of compilations handed down from an earlier period or of works by contemporary writers. Like the novels, the stories are colloquial in style and realistic in presentation, giving an intimate picture of Chinese society. The most popular anthology is Jingu Qiguan (Chin-ku Ch'i-kuan, Marvelous Tales of the Past and Present), which consists of 40 stories. As the modern age progressed, the vernacular tradition became ever larger and richer. Conventional literature, on the other hand, was less fruitful, although it continued to be cultivated by members of the scholarly gentry, some of whom were fine writers. Literary orthodoxy was, however, no longer capable of producing more than stereotypes. This decline in the literary tradition continued until the beginning of the 20th century, when it became obvious to Chinese writers that they had to seek new inspiration. Stimulated by the literature of the West, Chinese writers, led by Hu Shi, started a literary revolution known as the Chinese Renaissance in an attempt to urge the written use of colloquial language and to heighten its status as a means of scholarly expression. After 50 years of experiment in this direction, contemporary Chinese literature has come of age and shown considerable creative vitality. During the first half of the 20th century Chinese writers used literature as a mirror to reflect the seamy side of life, as a

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weapon to combat the evils of society, and as a form of propaganda to spread the message of class struggle. By using trenchant essays and stories to attack traditional society, writers such as Lu Xun, whose real name was Zhou Shuren, helped advance the socialist revolution. Although the spirit of Chinese literature changed, the background, characters, and events depicted remained typically Chinese. During the years of the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976), writers and artists were expected to serve the needs of the people, and bourgeois Western influence was zealously attacked. Since then, despite setbacks in 1981 and 1983 (the year of the campaign against so-called spiritual pollution), more freedom of expression has been allowed and a new interest in Western forms and ideas tolerated.

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Japanese Literature
Japanese Literature, literature written by Japanese in both the Japanese and Chinese language. The present article is mainly concerned with works in the Japanese language. Japanese literature developed primarily in the forms of fiction, poetry, the essay, and the drama. This development is usually divided into the Yamato, Heian, KamakuraMuromachi, Edo, and modern periods; the first four are each named after the site of the main administrative center of Japan at the time. Yamato Period (archaic times to late 8th century AD). Although no written literature existed before the 8th century, a large number of ballads, ritual prayers, myths, and legends were composed in the previous centuries. These compositions subsequently were recorded and are included in the Koji-ki (Records of Ancient Matters, 712), written largely in Japanese with Chinese characters, and the Nihon shoki (History Book of Ancient Japan, 720), written almost exclusively in Chinese. The earliest extant histories of Japan, these works explain the origin of the Japanese people, the formation of the Japanese state, and the essence of the national polity. Although both works contain much the same mythical and historical material, the Koji-ki is clearly intended for exclusive use by the Japanese, whereas the Nihon shoki, showing the influence of Chinese thought, is broader in scope. A lyric poetry developed from the early ballads included in these works that was collected in the first great Japanese anthology, the Manyo-shu (Anthology of a Myriad Leaves), compiled by the poet Otomo no Yakamochi after 759. In this anthology a

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primitive syllabary is used, known as manyo-gana, in which Chinese characters serve as phonetic symbols of syllables rather than of words. The two most important poetic forms in the anthology are the choka (long poem), consisting of alternate lines of five and seven syllables, followed by a final line of seven syllables to which is appended one or more hanka (envoys); and the tanka (short poem), consisting of 31 syllables, written in five lines according to a pattern of five, seven, five, seven, and seven syllables. The tanka became the preeminent Japanese verse form, maintaining its vitality until the modern period, whereas the choka soon waned in popularity. The foremost poet of the Manyoshu is Kakinomoto Hitomaro (flourished about 680-710), who handled freely all forms of verse. The prevailing mood of the anthology is makoto (truth or sincerity), the full involvement of the person. Heian Period (late 8th-late 12th cent.). In the late 8th century the seat of government was shifted to Heian-kyo (present-day Kyoto), and a new type of literature emerged among the aristocratic court society. The creation of the Japanese syllabaries in this century aided the development of prose fiction as well as of poetry. The Kokin-shu (Anthology of Ancient and Modern Poems, 905) clearly reflects the change in mood from that of personal sincerity, which characterized the previous period, to one of mono no aware, or empathy with the essence of things, a bond linking nature and human beings. The chief compiler, Ki Tsurayuki (died about 945), who provided the basis for Japanese poetics in his preface, was himself a poet of note, and his poems are included in the anthology. Most of the poems, however, are taken from earlier periods. Tsurayuki is noted also as the author of the Tosa-Diary (935; trans. 1912), the first example of an important

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Japanese genre, the literary diary. The work recounts his journey home to Kyoto from Tosa Province and includes moving references to his daughter's death there. The literature of the early 10th century was either in the form of fairy tales such as The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter (trans. 1956), or of poem-tales such as the Ise monogatari (The Tales of Ise, c. 980). The greatest works of Heian literature appeared in the late 10th and early 11th centuries, notably Genji monogatari (The Tale of Genji, c. 1010) by Murasaki Shikibu and Makura-no-soshi (The Pillow-Book) by Sei Shonagon, another woman of the court. The Tale of Genji, a detailed panoramic picture of Heian court life, may be considered the first important novel in world literature. It also includes many tanka written by the characters in various situations. The novel traces in 54 long chapters the life and loves of Prince Genji and Kaoru, his presumed son. It becomes increasingly profound toward the end, probably an indication that the author had perfected her mastery of the craft of fiction. The work of Murasaki Shikibu has frequently been translated into English; a translation by the American scholar Edward Seidensticker appeared in 1976. The Pillow-Book, the earlier of the two classic works, is a witty, often brilliant, collection of sketches revealing the more wordly aspect of the same court society. It was first translated by the English scholar Arthur Waley in 1928. Kamakura-Muromachi Period (late 12th-16th cent.). The collapse of the manorial system in Japan culminated in the defeat of the Taira clan by the Minamoto clan, who established the government in Kamakura in 1192. From the end of the 12th until the early 17th century Japan was in an almost constant state of warfare and turmoil. The dominant figures in Japanese society

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were the samurai, or warrior, who engaged in a life of action, and the Buddhist priest, who devoted his life primarily to contemplation. The finest of several imperial anthologies of poetry, the Shin kokin-shu (New Collection of Ancient and Modern Poems, 1205?), commissioned by former emperor Go-Toba and compiled by a committee that included Fujiwara Teika, reflects the change in national and literary mood to one of gloom and solitude. Japanese scholars use the term yugen (mystery and depth), which has definite religious overtones, to characterize the entire literature of this period. One of the major poets of this anthology is, significantly, a religious figure, the priest Saigyo. The defeat of the Taira by the Minamoto clan became the subject of the most famous prose piece of the period, the Heike monogatari (The Tales of the Taira Clan, c. 1220), by an anonymous author. The Ten Foot Square Hut (1212; trans. 1928) by another priest, Kamo Chomei, contrasts the vanity of the world with the virtues of Buddhist contemplation. Diary of the Waning Moon (1277; trans. 1951) is a literary diary compiled by a nun, Abutsu, consisting of prose and poetry, the latter sections being of greater importance. Essays in Idleness (1340; trans. 1967) by Kenko Yoshida is reminiscent of The PillowBook but more melancholy in mood, undoubtedly reflecting regret at the disturbances of the times. The major type of fiction of this era was the otogizoshi, collections of popular short stories by unknown authors. The foremost poetic development in the period after the early 14th century was the creation of the renga, or linked verse, a form circumscribed by many regulations. Three or more poets would cooperate in composing one long poem, consisting of alternate verses, one containing lines of seven, five, and seven syllables and the other two

