Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-6bf8c574d5-qdpjg Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-02-21T20:35:28.575Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Chapter 27 - The World of Prose Literature

from Part 3 - Culture, Religion, and Art

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 October 2019

By
Antje Richter
Edited by
Albert E. Dien  and
Keith N. Knapp
Albert E. Dien
Affiliation:
Stanford University, California
Keith N. Knapp
Affiliation:
The Citadel, The Military College of South Carolina
Get access

Summary

The four centuries between the end of the Han (220) and the beginning of the Sui dynasty (581) witnessed a remarkable increase and diversification of literary production. Literary activities were closely interrelated with crucial aspects of elite social and individual life. Works of literature in various genres of poetry and prose—the latter being the focus of this chapter—became integral to political endeavors, to social and religious discourses, to the quest for knowledge in all its branches, to familial life, and to personal relationships. The Six Dynasties are also an age of heightened literary reflection, due to the overall flourishing of literature and a rise in artistic self-reflection, whose textual and visual expressions belong to those elements of the period’s literary and artistic heritage that are most cherished today.

Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge History of China , pp. 597 - 622
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2019

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×