4 h 16 minAudiobook7 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
How does street gossip grow into a tradition of long novels, strange tales, and sharp social satire?
In A Brief History of Chinese Fiction, Lu Xun follows Chinese storytelling from ancient myth to the novels of the Ming and Qing dynasties. He begins with a question: what does fiction mean? The word xiaoshuo once means small talk—the gossip and odd sayings that serious writers leave aside.
Fiction receives little space in the old catalogues of learning. Lu Xun gives it close attention, tracing how one kind of story grows into another. Drawing on his lectures at Peking University, he names works, groups them into schools, and offers plain judgments. You follow a writer who knows stories from the inside.
What you’ll discover
- Myths and uncanny tales Explore ancient beginnings and Six Dynasties accounts of spirits, strange events, and wit.
- Stories told as stories See why Lu Xun finds a turning point in the deliberate storytelling of Tang writers.
- Voices in the teahouse Meet Song storytellers bringing love, crime, ghosts, and war before ordinary crowds.
- The long novel unfolds Follow historical romances into Ming novels of war, gods, and demons.
- Households, manners, and satire Encounter The Plum in the Golden Vase and Lu Xun’s discussion of novels of daily life.
Who will love it
For readers who love Chinese literature, students seeking a map of the great novels, and anyone curious about how Lu Xun thought about myths, strange tales and satire.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- Fiction began as myth and minor talk
- Six Dynasties tales record spirits and wit
- Tang writers make fiction on purpose
- Storytellers of the Song give us plain speech
- Ming novels of war, gods and demons
- Qing novels, from manners to satire
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Breve storia della narrativa cinese
by Lu Xun · 1923
Lu Xun traces how myth and street gossip become novels of war, gods and satire, revealing what fiction can do.
Challenging2–5 hours to readItaliano
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In short
A Brief History of Chinese Fiction is the first full scholarly history of Chinese storytelling written in modern times. Lu Xun, the writer best known for his own stories, prepared it as lectures at Peking University in the early 1920s and then published it as a book.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
Fiction began as myth and minor talk
Lu Xun starts with a problem of words. The Chinese term for fiction, xiaoshuo, first meant small talk, the street gossip and odd sayings that learned catalogues ranked below other branches of thought. So from the start, fiction had a low place in the Chinese idea of literature.
He then asks where real storytelling came from. Myth is the natural source, and Lu Xun notes that Chinese myths survive only in scraps. He gives reasons. Early communities worked hard to survive and put practical needs before imagination, and what stories there were got mixed into history and philosophy.
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- 15-minute summary
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Details
- First published
- 1923
- Language
- Italiano
- Level
- Challenging
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What is A Brief History of Chinese Fiction about?
It traces Chinese fiction from ancient myths and strange tales through Tang stories, Song storyteller scripts and the great Ming and Qing novels, sorting the works into schools and giving Lu Xun's judgment of each.
Why did Lu Xun write a history of Chinese fiction?
He gave lectures on the subject at Peking University in the early 1920s. He says he wants to help his listeners follow the subject and reduce the burden of copying out lectures.
Which novels does Lu Xun discuss?
He covers Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Water Margin, Journey to the West, The Plum in the Golden Vase, The Scholars and Dream of the Red Chamber, along with many lesser works and earlier tale collections.
The author
Lu Xun
1881–1936 · Chinese novelist and essayist
Lu Xun (1881–1936) was a Chinese writer born in Shaoxing. His original name was Zhou Shuren. He wrote fiction, essays, and literary history. A Brief History of Chinese Fiction appeared in 1923–1924, and Wandering in 1926. He lived in Japan and several Chinese cities, and died in Shanghai.
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