Expert: Shannon G. - 5/5/2007

Question
Goodafternoon.
Please could you help me to answer one question, concerning chinese literature.
Why did such a great romans as the Chronicle of the Three Kingdom, The journey to the West and few others appeared in China in the 17-18-th centuries? Some scientists say that it was a kind of Epos whch apearead extremely late in comparance to other cultures, yet those scientists do not name the reason why did it apeared in China in that certain historical period.
Awaiting for your answer.
Ivan  

Answer
Dear Ivan,

17-18th centuries is the peak time of Chinese romans which can be translated to other languages easily and known by the world. But before that time, there were a great number of romans or other type of literature which cannot be translated as they were all written in ancient Chinese like poetry. Even a native Chinese needs to spend years on the ancient Chinese in order to understand the article. That's why very few  Chinese works are known to the world. The first collection of poems in Chinese history "The Book of Odes" was done in the period of 11 century BC-8th century BC. That was hard to be translated and at that time, we still didn't have romans or novels. it's the time of poetry and romans or novels didn't come out till 17th or18th or around as you mentioned.