History of Chinese Literature

Author: Zhang Peiheng
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-09-01
Features: Since Huang Moxi wrote A History of Chinese Literature in the late Qing Dynasty, numerous similar works have emerged. Among the outstanding ones are Liu Dajie's A History of the Development of Chinese Literature, edited by You Guo'en and others' A History of Chinese Literature, and A History of Chinese Literature compiled by Yu Guanying and others from the Institute of Literature of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. These books have long served as textbooks for university liberal arts majors and have had a particularly wide influence. Each of these books has its own achievements and contributions, hence their widespread acclaim. However, due to the constant emergence of new materials and the deepening of human understanding, it has become necessary by now to write a new A History of Chinese Literature that reflects the current level of research. Thus, we have undertaken what may be a laborious and unprofitable attempt and present this book to the readers. This is the result of collective effort. Zhang Peiheng and Luo Yuming served as the chief editors, discussing and deciding on the overall purpose and basic viewpoints of the book. After discussions among all the contributors, they wrote the initial drafts separately. However, the contributors' views on the development of Chinese literature were only roughly similar, and disagreements were inevitable when it came to specific issues. As for the lack of seamless transitions between different sections written by various authors, the uneven distribution of content in chapters, and the differences in writing styles, these were all anticipated. Such phenomena are certainly unsuitable for a complete work. Therefore, Luo Yuming rearranged and organized the entire book, unified the understanding, connected the threads, revised the text, and shaped it into its current form. In case some revised chapters contain statements that may conflict with the views of the original authors in their published or forthcoming works, leading to misunderstandings of the original authors by readers, Luo Yuming's name has been added to these chapters.