20th Century Chinese Classic Novels

Author: Li Xiu
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2004-01-01
Features: In the late Qing Dynasty, due to various reasons, fiction writing entered a period of prosperity. According to the "New Book Classification Catalogue" of Hanfen Pavilion, there were about 120 types of fiction, but as described by Ai Ying in History of Late Qing Fiction, "there were at least over a thousand, three times more than what Hanfen Pavilion possessed," many of which had reached the scale of modern long novels. Li Boyuan's The Real Story of Officialdom, Wu Yanren's Strange Currents in the Last Twenty Years, Liu E's The Old Man with a Walking Stick, and Zeng Pu's The Flowers in the Sea of Suffering were called "the four satirical novels" by Lu Xun.① Some exposed the political corruption and darkness of the late Qing, while others revealed the vices of corrupt officials and tyrannical magistrates. Others reflected the Constitutional Movement, the Nationalist Revolution, women's liberation, industrial and commercial conflicts, and the Boxer Uprising, etc., analyzing to varying degrees the contradictions of China's semi-feudal and semi-colonial society in the late Qing and early Republican era. Together, they painted a broad picture of Chinese society in the early 20th century, shining with the light of critical realism. They inherited the excellent realist tradition of the Ming and Qing dynasties and laid the foundation for the realistic tradition of modern long novels. The evolution of society, cultural spirit, and tradition interact with each other, jointly advancing the temporal and spatial dimensions of the works, providing us with an incomparably complete, profound, and highly influential world. It is not without reason to predict that it belongs not only to the past century but also to the future century.
Excellent long novels are like mirrors of social life, canvases of the times, and encyclopedias, serving as monumental records of an era. Looking back at the history of long novels in the last century, there were many outstanding works. Now, compiling a classic anthology with a limit of 500,000 words imposes constraints on length. Classics should withstand the test of time, represent the direction of historical progress and the spirit of the era, and be born in the 20th century yet remain eternally meaningful to future centuries. We selected 34 works, merely sketching an outline.
This book includes essays by 30 writers such as Ba Jin, Zhang Jie, and Liu Xinwu, including works like Remembering Xiao Shan, Stalking, and Terror.