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

Author: Zhang Peiheng, Luo Yuming, Editors-in-Chief
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 Guoen and others, and A History of Chinese Literature, compiled by Yu Guanying and others from the Institute of Literature, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. These books have long served as textbooks for university liberal arts programs 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, the task of writing a new A History of Chinese Literature that reflects the current level of research has now become necessary. Thus, we have undertaken what may be an arduous and perhaps ill-advised attempt, presenting this book to the readers. This is the result of collective effort. Led by Zhang Peiheng and Luo Yuming as editors-in-chief, the overall purpose and fundamental perspectives of the book were discussed and decided upon. After further deliberation by all contributors, they wrote the initial drafts separately. However, the views of the authors on the development of Chinese literature were only roughly similar, and disagreements were inevitable when specific issues were addressed. It was also expected that the different sections written by various authors might not seamlessly connect, that the length of chapters would be uneven, and that the writing styles would vary. Such phenomena are, of course, unsuitable for a complete work. Therefore, Luo Yuming rearranged and organized the entire book, unified the perspectives, connected the threads, revised the text, and shaped it into its current form. To avoid any contradictions between the revised sections and the original authors' arguments in their published or upcoming works, which might lead to misunderstandings of the original authors by readers, Luo Yuming's name has been added to those sections.