On the History of the Formation of Early Chinese Novels (Abridged Edition)

Early novels are usually used to refer to classical Chinese novels before the Tang Dynasty. Based on the unearthed and handed down documents, the author, from the perspective of generation history, makes a study of the creation subject, stylistic characteristics, existing form, historical and cultural background of early Chinese novels and puts forward a series of very persuasive viewpoints, such as there already had been novels in Zishu and Wushi before the Han Dynasty and their basic form is &quote;metaphor Story + discussion&quote;; the story is just the matrix generating novels; and discussion is the core pursuit of the novel. These studies and viewpoints are important achievements in the field of research on the history of early novels, which deserves full attention of the academic circle.