On The Literature Criticism In A History Of Modern Chinese Fiction Of The Sinologist C.T. Hsia

C.T.Hsia (1921—) is an overseas scholar with the world-renowned reputation onthe research of Chinese literature. His masterpiece A History of Modern ChineseFiction written in English in1961has made remarkable contribution to the field ofChinese modern literature studies. Standing on the sides of east and west cultures， hehas discovered and reevaluated the good works with broad outlook on comparativeliterature and moral concerns， and great emphasis on literature value and close textreading， which has created a narration model on modern history of literature.Influenced by the theory of New Criticism， C.T.Hsia has attached significantimportance of literary standard to literature criticism，challenging the regular thinkingmechanism in mainland China，also arguing to redefine the "Classic works".He madethe point that the tradition of Chinese new literature of the "literature of human"， i.e.The literature should be created by recording the social or personal problems underthe principle of humanity. His A History of Modern Chinese Fiction is developed in aclear organization，which has separate chapter for a each writer. Besides，withhumanity principle and moral vision， he has discovered Zhang Ailing， QianZhongshu，Shen Congwen，and Zhang Tianyi，and successfully established theirlong-standing status in the history of Chinese modern fiction."Obsession with China"， seen as the narration tone of A History of ModernChinese Fiction is also under the influence of the Great Tradition formed byF.R.Leavis. He advocated，"its obsessive concern with China as a nation afflicted witha spiritual disease and therefore unable to strengthen itself or change its set ways ofinhumanity." In fact，he has also established a "Great Tradition " in his perspective ofChinese modern literature， which was based on universal humanity.