The texts of this period may be described as rude and rugged in style, but full of vigorous expression, and unmatched in dramatic power. Many scenes in the Tso Chuan are brought as vividly before the mind of the reader as are the incidents of the Iliad and Odyssey. Unfortunately, such excellences depend upon something beyond the reach of a translator, who has to be content with a barely approximate result.
In poetry, excluding the Odes, we have the beautiful but in some cases terribly obscure Rhapsodies, chiefly from the pen of Ch‘ü P‘ing, who might not inaptly be compared with Pindar in diction and wealth of words. In philosophy, the subtle speculations of Mo Ti, Yang Chu, and Chuang Tzŭ the great exponent of the doctrines enunciated by Lao Tzŭ, would beyond all doubt have commanded a hearing in the contemporary schools of Greece.
The literature of the Hans reflects the stateliness of the age. It is further distinguished by a tone of practical common sense, strikingly and logically expressed. The meanings of words were still however by no means accurately fixed, neither had the written language reached that degree of stylistic polish it was ultimately destined to acquire. Consequently, the scrupulous translator often finds himself involved in a maze of impossible collocations, from which he has to extricate himself by the clue of logic alone. Yet it was under such conditions that Ssŭ-ma Ch‘ien―truly named the Herodotus of China―committed to writing his most splendid history, and Ch‘ao Ts‘o drew faithful conclusions from long and elaborately worded premisses.
The poetry of the period may be dismissed as wanting in that esssential which differentiates poetry from didactic verse. The philosophers of the day occupied themselves chiefly in editing and commenting upon the sacred books. Their interpretations were duly accepted for many centuries until at length doomed to pale in the flood of a brighter light. (See Chu Hsi). This was also the age of forgery on a grand scale, extending even to the end of the 3rd century a.d. To the labours of forgers of this time we are probably indebted for the bulk of the Tao Tê Ching, the work of Lieh Tzŭ, many chapters of Chuang Tzŭ, etc.
