aggerated nature of many of the characters leading to their
easy recognition by the audience.
While Sanskrit was the language used for Hindu scrip-
tures, Buddhist literary works tended to be written in Pali,
and those of the Jains in Ardhamagadhi. All three, especially
the fi rst two, were to have a major infl uence on Indian culture
and also on the Indian diaspora. Tamil, in southern India,
gradually established a literature of its own, though it has
incorporated some Sanskrit stories. Pali would also become
important in Buddhist areas of Southeast Asia, such as mod-
ern-day Cambodia and Indonesia. Indeed, the Buddhist lit-
erary tradition also served to explain many problems of the
world as experienced through the life of Lord Buddha and his
subsequent teachings.
SOUTHEAST ASIA
In Indian-infl uenced Southeast Asia the Mahabharata and
especially the Ramayana became an important part of litera-
ture in modern-day Cambodia and Indonesia. In the former
some early local legends survive from the ancient period,
mainly involving the nagas—many-headed snakes—and
also the founding of the Funan Empire in about 200 c.e. by
Kaudinya, an Indian prince who married the daughter of a
local naga.
Early literature in Indonesia also involved the Ramayana,
albeit a slightly diff erent version, adapted for Sumatran or Ja-
vanese circumstances. As in Cambodia, the story was acted
rather than written down, and gradually the plot was adapted
to allow for local traditions to be incorporated. Although it
was still acted out as in Cambodia, in Indonesia the central
part of the story was oft en told within the context of a wayang
kulit performance, with shadow puppets and necessarily few
characters.
CHINA
Unlike the oral literary traditions of Southeast Asia, China
has the longest continuous written literary tradition in the
world, dating back to at least t he 14t h centur y b.c.e. A lt hough
there have been many changes in the Chinese language, and
the characters have changed since the early scripts of the
Shang Dynasty (ca. 1500–ca. 1045 b.c.e.)—and pronuncia-
tion has changed dramatically—the tradition is certainly a
continuous one. Curiously, invaders oft en adopted the Chi-
nese script rather than compelling the Chinese to use their
own, and the Chinese script was also used in Vietnam until
the French romanized the script in the 19th century. It was
also used in Korea in ancient and early medieval times.
Th e earliest examples of Chinese script are carved on
bones and tortoiseshells from the Shang Dynasty. Th ese are
oft en called “oracle bones” because there was a tradition by
which questions were carved on the shoulder blades of oxen
or on tortoiseshells, which were then heated, with the cracks
that appeared determining the answer to a question posed.
In 1899 a scholar, Wang Yirong, started to transcribe some
of the inscriptions, and many of the early surviving ones that
have been deciphered describe royal and religious activities.
In all there are some 20,000 pieces in the Academia Sinica,
now in Taiwan. Th ose on late Shang bronze vessels and also
brief surviving genealogies are too brief to be regarded as lit-
erature by some scholars. However, they do show the use of
3,400 characters (of which two-thirds have been deciphered),
indicating a wide vocabulary.
It was during the Zhou Dynasty (1045–256 b.c.e.) that
many great works of literature were compiled. Th ese detailed
myths about the creation of the world and the founding of
China seek to explain many natural and historical events.
Unfortunately, the vast majority have not survived in their
original form, largely because the fi rst emperor of China,
from the Qin Dynasty (221–207 b.c.e.), Qin Shi Huang, or-
dered the “burning of the books” in 213 b.c.e. Although he
did allow some exceptions, notably medical works and some
works praising him, his order resulted in the destruction of
many early works of Chinese literature. Th e great Confucian
works, however, survived the burning of the books. Th ese
works consist of the Lun yü (Conversations), and the Ana-
lects, which are collected teachings of Confucius (551–479
b.c.e.). Confucius taught extensively about philosophy and
morality. His request for fi lial piety and for people to respect
the emperor ensured that his works survived when those of
many other sages were undoubtedly destroyed. In addition
to having many works destroyed, Qin Shi Huang also had a
large number of scholars executed. According to one account,
460 scholars were buried alive. According to Wei Hong, a
second-century scholar, 1,160 scholars were buried alive. Th e
“burial of the scholars,” as the incident came to be known,
ensured, at least in the short-term, that Qin Shi Huang’s view
of history survived.
Aft er Qin Shi Huang’s reign there were attempts by
scholars to reconstruct the texts that had been lost. During
the Han Dynasty (202 b.c.e.–220 c.e.) scholars tried to write
down many of the old stories. Some were clearly later literary
works, but many incorporated pieces of literature that may
have survived or may have been remembered by people. On
occasion Han historians quite clearly added new material or
in some cases tried to clarify ambiguities in previous works.
Apart from the works of Confucius, another survivor
from before the reign of Qin Shi Huang was the Dao de jing
(Classic of the Way of Power) of Lao-tzu. It is the principle
work of Daoism, a Chinese philosophy that venerates the
“feminine” qualities that promote longevity as well as equa-
nimity and unity with nature. Th ere was also the book of
Meng-tzu, or Mencius (ca. 371–ca.289 b.c.e.), the collected
thoughts of the sage put together by his students. Th e other
major work to survive is a series of fi ve books from the Zhou
Dynasty known as the Wu ching (Five Classics). Th ese con-
sist of the I ching (Classic of Changes), the Shu ching (History
Classics), the Shih ching (Poetry Classics), the Li chi (Record
of Rites), and the Ch’un-ch’iu (Spring and Autumn Annals).
Th e I ching describes cosmology, and the Shu ching
is a collection of offi cial documents. Th e Shih ching is anliterature: Asia and the Pacific 651