A Brief History of Han, Wei, Six Dynasties Novels A Brief History of Tang Dynasty Novels -- A Series of Brief Histories of Ancient Novels by Dynasties

Author: Hou Zhongyi
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-06-01
Features: The small masters before the Tang Dynasty were all written in classical Chinese, so they can also be referred to as classical Chinese novels. They belong to the incubation period of Chinese fiction history and cannot be considered as mature novels, let alone be judged and evaluated by today's standards of fiction. There has always been ambiguity in defining classical Chinese novels. This book determines, from a literary perspective and based on the principle of combining the past and the present, that any creative narrative story with a certain plot and artistic interest can be regarded as a work of fiction. However, narrative works in historical records and philosophical treatises, as well as fables and narrative prose, are not included in our introduction.
Fiction before the Tang Dynasty can be divided into two categories—supernatural tales and anecdotal tales—based on content and genre. Supernatural tales record ghosts, gods, and strange events, while anecdotal tales record the words and deeds of people and their anecdotes. These two genres of fiction were already present in the fifteen types of fiction listed in the Book of Han·Bibliography. Therefore, this small book introduces Chinese fiction starting from the Han Dynasty, although some of the works included are definitely from before the Han Dynasty.
From the pre-Qin and Han periods to the Wei, Jin, and Southern and Northern Dynasties, both supernatural tales and anecdotal tales continued to mature and progress. Summarizing their experience and understanding their process is extremely necessary for understanding the development of Chinese fiction. It is also extremely necessary for understanding the relationship and influence between fiction of the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, popular fiction, and ancient opera.