Editing History of literature (section)

==== Six Dynasties ====
{{Further|Six Dynasties poetry}}
Centralism declined during the Six Dynasties period, and Confucianism lost influence as a predominating ideology. This caused the rise of many local traditions of philosophical literature, including that of Taoist and Buddhist ideas.{{Sfn|Luo|2011|pp=149–150}} Prose fiction during the Wei and Jin dynasties consisted mainly of supernatural folklore, including those presented as historical.{{Sfn|Luo|2011|pp=189–190}} This tradition of supernatural fiction continued during the Northern and Southern dynasties with the ''Records of Light and Shade'' attributed to [[Liu Yiqing]].{{Sfn|Luo|2011|p=261}} Another genre of prose was collections of short biographical or anecdotal impressions, of which only ''[[A New Account of the Tales of the World]]'' survives.{{Sfn|Luo|2011|p=263}}

[[Jian'an poetry]] developed from the literary tradition of Eastern Han, incorporating idiosyncrasies and strong demonstrations of emotion to express individualism. This movement was led by then-ruler of China [[Cao Cao]]. The [[poetry of Cao Cao]] consisted of ensemble songs published through the Music Bureau and performed with music.{{Sfn|Luo|2011|pp=152–154}} The [[Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove]] were influential poets in the Wei dynasty mid-3rd century, addressing political and philosophical concerns directly in their poetry.{{Sfn|Luo|2011|p=167}} Chinese poetry developed significantly during the [[Jin dynasty (266–420)|Jin dynasty]], incorporating [[Parallelism (rhetoric)|parallelism]], [[Prosody (linguistics)|prosody]], and emotional expression through scenery. [[Zhang Hua]], [[Lu Ji (Shiheng)|Lu Ji]], and [[Pan Yue (poet)|Pan Yue]] are recognized as the great poets that developed early Western Jin poetry.{{Sfn|Luo|2011|p=173}} [[Zuo Si]] and [[Liu Kun (Jin dynasty)|Liu Kun]] were poets in later Western Jin.{{Sfn|Luo|2011|pp=178–180}} In Eastern Jin, philosophical poetry went through a period of abstraction that removed much of its literary elements. [[Guo Pu]] and [[Tao Yuanming]] were notable poets in Eastern Jin.{{Sfn|Luo|2011|pp=181–184}}

The popularity of literary poetry and [[aestheticism]] grew during the [[Southern dynasties]], and literature as art began to be recognized as distinct from political and philosophical literature.{{Sfn|Luo|2011|p=194}} This resulted in the growth of literary criticism, with ''[[The Literary Mind and the Carving of Dragons]]'' and [[Zhong Rong|''Ranking of Poetry'']] being written at this time.{{Sfn|Luo|2011|pp=197–201}} The [[Sixteen Kingdoms]] of the [[Northern dynasties]] saw little cultural growth due to their instability, and Northern literature of this time was typically influenced by the Southern dynasties.{{Sfn|Luo|2011|p=233}} [[Shanshui poetry]] also became prominent in Six Dynasties poetry.<ref name=":1" />