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Chinese Events that Influenced Literature Timeline

  • Ancient Chinese Script
    1600 BCE

    Ancient Chinese Script

    Evolved from the practice of divination during the Shang dynasty, They were the first to leave written records.
  • Earliest known Chinese Poems
    1600 BCE

    Earliest known Chinese Poems

    Literature was made using a formal written language known as Classical Chinese. Works of Chinese literacy included fiction, poetry, philosophical, religion, and science.
  • Book of Odes
    1600 BCE

    Book of Odes

    This was the earliest known major literary work. A collection of poems dating back from the Shang, and Chou dynasties.
  • Period: 1600 BCE to 1279

    Chinese History that Influenced Literature

  • Confucius
    551 BCE

    Confucius

    Teaches about ethical values including loyalty, honesty, and respect for elders. His disciples later recorded his teachings in Analects.
  • Paper
    105 BCE

    Paper

    Exactly when writing was first used in China is not known since most writing was done on materials like wood, bamboo, or silk.The bureaucracy of China relyed on written records but eventually writing was used for self-expression to create some of the greatest literature in the world.
  • Woodblock Printing
    626

    Woodblock Printing

    Blocks cut from wood used to print tex, and then used to create short Buddhist religious texts that were carried as charms by believers. Later scrolls, and books were produced, first by wood-block printing and then by using movable type.
  • First book with Printed Date
    868

    First book with Printed Date

    Diamond Sutra was the fist book with a printed date published. The book practices non-attachment, and non-abiding.
  • Ghost Stories

    Ghost Stories

    The earliest written works in China are ghost stories and myths. The Chinese were very concerned with ghosts because the appearance of someone who had died meant that the living had somehow failed them; the dead would haunt the living until the wrong was righted.