Product Description: An ambitious, innovative work that proposes a distinctly Chinese theory of fiction.

(view table of contents)

(view table of contents)

(view table of contents)

(view table of contents)

Product Description: In the Ming and Qing periods, the Chinese read fiction in editions with extensive commentary printed on the same page as the fiction itself. This commentary was concerned less with helping the reader understand the “letter” of the text than with drawing the reader’s attention to its more notable aspects through emphatic punctuation (similar to our underlining, italics, or highlighting) and evaluative comments...read more

C. T. Hsia studies in depth six landmarks of Chinese fiction: The Romance of the Three Kingdoms, The Water Margin, Journey to the West, Chin P'ing Mei, The Scholars, and Dream of the Red Chamber. While he provides pertinent historical and bibliographical information for the proper appreciation of each novel, his focus is mainly critical as he examines in detail its structure and style, and analyzes its major characters and episodes in relation to its moral or philosophic themes. Many Western classics are cited for relevant comparison, and generous excerpts from each novel, most of them newly translated, permit the reader to sample the flavor of the original.

Product Description: In this study, the author takes a revisionist approach to the Chinese novel, based on his view that it is a fundamentally pluralistic narrative in contrast to the views expressed in recent studies. It identifies chaos theory as a useful way of understanding the rhetorical structure of this and other complex Chinese narratives...read more