中国小说史略

by Lu Xun, 魯迅

本书为鲁迅先生编撰的中国第一部小说史专著。全书共有二十八篇，叙述中国古代小说发生、发展、演变过程，始于神话与传说，迄于清末谴责小说。

Genres: China, History, Literature, Nonfiction, Classics, Asia, Chinese Literature

203 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1925

About the author

Lu Xun (鲁迅) or Lu Hsün (Wade-Giles), was the pen name of Zhou Shuren (September 25, 1881 – October 19, 1936), a leading figure of modern Chinese literature. Writing in Vernacular Chinese as well as Classical Chinese, Lu Xun was a novelist, editor, translator, literary critic, essayist, and poet. In the 1930s he became the titular head of the League of Left-Wing Writers in Shanghai.


For the Traditional Chinese profile: here.
For the Simplified Chinese profile: 鲁迅

Reviews

[Mel]

I didn't think I needed another book on Chinese literature because I have so many, but when I found this one I had to buy it because it was Lu Hsun (Lu Xun) and I'm SO glad I did. This is not simply another collection of Chinese literature but rather looks at the development of Chinese fiction from the legends and tales of The classic of mountain and seas (shanhaijing) to the beginning of the 19th century. Xun leaves out the philosophy and the plays and instead focuses on stories. He discusses at length all the different supernatural stories and the collections of them, what survived what didn't and how they changed over time. There are so many fascinating books talked about, so many I want to track down. When/if I ever get my Chinese to the level I need to do my PhD these are exactly the books I want to be studying, the ghost stories and supernatural tales that I love and this book will be an invaluable resource for them. Not only does he discuss the supernatural tale but he also talks about the classics of Chinese literature, Journey to the West, Three Kingdoms, Jinpingmei, the Scholars etc. He talks about the development of the stories, including early versions of the tales, variants, sequels etc. He also discusses the stories in depth, and includes excerpts to show style or emotion. One of the books discussed in the 19th century was a traditional scholar/beauty romance except in this case the "beauties" were in fact female-impersonators from the opera. Apparently it's a very touching romantic gay tale. It sounded lovely and I really hope one day I can find a copy. Such a great book containing so many treasures. I'm so glad I found a copy and am so pleased to see it still seems to be in print. Definitely one of the best things put out by the Foreign language press. I'd very highly recommend it.

[Chris Carlisle]

An invaluable resource that enlightens one in the field of Chinese fiction literature. There are many excerpts and explanations of classic Chinese novels in this book! Some ancient illustrations from some of these texts are included, and they are on glossy pages (at least in my book they are). This book is a book that can be refered back to when you want to brush up on some Chinese literature, or if you are looking for some Chinese literature to read; it has you covered on that front. Do yourself a favor and pick it up.

[Hiram González]

Un libro bastante interesante si te gusta la cultura china y quieres saber un poco más de la evolución de su literatura a través del tiempo.

La lectura un poco densa, puesto que es una recopilación de las disertaciones en ambientes universitarios que hizo Lu Xun sobre sus investigaciones, por lo tanto va más hacia lo comparativo y lo teórico. No obstante, colocan pasajes de los libros a los que se hace referencia en cada capítulo (bueno, si se conservaban aunque fuera extractos del mismo para el tiempo de la redacción), dejando ver lo rica de la literatura china y, por lo menos yo, me anoté unos cuantos títulos por ahí.

Obviamente, desde el año de publicación de este libro (en la década de los 20`s del siglo pasado) hasta ahora, la literatura china se ha modernizado aún más; pero hasta la fecha de publicación, en mi opinión, resulta en un gran compendio que se convierte en esencial para los estudiosos de la materia.

[Chet]

So now you HAVE to give a book star ratings before you can write a review? This site gets worse and worse every day. First of all be forewarned this book isn't brief. But it is really enjoyable if you're interested in the subject matter. My favorite part was Lu Xun breaking down the etymology of the Chinese word for novel 小meaning "small" and 说meaning something like "speak." And it comes from an ancient practice of the emperor sending out scribes to record the gossip and tales of the common folk so he could keep tabs on what they were up to. Thus the 小说(novel) was always considering a lower form of literary writing than say poetry or history. It was always a grassroots phenomenon even when directed from the top-down.

[Master]

"The style is pleasing and a number of the episodes quite charming." (p. 127)
This quote summarizes my impression of Lu Xun's book quite well.
The translation is excellent. Unfortunately, it uses some kind of Wade-Giles (?) transcription that keeps you wondering what would be the corresponding pinyin.

[Qing Wang]

A proof that there is not much to say when it comes to fictions in China, at least for the period covered by the book. It doesn’t mention 浮生六记, an unfortunate omission. There is no comparison with other contemporary literature forms. Quotes from novels with dubious reputations and qualities feel like a waste of reader’s time.

[Winnie Marth]

The best book I found so far on the subject.

[Xovee Xu]

奈何自己文言水平太差，读来甚是费劲。

[庆忌]

挺有意思的，读完这个，才理解了之前有外国人说的，要了解中国文学可能不再需要其他书了云云。那些伟大的古典名著，原来都有源头故事。只有《红楼梦》是原创，地位最高。

[Lvxiang]

一是我文言能力有限，二是中国小说庞杂。哪怕挑一二去读，恐怕都费时良久。还是不要为难自己去看古典小说了。

[Stephanie]

A really good introduction to Chinese literature. Not to in-depth and detailed that someone with no prior knowledge of the topic would be lost. However, despite the author's claim that it is only a "brief outline" ("Preface to the New Edition"), this book does give the reader informative historical, contextual, interpretative, biographical, and textual knowledge that is useful for understanding and appreciating the genres and works of Chinese fiction.