JiYun's Theory On Novels And YueWeiCaoTangBiJi

Ji Yun's understanding of novels and viewpoints on creation were demonstrated in his short story collection YUE WEI CAO TANG BI JI , which he spent ten years writing in classical Chinese in his old age. To sum it, his novel theory fell into two parts: novel ontology and concrete creation methodology. Ji Yun's novel ontology was mainly inherited from ancient Chinese traditional novels, that was, for a long time, people's understanding of novels in themselves were always confused with their function values. He believed that novels should be defined as admonishment, wide range of knowledge, historical records and supplement to history. Besides admonishment, the most important role novels played was the supplement to novels. Ji Yun traveled a lot during his lifetime and his family enjoyed a high level of reputation. With the attitude of supplementing historical record, he recorded a lot of rare treasures, customs and habits in different places, and historical anecdotes, which could not be seen in the novels of the same category. He was opposed to lengthy writing, thinking that novels should be short stories. Based on this, most of stories in YUE WEI CAO TANG BI JI were limited in one thousand Chinese characters. Lu Xun ever praised his easy manner and brevity shown in his style of writing.Through research, one of Ji Yun's narrative viewpoints was about narrative perspective. Ancient Chinese novels were mostly written in the third person, with a well-informed narrator reminding readers of his existence all the time. He already thought of something in more depth in his narrative technique. He indicated the source at the beginning of each of his stories, showing that he persisted in narration in certain perspectives. In his stories, Ji Yun applied cause-and-effect circular narrative structures many times, which was closely related with traditional Chinese ideology of " All knows perspective". Ji Yun was opposed to fictions, which was a fatal defect in his novel theory. In stubborn pursuit of reality, he ignored the literate characteristics in his novels. Consequently, Ji Yun's novels were honest and serious but a bit devoid of vigor.