Abstract ″Re-painting the literary map of China″ captures Chinese literature and culture at three levels: first, the internal-external correspondence at the spiritual level, or the interplay between individual experience and the contemporary proposition|second, the refined-popular interaction at the cultural level, or the interaction and complementation between academic research and folk wisdom, and third, the multiple re-combinations of cross-regional ethnic cultures, or the cross-impacts between and integration of the culture of the central plains and those of the border areas and minority groups. The over two thousand books on the history of Chinese literature have three weak points: first, they are about the literary history of the Han nationality, not that of the minority groups. Second, they focus on written rather than verbal resources. Third, they do not dig deep enough into the profound implications of our culture. The Chinese nation has exuberant vitality and stamina. One of the main reasons for this is that the complementation of the mainstream Confucianism with Daoism and Buddhism results in a solid and deep-rooted cultural and psychological foundation. A more important reason is that we not only have the Yellow River civilization, but also the Yangtze River civilization, which gives us a lot of room for maneuver in the competition for existence. ″Mapping″ as a methodology enables us to better know the character, journey and future of Chinese culture, and this knowledge of the human geography of China will bring us a clearer vision of the facts and fiction, the ups and downs, and the past, present and future of literature, culture and civilization. The outcome of the multiple origins of Chinese civilization was the interaction between the South and the North — the cohesiveness of the central plains and the vitality of the borders integrated into an immense tension system and moved the wheels of the Chinese nation across the broad expansions of its land. The three levels of Chinese civilization, i.e., the trail-blazers in the civilization in the central plains, the interaction between the southern and northern civilizations and the competition of the less developed border cultures integrated into a virtuous tension structure which motivated the development of Chinese civilization. The Chinese nation thus formed a compound dynamic mechanism of ″central cohesiveness and border vitality.″ The proposition of the family is a substantive one — it is real and charismatic. Discussing ancient Chinese literature without mention of the concept of ″family″ is often inadequate, because the family involves not just issues of blood and money, but also cultural transmission. Literary families had abundant cultural power and resources at their disposal and, with their marriages and circles of friends, they deeply imprinted their regional cultures. To restore the integrity of the Chinese literary maps, spatial dimensions must be added to the temporal dimensions. As a methodology, the map is rooted in the macro literary concept. The ″macro literary concept″ emphasizes the spatial characteristic of literature, which is of course dynamic space, within which the birth of literature, the features of culture and the life of civilization are unfolded.
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