Research on Ancient Chinese Fiction

Author: Qi Yugu
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-06-01
Features: The 20th century was a period of intense transformation and rapid development in Chinese history. The modernization process that began in the mid-19th century accelerated in the 20th century, completing the historical shift from tradition to modernity. Academic research, as a component of a society's culture and society, underwent and reflected these historical changes. The 20th century saw the emergence of numerous academic luminaries and a large body of academic classics in Chinese humanities, and Chinese academic research gradually established a modern system of academic thought studies in terms of both academic concepts and writing forms during this century. Studying and summarizing the history of the development of humanities in the 20th century is not only an examination of the century-long achievements in academic research across various disciplines but also a collective review of the modernization process of Chinese academic research, with profound significance.
Chapter 1 of this book is a review of ancient fiction studies before the 20th century. From Chapter 2 onwards, the narrative follows chronological order, divided into several stages. However, the New Period (post-1978) saw a flourishing of ancient fiction studies, with the number of published works and papers exceeding the total of the previous 80 years by several times. This period is a key focus of the book, thus accounting for more than half of its content. For the sake of balance, the New Period is divided into three chapters. While the book is primarily structured chronologically, some topics are treated comparatively, such as the overseas research school of Dream of the Red Chamber. Some works were published in the 1960s and 1970s, while others appeared in the 1980s and 1990s, and they are all discussed together. The content presented in this book covers up to the year 2000. However, to ensure that the works of younger scholars are better known, and as far as the author is aware, references to their publications from 2000 onwards are included in the main text or footnotes wherever possible.