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lines of seven syllables each. The greatest masters of this form, Sogi, Shohaku, and Socho, together composed the famous Minase sangin (Three Poets at Minase) in 1488. Edo Period (1603-1867). With the establishment of peace in 1603 under the Tokugawa clan, which had its seat of government in Edo (present-day Tokyo), commerce flourished and towns developed, producing a merchant class that soon created its own literature, a bawdy, worldly fiction radically different in character from the literature of the preceding period. The most important figure of the period was Ihara Saikaku, whose Life of an Amorous Man (1682; trans. 1964) is a brilliant work of fiction full of humor and wit, presenting a panoramic view of the sensual life of mercantile society. Many writers imitated Saikaku in the 18th century, but none equaled his achievements. The 19th century brought into prominence an important, if somewhat limited, writer of fiction, Jippensha Ikku (circa 1765-1831). He is the author of Hizakurige (1802-22; trans. 1929), which is a delightful picaresque work that relates the misadventures of two scamps. The haiku, a poem in 17 syllables, was perfected in this period. Possibly the greatest Japanese aesthetic achievement in literature, it can be described as the distilled essence of poetry and it reflects the influence of Zen, a form of Buddhism that prevailed in Japan at this time. Three poets are preeminent for their haiku. The first is the Zen Buddhist lay-priest Basho, who took excursions to remote regions, composing as the mood struck him, so that his poetry is set within travel accounts, the prose sections of which are also significant. He is revered as the greatest of Japanese poets for his sensitivity and profundity and is particularly noted for his Narrow Road Through the

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Deep North (1964; trans. 1966). The second is Yosa Buson, whose haiku express his experience as a painter. The third is Kobayashi Issa, a poet of humble origin, who drew his material from village life. Comic poetry, in a variety of forms, also flourished during the Edo period. Modern Period (1867 to the present). Throughout the modern period Japanese writers were influenced by other literatures, primarily those of the West, and they refashioned many foreign literary concepts and techniques in fiction and poetry. 19th Century The humorist Kanagaki Robunis a transitional figure who attempted vainly to adapt himself to the new age but basically adhered to the comic style of the Edo period. Translations from Western literature, at first primarily from works of British authors, gave impetus to the political novel, an interesting if not highly literary genre that prevailed throughout the 1880s. Kajin no kigu (Chance Meeting with Two Beauties), by Tokai Sanshi, is an extravagant and unintentionally humorous work tracing the travels and fortunes of a young Japanese politician. The critical work Shosetsu shinzui (The Essence of the Novel, 1885), by the writer Tsubouchi Shoyo, argues for a prose art grounded in realism, on the Western model. The next step forward in modernization was The Drifting Cloud (1887; trans. 1967) by Futabatei Shimei, the first serious novel in the colloquial language.

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The Kenyusha (The Society of the Friends of the Inkstone), a student literary society founded by the novelist and poet Ozaki Koyo, became important in Japanese literary life after 1890. The society influenced the creation of a new literature that maintained traditional aesthetic values while incorporating Western techniques. A young writer so influenced, Higuchi Ichiyo, deftly traces the psychology of children and young lovers in a number of short stories. Her Growing Up (1896; trans. 1956) is generally considered her masterpiece. 20th Century French naturalistic fiction attracted young Japanese authors, who soon developed a naturalism of their own with less social content and far greater subjectivity. The leading figure in this naturalistic style is Shimazaki Toson, whose Hakai (The Breaking of the Commandment, 1906), describing the confession of an outcast youth, firmly established the movement. Two exceedingly important figures, Mori Ogai and Natsume Soseki, stood aloof from this dominating French tradition. Ogai drew his inspiration primarily from German literature. He was active in writing poetry, drama, novels, and historical biography. Perhaps his best work of fiction is The Wild Geese (1911-13; trans. 1959), which examines with remarkable acuity the feelings of a girl who is forced to be the mistress of a usurer. Soseki was a scholar of English literature before he turned to imaginative writing. His monumental achievement in the psychological novel makes him unquestionably one of the greatest writers Japan has produced in modern times. In his works written between 1905 and his death in 1916 he created a fictional world that constitutes a ruthless indictment of modern egoism. His incomplete last work, Meian

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(Light and Darkness), is perhaps the only modern Japanese novel that in scope and depth resembles the achievement of the Russian masters. In the period from 1910 to 1930 Akutagawa Ryunosuke, a disciple of Soseki, created a highly structured, polished short-story form that, in English translation, has found admirers throughout the world. "Rashomon" (1915), which was made into a motion picture, is one of his tales that was translated in Rashomon and Other Stories (1952). The militarist domination of Japanese life in the 1930s largely stifled literature, although a few writers retreated into an uncontroversial aestheticism. Kawabata Yasunari, the recipient of the 1968 Nobel Prize for literature, and Tanizaki Junichiro are foremost among the authors who emerged from World War II to continue perfecting their craft. Their work is known to readers of English through the excellent translations by Edward Seidensticker of Kawabata's Snow Country (1935-47; trans. 1956) and Tanizaki's Some Prefer Nettles (1929; trans. 1955). Another of Japan's most highly regarded postwar writers, Mishima Yukio, wrote a number of novels, plays, and short stories concerning his despair over the Westernization of his country and his desire for a return to the nobler Japan of earlier times. Among his haunting works are his first novel, the partly autobiographical Confessions of a Mask (1949; trans. 1958), and his tetralogy, The Sea of Fertility (1970; trans. 1972-75), an epic story of modern Japan. The death-obsessed Mishima died by committing ritual hara-kiri. Although poetry has been less important than fiction throughout the modern period, Masaoka Shiki deserves mention as the creator of modern forms of the tanka and

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haiku. Since the end of the 19th century a vigorous movement for the writing of poetry in the Western style has arisen, and several prominent poets have emerged in this genre. In the period after World War II Japanese literature received a careful and sympathetic appraisal by several American scholars, foremost among them Donald Keene. Through their work of criticism and translation, Japanese literature has become recognized as a vital part of world literature.

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Indian Literature
The Indian literary tradition is primarily one of verse and is also essentially oral. The earliest works were composed to be sung or recited and were so transmitted for many generations before being written down. As a result, the earliest records of a text may be later by several centuries than the conjectured date of its composition. Furthermore, perhaps because so much Indian literature is either religious or a reworking of familiar stories from the Sanskrit epics, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, and the mythological writings known as Puranas, the authors often remain anonymous. Biographical details of the lives of most of the earlier Indian writers exist only in much later stories and legends. Other Themes In medieval Indian literature the earliest works in many of the languages were sectarian, designed to advance or to celebrate some unorthodox regional belief. Examples are the Caryapadas in Bengali, Tantric verses of the 12th century, and the Lilacaritra (circa 1280), in Marathi. In Kannada (Kanarese) from the 10th century, and later in Gujarati from the 13th century, the first truly indigenous works are Jain romances; ostensibly the lives of Jain saints, these are actually popular tales based on Sanskrit and Pali themes. Other example was in Rajasthani of the bardic tales of chivalry and heroic resistance to the first Muslim invasions - such as the 12th-century epic poem Prithirajaraso by Chand Bardai of Lahore. Most important of all for later Indian literature were the first traces in the vernacular languages of the northern Indian cults of Krishna and of Rama. Included are

