The Cambridge History of Chinese Literature 2 Volume Hardback Set

by Kang-i Sun Chang (Editor), Stephen Owen (Editor)

China has one of the longest continuous literary traditions in the world. From the beginnings of the Chinese written language to the lively world of internet literature, these two volumes tell the story of Chinese writing, both as an instrument of the state and as a medium for culture outside the state. The chapters, organized chronologically, treat not only poetry, drama, and fiction, but also historical writing and other prose forms. Written by internationally recognized experts in the field, the History frequently challenges current scholarship, from taking recent archeological discoveries into consideration to understanding Chinese modernity not as a sudden rupture with the past but as part of a longer process. The History offers both an integrated narrative, situating literature in its larger cultural context, and an overview of the key developments of the past millennia accessible to non-specialist readers as well as scholars and students of Chinese.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, China

1704 pages, Hardcover

First published March 31, 2010

About the author

Kang-i Sun Chang (born 1944), née Sun Kang-i (Chinese: 孫康宜; pinyin: Sūn Kāngyí), is a Chinese-American scholar of classical Chinese literature. She is the inaugural Malcolm G. Chace Professor, and former chairperson of the Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures at Yale University.

(from Wikipedia)

Reviews

[John Armstrong]

I'm not qualified rate this book but it's what I go to for individual periods and genres after getting an overview from Wilt Idema's and Lloyd Haft's A Guide to Chinese Literature (1997). It's a collaborate work with each chapter written by a different author or group of authors. Volume 1 covers from the beginnings of written Chinese (the Oracle Bones) to the early Ming dynasty (to 1375). The second volume covers from the early and mid-Ming dynasty (from 1375) with the last long (140 page) chapter entitled Chinese literature from 1937 to the present (the early 2000's).