A Brief Introduction to the Structural Characteristics of China's Classical Long Chapter Book Novels

Introduction of Chapter-and-Round Novel Format

1. A traditional form of Chinese long novel.

2. It originated from the Song Dynasty pinyin and was established at the end of the Yuan Dynasty, with the long novels Water Margin and Romance of the Three Kingdoms as the mark of maturity.

3. It is characterized by dividing the whole book into several chapters, called "Hui". It is characterized by dividing the whole book into several chapters called "hu", which are less than a dozen or tens of times, and more than a hundred times. Each time before the use of two pairs of words labeled, known as "back to", summarizing the story of the content of this time. For example, the first book of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms is labeled "Feast of the Peach Orchard heroes, Chopping the Yellow Turban heroes," before the text.

At the end of each chapter, there is "...... how, and see the following decomposition", such as the first chapter of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, "After all, how is the life of Dong Zhuo, and see the following decomposition".

4. A back to narrate a more complete story paragraph, has a relative independence, but also to carry on the next.

5. This kind of novel has neat paragraphs and clear narratives, which meets the public's appreciation habits and facilitates the readers' intermittent reading, so its form was commonly used in long novels of the Ming and Qing dynasties.