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the 12th-century poems by Jaydev, called the Gitagovinda (The Cowherd's Song); and about 1400, a group of religious love poems written in Maithili (eastern Hindi of Bihar) by the poet Vidyapati were a seminal influence on the cult of Radha-Krishna in Bengal. The Bhakti Tradition The full flowering of the Radha-Krishna cult, under the Hindu mystics Chaitanya in Bengal and Vallabhacharya at Mathura, involved bhakti (a personal devotion to a god). Although earlier traces of this attitude are found in the work of the Tamil Alvars (mystics who wrote ecstatic hymns to Vishnu between the 7th and 10th centuries), a later surge of bhakti flooded every channel of Indian intellectual and religious life beginning in the late 15th century. Bhakti was also addressed to Rama (an avatar of Vishnu), most notably in the Avadhi (eastern Hindi) works of Tulsi Das; his Ramcharitmanas (Lake of the Acts of Rama, 1574-77; trans. 1952) has become the authoritative. The early gurus or founders of the Sikh religion, especially Nanak and Arjun, composed bhakti hymns to their concepts of deity. These are the first written documents in Punjabi (Panjabi) and form part of the Adi Granth (First, or Original, Book), the sacred scripture of the Sikhs, which was first compiled by Arjun in 1604. In the 16th century, the Rajaasthani princess and poet Mira Bai addressed her bhakti lyric verse to Krishna, as did the Gujarati poet Narsimh Mehta. Traditional Material In the 16th century, Jagannath Das wrote an Oriya version of the Bhagavata and Tuncattu Eruttacchan, the so-called father of Malayalam literature, wrote recensions of

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traditional literature. Added, in the 18th century, was a deliberate imitation of Sanskritic forms and vocabulary by pandits. In 18th-century evolved Assamese and Marathi prose chronicles, ballads, and folk drama involving much dance and song. The Tamil Tradition The only Indian writings that incontestably predate the influence of classical Sanskrit are those in the Tamil language. Anthologies of secular lyrics on the themes of love and war, together with the grammatical-stylistic work Tolkappiyam (Old Composition), are thought to be very ancient. Later, between the 6th and 9th centuries, Tamil sectarian devotional poems were composed, often claimed as the first examples of the Indian bhakti tradition. At some indeterminate date between the 2nd and 5th centuries, two long Tamil verse romances (sometimes called epics) were written: Cilappatikaram (The Jeweled Anklet) by Ilanko Atikal, which has been translated into English (1939 and 1965); and its sequel Manimekalai (The Girdle of Gems), a Buddhist work by Cattanar. Linguistic and Cultural Influences Much traditional Indian literature is derived in theme and form not only from Sanskrit literature but from the Buddhist and Jain texts written in the Pali language and the other Prakrits (medieval dialects of Sanskrit). This applies to literature in the Dravidian languages of the south as well as to literature in the Indo-Iranian languages of the north. Invasions of Persians and Turks, beginning in the 14th century, resulted in the influence of Persian and Islamic culture in Urdu, although important Islamic strands can

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be found in other literatures as well, especially those written in Bengali, Gujarati, and Kashmiri. After 1817, entirely new literary values were established that remain dominant today. The Urdu poets almost always wrote in Persian forms, using the ghazal for love poetry in addition to an Islamic form of bhakti, the masnavi for narrative verse, and the marsiya for elegies. Urdu then gained use as a literary language in Delhi and Lucknow. The ghazals of Mir and Ghalib mark the highest achievement of Urdu lyric verse. The Urdu poets were mostly sophisticated, urban artists, but some adopted the idiom of folk poetry, as is typical of the verses in Punjabi, Pushtu, Sindhi or other regional languages. Regional Liiterature Literary activities burst forth with the playwright Bharatas (200 BC) Natya Shastra, the Bible of dramatic criticism. The earliest plays were soon overshadowed by Kalidasas Shakuntala, a heroic play, a model for ages. While Shudrakas Mrichchhakatika, was a play of the social class. Bhavabhuti (circa 700AD) was another well-known figure, his best being Malatimadhava and Uttaramacharita (based on Ramayana). The great Sanskrit poems are five Kalidasas Raghuvamsa and

Kumarasambhava, Kiratarjuniya of Bharavi (550AD), Sishupalavadha of Magha (7th century AD) and Naishadhiyacharita of Sriharsha (12th century AD). All of them draw from the Mahabharata. Shorter poems of great depth were composed on a single theme like love, morality, detachment and sometimes of grave matters. The earliest and best collections of such verses called Muktakas are those of Bhartrihari and Amaruka.

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Much of the early prose work in Sanskrit has not survived. Of the remaining, some of the best are Vasavadatta of Subandhu, Kadambari and Harshacharita of Bana (7th century AD) and Dasakumaracharita of Dandin (7th century AD). The Panchatantra and Hitopadesha are collections of wit and wisdom in the Indian style, teaching polity and proper conduct through animal fables and aphorisms. With a glorious life of over 3000 years, Sanskrit continues to be a living language even today, bobbing up during Hindu ceremonies when mantras (ritual verses) are chanted. And though restricted, its still a medium of literary expression, but great works have long stopped being written. The Modern Period Poets such as Ghalib, lived and worked during the British era, when a literary revolution occurred in all the Indian languages as a result of contact with Western thought, when the printing press was introduced (by Christian missionaries), and when the influence of Western educational institutions was strong. During the mid-19th century in the great ports of Mumbai, Calcutta, and Chennai, a prose literary tradition arose encompassing the novel, short story, essay, and literary drama (this last incorporating both classical Sanskrit and Western models)that gradually engulfed the customary Indian verse genres. Urdu poets remained faithful to the old forms while Bengalis were imitating such English poets as Percy Bysshe Shelley or T.S. Eliot.

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Ram Mohan Roy's (1774-1833) campaign for introduction of scientific education in India and Swami Vivekananda's work are considered to be great examples of the English literature in India. During the last 150 years many writers have contributed to the development of modern Indian literature, writing in any of the 18 major languages (as well as in English). Bengali has led the way and today has one of the most extensive literatures of any Indian language. One of its greatest representatives is Sir Rabindranath Tagore, the first Indian to win the Nobel Prize for literature (1913). Much of his prose and verse is available in his own English translations. Work by two other great 20th-century Indian leaders and writers is also widely known: the verse of the Islamic leader and philosopher Sir Muhammad Iqbal, originally written in Urdu and Persian; and the autobiography of Mohandas K. Gandhi, My Experiments with Truth, originally written in Gujarati between 1927 and 1929, is now considered a classic. Several other writers are relatively well known to the West. They include Jawaharlal Nehru (1889-1964) for his Glimpses of World History, Discovery of India and An Autobiography (1936); Mulk Raj Anand, among whose many works the early affectionate Untouchable (1935) and Coolie (1936) are novels of social protest; and R. K. Narayan, writer of novels and tales of village life in southern India. The first of Narayan's many works, Swami and Friends, appeared in 1935; among his more recent titles are The English Teacher (1980), The Vendor of Sweets (1983), and Under the Banyan Tree (1985). Among the younger authors writing of modern India with nostalgia for the past is

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Anita Desaias in Clear Light of Day (1980). Her In Custody (1984) is the story of a teacher's fatal enchantment with poetry. Ved Mehta, although long resident in the U.S., recalls his Indian roots in a series of memoirs of his family and of his education at schools for the blind in India and America; among these works are Vedi (1982) and Sound Shadows of the New World (1986). The other well-known novelist/ writers are Dom Moraes (A Beginning), Nlissim E Zekiel (The Unfurnished Man), P Lal, A.K.Ramanujan (whose translations of Tamil classics are internationally known), Kamala Das, Arun Kolatkar and R. Parthasarathy; Toru Dutt; Sarojini Naidu; Aurobindo; Raja Rao, GV Desani, M Ananthanarayanan, Bhadani Bhattacharya, Monohar Malgonkar, Arun Joshi, Kamala Markandaya, , Khushwant Singh, Nayantara Sahgal, O.V. Vijayan; Salman Rushdie; K.R. Sreenivasa Iyengar, C.D. Narasimhaiah and M.K. Naik. Among the latest are Vikram Seth (A Suitable Boy), Allan Sealy (The TrotterNama), Sashi Tharoor (Show Business, The Great Indian Novel, Amitav Ghosh (Circle of Reason, Shadow Lines), Upamanyu Chatterjee (English August) and Vikram Chandra (Red Earth and Pouring Rain).

