On Genre

In traditional Chinese literature, genres mainly include literary forms (i.e., genres) and styles (or rhetorical styles), representing two major types: narrow definitions of literary form and style. The basic literary forms primarily encompass poetry, lyrics, prose, novels, dramas, etc. Of course, studying the genres of pure literature does not mean absolutely excluding those application-oriented writings such as official documents that are rich in interest, profound in implication, and elegant in language, fully embodying aesthetic characteristics. Early Chinese poetry is considered literature in the aesthetic sense, and early theories and criticism of poetry were the precursors of literary criticism. Later, the concept of literature in the aesthetic sense gradually extended from poetry to other genres such as prose, lyrics, drama, and novels. The initial “division between wen and bi” mainly referred to the difference between rhymed and non-rhymed texts, later shifting toward the difference between pure literature and applied writing forms. Subsequently, the wen-bi division also indicated the difference within literature between rhymed and non-rhymed texts. The differentiation between parallel prose and free prose and their related controversies started after the creation of parallel prose, which mainly refers to the couplet form of sentences and the parallelism of syllables. The revival of ancient styles by Chen Ziang and the classical prose movement led by Han Yu and Liu Zongyuan, however, opposed the excessive emphasis on form at the expense of content. The evolution of ancient Chinese literary forms, from poetry and “Sao” to prose and essays, and then to novels, lyrics, and dramas, underwent a developmental process.