Introduction : the origins and impact of literati culture -- pt. 1. Foundations. Language and script / Victor H. Mair -- Myth / Anne Birrell -- Philosophy and literature in early China / Michael Puett -- The thirteen classics / Paul Rakita Goldin -- Shih-ching poetry and didacticism in ancient Chinese literature / Jeffrey Riegel -- The supernatural / Rania Huntington -- Wit and humor / Karin Myhre -- Proverbs / John S. Rohsenow -- Buddhist literature / Helwig Schmidt-Glintzer and Victor H. Mair -- Taoist heritage / Judith Magee Boltz -- Women in literature / Anne Birrell -- pt. 2. Poetry. Sao, fu, parallel prose, and related genres / Christopher Leigh Connery -- Poetry from 200 b.c.e. to 600 c.e. / Robert Joe Cutter -- Poetry of the Táng Dynasty / Paul W. Kroll -- Tzú / Stuart Sargent -- Sung Dynasty shih poetry / Michael A. Fuller -- Yüan San-chú̈ / Wayne Schlepp -- Mongol-Yüan classical verse (shih) / Richard John Lynn -- Poetry of the fourteenth century / John Timothy Wixted -- Poetry of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries / Daniel Bryant -- Poetry of the seventeenth century / Richard John Lynn -- Poetry of the eighteenth to early twentieth centuries / Daniel Bryant -- Chíng lyric / David McCraw -- Modern poetry / Michelle Yeh -- Poetry and painting / Charles Hartman -- pt. 3. Prose. The literary features of historical writing / Stephen Durrant -- Early biography / William H. Nienhauser, Jr. -- Expository prose / Ronald Egan -- Records of anomalies / Hu Ying -- Travel literature / James M. Hargett -- Sketches / James M. Hargett -- Twentieth-century prose / Philip F.C. Williams -- pt. 4. Fiction. Táng tales / William H. Nienhauser, Jr. -- Vernacular stories / Yenna Wu -- Full-length vernacular fiction / Wai-Yee Li -- Traditional vernacular novels : some lesser-known works / Daria Berg -- The later classical tale / Allan H. Barr -- Fiction from the end of the empire to the beginning of the republic, 1897-1916 / Milena Dolez̆elová-Velingerová -- Twentieth-century fiction / Philip F.C. Williams -- China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan during the 1980s and 1990s / Helmut Martin -- pt. 5. Drama. Traditional dramatic literature / Wilt L. Idema -- Twentieth-century spoken drama / Xiaomei Chen -- pt. 6. Commentary criticism, and interpretation. The rhetoric of premodern prose style / Christoph Harbsmeier -- Classical exegesis / Haun Saussy -- Literary theory and criticism / Dore J. Levy -- Traditional fiction commentary / David L. Rolston -- pt. 7. Popular and peripheral manifestations. Balladry and popular song / Anne Birrell -- Tun-huang literature / Niel Schmid -- The oral-formulaic tradition / Anne E. McLaren -- Regional literatures / Mark Bender -- Ethnic minority literature / Mark Bender -- The translator's turn: the birth of modern Chinese language and fiction / Lydia H. Liu -- The reception of Chinese literature in Korea / Emanuel Pastreich -- The reception of Chinese literature in Japan / Emanuel Pastreich -- The reception of Chinese literature in Vietnam / Emanuel Pastreich.