Leyte Progressive High School

Sabang Ditrict, Tacloban City

Assignment in English

The Four Great Authors in Chinese Literature

Submitted to:
Ms.Rechie D. Masayon
Teacher

Submitted by:
Francis Bernard H. Tan
Student

The Four Great Authors in Chinese Literature:

Confucius

(551479 BC) was a Chinese teacher, editor, politician, and philosopher of the Spring
and Autumn Period of Chinese history.
The philosophy of Confucius emphasized personal and governmental morality,
correctness of social relationships, justice, and sincerity. His followers competed
successfully with many other schools during the Hundred Schools of Thought era only
to be suppressed in favor of the Legalists during the Qin Dynasty. Following the victory
of Han over Chu after the collapse of Qin, Confucius's thoughts received official
sanction and were further developed into a system known as Confucianism.
Confucius is traditionally credited with having authored or edited many of the Chinese
classic texts including all of the Five Classics, but modern scholars are cautious of
attributing specific assertions to Confucius himself. Aphorisms concerning his teachings
were compiled in the Analects, but only many years after his death.
Confucius's principles had a basis in common Chinese tradition and belief. He
championed strong family loyalty, ancestor worship, respect of elders by their children
(and in traditional interpretations of husbands by their wives), and family as a basis for

ideal government. He espoused the well-known principle "Do not do to others what you
do not want done to yourself", an early version of the Golden Rule.

Tu Fu

Born in Kung-hsien, Honan, of a scholar-official family, Tu Fu lost his mother in early

childhood. His father, a minor district official, remarried, and the boy lived for some time
with his aunt in Loyang, the eastern capital. In his youth he traveled widely in the
Yangtze River and Yellow River regions. He first met the poet Li Po (c. 701762) in 744
in North China and formed a lasting friendship with him. In 746 Tu Fu went to Ch'angan, the capital, in search of an official position, but he failed to pass the literary
examination or to win the support of influential people. In 751 he sent a fu (rhymed
prose) composition to the emperor for each of three grand state ceremonials. While the
emperor appreciated Tu Fu's literary talents, he failed to award the poet an office or
payment.
After a long, uneventful wait in Ch'angan, where Tu Fu's resources were exhausted and
his health declined, he was offered a minor position at court. Just then the An Lushan
rebellion broke out (December 755). The country was thrown into chaos when rebels
tried to overthrow the T'ang Dynasty. The rebels captured Tu Fu, but he escaped. He
lived the life of a refugee (someone forced away from home for political reasons) for
some time before he was able to join the new emperor's court in exile, a court set up in
foreign lands after being ousted. As a reward for his loyalty, he was appointed "Junior
Reminder" in attendance upon the emperor. In late 757 he returned with the court to
Ch'ang-an, which had been recovered from the rebels, but he did not stay there long.
He had offended the emperor with his advice and was banished (sent away) to a
provincial post, or a remote border post. He soon gave it up and in the fall of 759 started
a long journey away from the capital.
Tu Fu spent the next nine years (759768), the most fruitful period of his poetic career,
in various cities in Szechwan, China. He settled down with his family in Ch'eng-tu, the
provincial capital, where he built a thatched cottage and led a quiet, happy, though still
extremely poor life. Occasionally he had to go from one city to another to seek
employment or to escape uprisings within the province. For a year or so, he was
appointed by Yen Wu, the governor general of Ch'eng-tu district, as military adviser in
the governor's headquarters and assistant secretary in the Board of Works. Upon Yen
Wu's death in 765, Tu Fu left Ch'eng-tu for a trip that took him to a number of places
along the Yangtze River. Three years later he reached Hunan. After having roamed up
and down the rivers and lakes there for almost two years (768770), he died of sickness
on a boat in the winter of 770.

Li Bai

(Chinese: ; pinyin: LBi and/or LB, 701 762, also well known as Li Po, among
other transliterations) was a major Chinese poet of theTang dynasty poetry period.
Regarded as one of the greatest poets of the Tang Dynasty, often called China's
"golden age" of poetry, Li Bai was both a prolific and a profound poet, as well as one
who stretched the rules of versification of his time. Around a thousand extant poems are
attributed to him.[1] Thirty-four of his poems are included in the popular anthology Three
Hundred Tang Poems.
In the area of Chinese cultural influence, Li Bai's poetry has been much esteemed from
his lifetime through the present day. His influence also extends to the West through
many translations, adaptations, and much inspiration.

Wang Wei

(traditional Chinese: ; simplified Chinese: ; pinyin: WngWi; WadeGiles: Wang Wei), (699-759[1]) and also known by other names such as Wang
Youcheng, was a Tang Dynasty Chinese poet, musician, painter, and statesman. He
was one of the most famous men of arts and letters of his time. Many of his poems are
preserved, and twenty-nine were included in the highly influential 18th century
anthology Three Hundred Tang Poems.