On The Changing Patterns Of The History Of Modern Chinese Fiction

The History of Modern Chinese Fiction by C.T. Hsia was introduced to China mainland at the end of 1970s, which caused a huge wave in Chinese academia, in the meanwhile triggered a writing passion of Chinese scholars of the history of modern Chinese fiction in 1980s. We can illustrate the writing passion of these ten years by three stages & two climaxes. In year 1984, the works by Tian Zhongji & Sun Changxi and Zhao Xiaqiu & Zeng Qingrui were published seperately, this could be the first stage. In year 1986, the first volume of Yang Yi’s work was published which could be the second stage & the first climax. In year 1989, the works by Yan Jiayan & Chen Pingyuan were published respectively, and this could be the third stage & the second climax. The changing patterns of history of modern Chinese fiction were hidden in these three stages & two climaxes, which were the changing pattern of layout, vision & concept. The five works mentioned above were different, Tian Zhongji & Sun Changxi’s work was the production of the early days, which had many defects. Yang Yi’s work was a large-scale, which showed some epic style. Yan Jiayan & Chen Pingyuan’s works lead the trend into inner research, the former was the best achievement of the study of the groups of modern Chinese fiction, and the latter committed in the study of modern Chinese fiction in the transition period. These three works plus C.T. Hisa’s work can be called the Four Masterpieces, each one of them were classic and erected a writing pattern for the later scholars. The writing passion of modern Chinese fiction was maintained to some extent, and some personalized works were published in 1990s, but no one of them could be called classic. Overall, these works were based on the Four Masterpieces, their academic quality could not exceed the big four. This article will focus on below four aspects in order to find the changing patterns of history of modern Chinese fiction. First, to find the origin of history of modern Chinese fiction, the influence of C.T. Hsia’s work was only external factor, the internal factors were the double variation of Lu Xun’s A brief History of Chinese Fiction and Wang Yao’s Chinese New Literary History. Second, there were several great works published in 1980s, it’s a key issue to reveal the changing clues of the writing patterns in this ten years, meanwhile it’s equally important to explain the typical value of the Four Masterpieces. Third, it’s a valuable job to have a total study of the works in 1990s, and reveal the inner relations between the writing practice of 1990s & 1980s. Last, based on above three aspects, try to find some commonality in the study of literary history from the changing patterns of history of modern Chinese fiction.