Eastern Literature: The Four Great Books of Song and the Tale of Genji
964 CE to 1107 CE
Chinese scholar Li Fang, a prime minister of the Song Dynasty, is known for leading the compilation of three of the Four Great Books of Song.
The term is coined after Cefu Yuangui completes the compilation of the final volume during the eleventh century.
The four encyclopedias, each published and intended to collect the whole knowledge of the new state, include:Imperial Readings of the Taiping Era, a general encyclopedia documenting various stories of Chinese myths and subjects of theology.
Extensive Records of the Taiping Era, a collection of gods, deities, fairies, ghost stories and theology.Finest Blossoms in the Garden of Literature, an anthology of poetry, odes, songs and writings.Prime Tortoise of the Record Bureau is an encyclopedia of political essays, autobiographies, memoirs and decrees.
Japanese poet and writer Sei Shonagon, a lady-in-waiting to the Empress Sadako and a contemporary of Lady Murasaki, publishes a diary of the years 991—1000.
Entitled “The Pillow-book of Sei Shonagon,” her journal is a miscellany of various witty epigrams, keen observations of people and events, and poetic notes on natural phenomena.
Her contemporary Murasaki Shikibu, a Japanese lady of the court in the time of the empress Akiko, writes what some have called the world’s first novel, the “Tale of Genji,” narrating the amorous adventures of a prince.
Her diary of the years 1007 to 1010 provides a window into Japanese court life and the history and mores of the period.
Indonesian court poet Mpu Kanwa composes the Kakawin Arjunawiwaha, which is adapted from the Mahabharata epic of North India.
This text tells the story of Arjuna, an incarnation of Indra, but is also an allegory for the life of the raja Airlangga, the founder of Kahuripan.Shao Yong edits the "Tai Hsuan Jing" by Yang Hsiung (CE 10).
Influenced by the Base Three number system found in the Tai Hsuan, Shao Yong then sets the Hexagrams of the I Ching into a binary order (the Fu Hsi Ordering).
This in turn will influence Leibniz and his thinking on binary arithmetic, and in turn the language of modern computers.
Also famous for his poetry and for his interest in the game of Go (wéiqí), Shao Yong writes a Great Ode to Watching Wéiqí, one of the longest surviving classical Chinese poems, as well as a Long Ode to Watching Wéiqí.The innovative Chinese painter Su Shi, who is also a major poet and essayist, rejects the prosodic conventions and limitations of the Tang poets, forming an influential literary circle that invents a new style of verse.
His own robust poetry is notable for its romantic expressionism.During the reign of Emperor Shenzong of Song, a group of scholars led by Sima Guang, a minister interested in the history of the previous one thousand years, compiles Zizhi Tongjian, ("A Comprehensive Mirror for Aid in Government"), an enormous written universal history of China that records historical events from the Zhou Dynasty to the Song Dynasty.
Another notable literary achievement that occurs during Shenzong’s reign is the compilation of the Seven Military Classics.
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The Song army has crisscrossed China, conquering one kingdom after another; the Southern Tang kingdom falls in 975.
Within two decades, the Song state has been able to incorporate the southern kingdoms into its realm, unifying nearly all of traditional Chinese lands.
Southern Tang poet-king Li Yu, reportedly virtuous and skilled in letters, calligraphy, and painting, has passed his idyllic life in his palace in Nanjing (Nanking), reading Buddhist texts, drinking with his officials, and watching dancing girls.
Following his kingdom’s defeat by the Song in 975, he is imprisoned in the Song capital, and begins writing a series of lyrically beautiful poems in the ci style (forty-five of which survive) expressing his deep longing for the life that could no longer be.
The Song make enormous gains in commerce and rice cultivation in this era.
Chinese scholars initially publish the Tàipíng guǎngjì (Extensive Records of the Taiping Era) in 978.
One of the Four Great Books of Song, the work documents various stories of Chinese myths and subjects of theology.
Divided into five hundred volumes when complete, it consists of over three million written Chinese characters.
Wood carvers commissioned by China's Song Dynasty complete a carving of the entire Buddhist canon (the Tripitaka) for printing (one hundred and thirty thousand total blocks are produced).
The encyclopedia Imperial Readings of the Taiping Era, another of the Four Great Books of Song, is completed in one thousand volumes of 4.7 million written Chinese characters.
