On Jin Sheng-tan's Creating Theory Of Novels

The creating theory of novels is one of the most theories of JIN Sheng-tan's literary appraisals. Through the comments on"Water Margin", he systematically developed his own theory based on the antecedent research achievements. The paper includes discussions concerning his creating theory of novels in the quest to study his contribution to Chinese ancient novels.The paper is divided into seven sections:In the 1st section, his theory can be traced back to its historical backgrounds. In retrospect about the development of novels, it is clearly seen that novel is the combination of imagination and fiction, which became the basic arguments of his creating theory. In the 2nd section, JIN Sheng-tan presents his viewpoints on the fiction of novels. From Section III to Section VI, his creating theory is described form several aspects: main body, characters, plots and narrating skills. In the 7th section, it is mainly about his opinion of narrating angle of views.His creating theory of novels has a deep influence on the research of novels. The analysis and discussion of his theory is of great significance to the study of the levels of ancient literary development and the development of modern literary creation.