Research On Historical Novels In The Late Qing Dynasty

Historical romance is one of the novel types,which originated earlier and lasted a long time in Chinese novels.By analyzing the transformation process of historical romance in the late Qing Dynasty,we can grasp the development and changes of novels in the social transformation period.The classification of novels in the late Qing Dynasty is complicated.Dividing the scope of historical romance in this period based on the self-assertion of "historical novel",so that we can also clarify the changes in the concept of historical romance in the late Qing Dynasty,while analyzing the characteristics of this type of novel.The historical romance of the late Qing Dynasty began to transform in 1985,after Sino-Japanese War.During this period,the subject matter of historical novels began to pay attention to current affairs,and thus combined with the form of daily newspapers.After the failure of the Reform Movement of 1898,the reformists of the late Qing Dynasty were sensitive to the current affairs,and they took the western countries' politics as the blueprint,then combined the press with the novel,and formed special literary journals.The main purpose of novel creation becomes to promote social reform.The subject matter of the historical novels of the reformers focuses on the history of the independence and reform of the western countries in the19 th century.In 1903,domestic novelists began to respond to the call for a "new novel".During this period,novels began to show fierce nationalism,and historical romance with the purpose of preaching revolution appeared.These novels mainly narrate the historical events during the period of transition between the Song and Yuan Dynasties,or between Ming and Qing Dynasties,as well as the history of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom,with the tendency of extreme nationalism.The article is divided into four chapters.The first chapter starts with the publication of historical novels in the late Qing Dynasty,and it explores the influence of the publication form of historical novels on the novels.The characteristics of novel publication with different carriers are obtained by comparing novels published as a separate work,periodical ones and which in the daily newspapers.The first section in this chapter explores the development process,prominent features and limitations of periodical novels.The second section focuses on the role of daily newspaper in the publication of historical romance novels.The daily newspaper is not dominant in the serialization of historical novels.Its main function isto advertise historical novels and provide materials for the creation of historical novels.The third section focuses on the regional characteristics of historical publications and the different tendencies of novels in different regions.The second chapter takes the evolution of historical fiction as the core.The first section in this chapter focuses on the process of historical romance from paying attention to current affairs to discovering the social function of fictions.The second section studies the positioning of historical romance in the late Qing Dynasty,and explains the changes of the view of fiction and reality in the novel and its causes.Historical interpretation emphasized the historical truth and tried to dispel the fictional elements of the novel during this period.The third section explores the change of the country concept and the understanding of national emotion in the historical interpretation.In the late Qing Dynasty,the interpretation of the concept of country changed from the traditional difference between the central plains and the surrounding areas to the debate between the Manchu and the Han.The third chapter starts with the heroic image and historical view in the historical romance of the late Qing Dynasty.It holds an elitist view of heroic history,and shows the tendency of integrating historical romance with heroic legend.Under the heroic view of history,the novel has shaped a series of heroic images,and experienced the changing process from the hero who promotes the reform to the hero of national revolution,from the single typical hero to the multifaceted character.In character shaping,the novel adds the typified suicide plot deliberately to express its patriotic feelings.The fourth chapter observes the changes of historical romance from the perspective of the narrative mode of the novel.The historical romance of late Qing Dynasty is full of the call for rational reflection and emotion of the nation-state,which is manifested in the text as a large number of narrative pauses,namely discussion and explanation.In the process of the development of the novel,the artistic expression techniques of the traditional novel begin to return to the novel creation,which is embodied in the two-line narrative technique and the transformation of the narrator.The novel transforms the author's public comments into dramatic ones hidden in the discourse of the characters.The author's public comments in the novel turn into dramatic ones hidden in the discourse of the characters who is in the context of the story.The emergence of this transformation is caused by the inherent contradiction of historical romance in the late Qing Dynasty.There is duality in the default audienceand the appeal of the historical romance in this period.At the same time,the abandonment of artistry in the novel and its commercial dependence also formed a contradiction.The special style and features of the historical romance during the late Qing Dynasty is formed by the game between artistry and politics.To observe the changes in the creation of historical stories in the late Qing Dynasty also help us to understand the ideological transformation of the reformist scholars represented by Liang Qichao.