Chinese Literature

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Tang Poems(Five-characters)

—— In Chinese literature, the Tang period (618-907) is considered the golden age of Chinese poetry. "Tang Shi San Bai Shou" is a compilation of poems from this period made around 1763 by Sun Zhu of the Qing dynasty.It has been used in China for centuries since to teach elementary students to read and write, and also in cultivating character.

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Thirty-Six Strategies

—— The Thirty-Six Strategies is a unique collection of ancient Chinese proverbs that describe some of the most cunning and subtle strategies ever devised. Whereas other Chinese military texts such as Sun Zi's The Art of War focus on military organization, leadership, and battlefield tactics, the Thirty-Six Strategies are more suitably applied in the fields of politics, diplomacy, and espionage. These proverbs describe not only battlefield strategies, but tactics used in psychological warfare to undermine both the enemy's will to fight - and his sanity. Tactics such as the 'double cross', the 'frame job', and the 'bait and switch', can be traced back through thousands of years of Chinese history to such proverbs as 'Hide the Dagger Behind a Smile', 'Kill With a Borrowed Sword', and 'Toss out a Brick to Attract Jade' respectively. Though other Chinese military works of strategy have at least paid lip service to the Confucian notion of honour, the Thirty-Six Strategies make no pretence of being anything but ruthless.

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The Book of Odes

—— Shi Jing Book of Songs (Arabic: Kitab al-Aghani) was also a book written by the 9th century Arab scholar Abu al-Faraj.
Shī Jīng (Chinese: 詩經/诗经; Wade-Giles: Shih Ching), translated variously as the Classic of Poetry, the Book of Songs or the Book of Odes, is the first major collection of Chinese poems. It comprises 305 poems, some possibly written as early as 1000 BC.

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I Ching

—— The I Ching, or Book of Changes, is the most widely read of the five Chinese Classics. The book was traditionally written by the legendary Chinese Emperor Fu Hsi (2953-2838 B.C.). It is possible that the the I Ching originated from a prehistoric divination technique which dates back as far as 5000 B.C. Thus it may be the oldest text at this site. Futher commentaries were added by King Wen and the Duke of Chou in the eleventh century B.C.

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Famous Poet

Li Bai Tang Dynasty,701-762 A.D.

Of the three great poets of the Tang dynasty, Li Bai (Li Po in older texts) is probably the one most familiar to western readers. He was born in 701 in Gang Xiao Sheng, a territory of China, and when five years old followed his merchant father to Sichuan. Of an independent and bohemian nature, and well-off, Li Bai never sat the shin-shih examinations, nor bothered much about finding a position, but by impressing the many scholars who befriended him with his poetry, he was brought to court notice in 742 and appeared before Emperor Hs黙n-tsung. He became a member of the Han-lin Academy, an appointment that lasted only two years. The association between China's most gifted literary magician and its dilettante emperor was not a happy one, and Li Bai was exiled from court on several occasions, the result of dubious political connections and the poet's distaste for tradition and authority. Many poems praise the light-headed simplicity that wine brings, and their author sometimes appeared less than sober before the Son of Heaven. Li Bai continued his wanderings, and in 755 he joined the force led by the emperor's 16th son, Prince Lin, a move probably forced on him by the troubled times of the An Lushan rebellion. Lin was defeated, captured and executed. A similar fate was ordered for Li Bai, but the poet was reprieved, exiled to Yunnan, and pardoned before arrival when the old emperor died. There are many legends surrounding Li Bai's death, but he probably died at Dangtu, possibly of cirrhosis of the liver or mercury poisoning, in Anhui province in 762.

Du Pu Tang Dynasty, 712-770 A.D.

Du Fu (AD 712-70), the greatest poet of a country devoted to poetry, believed himself a failure. He gained little distinction in the official examinations, but remained a minor civil servant who was then uprooted by the An Lu-shan rebellion that destroyed the first Tang dynasty. He was usually poor, and occasionally close to starvation. The major turning points in his life were his meeting and friendship with Li Po (701-62), and the civil war, which opened his eyes to the sufferings of the common people. Li Po (or Li Bai) was the greater technician — an astonishing technician — but it's Du Fu's humanity that speaks across the centuries

Kong zi Pre-Qin period, 551-479 B.C.

More than two thousand and five hundred years ago, an illuminating cultural giant was born in State of 鲁[Lu] (today's 曲阜 [QiuFu] county, 山东[ShanDong] province in China) at the end of the Chinese historic era called 春秋[ChunQiu]. He was, in Chinese history, the great educator, thinker, renown politician, and the founding father of Confucianism, the one who was revered with a honorific title "至圣" [ZhiSheng - The Highest Sage]. He was 孔子 [KongZi]孔子 [KongZi], named 丘[Qiu], styled 仲尼[ZhongNi], native of 陬[Zou] town, 昌平[ChangPing] village, State of 鲁[Lu] in the final stage of 春秋 era. He was born in the twenty-second ruling year of ruler 鲁襄公 [LuXiangGong] (551 b.c.), on August 27th of lunar calendar. He passed away in the sixteenth ruling year of ruler 鲁哀公[LuAiGong] (479 b.c.). 孔子 had lived 73 years.The era 孔子 had been lived was the so called 春秋 era in Chinese history. 春秋 era was the transformation period when drastic, violent shakeup of the Chinese society was experienced in its social systems and in its cultural characteristics. At that time, the patriarchal, consanguinity clan system formed since the 西周[XiZhou] Dynasty was unprecedentedly in total collapse and decline especially in those feudal states because such political system was not being able to adapt to the needs of rapidly developing societal changes. Driven by the despicable desire of power and greed, these feudal states were having the brutal, perennial wars of annexation with
each other. Thereby, the entire society was in a state of chaos and turbulence: the manners and morals of the time had decayed;etiquette and courtesy of the old "ritual musical" system disappeared, law and order lost its effect, ethics were no longer observed. The phenomenas of "贱妨贵, 少陵长, 远间亲, 新间旧, 小加大, 淫破义, 所谓六逆"[the poor bothering the rich, the young disrespecting the old, the distant relatives crowding out the blood kins, the new friends crowding out the old ones, the youths trusting the elders, immorality superseding ethics, the so called Six Contradictions] were widespread.

Sun Wu Pre-Qin period
JinYong birth in 1924
QuYuan Pre-Qin period 348-270 B.C.

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