Choice Reviews Online · 1995 · 70 citations · 0 references
HumanitiesHistoryLiteratureHistoriographyNarrative StudiesNarrative TheoryAsian LiteratureChinese Dynastic HistoryHistorical FictionHistorical NarrativeNarrative CriticismNarrative WritingChinese Intellectual HistoryHistoriography Of AsiaNarrative In HistoriographyNarrative InventionNarrative TextsNarrative Theory In HistoriographyNarrative Theory In HistoryShang Dynasty
This book is the first comprehensive English study of traditional Chinese narrative, tracing its conventions from earliest tales to the Ch'ing dynasty and noting that for most of Chinese history narrative was treated as factual history, with fiction judged against historical standards and tightly censored by the state. The author traces Chinese narrative history by juxtaposing Chinese and Western literary theory and criticism to highlight convergences and divergences. The book finds that the rise of Ming and Ch'ing novels enabled Chinese theorists to dehistoricize narrative, accepting invention and fabrication, and that fiction can reveal human nature and life principles as powerfully as historical texts, thereby shifting narrative’s role from factual record to lifelike, credible imagination.
This is the first comprehensive work in English on the complex history and theory of traditional Chinese narrative. It describes the major Chinese conventions and strategies for interpreting narrative works, both historical and fictional, from the earliest narratives through those of the Ch'ing dynasty. For most of China's recorded history, historical authenticity and accuracy were paramount in the production and reception of narrative texts. Fictional narratives were theorized and judged in accordance with the standards of historical narratives. In short, narrative was history, and fiction was defective Furthermore, the state made great efforts to control fiction by suppression (censorship) and disavowal (denigration and trivialization). It was only with the widespread popularity of novels in the Ming and Ch'ing dynasties that Chinese theorists were able to come to terms with fiction and dehistoricize the poetics of narrative by allowing and recognizing invention and fabrication in narrative texts. At this time, the Chinese poetics of narrative moved away from the long-held centrality of historicity, and critics acknowledged that good fiction can penetrate the nature and feelings of human beings in ways that other writings cannot, and that a reader is able to discover the uttermost principles of life in fiction just as in the Confucian classics and historical writings. Narrative was no longer assigned the function it had, for some 2,000 years, of being a factual record or credible history. Its existence was justified because it conjured up a world that was lifelike and credible. In the process of tracing the long history of Chinese narrative, the author employs both Chinese and Western theoretical writings to chart convergences and differences in Chinese and Western literary theory and criticism.