Category: Chinese Classics

The Quantangwen 全唐文 is a collection of all preserved prose style literature from the Tang 唐 (618-907) and Five Dynasties 五代 (907-960) periods. It was compiled in the early years of the 19th century by a team led by Dong Gao 董誥, Ruan Yuan 阮元 and Xu Song 徐松. It contains 18,488 literary pieces (including fragments) of 3,042 persons, arranged in 1,000 juan "scrolls". To each person a short biography is added.
There was a draft to a collection of Tang literature in the imperial library, the Tangwen 唐文 in 160 volumes, compiled by the early Qing period 清 (1644-1911) scholar Chen Bangyan 陳邦彥. Not being content with this draft, the Jiaqing Emperor 嘉慶 (r. 1795-1820) ordered compiling a new collection. This collection included older books like the Song period 宋 (960-1279) collection Wenyuan yinghua 文苑英華, the Guwenyuan 古文苑 and the Tangwencui 唐文粹. A few pieces were extracted from the Ming period 明 (1368-1644) encyclopedia Yongle dadian 永樂大典 and many other documentary collections, even some stone slab inscriptions served as primary sources.

The Renwuzhi 人物志 "About human character" is China's oldest book on psychology. It was written by the Three Kingdoms period 三国 (220-280) scholar Liu Shao 刘卲. The book is 3 juan "scrolls" long and divided into 12 chapters. Human nature is expressed, according to Liu Shao, in two different ways, namely talent and character. These can be rightly applied for specific use after careful analyis. Talent (cai 材 "matter") can be acquired by learning, yet all humans have also a certain portion of natural talent that is different is each person. Some persons have more of it, others less, some develop it earlier, others later. Human talents can be used for different purposes, and not everyone is able to take over each task. Sparingness, artificial skills, judicial skills, politics, the arts, philosophical talents, literary abilities, rhetorics or a heroic spirit are such talents that are unequally distributed among all people. Character is influenced not only by the five processes五行 of which the cosm is composed and to which it is subject, but also by the physical conditions of the body. There are, accordingly, strong people or weaker ones, audacious or prudent persons, persons with a love for specialized details and others with a broad interest, persons that are lenient and such that are impatient, active and moving people or passive and quiet persons, and people that like opennes and other loving to conceal matters.

Wu Jingzi 吴敬梓 (1701-1754) used this novel called "Inofficial History of the Scholars" to describe with a good portion of irony the ideals of a the Confucian scholarship and their dedication to study and eremitic life. The author himself gave up his career and began a life of dissipation. His work is a mirror for his own disrespect for the intellectual decay of the middle Qing time 清 upper class. The sources for his novel are undeniable popular stories about remarkable scholars that loved more to live a quiet life instead of pursuing the traditional way to become an official. The langage of the Scholars is a vernacular prose that exhausts in detail descriptions and builds up a mixture of folk and belletristic work.

The Sanguozhi 三国志 "Records of the Three Kingdoms" is one of the official dynastic histories (zhengshi 正史). Together with its predecessors Shiji 史记, Hanshu 汉书 andHouhanshu 后汉书 it is one of the "four great histories" (sishi 四史) of ancient China. It describes separately the history of each of the so-called Three Kingdoms 三国 (220-280 CE) in a biographic-thematic style (jizhuanti 纪传体). The author was Chen Shou 陈寿 from the Jin period 晋 (265-420), the first commentator was Pei Songzhi 裴松之 from the southern dynasty of Liu-Song 刘宋 (420-479). The Weishu 魏书 "Book of Wei (sometimes also called Weizhi 魏志 "Records of Wei") contains the imperial and normal biographies of the kingdom (better: empire) of Wei, which was ruled by the family of Cao 曹, in 30 juan "scrolls", the Shushu 蜀书 "Book of Shu" (Shuzhi 蜀志) that of the empire of Shu, ruled by the family of Liu 刘 who claimed to be the righteous successors of the Han dynasty 汉 (206 BCE-220 CE), in 15 juan, and theWushu 吴书 "Book of Wu" (Wuzhi 吴志) that of the southestern empire of Wu, which was ruled by the family of Sun 孙, in 20 juan, which makes for a total amount of 65juan.

This romance (also called Sanguozhi yanyi 三国志演义) about the war between theThree Kingdoms Wei 魏, Wu 吴 and Shu 蜀 is said to be a writing by Luo Guanzhong 罗贯中 (1494), but it was probably already written during the Yuan Dynasty 元. It developed from popular stories about the heroes of that historical period, their strategies, tactics and battles. Comparing the novel with the historical bookSanguozhi 三国志 (written during the Jin period 晋) and the Song time 宋 (Zizhi) tongjian gangmu (资治)通鉴纲目 "Summary of the Comprehensive Mirror for Aid in Government", we see that there is a great difference in judgment about justified rule. Contrasting to the historical book, where the ruler of Wei, Cao Cao 曹操, is seen as the legal ruler of all China, the later histories and the romance see him as an usurpator of the throne that has to be possessed by the Liu family, whose descendant Liu Bei 刘备 was ruling in Shu. Central figures in the novel are heroes like the wise tactician Zhuge Liang 诸葛亮, Zhang Fei 张飞 or the red faced semi-god Guan Yu 关羽. Not describing in black and white, the novel judges nevertheless between the good side, the followes of Liu Bei, and their conterparts like Sun Quan 孙权, king of Wu, and the usurper Dong Zhuo 董卓. Many of these persons and their stories have been adapted in theater and performing arts. Unbroken is the popularity of the war skills and plans that occur in the novel, and there exist even TV series. See a short excerpt of the Three Kingdoms telling of the battle at the Red Cliff.

When End of Heat comes, summer heat gradually disappears. But the weather is not quite cold due to the "autumn tiger," which refers to the spell of hot weather after the startbeginning of autumn.

The Sanshiliuji 三十六计 "Thirty-six stratagems" is a military primer of obscure origin. The whole book is divided into six parts, each part including six stratagems. Each stratagem is designated with a four-character headline (those of the last part only three characters), giving it the character of a proverb. This fact contributed to the popularity of the Sanshiliu ji, inspite of its quasi non-canonical status. The stratagems are formulated in a very concise and oversimplified way and seem to be compiled on the base of daily used proverbs with universal validity, mixed with cryptic statements. A lot of examples are derived from statements in the divinatory classic Yijing 易经, others quote examples from history.

A Poem of Xu Hun is Inscribed In the Inn at Tong Gate on an Autumn Trip to the Capital. The arthur is Xu Hun.