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[1]: 230 They are some of the earliest Chinese literature written in the form of short and medium-length stories and have provided valuable inspiration plot-wise and in other ways for fiction and drama in later eras. Many were preserved in the 10th-century anthology, Taiping Guangji (Extensive Records of the Taiping Era). [2]
These precursors of Chinese monumental stone sculpture were probably influenced by their forays deep into Central Asia, where they probably encountered cultures using stone statues. [11] Recently, stone statues were discovered at the front of ancient tombs in the Altay and northern Xinjiang, which were probably influential. [11]
During the Tang dynasty, the capital city Chang'an (today's Xi'an), was the most populous city in the known world, and the era is generally regarded by historians as a high point in Chinese civilization and a golden age of Chinese literature and art. In several areas developments during the Tang set the direction for many centuries to come.
The first two known history books about Chinese literature were published by Japanese authors in the Japanese language. [80] Kojō Tandō wrote the 700 page Shina bungakushi (支那文学史; "History of Chinese Literature"), published in 1897. Sasakawa Rinpū wrote the second ever such book in 1898, also called Shina bungakushi. [81]
The literary critic and sinologist Andrew H. Plaks writes that the term "classic novels" in reference to these six titles is a "neologism of twentieth-century scholarship" that seems to have come into common use under the influence of C. T. Hsia's The Classic Chinese Novel (1968).
This literature contains two versions of the legend of the sunken city, in Chapters 13 and 20. The story from Chapter 20 tells of a benevolent old woman who is told that her city would be sunk after the eyes of the tortoise statue in her city turned red. Every day she checked its eyes, until one day a naughty child colored the eyes red.
Virtually every major Chinese writer or poet in history, from Sima Xiangru and Sima Qian during the Han dynasty, Ruan Ji and Tao Yuanming during the Six Dynasties, Li Bai during the Tang dynasty, to Su Shi and Lu You in the Song dynasty were "deeply imbued with the ideas and artistry of the Zhuangzi".
The term zhiguai is an allusion to a passage in the inner chapters of the Zhuangzi. [4]During the Six Dynasties, xian were a common subject of zhiguai stories. [5] They often had "magical" Tao powers including the abilities to "walk...through walls or stand...in light without casting a shadow".