An Overview of Chinese Literary History

Abstract

This chapter presents an overview of the major Chinese literary histories (CLH) and anthologies compiled in the East and the West. Since the beginning of the twentieth century, literary historians have never ceased rewriting Chinese literary histories. Why do we need new literary histories? What is the underlying mechanism of literary historiography? The answers to these questions seem not that easy. Chinese literary history was first written in Japanese by Japanese sinologists. Much effort has also been made in the field of Chinese literary histories and anthologies compiled in English, beginning with Herbert Allen Giles’ A History of Chinese Literature in 1901. The bloom of rewriting Chinese literary histories in China leads to our exploring into the critical issues of literary historiography. Therefore, the new approaches to rewriting Chinese literary history deserve a thorough investigation.