Pre-Qin literature includes ancient oral literature, poetry and prose creation from Xia, Shang and Zhou Dynasties to the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. As early as tens of thousands of years ago, the ancestors of China people began to create spiritual civilization while developing the Yellow River, the Yangtze River and even the Pearl River Basin.
In the legendary era of the Yellow Emperor, not only independent art and music appeared, but also oral literature appeared. With the emergence and worship of the concepts of natural gods and ancestor gods, there appeared rhymes praising and praying for gods and myths explaining God's activities with imagination in the form of primitive songs. The former is Fu's Song of the Net and Shennong's Ode to a Rich Year. The latter, such as Hou Yi's wax words and playing songs, as well as stories about the goddess mending the sky, Hou Yi shooting at the sun, Dayu controlling water, Jingwei filling the sea, etc., the Yellow Emperor fought against Chiyou and avoided the three seedlings, which made him angry and could not touch the surrounding mountains. These ancient oral literatures have been handed down from generation to generation from ancestors.
These ancient myths and legends were recorded in later works such as Shan Hai Jing, Huai Nan Zi and Chu Ci.
Yu Xia's biography is located in Zi Qi, marking the emergence of slave society in China. During the Shang and Zhou Dynasties, a splendid slave society and culture appeared. The epigrams in Oracle Bone Inscriptions, Jinwen in the Yin Ruins, Zhouyi and Shangshu left the earliest prose chapters in ancient China. The main achievement of Zhou Wenxue is the prosperity of poetry. The early poems in The Book of Songs are mainly epics reflecting the development history of Zhou nationalities and ballads reflecting people's sufferings and aspirations.
At the end of the Spring and Autumn Period, due to the gradual development of social economy, society transformed into feudalism. With the downward movement of slave owners' aristocratic culture, the society has emerged the taxi class of intellectuals. In the Warring States period, a hundred schools of thought contended for academic culture. Different schools of thought, such as Confucianism, Mohism, Taoism, Legalism, Yin and Yang, Ming and Zong, as well as the Analects of Confucius, Mozi, Mencius, Zhuangzi, Xunzi, Han Feizi and Lv Chunqiu, reflected their arguments and expressed their theoretical thoughts. In addition, historical works such as Spring and Autumn Annals, Zuo Zhuan, Mandarin and Warring States Policy were also left behind during this period. As historical prose works, they also contributed to the development of prose.
Qu Yuan was the first great poet in China. He lived in the era of Qin Chu's struggle, ran around Chu to realize "American politics", and was alienated and exiled by Chu Huaiwang. In the face of adversity, he wrote Li Sao, Jiu Ge and other poems belonging to Chu Ci, which were handed down from generation to generation. Song Yu and others after Qu Yuan developed Qu Yuan's rhetoric into a new style of fu.
Pre-Qin literature was not only the beginning of China literature, but also laid a solid foundation for China literature. The realism and romanticism created by The Book of Songs and Songs of the South have far-reaching influence. The spirit of paying attention to reality and people's livelihood in the essays of various schools of thought has also become a fine tradition of China literature.
In 22 1 BC, Qin Shihuang unified China, the great social change came to an end, and China literature entered a new stage. The Qin dynasty ruled for a short time and its literary achievements were not high. Since then, the literature of the Han Dynasty has made great achievements in four aspects: ci fu, historical biography literature, political theory and Yuefu poetry.
In the early years of the Western Han Dynasty, prose and ci fu developed greatly. Political essays by Jia Yi and Chao Cuo (such as On Qin by the former and On Shu by the latter). ) magnificent, practical and pertinent, eloquent, full of emotion and literary talent, which influenced the prose of later Tang and Song Dynasties. Although many imitations of Ci and Fu inherited the tradition of Sao style, Jia Yi's Pengniao Fu expressed his political ambition and showed traces of transition to Han Fu in form. Meicheng's Seven Hairs became the symbol of the formal formation of Han Da Fu.
In the era of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, the Han Dynasty entered its heyday, and ideologically and culturally, hundreds of schools were ousted, and Confucianism was the only one. From this period to the end of the Western Han Dynasty, due to the establishment and expansion of Yuefu organs, folk songs were widely collected, which had a great influence on the development of ancient Chinese poetry. The creation of Han Fu has also entered its heyday, and Sima Xiangru is the most accomplished writer. In addition, there are Dong Fangshuo, Gomez and Yang Xiong. Sima Qian's Historical Records has become a monument to China's ancient history and culture, and his historical biographical literature has made outstanding contributions to the development of literature.
The Eastern Han Dynasty is a continuation of the Western Han Dynasty, but its ruling ideology is represented by Confucian classics, especially divination, and literature has undergone new changes and development. Ban Gu's Hanshu is an outstanding representative of historical biographical literature in the Eastern Han Dynasty, and some biographies are informative. In Lun Heng, Wang Chong put forward a literary proposition against "flashy, empty and unreal". Although Cifu is popular, the theme of Kyoto Dafu has been developed since Ban Gu. The existing folk songs of Han Yuefu are mostly works of the Eastern Han Dynasty, which reflect people's thoughts, feelings and miserable life. The long narrative poem Peacock Flying Southeast is an excellent poem based on folk stories and folk songs. The formation of literati's five-character poems, especially the appearance of "Nineteen Ancient Poems" by Anonymous, is another great achievement of Eastern Han literature. Its expressiveness and lyricism influenced the development of later five-character poems and the appearance of modern poems.