The Domination Of Town Literature

This thesis takes town novels written by novelists of Song and Yuan dynasty as its main research scope and probes into them internally and outwardly. As far as the internal aspect is concerned, it interprets the theme and context of the novels trying to explore the genuine writing motivation and the revolutionary spirit which the writing theme reflects. Outwardly, the thesis tries to dig up the artistic features and priorities of town novels from the aesthetic point of view. In addition, at the initial and last part, the thesis explains and discusses the detail courses why town novels booming in Song dynasty and fading in Yuan dynasty so quickly.The appearance of town novels of Song and Yuan dynasty, which Lu Xun praised as "a great revolution in fiction history", is a milestone without parallel for hundreds of years in Chinese ancient fiction history, even goes far in world fiction history. Compared with the fiction literature before Song and Yuan dynasty, it is featured by both its creativity and easy approach to civilians. Although there still exist unavoidably some inherent defects caused by the era in particular and social system, they have little influence on the decisive role the town novel played on the development of the subsequent fictions. Town novels of Song and Yuan dynasty is emulated by novelists from generation to generation because of its unique charm, and also investigated by generations of experts.