SOURCE: Ch'en Shou-Yi. “Hua-Pen to Novel.” In Chinese Literature: A Historical Introduction, pp. 479-497. New York: The Ronald Press Company, 1961.

In this essay, Ch'en outlines the historical development of the Chinese novel, beginning with the prose fiction and romances of the Sung and T'ang Dynasties. Ch'en discusses early novelists' use of legend, history, and everyday diction to create a popular, if not highly regarded, literary style.

The evolution of p'ing hua seems to have paralleled the development of southern drama. Both types of literature appealing to the populace began making their appearance during the Sung Dynasty (960-1279). Both reached their zenith in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and gradually declined after the establishment of the Manchu Dynasty, which made it an over policy to sponsor research scholarship and classicism—even antiquarianism—in creative writing. Whereas southern romance was continually sponsored by outstanding men of letters, the p'ing hua...