Does this country have any good literature to offer?
Where should I start?
China
Adrian Johnson
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Thomas Parker
>Where should I start?
For poetry I reccomend the poems of Li Bai and Hanshan.
Here's Li Bai:
From a pot of wine among the flowers
I drank alone. There was no one with me —
Till, raising my cup, I asked the bright moon
To bring me my shadow and make us three.
Alas, the moon was unable to drink
And my shadow tagged me vacantly;
But still for a while I had these friends
To cheer me through the end of spring….
I sang. The moon encouraged me.
I danced. My shadow tumbled after.
As long as I knew, we were boon companions.
And then I was drunk, and we lost one another.
…Shall goodwill ever be secure?
I watch the long road of the River of Stars.
Nad here's Hanshan (Hanshan means "Cold Mountain, btw):
Clambering up the Cold Mountain path,
The Cold Mountain trail goes on and on:
The long gorge choked with scree and boulders,
The wide creek, the mist blurred grass.
The moss is slippery, though there's been no rain
The pine sings, but there's no wind.
Who can leap the word's ties
And sit with me among the white clouds?
If you want novels there's a huge one that contains several masterful characters. It's called "The dream of The Red Chamber". Here's a quote that I love by the author:
“Having made an utter failure of my life, one day I found myself in the midst of my poverty and wretchedness, thinking about the female companions of my youth. As I went over them in my mind’s eye one by one it suddenly came over me that those slips of girls – which is all they were then – were in every way, both morally and intellectually, superior to the ‘grave and moustachioed signor’ I am now supposed to have become. The realisation brought with it an overpowering sense of shame … And I resolved then, however unsightly my shortcomings might be, I must not, for the sake of keeping them hid, allow those wonderful girls to pass into oblivion without a memorial.”
Nolan Kelly
Red Sorghum - Mo Yan
Ethan Barnes
It's so horrible that we have eradicated nature to the extent that we have, so much great art was made from the perspective of being a small part of giant, wild world
Dominic Green
Here's more Hanshan:
Cold rock, no one takes this road.
The deeper you go, the finer it is.
White clouds hang on high crags.
On Green Peak a lone gibbon’s cry.
What friends do I need?
I do what pleases me, and grow old.
Let face and body alter with the years,
I’ll hold to the bright path of mind.
Jack Peterson
Early Modern and Modern:
Lu Xun
Lao She
Mo Du
Mao Dun
Pa Jin
Gao Xingjian
Mo Yan
Yu Hua
Fu Sheng
Cao Xue
Ha Jin
Ge Fei
Wang Xiaobo
Zhang Ailing ( Eileen Chang)
Liu Zhenyun
Bi Feiyu
Zhang Wei
Jia Pingwa
Alai
Huo Da
Chen Zhongshi
Xiaolu Guo
Ma Jian
The 4 Classics (plus)
ROTK
Journey To The West
Water Margin
Red Chamber
Jing Ping Mei
Carnal Prayer Mat
Drama:
Yuan dramas
Romance Of The Western Chamber
Peony Pavillion
Peace Blossom Fan
Circle of Chalk
The Injustice of Dou E
Autumn in The Han Palace
Gao Xingjian's plays
Lao She's Teahouse
Pu Songling
Feng Menglong
Li Yu
Classic of the Mountains and Seas
Records of The Taiping Era
Daoist classics
Confucian classics
Mozi
Huainanzi
Sun Tzu
Sima Qian
Dynasty histories (Book of "_____")
Yi Jing
Siku Quanshu
Tang poetry
Classic of Songs / Book of Odes
Isaiah Clark
From learning chinese.
Them read Dream of The red chamber and The Plum and the Golden Vase
Christian Carter
yu hua to live
Chase Murphy
>Where should I start?
learn chinese
Justin Russell
Unrealistic
Zachary Campbell
Thank you so much
Samuel Butler
If I learn Mandarin will I be able to read classic Chinese literature?
Ethan Stewart
No, it's a different language, much like Latin. You can even learn Japanese first and read Classical Chinese. Mandarin is also the Chinese variety which has evolved furthest from Classical Chinese, so Cantonese might be better.
Jeremiah Diaz
>Where should I start?
With the classics
Jonathan Sanders
>Clambering up the Cold Mountain path,
>The Cold Mountain trail goes on and on:
>The long gorge choked with scree and boulders,
>The wide creek, the mist blurred grass.
>The moss is slippery, though there's been no rain
>The pine sings, but there's no wind.
>Who can leap the word's ties
>And sit with me among the white clouds?
god that's awful
Justin Young
I read the Three Body Problem. It's alright in translation and has some original ideas in it. They have a very different worldview than we do, they're still in a Victorian era of pride in technology and power.
Christopher Jenkins
You mean, they are still a living culture
Faggot
Jace Morris
Should I read Monkey or a different translation of Journey to the West?
Justin Long
I'm pretty sure with a language as different from English as Chinese that if a major literary work doesn't seem good to you in translation then it's the translation's fault
Henry Cook
>Ha Jin
>but no Su Tong
Ha Jin should be on there, but Su Tong does the same story ideas better and with more beauty and symbolism. It could just be the translations I have read, but symbolism translates better than prose, especially from Chinese to English. Ha Jin's works seem to be as placid as Chinese writing can be, whereas Su Tong's are written with better portrayal of characters through their actions or expressions, not to mention the better use of symbolism that I keep mentioning.
Both have great books: Nanjing Requiem is great from Ha Jin, and Raise the Red Lantern is beautifully sad from Su Tong.
Christopher Young
Seconding three body series
Carter Allen
The first one had cool mysteries, but every time they were revealed, I thought "oh, that's it?". I'll give the second a shot but I'm not rushing to it.
Nathaniel Hughes
Translation is god awful
Butchers it so bad there's not much merit left
Do yourselves and favor and not read Chinese poetry in English
William Garcia
>why yes, I read translated poetry like a fucking retard, how could you tell?
Easton Lee
ur smart
>Butchers it so bad there's not much merit left
>Do yourselves and favor and not read Chinese poetry in English
thank God I read this before making up my own mind
might have thought wrongly
Jaxson Carter
What about Arthur Waley's translations?
Sent as a present from Annam
A red cockatoo.
Coloured like the peach-tree blossom,
Speaking with the speech of men.
And they did to it what is always done
To the learned and eloquent.
They took a cage with stout bars
And shut it up inside.