History of Chinese Literature (Volume 1, 2, 3)

Author: Zhang Peiheng Luo Yuming
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-09-16
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 the 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 liberal arts majors in universities and have had a particularly wide influence. Each of these works has its own achievements and contributions, earning widespread praise. However, due to the continuous 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 an arduous and perhaps ill-advised attempt, and we 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. It was also foreseeable that the different sections written by various authors would not seamlessly connect, that the chapters would be uneven in length, and that the writing styles would differ. 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. For fear that some of the revised chapters might contain statements that conflict with the views in the original authors' published or upcoming works, leading to misunderstandings of the original authors by readers, Luo Yuming's name has been added to these chapters.