Abstract
According to Western contemporary narratology, the literary form of Western fiction took shape in the 18th century, which is marked by the emergence of “novels”; while in terms of stylistics, “fiction” in the Middle Ages was actually a type of prose fictional stories which originally meant “a thing that is invented or imagined.” In other words, prose fictional stories were the forerunner of novels in the West in the Middle Ages. Examples of these novels include various stories in the folk literature popular in the countryside, stories of chevalier romance, stories of tramps, etc., among which G. Boccaccio’s The Decameron and M. de Cervantes’s Don Quixote were the representatives. It can be said that prose fictional stories ushered in the beginning of Western fiction.
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Notes
- 1.
Zhuangzi (369–286 BC) is the pivotal figure in classical philosophical Taoism in ancient China, and Zhuangzi is a compilation of his and others’ writings at the pinnacle of the philosophically subtle classical period in China. The period was marked by humanist and naturalist reflections on normativity shaped by the metaphor of a Tao—a social or a natural Way. Traditional orthodoxy understood Zhuangzi as an anti-rational, credulous follower of a mystical Laozi. This traditional view dominated mainstream readings of the text.—Translator’s note.
- 2.
Ban Gu (32–92 AD) was a Chinese historian, politician, and poet best known for his part in compiling the Book of Han (Han Shu), the second of China’s 24 dynastic histories (the first is the Historical Records [Shi Ji] by Sima Qian [145 BC–??]). He also wrote a number of fu, a major literary form with part prose and part poetry, which is particularly associated with the Han era.—Translator’s note.
- 3.
“Classical Chinese” refers to the written Chinese based on the ancient classical Chinese language popular in China before the May 4th Movement in 1919.—Translator’s note.
- 4.
“The late Qing Dynasty” (1840–1911) is a period from the outbreak of the First Opium War (1840) to the collapse of the Qing Dynasty (1911) and the founding of the Republic of China (1912).—Translator’s note.
- 5.
According to the noted Chinese esthetician Zhu Guangqian, here “a Chinese romance” possibly refers to “The Fortunate Union” (Haoqiu Zhuan).—Author’s note.
- 6.
Jin Yong: Jin Yong (1924–) is the better-known pen name of Louis Cha Leung-yung, a noted Chinese martial arts novelist and essayist.—Translator’s note.
- 7.
Zhanghui structure: structure of a type of traditional Chinese novel which is divided into several chapters with each chapter headed by a couplet giving the gist of its contents.—Translator’s note.
- 8.
Cifu: a literary form which emerged in the Warring States Period (475–221 BC) and was popular in the Han Dynasty (202 BC–220 AD). It is sentimental or descriptive, and is often rhymed.—Translator’s note.
- 9.
Huaben: storyteller’s script in folk literature during the Song (960–1279 AD) and Yuan (1271–1368 AD) Dynasties.—Translator’s note.
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Huang, Y. (2018). Introduction. In: Narrative of Chinese and Western Popular Fiction. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-57575-8_1
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