A History of Chinese Literature
Book by Herbert Giles
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A History of Chinese Literature is a history of Chinese literature written by Herbert Giles and published in 1901.
Title page for A History of Chinese Literature (1901) | |
| Author | Herbert Giles |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Subject | History |
Publication date | 1901 |
| Publication place | British |
| Pages | 448 |
Although there had been surveys of Chinese literature in Japanese, it was the first such survey to appear in English.[1] In his preface, Giles claims that such a work of history was not already available, even in Chinese,[2] since Chinese scholars realized the "utter hopelessness" of "achieving even comparative success in a general historical survey of the subject". But he adds that "It may be said without offence that a work which would be inadequate to the requirements of a native public, may properly be submitted to English readers as an introduction into the great field which lies beyond". A large part of the book is devoted to translations, "enabling the Chinese author, so far as is possible, to speak for himself".[3]
Reception and influence
The scholar and writer Lin Yutang commented that "'History of Chinese Literature' was a misnomer; it was a series of attempted essays on certain Chinese works, and was not even an outline covering the successive periods.” [4]
Qian Zhongshu noted what he called an "amusing mistake" in Giles' "very readable book." Giles:
- Giles gives a complete version of Ssu-k'ung Tu's 'philosophical poem, consisting of twenty-four apparently unconnected stanzas'. This poem, according to Professor Giles, 'is admirably adapted to exhibit the forms under which pure Taoism commends itself to the mind of a cultivated scholar.' This is what Professor Giles thinks Ssu-K'ung Tu to have done, but what Ssu-K'ung Tu really does is to convey in imageries of surpassing beauty the impressions made upon a sensitive mind by twenty-four different kinds of poetry—'pure, ornate, grotesque', etc.[5]
Ezra Pound used Giles' translations as the basis for what have been called his English "translations of translations".[6]
Editions
- Giles, Herbert A. (1901), A History of Chinese Literature, New York and London: Appleton Available online at: Google Books; A History of Chinese Literature Internet Archive; A History of Chinese Literature Project Gutenberg.
