How about literature in Qin Dynasty?
With the unification of China by the short-lived Qin Dynasty (221 to 206 BC), the singular feature in literary matters was what is called the "Burning of the Books." The emperor, Shih Huang Ti, was determined to be an absolutist ruler and opposed to writings on good government such as those in the Classics. In 213, it is believed; he ordered the burning of all texts that he thought to be threatening. Whether the books were actually burned or simply kept hidden from the people is uncertain. The result was the same: It was necessary during the next dynasty to reconstruct the texts of the Classics.

The Han Dynasty (206 BC to AD 220) actively promoted the restoration and teaching of the Classics. In 124 BC a national university was opened for the purpose of teaching Confucianism.Literature came back into existence during the Han Dynasty. Traditional poetry and prose forms, especially the fu prose poems, flourished. But the most notable achievement came with the reactivation of the Music Bureau, in 125 BC. The most outstanding folk ballad of the period, about AD 200, was Southeast the Peacock Flies.

The major prose authors of the Han Dynasty were Liu An, Ssu-ma Ch'ien, and Pan Ku. The masterpiece of the period was the Shih-chi. It was completed in about 85 BC and took 18 years to produce. It contains a record of events and personalities from the previous 2,000 years. Shih-chi was the first attempt at a national history in China, and it set the pattern for the histories of dynasties in the following centuries. Pan Ku, who was born about AD 32 and died about AD 92, was also a poet, soldier, and the author of `Han shu'. Completed after 16 years of study, the history contains more than 800,000 words.

How about literature in Six Dynasties and the Sui Dynasty?

The Six Dynasties and the Sui Dynasty (AD 221 to 618) was followed after the Han Dynasty. The major poet of this era was Tao Yuanming (365-427). His verse was written in plain style that was imitated by poets long after. He also was a master of the five-word line. Most of his writings deal with rural activities so that he was called the first of China's great nature poets.

The 3rd and 4th centuries were, for prose writers, a time of individuality and a rejection of the mindless imitation of past models. Lu Chi (261-303) was a renowned poet and literary critic who emphasized originality in creative writing. He wrote a great deal of lyric poetry but is best remembered for his Wen fu, an essay on literature. In the 6th century the first book of literary criticism, Carving of the Literary Dragon was published by Liu Hsieh (465-522). It was written in the parallel prose, style.

How about literature in Tang Dynasty and the Five Dynasties?

The period from 618 to 960, the time of the Tang Dynasty and the Five Dynasties, is considered China's golden age of poetry. The works of more than 2,000 poets, totaling more than 48,900 pieces, have been preserved. The writing adapted traditional verse forms and created new ones. Among the new and popular forms were "regulated verse"; "truncated verse"; and a song form called “ci”. “Ci” is the most comparable to the natural rhythms of speech and easily understood. The “ci” served as a major style for poetry during the Sung Dynasty.

Li Bai (701-762) and Du Fu (712-770) are the two of the greatest poets in all Chinese literature lived during the T'ang Dynasty. Li Bai was a romantic who celebrated things such as drinking, friendship, and nature as well as solitude and the passage of time. His work showed a great deal of imagination and had a fresh approach to old themes, which were also written in a romantic style. Du Fu also celebrated the beauties of nature and bemoaned the passage of time, but he was a satirist and critic. Du Fu's great reputation in literature comes most obviously from his expert use of all types of poetic style. His mastery of the regulated verse form is unmatched.

Chinese prose also underwent a stylistic reform during the Tang period. The major change was brought about by Han Yu (768-824). He promoted classic Confucian doctrines at a time when they had begun to fall into neglect because of the rising popularity of Buddhism and Taoism. In his writing he advocated a return to the free, simple prose of the ancient philosophers. His own essays are among the most beautiful ever written in Chinese and became models for the style of writing he regarded so highly. At his death he was honoured with the title "Prince of Letters." .

How about literature in Song Dynasty?
During the Sung Dynasty, especially in the 11th century, the “ci” form of poetry and song was brought to its greatest heights, particularly through the efforts of China's best woman poet, Li Qingzhao (1081-1141). She produced six volumes of poetry and seven volumes of essays, all of which have been lost except for some poetry fragments. The prose reform continued under followers of Han Yu, and poetry of the conventional type continued to be written by members of rival literary schools.

