Revolution And History

Besides the influence of the traditional historical novels, the demand for the times is a significant factor in the flourish of the historical novels in the Late Qing era. After the failure of the Hundred Days Reform (1898), the revolutionary thoughts gradually became the mainstream in the society. Therefore, from the view of revolution, the development and changes of the historical novels in the Late Qing era will be understood more profoundly.The first chapter of this paper centers on the new changes of the historical novels in the Late Qing era. Focusing on the current political situation, that is the main feature of these novels. After the Revolution in Novels brought by Liang Qichao, far-reaching changes took place in the value orientation, theme and content of these historical novels.The second chapter deals with how the revolution became the theme of the historical novels. Regarding the source of thoughts, the interlacement of Chinese traditional thoughts and modern western thoughts played a role while the revolution turning into the theme of the historical novels which was an extraordinarily complicated phenomenon that could be called Heteroglossia.The third chapter focuses on how the subject matter of"Taiping Heavenly Kingdom movement"played an important part in the construction of national revolution discourse, by analyzing the Romance of Hong Xiuquan. Under the influence of racialism and nationalism from the west, the traditional concept of"to revere the emperor and to expel the barbarians"participated in the construction of national revolution discourse actively.The fourth chapter discusses how the subject matter of"the Hundred Days Reform (1898)"was concerned with the construction of political revolution discourse, through analyzing the novel Da Ma Bian. Kang Youwei, the leader of the Hundred Days Reform, was described as different kinds of person in different historical novels, which contains lots of political revolution discourse.Searching for the legitimacy of the revolution, that is the main point of the revolutionary historical novels. This paper focuses on"revolution", which seizes the significant feature of the historical novels in the Late Qing era. By doing research on the historical novels in the Late Qing era, to draw the outline of the revolution which was contained in these novels and imagined (or understood) by people living in that certain history era, that is the aim of this paper.