ABSTRACT
The characteristics of a country's literature have a close connection with that country's culture. Ancient Chinese lyric poetry, because it is very short, puts great stress on conciseness, and demands a long view from a short passage, the perception of something big in something small and extended meaning from familiar words, i.e., limitless conciseness. The first two lines make no mention of the snow, just that there are birds flying in the hills and that there is no trace of human beings. Thus, the reader can imagine a scene of a world covered in snow. The next line starts with a direct description of the monk's playing the lute, using the two characters hui shou. Both novels and dramas in China have this fine quality of conciseness. The Scholars by Wu Jingzi is a famous satirical novel, the satirical method of which relies on indirectness and conciseness.