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Philippine Literature
The diversity and richness of Philippine literature evolved side by side with the country's history. This can best be appreciated in the context of the country's pre-colonial cultural traditions and the socio-political histories of its colonial and contemporary traditions. The average Filipino's unfamiliarity with his indigenous literature was largely due to what has been impressed upon him: that his country was "discovered" and, hence, Philippine "history" started only in 1521. So successful were the efforts of colonialists to blot out the memory of the country's largely oral past that present-day Filipino writers, artists and journalists are trying to correct this inequity by recognizing the country's wealth of ethnic traditions and disseminating them in schools and in the mass media. The rousings of nationalistic pride in the 1960s and 1970s also helped bring about this change of attitude among a new breed of Filipinos concerned about the "Filipino identity." Pre-Colonial Times Owing to the works of our own archaeologists, ethnologists and anthropologists, we are able to know more and better judge information about our pre-colonial times set against a bulk of material about early Filipinos as recorded by Spanish, Chinese, Arabic and other chroniclers of the past.

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Pre-colonial inhabitants of our islands showcase a rich past through their folk speeches, folk songs, folk narratives and indigenous rituals and mimetic dances that affirm our ties with our Southeast Asian neighbors. The most seminal of these folk speeches is the riddle which is tigmo in Cebuano, bugtong in Tagalog, paktakon in Ilongo and patototdon in Bicol. Central to the riddle is the talinghaga or metaphor because it "reveals subtle resemblances between two unlike objects" and one's power of observation and wit are put to the test. While some riddles are ingenious, others verge on the obscene or are sex-related: Gaddang: Gongonan nu usin y amam If you pull your daddy's penis Maggirawa pay sila y inam. Your mommy's vagina, too, (Campana) screams. (Bell) The proverbs or aphorisms express norms or codes of behavior, community beliefs or they instill values by offering nuggets of wisdom in short, rhyming verse. The extended form, tanaga, a mono-riming heptasyllabic quatrain expressing insights and lessons on life is "more emotionally charged than the terse proverb and thus has affinities with the folk lyric." Some examples are the basahanon or extended didactic sayings from Bukidnon and the daraida and daragilon from Panay. The folk song, a form of folk lyric which expresses the hopes and aspirations, the people's lifestyles as well as their loves. These are often repetitive and sonorous, didactic

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and naive as in the children's songs or Ida-ida (Maguindanao), tulang pambata (Tagalog) or cansiones para abbing (Ibanag). A few examples are the lullabyes or Ili-ili (Ilongo); love songs like the panawagon and balitao (Ilongo); harana or serenade (Cebuano); the bayok (Maranao); the sevensyllable per line poem, ambahan of the Mangyans that are about human relationships, social entertainment and also serve as a tool for teaching the young; work songs that depict the livelihood of the people often sung to go with the movement of workers such as the kalusan (Ivatan), soliranin (Tagalog rowing song) or the mambayu, a Kalinga ricepounding song; the verbal jousts/games like the duplo popular during wakes. Other folk songs are the drinking songs sung during carousals like the tagay (Cebuano and Waray); dirges and lamentations extolling the deeds of the dead like the kanogon (Cebuano) or the Annako (Bontoc). A type of narrative song or kissa among the Tausug of Mindanao, the parang sabil, uses for its subject matter the exploits of historical and legendary heroes. It tells of a Muslim hero who seeks death at the hands of non-Muslims. The folk narratives, i.e. epics and folk tales are varied, exotic and magical. They explain how the world was created, how certain animals possess certain characteristics, why some places have waterfalls, volcanoes, mountains, flora or fauna and, in the case of legends, an explanation of the origins of things. Fables are about animals and these teach moral lessons.

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Our country's epics are considered ethno-epics because unlike, say, Germany's Niebelunginlied, our epics are not national for they are "histories" of varied groups that consider themselves "nations." The epics come in various names: Guman (Subanon); Darangen (Maranao); Hudhud (Ifugao); and Ulahingan (Manobo). These epics revolve around supernatural events or heroic deeds and they embody or validate the beliefs and customs and ideals of a community. These are sung or chanted to the accompaniment of indigenous musical instruments and dancing performed during harvests, weddings or funerals by chanters. The chanters who were taught by their ancestors are considered "treasures" and/or repositories of wisdom in their communities. Examples of these epics are the Lam-ang (Ilocano); Hinilawod (Sulod); Kudaman (Palawan); Darangen (Maranao); Ulahingan (Livunganen-Arumanen Manobo);

Mangovayt Buhong na Langit (The Maiden of the Buhong Sky from Tuwaang--Manobo); Ag Tobig neg Keboklagan (Subanon); and Tudbulol (T'boli). The Spanish Colonial Tradition While it is true that Spain subjugated the Philippines for more mundane reasons, this former European power contributed much in the shaping and recording of our literature. Religion and institutions that represented European civilization enriched the languages in the lowlands, introduced theater which we would come to know as komedya, the sinakulo, the sarswela, the playlets and the drama. Spain also brought to the country, though at a much later time, liberal ideas and an internationalism that influenced

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our own Filipino intellectuals and writers for them to understand the meanings of "liberty and freedom." Literature in this period may be classified as religious prose and poetry and secular prose and poetry. Religious lyrics written by ladino poets or those versed in both Spanish and Tagalog were included in early catechism and were used to teach Filipinos the Spanish language. Fernando Bagonbanta's "Salamat nang walang hanga/gracias de sin sempiternas" (Unending thanks) is a fine example that is found in the Memorial de la vida cristiana en lengua tagala (Guidelines for the Christian life in the Tagalog language) published in 1605. Another form of religious lyrics are the meditative verses like the dalit appended to novenas and catechisms. It has no fixed meter nor rime scheme although a number are written in octosyllabic quatrains and have a solemn tone and spiritual subject matter. But among the religious poetry of the day, it is the pasyon in octosyllabic quintillas that became entrenched in the Filipino's commemoration of Christ's agony and resurrection at Calvary. Gaspar Aquino de Belen's "Ang Mahal na Passion ni Jesu Christong Panginoon natin na tola" (Holy Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ in Verse) put out in 1704 is the country's earliest known pasyon. Other known pasyons chanted during the Lenten season are in Ilocano, Pangasinan, Ibanag, Cebuano, Bicol, Ilongo and Waray.

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Aside from religious poetry, there were various kinds of prose narratives written to prescribe proper decorum. Like the pasyon, these prose narratives were also used for proselitization. Some forms are: dialogo (dialogue), Manual de Urbanidad (conduct book); ejemplo (exemplum) and tratado (tratado). The most well-known are Modesto de Castro's "Pagsusulatan ng Dalawang Binibini na si Urbana at si Feliza" (Correspondence between the Two Maidens Urbana and Feliza) in 1864 and Joaquin Tuason's "Ang Bagong Robinson" (The New Robinson) in 1879, an adaptation of Daniel Defoe's novel. Secular works appeared alongside historical and economic changes, the emergence of an opulent class and the middle class who could avail of a European education. This Filipino elite could now read printed works that used to be the exclusive domain of the missionaries. The most notable of the secular lyrics followed the conventions of a romantic tradition: the languishing but loyal lover, the elusive, often heartless beloved, the rival. The leading poets were Jose Corazon de Jesus (Huseng Sisiw) and Francisco Balagtas. Some secular poets who wrote in this same tradition were Leona Florentino, Jacinto Kawili, Isabelo de los Reyes and Rafael Gandioco. Another popular secular poetry is the metrical romance, the awit and korido in Tagalog. The awit is set in dodecasyllabic quatrains while the korido is in octosyllabic quatrains. These are colorful tales of chivalry from European sources made for singing and chanting such as Gonzalo de Cordoba (Gonzalo of Cordoba) and Ibong Adarna (Adarna Bird). There are numerous metrical romances in Tagalog, Bicol, Ilongo,

