Conceptualising Chinese Literature in English Sinology

This chapter examines Sinologists’ general conceptualization and taxonomy of what constitutes Chinese literature. The disparity between English and Chinese ideas of literature posed significant challenges to Sinologists’ attempts to define what could be considered as Chinese literature. In their studies, Sinologists adopted a twofold conceptual framework incorporating both Chinese and English concepts concerning literature and literary studies. While generally using the term literature in its broad sense, they also recognized the emerging, narrower conception of literature as the umbrella term for imaginative, aesthetically-driven writings. Accordingly, they grouped Chinese poetry, drama, and fiction together as a subdivision, thereby formulating a modern conception of Chinese literature that predated similar efforts by Chinese scholars in the early twentieth century. This chapter also investigate Sinologists’ approaches to Chinese literature in the context of English Sinology before the professionalization and institutionalization of literary studies as an academic subject at the turn of the twentieth century. It explores Sinologists’ objectives, guiding principles, and methodologies, as well as the manifold values they assigned to Chinese literature and the external intellectual and institutional factors that influenced their studies.