There are a few heavy-hitters, though. I'd expect China, for example, to have written some great literature over the years.

(Epistemic status: I don't actually know anything about Chinese literature, and I welcome correction on this point.)

Most discussions regarding Chinese literature would start with the big four (novels): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classic_Chinese_Novels

I'm queueing up one of these as the next book I'll read. Thanks for helping me out!

I recommend Journey to the West out of the four. Kind of like an RPG-esque journey about a monkey and his gang traveling in search of Buddhist scriptures. You'll get to learn about Sun Wukong, who is the basis for a lot of Chinese, Japanese, and (I believe?) Korean spin-off characters, like Goku from Dragonball[1]

Another good option is Romance of the Three Kingdoms which will cover a good portion of Chinese history (in a mythological way). A lot of the characters like Zhu Geliang [2] are still highly influential in modern Chinese culture.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun_Wukong#Influence [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhuge_Liang

Chinese literature is indeed very rich, especially the ancient poetries/verses, from Tang and Song dynasty. They are indeed the essential part of, not only Chinese, but East Asian aesthetics in general.

Does a work need to be written to have literary merit?

No, but strictly oral works are not very accessible unless someone writes them down. (Or, I suppose, records them.)

Writing lends persistence and faithfulness to the original.

Oral traditions tend to be divergent and mutable.

Even such changes as the introduction of the printing press, and cheap paper, had profound impacts:

• Copies were now letter-for-letter identical.

• Reproduction costs fell by 2-6 orders of magnitude.

• Translation to the vernacular became viable. It was cheaper to bring the book to the reader (translation) than the reader to the book (learning Latin, Greek, French, German, Italian, etc.).

• Literacy grew -- from 5-10% in 1500 or so to 95%+ by 1900.

Of course, the number of published works grew, as did the literary canon, to the point it's a largely meaningless term (or has been subsumed by pop culture).