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Pampango, Ilocano and in Pangasinan. The awit as a popular poetic genre reached new heights in Balagtas' "Florante at Laura" (ca. 1838-1861), the most famous of the country's metrical romances. Again, the winds of change began to blow in 19th century Philippines. Filipino intellectuals educated in Europe called ilustrados began to write about the downside of colonization. This, coupled with the simmering calls for reforms by the masses gathered a formidable force of writers like Jose Rizal, Marcelo H. del Pilar, Mariano Ponce, Emilio Jacinto and Andres Bonifacio. This led to the formation of the Propaganda Movement where prose works such as the political essays and Rizal's two political novels, Noli Me Tangere and the El filibusterismo helped usher in the Philippine revolution resulting in the downfall of the Spanish regime, and, at the same time planted the seeds of a national consciousness among Filipinos. But if Rizal's novels are political, the novel Ninay (1885) by Pedro Paterno is largely cultural and is considered the first Filipino novel. Although Paterno's Ninay gave impetus to other novelists like Jesus Balmori and Antonio M. Abad to continue writing in Spanish, this did not flourish. Other Filipino writers published the essay and short fiction in Spanish in La Vanguardia, El Debate, Renacimiento Filipino, and Nueva Era. The more notable essayists and fictionists were Claro M. Recto, Teodoro M. Kalaw, Epifanio de los Reyes,

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Vicente Sotto, Trinidad Pardo de Tavera, Rafael Palma, Enrique Laygo (Caretas or Masks, 1925) and Balmori who mastered the prosa romantica or romantic prose. But the introduction of English as medium of instruction in the Philippines hastened the demise of Spanish so that by the 1930s, English writing had overtaken Spanish writing. During the language's death throes, however, writing in the romantic tradition, from the awit and korido, would continue in the novels of Magdalena Jalandoni. But patriotic writing continued under the new colonialists. These appeared in the vernacular poems and modern adaptations of works during the Spanish period and which further maintained the Spanish tradition. The American Colonial Period A new set of colonizers brought about new changes in Philippine literature. New literary forms such as free verse [in poetry], the modern short story and the critical essay were introduced. American influence was deeply entrenched with the firm establishment of English as the medium of instruction in all schools and with literary modernism that highlighted the writer's individuality and cultivated consciousness of craft, sometimes at the expense of social consciousness. The poet, and later, National Artist for Literature, Jose Garcia Villa used free verse and espoused the dictum, "Art for art's sake" to the chagrin of other writers more concerned with the utilitarian aspect of literature. Another maverick in poetry who used free verse and talked about illicit love in her poetry was Angela Manalang Gloria, a woman poet described as ahead of her time. Despite the threat of censorship by the new

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dispensation, more writers turned up "seditious works" and popular writing in the native languages bloomed through the weekly outlets like Liwayway and Bisaya. The Balagtas tradition persisted until the poet Alejandro G. Abadilla advocated modernism in poetry. Abadilla later influenced young poets who wrote modern verses in the 1960s such as Virgilio S. Almario, Pedro I. Ricarte and Rolando S. Tinio. While the early Filipino poets grappled with the verities of the new language, Filipinos seemed to have taken easily to the modern short story as published in the Philippines Free Press, the College Folio and Philippines Herald. Paz Marquez Benitez's "Dead Stars" published in 1925 was the first successful short story in English written by a Filipino. Later on, Arturo B. Rotor and Manuel E. Arguilla showed exceptional skills with the short story. Alongside this development, writers in the vernaculars continued to write in the provinces. Others like Lope K. Santos, Valeriano Hernandez Pea and Patricio Mariano were writing minimal narratives similar to the early Tagalog short fiction called dali or pasingaw (sketch). The romantic tradition was fused with American pop culture or European influences in the adaptations of Edgar Rice Burroughs' Tarzan by F. P. Boquecosa who also penned Ang Palad ni Pepe after Charles Dicken's David Copperfield even as the realist tradition was kept alive in the novels by Lope K. Santos and Faustino Aguilar, among others.

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It should be noted that if there was a dearth of the Filipino novel in English, the novel in the vernaculars continued to be written and serialized in weekly magazines like Liwayway, Bisaya, Hiligaynon and Bannawag. The essay in English became a potent medium from the 1920's to the present. Some leading essayists were journalists like Carlos P. Romulo, Jorge Bocobo, Pura Santillan Castrence, etc. who wrote formal to humorous to informal essays for the delectation by Filipinos. Among those who wrote criticism developed during the American period were Ignacio Manlapaz, Leopoldo Yabes and I.V. Mallari. But it was Salvador P. Lopez's criticism that grabbed attention when he won the Commonwealth Literay Award for the essay in 1940 with his "Literature and Society." This essay posited that art must have substance and that Villa's adherence to "Art for Art's Sake" is decadent. The last throes of American colonialism saw the flourishing of Philippine literature in English at the same time, with the introduction of the New Critical aesthetics, made writers pay close attention to craft and "indirectly engendered a disparaging attitude" towards vernacular writings -- a tension that would recur in the contemporary period. The Contemporary Period The flowering of Philippine literature in the various languages continue especially with the appearance of new publications after the Martial Law years and the resurgence of committed literature in the 1960s and the 1970s.

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Filipino writers continue to write poetry, short stories, novellas, novels and essays whether these are socially committed, gender/ethnic related or are personal in intention or not. Of course the Filipino writer has become more conscious of his art with the proliferation of writers workshops here and abroad and the bulk of literature available to him via the mass media including the internet. The various literary awards such as the Don Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature, the Philippines Free Press, Philippine Graphic, Home Life and Panorama literary awards encourage him to compete with his peers and hope that his creative efforts will be rewarded in the long run. With the new requirement by the Commission on Higher Education of teaching of Philippine Literature in all tertiary schools in the country emphasizing the teaching of the vernacular literature or literatures of the regions, the audience for Filipino writers is virtually assured. And, perhaps, a national literature finding its niche among the literatures of the world will not be far behind.

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The Literature of Island Southeast Asia

Island Southeast Asia is the archipelago group that lies south of the Philippines. It is composed of Indonesia (the largest archipelago in the world), Sabah, Borneo, and Malaysia. As Filipinos, we are very much interested in these countries for several reasons. Geographically, we are very close to Indonesia. It takes a Sulu native only two hours to reach Sabah, and thence, Indonesia, whereas it takes longer for an inhabitant of Luzon to reach some islands in the Visayan group. Out forefathers came from Indonesia, and it is not strange that there is a striking similarity between our language and the language of Indonesia. It was only by accident of history that culturally we differ from Indonesia and other countries near it. The early literature of Indonesia had a clearly religious function. Songs or exorcisms were used during periods in life; birth, death, sickness, pregnancy, rice planting and harvesting, war, head hunting, and drought. In forms the songs are reminiscent of the biblical psalms. They do not follow strict formal pattern, but they often strike even the Western reader as being evocative and possessing a supernatural religious power. Naturally many of the songs were improvised, for the priest-singer had much freedom with his religious songs. There is thus reason to assume that, for all its primitive character, this orally transmitted poetry in the form in which it is known today is not very old. Orally transmitted prose forms are varied and include myths, animal stories and beast fables, fairy tales, legends, puzzles, and riddles, anecdotes, and adventure stories. Strong mutual influences and written traditions, including those foreign origin, have