The only real innovation came with local dialects being used in storytelling. This literature’s origin was in unrecorded spoken tales recounted by individuals and audiences who gathered in marketplaces or temple yards. By the 12th century these tales became fairly lengthy narratives, many dealing with fictionalized history. This style opened new vistas in prose fiction in later periods, though its use was at first despised by professional writers.

The best-known ruler of the Yuan, or Mongol, Dynasty was Kublai Khan. In literature Chinese drama came to the fore for the first time, and local fiction was firmly established. Puppet shows, skits, vaudeville acts, and shadow plays of previous ages had laid the foundation for a full-fledged drama. Plays in four or five acts, including songs and dialect in a language quite close to that of the common people, became popular.

More than 1,700 musical plays were written, and more than 105 dramatists were recorded. Wang Shih-fu (1250-1337?) wrote one of the best dramas of the period, Romance of the Western Chamber, a work that is still popular nowadays. It is about the romantic story. In local fiction one of the greatest novelists was Lo Kuan-chung (1330-1400), known for his masterpiece, The Romance of the Three Kingdoms. He is also presumed to be the author of one of China's best-known novels, The Story of the Water Margin (translated by novelist Pearl S. Buck as `All Men Are Brothers'). The work is a semihistorical collection of stories about a band of enlightened outlaws--social and political dissenters whose exploits were recorded in official dynastic history.

How about literature in Ming Dynasty?

Most Ming literature in both prose and poetry was traditional, imitative, and old-fashioned. Two schools of writing challenged this trend, claiming that literature should change with the age instead of carelessly imitating the past. The influence of these schools did not last long, however.It was in the local literature of the period that writers made significant contributions. The dramatic form tales of events became popular.

In fiction there were some novels that are still considered outstanding. Wu Cheng-en (1500-82) wrote Adventure to the Western Ocean. The author of Gold Vase Plum, subtitled "The Adventurous History of Xi-men Qing and His Six Wives," is unknown. It was the first realistic social novel to appear in China--the first fiction work not derived from popular legends or historical events.

Qing was the last imperial ruling house of China. During its reign most Chinese literature tended to be old-fashioned and imitative; genuine creativity was rare. Toward the end of the period, however, China had its first extensive contacts with European powers, and ideas from the West began to filter into the literature through translations of novels and other books.

In native prose fiction, there were two excellent works. One written by Pu Song-ling (1640-1715) is a collection of supernatural tales entitled Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio. The other is one of the great novels in world literature--Dream of the Red Chamber, by Cao Xueqing (1715-63). Partly autobiographical and written in the local, it describes in sometimes lengthy detail the decline of a powerful family and the ill-fated love between two young people.
Classical literature refers to the earliest period and covers works from three thousand years ago to the late Qing Dynasty, and is a virtually unbroken strand enduring dynastic changes. It was steeped in an enclosed environment that hardly had any real links with religion or least of all the literature of foreign cultures.

What are forms of Chinese Classical literature?
Chinese Classical literature generally derived from philosophical or religious essays such as the works of Confucius (551-479 BC) and Lao-tzu (probably 4th century BC). These writings were often about how people should act and how the society and political system should be organized and operated. A strong tradition of historical writing also evolved. Poetry became well established as a literary form during the Tang Dynasty, from AD 618 to 907. One of China's greatest poets, Li Bai, was in this period. This tradition of poetry, often dealing with the relationship of humans to their natural surroundings, has continued. Drama is another old and important literary form. Chinese drama usually combines local dialect with music and song, which has always been popular with the common people.

Early Chinese novels often stressed character development and are usually centered on an adventure or supernatural happening; an example is the classic Ming version of Shui-hu chuan (The Water Margin). Historical themes were also popular, such as in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, written in the late Yuan period. There were also love stories such as the extremely popular Dream of the Red Chamber, probably most famous Chinese novel. Often these works were written in the local dialect.