A massive encyclopedia compiled by a number of officers commissioned by the imperial court of the Song Dynasty with the lead editor being Li Fang from 977 to 983 during the era of Taiping Xingguon, it includes citations from about two thousand five hundred and seventy-nine different kinds of documents spanning from books, poetry, ode, proverbs, steles to miscellaneous works.
After the compilation, the Emperor Taizong of Song is said to have finished reading the book within a year with three volumes per day.
The Song Dynasty Chinese engineer Qiao Wei develops, in 984, the first known use of the double-gated canal pound lock for adjusting different water levels in segments of the Grand Canal of China.
This dramatically helps the passage of ships in segments with rougher waters leading slightly downhill.
Qiao also has roof hangers built over the segments where double gates are installed, increasing the amount of safety for passing ships.
The Chinese encyclopedia Finest Blossoms in the Garden of Literature, yet another of the Four Great Books of Song, is completed in 986, with a total of one thousand volumes representing the work of some twenty-two hundred authors.
Chinese scholar Li Fang, born in what is now Hengshui, Hebei, had once served the Later Han and Later Zhou.
A prime minister of the Song Dynasty, he is known for leading the compilation of three of the Four Great Books of Song.
The term will be coined after Cefu Yuangui completes the compilation of the final volume during the eleventh century.
The four encyclopedias, each published and intended to collect the whole knowledge of the new state, include: Imperial Readings of the Taiping Era, a general encyclopedia.
Extensive Records of the Taiping Era, a collection of gods, deities, fairies, ghosts stories and theology.
Finest Blossoms in the Garden of Literature, an anthology of poetry, odes, songs and writings.
Prime Tortoise of the Record Bureau is an encyclopedia of political essays, autobiographies, memoirs and decrees.
Murasaki Shikibu, a Japanese lady of the court in the time of the empress Akiko, writes around 1000 what some have called the world’s first novel, the “Tale of Genji,” narrating the amorous adventures of a prince.
Lady Murasaki also leaves a diary of the years 1007 to 1010, providing a window into Japanese court life and the history and mores of the period.
Japanese poet and writer Sei Shonagon, a lady-in-waiting to the Empress Sadako and a contemporary of Lady Murasaki, publishes a diary of the years 991—1000.
Entitled “The Pillow-book of Sei Shonagon,” her journal is a miscellany of various witty epigrams, keen observations of people and events, and poetic notes on natural phenomena.
The Song Dynasty Chinese encyclopedia Prime Tortoise of the Record Bureau (which had been compiled since 1005), is completed in one thousand volumes of none million four hundred thousand written Chinese characters.
The largest of the Four Great Books of Song, it is an encyclopedia of political essays, autobiographies, memorials and decrees.
Kaifeng, the capital of the Chinese Empire, becomes the largest city of the world around this time (1013), taking the lead from Córdoba in Al-Andalus.
The city has some half a million residents by 1020; the population is over a million people including all those present in the nine designated suburbs.
The Song military has one million registered soldiers by 1021, a ten percent increase over the twenty years since the turn of the eleventh century, when the Song military only had nine hundred thousand soldiers.
Airlangga, in taking advantage of Srivijayan vulnerability following the attacks of the Indian Cholas, has reestablished the eastern Javanese empire, establishing his capital near modern Surabaya.
Airlangga is known for his religious tolerance, and is a patron of both the Hindu and Buddhist religions.
In 1035, Airlangga constructs a Buddhist monastery named Srivijayasrama dedicated for his queen consort Dharmaprasadottungadewi.
The monastery bearing the name of Srivijaya suggests that his queen consort was probably a Srivijayan princess, a close relative, probably daughter, of the Srivijayan king Sangramavijayattungavarman.
She had taken refuge in East Java after her father was taken prisoner and her kingdom was raided through series of Indian Chola raids.
The king seems to be sympathetic to the fate of the Srivijayan princess, having lost her family and her kingdom, and probably genuinely fell in love and was devoted to her, thus promoting her as prameswari (the queen consort).
Airlangga went further, naming his daughter from queen Dharmaprasadottungadewi as heiress, the future queen regnant of Kahuripan.
He eventually extends his kingdom to Central Java and Bali.
The north coast of Java, particularly Surabaya and …