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influenced the folk stories. For example, animal stories throughout the Malay archipelago reveal the influence of the five Indian fables known collectively as the Panchatantra. One of the earliest references to Indonesia is found in the Ramayana, the great Indian epic of the first century A.D. which mentions Javadvipa and Savaranadvipa, thus: And all your efforts reach Javadvipa, adorned with seven kingdoms, the island of gold and silver, rich with mines of gold. To this day the art, literature, and political and social institutions of Java bear an unmistakable impress of Indian ideas. The spirit of Javanese poetry, drama, music, and dance is close to that of the Indian. The Ramayana and Mahabharata have virtually influenced the development of these fine arts, furnishing subject matter for them. The Mahabharata stories, particularly the legends about the god Krishna, appear in sculptured figures, puppets, and Javanese shadow-plays. Malay literature in Indonesia consisted chiefly of novels and poetry of a traditional form, the former being mostly stories with moral intent. The best known of the ancient poems were in form of the pantum, composed of four lines written in a romantic vein, the first rhyming with the third and the second with the fourth. They were learned by heart. Only in the twentieth century, as a corollary to the nationalist movements that led to Indonesian independence after World War II, did the modern literature arise, closely linked with the new ideal of a national language, Bahasa Indonesia. Modern literature is still in its infancy, Malay and Bahasa Indonesian poets Muhammad Yamin, Rustan Effendi, and Sanusi Pani, still strongly traditional in style and choice of forms, were influenced by the West, in particular by the Dutch.

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The Literature of Mainland Southeast Asia A. THAI LITERATURE

Thai Traditional Literature is essentially religious. Most of the literature in the old days consisted of works on Buddhism and Hinduism directly or indirectly. Whatever culture the Thai people brought with them from their homeland in Southern China where they had been in contact with Chinese culture for centuries was adapted to its later conception of Buddhism, their adopted religion. Traces of their original culture may be found here and there in a disguised and weak form embedded in their literature. Most of the works of emotive literature were written in verse in various patterns. Five prominent examples of such works may be cited briefly. 1. The Romance of Khun Chang Khun Phaen, an indigenous story of love and pathos, at time humorous, of a triangular love plot of one heroine with two lovers. The story, apart from its beautiful expressions, contains a mine of information on old beliefs and social customs of the Thai before the impact of Western culture. The story as is known has been translated into English and French. 2. Ramakian (or Ramakirti in transliteration) is the story based on the famous Indian epic, Ramayana. It is unique, containing many episodes and details which are not to be found in the original epic, but showing traces of contact with certain versions of the Ramayana in India, Malaysia, Java and Cambodia. There is an English translation. 3. The Romance of Inao. This is a translation from the well-known story of adventures of the national Javanese hero prince. It is written in a refined and perfect style of the Thai Language and meant for dramatic performance. 41

4. Sam Kok. This is a translation from San Kuo Chi, a Chinese historical romance of the Three Kingdoms. Unlike the three preceding ones, it is written in prose with perfect expressions of style of the language. 5. Phra Aphaimani. This is a romantic tale written in verse by one of the most famous and popular poets of Thailand. It is an imaginary tale of love, intrigue and adventure, and reflects some ideas of the people towards the Europeans of the last century. There is an English translation in concise form by one Prem Chaya. The employment of prose in Thai emotive literature along the lines of the Western style is of recent date due obviously to the influence of Western literature.

B. BURMA (MYANMAR) FOLK LITERATURE

Myanmar has a long folk literature tradition; it is an oral literature handed down from generation to generation for a thousand years and more. The myths, legends and folktales of the early inhabitants and setters of Myanmar, the Pyu, the Mon and later the Bama, Shan and other ethnic races, together with proverbs, riddles and folk songs have come down to us in several forms. From oral literature some of the myths and legends have been incorporated into the main Myanmar chronicles like U Kalas Maha Yazawindaw Gyi (AD 1730) and the Hman-nan Yazawin (AD 1829) the famous Glass Palace Chronicle of the kings of Myanmar first compiled by a Royal Historical Commission of learned monks, ministers, brathmans and high officials. In these Chronicles we can read about the exploits of Pyu-Saw-Hti, of the young, brave and romantic Kyanzittha and many other legendary heroes. The oral folk literature was collected and written down both in Myanmar and English from the last decade of the 19th

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to the latter part of the 20th centuries. An early collection was made by H. Calthrop and published in Calcutta under the title Burmese Tales and Sketches in 1895. Harold Fielding Hall, who was in Mandalay soon after the British Annexation of January 1886, also collected and wrote down the tales he heard from former Maids-of - Honour and other Myanmar Courtiers from the Mandalay Palace of King Mindon and Thibaw. He first published these tales in the Rangoon Gazette and later in book form as Palace Tales, first published in London and New York. There is a recent reprint published in Bangkok in 1997. These were some of the earliest Myanmar tales made known to wider world readers. The tales from the Mandalay Palace were not real folk-tales, but tales of love and intrigue and the notion of humanity being the same all the world over is the predominant theme. Another collection of tales was written down by Donald A.Mackenzie and published with the title Burmese Wonder Tales in 1929. These tales are a mixture of Myanmar tales and also Buddhist Jataka tales told in Myanmar since early times. Before the Second World War there was a book called Tales and Legends of Ancient Burma, written for schools by S.W.Cocks of the Indian Educational Service. It was a collection of (21) tales, some from the Jatakas, some myths and legends and a few folk-tales. It was only in the years 1933 to 1937 that a young academic Maung Htin Aung started to collect systematically folk-tales of the Myanmar people. In post-Second World War years this learned Myanmar academic became the well-known Rector of the Yangon University. Soon after Myanmar regained Independence Dr. Htin Aung published this book Burmese Folk-tales in 1948; this is a collection of (10)folk-tales. Later he collected and wrote down in English Thirty Burmese Tales (1952), Burmese Law Tales(1962) and

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Burmese Monks Tales(1966). In the year of Independence(1948) about the same time as the publication of Dr.Htin Aungs Burmese Folk-tales another prominent Myanmar who wrote mainly in English, U Maung Maung Pye, also published a collection of (19) Legends entitled Tales of Burma; but some like the Romance of Prince E-Naung were not of Myanmar origin. All the same this useful and interesting collection supplemented Dr. Htin Aungs work. The writer who did most in collecting Myanmar folk-tales, especially from among the ethnic groups of Myanmar was Ludu U Hla (1910-1982). He went all over Myanmar in the 1960s and 1970s recording the oral tradition of story telling and writing down the Myanmar folk-tales, publishing (47) books. His collections of folktales include Bama and those of the (7) main ethnic groups like Mon, Shan and others as well from smaller ethnic minorities such as Lisu, Lushai, Palaung, Pa-O and others. Some of these folk-tales have been translated into English and published in four volumes. The translators include well-known Myanmar writers like U Khin Zaw (using the pen-name K), Dr Than Tun (History) and by Daw Khin Thant Han and Kathleen Forbes former lecturers in English of Mandalay University. Writing in English Daw Khin Myo Chit (1910-1999) brought out a beautifully illustrated book of Myanmar legends with

paintings by Paw 0o Thet (1936-1993), first published in Bangkok under the title A Wonderland of Burmese Legends (1984) and later reprinted in Yangon as A Wonderland of Pagoda Legends(1996). For the scholar there is a recent, rather expensive, collection called The Folk-tales of Burma, an Introduction, compiled with an erudite introduction by Gerry Abbott and Khin Thant Han, published by Brill of Leiden in 2000. This book includes new translations into English made by Khin Thant Han mainly from U Hlas books. The compilers classified Myanmar folk-tales into (9)

