ABSTRACT
As the fruit of a major research project of the Chinese Academy of Social Science (CASS), the book was written based on my extensive reading of 3,000 kinds of narrative documents produced in the past and present for writing A History of Modern Chinese Fiction and On the History of Classical Chinese Fiction. In 1992, I studied abroad at the University of Oxford, which allowed me to read a batch of books on Western narratology and some books criticizing narrative literature since Shakespeare’s time. Meanwhile, I gave lectures at the University of Oxford, the University of Cambridge, the School of Oriental and African Studies of the University of London, and the University of Edinburgh to promote cultural communications between China and Western countries. Robert Burns, a Scottish poet, once raved: “O, wad some Power the giftie gie us/To see oursels as ithers see us!” (Burns “To a Louse”). 1
