What are the novels in traditional Chinese studies?

1. China’s earliest novels originated from myths.

If we start from this theoretical background, then the earliest novels in traditional Chinese studies are "The Classic of Mountains and Seas" in the Pre-Qin Dynasty, "Huainanzi" in the Han Dynasty, "Sou Shen Ji" in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, and "Shishuoxinyu" in the Southern Dynasties.

2. Novels have undergone major changes since the Tang Dynasty, especially after the mid-Tang Dynasty, when Han Yu and Liu Zongyuan held high the banner of "restoration" and revived Confucianism and Taoism.

Literati at this time mostly adopted ancient writing methods, and wrote warning stories such as Shen Jiji's "The Story of the Pillow", knight-errant stories such as Du Guangting's "The Story of the Bearded Guest", love stories such as Yuan Zhen's "The Story of Yingying",

Historical stories such as "The Song of Everlasting Sorrow" by Chen Hong.

Of course, there are also indispensable stories about gods and monsters, such as Pei_'s "Legend".

Only then did Chinese classical novels truly enter the historical stage of traditional Chinese studies.

3. With the development of the Song Dynasty scripts, Chinese classical novels can be said to have begun to take shape.

After entering the Ming Dynasty, a large number of literati began to improve and innovate "huaben", which brought vernacular novels to their heyday. The well-known "Journey to the West", "Water Margin" and "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" were all born during this period.

In the Qing Dynasty, the emergence of "A Dream of Red Mansions" opened up a new path for Chinese classical novels and reached a new peak.