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categories: namely (1) Human Origin Tales;(2) Phenomena Tales; (3) Wonder Tales; (4)Trickster/Simpleton Tales; (5) Guidance Tales (Lay);(6) Guidance Tales (clerical); (7) Monks Tales; (8) Jataka Tales; and (9) Compound Tales. This book also has an

excellent bibliography including a list of U Hlas compilation, first listed by a library studies diploma student. There are other classifications for Myanmar folk-tales. For example Dr. Htin Aung classified them into (1) Animal Tales; (2) Romantic Tales;(3) Wonder Tales; and (4) Humorous tales; there are (4) Appendices giving four myths and legends popular in Myanmar. There are also many Myanmar folk tales in English which are still scattered in journals and magazines like the Journal of the Burma Research Society, The Guardian and Forward magazine and during the last years or so in the pages of our Myanmar Perspectives magazine, both the monthly Internet version and the printed version. Why are folk-tales so popular among the Myanmar people and people from all over the world?. First they promote family values, the love of a daughter for her mother and vice-versa as in the story of little Mai Htwe (Mistress Youngest) and the Big Tortoise; secondly they foster national unity among various ethnic groups; a good example is the tale The Chin and Bama are brothers. Thirdly they celebrate heroes of the past and remind the youth of today to emulate them as in the legend of Pyu-Saw-hti and Kyanzittha. Last but not least, the folk-tales are authentic records of a particular culture, expressing sentiments that are most basic and closest to the hearts of the people. Folk literature is thus the earliest literature of a people and a foundation on which its written literature rests. Therefore a knowledge of folk literature is of prime importance

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for a fuller understanding of human behavior and culture. (Damiana L.Eugenion inGeneral Introduction to ASEAN folk Literature, an Anthology (1995) ) Myanmar is at present taking an active part in the ASEAN Committee on Culture and Information (COCI) Project to collect representative folk literature of all ten Southeast Asian countries and to present them in a five volume set to be published towards the end of this year (2003). Myanmar folktales, legends, myths, proven riddles and folk songs will all be presented as part of this project.

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Israeli (Jewish) Literature

The greatest literature the Israelites produced is embodied in the Bible, which is composed of two books, the Old Testament and the New Testament. The whole Bible is a compilation of many literary forms extending over many centuries but unified by the truth of their divine inspiration. Love of God is an outstanding quality of the literature of Israel. It differs from the literature of other ancient nations in that it believes in one God. Other ancient races believed in many gods which they worshipped. The Jews, however, believed in a God whom man could never learn to know, who remained forever a mystery. They never tried to draw a picture or erect a statue of this God. They only knew that they believed in him; they loved him with all their heart and soul. What he looked like, they never tried to learn. In their earliest poetry, they poured out their adoration in hymns of praise and thanksgiving for his paternal love and his wisdom. They sang that his seat is in heavens; the earth is his footstool; the angels are his servants; the sea is his slave; his hands made the dry land. Their literature is generally emotional, often passionate. It describes the character of the people, their daily lives, and the beautiful scenery of their land. Yet what they say of themselves is true of all people their anxieties, their hopes, their joys as well as their sorrows. They painted with truth and love the condition of the human race. Their literature also shows great love of country. Of their two great poets, one their greatest ruler, King David, and the other was their greatest legislator, Moses. The Israelites developed all literary types: the lyric, the narrative, and the drama. Their Psalms, even after three thousand years, are the most moving and most sublime

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collection of religious poems the world has ever seen. They remain unequaled in their powerful imagery, their lofty ideas, their majesty, and their sweetness. The poetry of the Israelites differs in form from the poetry of other races. The poetry of most nations has rhyme and rhythm; the ancient poetry of Israel has no rhyme and no regularity of rhythm. Its beauty lies in the balanced symmetry of clauses to which the term parallelism has been applied.

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Arabic Literature

PRE-ISLAMIC LITERATURE THE STRUCTURE of the Arabic language is well-suited to harmonious

word-patterns, with elaborate rhymes and rhythms. The earliest known literature emerged in northern Arabia around 500 AD and took the form of poetry which was recited aloud, memorised and handed down from one generation to another. It began to be written down towards the end of the seventh century. The most celebrated poems of the pre-Islamic period were known as the mu'allaqat ("the suspended"), reputedly because they were considered sufficiently outstanding to be hung on the walls of the ka'ba in Makkah. The typical poem of this period is the qasidah (ode), which normally consists of 70-80 pairs of half-lines. Traditionally, they describe the nomadic life, opening with a lament at an abandoned camp for a lost love. The second part praises the poet's horse or camel and describes a journey, with the hardships it entails. The third section contains the main theme of the poem, often extolling the poet's tribe and vilifying its enemies.

DEVELOPMENT OF ARABIC PROSE THE BIRTH of Arabic prose as a literary form is attributed to the Persian
secretarial class who served under the Abbasid caliphs (750-1256) in Baghdad. Ibn alMuqaffa' (died 757) was a convert to Islam who translated classical Persian works into Arabic. He became famous as the author of Kalila and Dimna, a series of didactic fables in which two jackals offer moral and practical advice. al-JAHIZ (776-869) developed Arabic prose into a literary vehicle of precision and elegance. Born in Basrah, he was noted for his wit and became one of Baghdad's 49

leading intellectuals during the early Abbasid period. The most famous of his 200 works were:

Kitab al-Hayawan ("The Book of Animals"), an anthology of animal anecdotes. Kitab al-Bayan wa al-Tabyin ("The Book of Elucidation and Exposition"), ostensibly about rhetoric but also covering history and science.

Kitab al-Bukhala ("The Book of Misers"), amusing but perceptive observations on psychology. ABU AL-FARAJ al-Isfahani (c 897-967), from Aleppo, wrote Kitab al-Aghani

("The Book of Songs"), in 24 volumes. A model of simplicity and clarity in its writing, the book gives a comprehensive picture of Arab culture and society, including songs and poems which were popular in Baghdad under the Caliph Harun al-Rashid. A vizir (government minister) of the time is said to have taken 30 camel-loads of books whenever he travelled - until he received a copy of the Book of Songs. He then felt able to dispense with all the other books. al-HAMADHANI (died 1008) is credited with inventing the genre known as maqamat ("assemblies") - dramatic anecdotes narrated by a witty but unscrupulous rogue which poke fun at all levels of society. Elaborately written in rhyming prose, they exploit the unique capabilities of the Arabic language to the full. Out of 400 original maqamat, 52 survive. The trend towards linguistic virtuosity led, ultimately, to a triumph of form over content. al-HARIRI (c 1054-1122) took the maqamah to new heights (or extremes) in

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order to demonstrate his prowess with word-play and his seemingly inexhaustible vocabulary. In one work, he used only those letters of the alphabet which have no dots or do not join to the following letter in a word. Even so, for more than seven centuries, alHariri's maqamat were regarded as the greatest literary treasure of Arabic, after the Qur'an. According to some readers, wholesome moral values and subtle criticisms of the existing social order underlie al-Hariri's decorative language.

FOLK LITERATURE CLASSICAL written Arabic was inaccessible to the illiterate masses and
largely incomprehensible - even if read aloud - to those who knew only local dialects. This led to the development of oral folk literature in which professional storytellers recounted popular tales - often adding new anecdotes and individual touches in the hope of collecting more money from their audience. Even today, storytellers can be found in some parts of the Arab world - the Jama' al-Fna in Marrakesh is perhaps the best-known example. Typically, these stories recount the adventures of tribal or national heroes. A recurrent theme is the struggle of a underdog against adversity and his eventual triumph. One genre is known as the sirah ("life" or "biography") and is often based on historical characters.

Sirat Baybars is the story of Baybars I, who ruled Egypt and Syria in the 13th century - though with many embellishments. It portrays him as a champion of the 51

people against officialdom and oppression.

