Looking over the history of Chinese literature which has experienced several millenniums, we can see that Tang poetry, Song « ci » (verses of the Song dynasty) and Yuan « qu” (a collective name for zaju and sanqu of the Yuan dynasty) are like 3 radiant pearls, sparkling in the temple of Chinese classical literature, but for a very long period before the 20th century fiction is hardly mentioned. Is fiction really unqualified to be included in the temple of Chinese classical works ?
At beginning, the form of fiction was not approved by the orthodox literature. However, it has taken down vividly the track of historical development and the picture of life with its own language. Due to its popularity, truthfulness and simple language, fiction has faithfully fulfilled its social and historical functions.
What is fiction?
The definitions given by different people in different times vary a great deal.The first person who mentioned the word “fiction” should be Zhuangzi. Generally speaking, at that time what the “fiction” referred to should be the trivial words. After that, Confucius’s pupil Zixia called fiction as « xiaodao » which means minor principles, opposite with major principles which refers to running a country and benefiting mankind. And Xunzi named fiction « xiaojia zhenshuo » : little real facts told by little masters ?
To the 3 viewpoints mentioned above, the writers and historians hold different opinions. But it is unanimous that the saying quite close to the essential factors of « fiction » did not appear until the Han dynasty.
Huan Tan, a thinker in the intersecting period of Western and Eastern Han dynasties, believed that fictions took certain affairs in the daily life to make visualized metaphor and created short stories like fables. In addition, he summarized the characteristics of this kind of “fiction” as follows: its contents are mainly trivial opinions; its expressions are mainly stories, fables, legends in order to elaborate some kind of truths; its forms are mainly short articles; its thought then had the social function of “cultivating ourselves and managing a household”. In the meantime, he called those who wrote fictions “fictionalist”, which undoubtedly is sort of recognition to the fiction status.
However, it is Ban Gu, a historian in the Han dynasty, who defined the essential factors of fiction and laid a foundation for fiction commentary. He recorded the booklists of 15 schools of fiction, and objectively acknowledged that “fiction” had coexisted with the nine schools of thought since the « Spring and Autumn » period. He believed that fiction was so trivial and insignificant that gentlemen would never accept it and create a literature form.
However, fiction still grew…
Among the recorded 15 schools of fiction, there are trivial matters waiting textual research as well as the collected incidents past ages ; there are real historical events as well as the legends of mystery; there are elaboration to the philosophy as ties. In brief, the fiction delimited by Ban Gu included well as the records and promotions of some special- almost all kinds of literature styles except the other perspective, it is not difficult to find that the definition nine schools of thought at that time, with plentiful but disordered contents and broad themes. From this perspective, it is not difficult to find that definition given by Ban Gu is still unclear and reflects a sense of discrimination because fiction was defined as all literature forms except orthodox literature.
This had a certain negative effect on later scholars when they wrote fictions. Fictions, in such a circumstances disdained by the orthodox literature, passed its long initial phase. It quietly fermented, sprouted, and then developed.
Tang dynasty’s « Xiao Shuo »
Not until the Tang dynasty, had it finally enjoyed its unprecedented magnificent time. Fictions during this time had not only relatively integrated plots and distinctive personalities, but also reasonable fictions rooted in reality. These characteristics completely conformed to what fiction specifically required. And the Tang romance further symbolizes the process ancient Chinese fictions moved from “unintentional” to “intentional” and from immature to its mature masterpieces.
By the Song and Yuan dynasties, a new kind of “shuohua” (story-telling) art appeared in society which had a strong characteristic of « people living in a town» culture.
Based on “shuohua “art, « huaben », story-telling script fictions, came into being. We discover printed versions of the prompt-books used by popular storytellers in Song and Yuan times. Salient features of huaben stories: use of the vernacular larded with the stock expressions of professional storytellers; liberal admixture of colloquialisms and archaisms; frequent inclusion of rhymed passages, idioms, or poems for narrative or descriptive purposes; a routine preamble before the feature story.
Fiction, for the first time, became a widely-received literary form that nearly all the people at that time participated in. Furthermore, in the development of Chinese ancient fictions, it is a landmark achievement that fiction was written in vernacular language instead of « wenyan », the standard literary language)
Ming and Qing dynasties Fiction
Following immediately after that was the Ming fiction, which continually enriched and developed the vernacular fictions of the Song and Yuan dynasties. Not only came the fictions like « san yan” and “erpai” that enjoyed great popularity, but more importantly, it laid a foundation for those excellent traditional Chinese fictions such as « Romance of the Three Kingdoms » and “Water Margin ».
Meanwhile, « wenyan » fictions continued to grow, and in the Qing dynasty, an outstanding literary masterpiece entitled Strange Stories from the Studio Liao Zhai finally came out. « Dream of Red Mansion »also published in the same period, fully deserves to be called as an exotic flower in the garden of Chinese classical fictions. It represents a perfect time in the long history of Chinese fiction development.
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