Sirat 'Antar is based on the pre-Islamic hero/poet 'Antarah, a black man who overcame his low status to become a leader.

Sirat Bani Hilal, on the other hand, concerns a fictitious tribal prince, Abu Zayd (also a black man), who is exiled but eventually leads his people and lives for hundreds of years.

The collection of folk tales which is best-known in the West, however, is the Thousand and One Nights.

Modern African Literature

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A. GEOGRAPHICAL 1) East and Central African Literature (ECAL): ECAL embraces, among others, such countries/regions as Sudan, Ethiopia, Somalia, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Central African Republic, Malawi, and Republic of the Congo. Some of the most important and influential writers coming from this part of the African continent include Ngugi wa Thiong'o (1938--, Kenya, novelist-short story writer-prose writer, principal works: Weep Not, Child, A Grain of Wheat, Petals of Blood, The River Between, Devil on the Cross), Nuruddin Farah (1945--, Somalia, novelist-short story writer, principal works: From a Crooked Rib, A Naked Needle, Sweet and Sour Milk, Sardines), Okot pBitek (1931-1982, Uganda, poet, principal works: Song of Lawino, Song of Ocol, The Horn of My Love), Shaaban Robert (1909--1962, Tanzania, prose-/story-writer & poet, principal works: Maisha Yanga/"Autobiography," Kufikirika/"The Conceivable World," Insha na Mashairi/ "Compositions and Poems"), David Rubadiri (1930--, Malawi, novelist-poet, principal works: No Bride Price, Selected Poems), Tchicaya U Tam'si (1931--1988, Congo, poet-playwright-novelist, principal works: Epitom, Le Ventr, Les Cancrelats). 2) South African Literature (SAL): SAL embraces, among others, the Union of South Africa including Basutoland, South-west Africa, Rhodesia (southern and northern). Some of the most important and influential South African writers include Thomas Mofolo (1873--1948, Basutoland, novelist-prose writer, principal works: Moeti oa Bochabela/ "The Pilgrim of the East," Chaka the Zulu), Solomon T Plaatze (born in Bechuanaland towards the turn of this century and died in 1950, translator-novelist, principal works: Mhudi, a novel, and Native Life in South Africa, a famous political work), Peter

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Abrahams (1919--, novelist, principal works: Song of a City, Mine Boy, The Path of Thunder, Wild Conquest, A Wreath for Udomo), Ezekiel Mphahlele (creative writerAfricanist-critic, principal works: Down Second Avenue, a novel, and The African Image, a book of criticism). Other more contemporary South African writers include A. C. Jordan (novelist), H. I. E. Dhlomo (novelist), B. W. Vilakazi (poet), Alex la Guma (novelist), Bloke Modisane (short story writer), Alfred Hutchinson (novelist), Lewis Nkosi (playwright), Noni Jabavu (one of the few woman-writers writing among the Xhosa people of the East Cape Province of South Africa; she is famous for her two novels called Drawn in Color and The Ochre People), Dennis Brutus (poet), and Nadine Gordimer (the Nobel-prizewinning novelist and short story writer). 3) West African Literature (WAL): Anne Tibble in African-English Literature rightly observes: "Thinking briefly, of West Africa as a self-contained literary unit--which of course it is not, though cross-currents with East and South Africa are not strong--we may say that this section of the continent began its production of a written literature latest of the three....When as late as the 1940s, West Africa did awake, the number of its writers quickly grew. Especially so was the case in Nigeria, in spite of the hundred or more indigenous languages there. The total of poets, novelists, and dramatists in West Africa as a whole quickly exceeded those in the South or East." Some of the West African countries producing powerful writings include Nigeria, Ghana, the Ivory Coast, Sierra Leone, Cameroon, and Sngal. And some of the most outstanding writers come from Nigeria alone--Amos Tutola (1920--, novelist-short story

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writer, principal works: The Palm Wine Drinkard, My Life in the Bush of Ghosts, Simbi and the Satyr of the Dark Jungle, The Brave African Huntress), Gabriel Okara (1921, poet-novelist, principal works--poetry: Were I to Choose and Other Poems; novel: The Voice), Chinua Achebe (1930--, novelist and prose writer, principal works: Things Fall Apart, No Longer at Ease, A Man of the People, Arrow of God, Anthills of Savannah), Cyprian Ekwensi (novelist-short story writer, principal works: People of the City, Jagua Nana, Burning Grass, Beautiful Feathers), Flora Nwapa (1931-1993, novelist-short story writer, principal works: Efuru, Idu, Never Again, One is Enough, This is Lagos and Other Stories, Wives at War and Other Stories, Women are Different), Wole Soyinka (1934--, Nobel-prize-winning novelist-playwright-poet, principal works--plays: The Swamp Dwellers, Brother Jero, The Strong Breed, The Lion and the Jewel, A Dance of the Forest; novels: The Interpreters, Season of Anomy; memoir: Ak: The Years of Childhood; poetry: Idanre, Mandela's Earth and Other Poems), Elechi Amadi (1934--, novelist, principal works: The Concubine, The Great Ponds, The Slave, Sunset in Biafra), Buchi Emecheta (1944--, novelist, principal works: In the Ditch, Second Class Citizen, The Bride Price, The Slave Girl, The Joys of Motherhood, Destination Biafra, The Rape of Shavi), Ben Okri (1959--, novelist-short story writer, principal works--novels: Flowers and Shadows, The Landscapes Within, The Famished Road; short stories: Incidents at the Shrine, Stars of the New). Some of the more contemporary Nigerian poets of repute include Christopher Okigbo, Frank Aig-Imoukhuede, John Ekwere, Mabel Sagun, and Michael Echeruo.

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Poets in West Africa other than Nigeria include Lenrie Peters of Gambia, and the Ghanaians, George Awoonor-Williams, Efua Theodora Sutherland, Kwesi Brew, and Ellis Ayitey Komey. Some of the important West African writers other than those in Nigeria are Abioseh Nicol (poet), William Conton (novelist), and Syl Cheney-Coker (poet) of Sierra Leone; Francis Bebey (short story writer-novelist-poet), Mongo Beti (novelistessayist), Werewere Liking (playwright-novelist) of Cameroon; Ama Ata Aidoo (playwright-novelist-short story writer), Efua Sutherland (playwright), Kofi Anyidoho (poet) of Ghana; Mariama Ba (novelist), Nafissatou Niang Diallo (novelist), Ousmane Sembne (novelist-short story writer), Cheik Aliou Ndao (novelist-playwright) of Senegal. B. LINGUISTIC/THEMATIC According to Martin Tucker, "African writers can probably best be characterized by four broad divisions: 1. The Westerner or other non-African writer who utilizes the subject matter of Africa in a language not native to the African continent. 2. The African writer, black or white, who utilizes the subject matter of Africa in a language native to the African continent. 3. The African writer who utilizes subject matter other than Africa, but who writes in a language native to the African continent.

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4. The African writer who utilizes the subject matter of Africa, but who writes in a Western language that has, by custom, become part of the African means of communication." Tucker further observes, "using this convenient outline it may be said that African literature exists in several languages: in English (Chinua Achebe, Cyprian Ekwensi, Wole Soyinka, to name a few); in French (Bernard Dadi, Birago Diop, Andr Gide, Joseph Kessel, Jean Lartguy, Jean Malonga, Ferdinand Oyono, Jean-Joseph Rabarivelo); in German (Kurt Heuser, Janheinz Jahn); in Danish (Johannes Buchholtz); in native African languages (Thomas Mofolo, Thiong'o); in the English of South Africans ( Nadine Gordimer, Sarah Gertrude Millin, Alan Paton); and in Afrikaans (Nuthall Fula, Ernst van Heerden)."

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