On The Zhang Henshui's Modernized Changes Of Traditional Novels

Zhang Henshui was one of great novelists writing Traditional Chinese Novels (with each chapter headed by a couplet giving the list of its content) in contemporary literature. He had written about 110 novels in his fifty writing years, among which there are Chun Ming Wai Shi, A Nobly Family, Ti Xiao Yin Yuan, having remarkable achievement in art and everlasting influence. His novels received wide popularity from people of different stratums, and therefore Lao She considered him as the only old writer who is nationally known by children and women. Beyond doubt, Zhang Henshui was a writer who is mostly worth studying in the history of Chinese novels in 20th century.Zhang Hen Shui, as an old scholar under the influence of traditional education, insisted on writing Traditional Chinese Novels, and also contributed much, as a response to the trend of the times, to the innovation of art and idea and active improvement of traditional novels. On the one hand, he, with courage, learned some techniques in foreign novels by adding amounts of scenery description, psychological description of characters, interior monologue and some detailed description of "little actions", which are foils to environmental atmosphere and description of characters'personality. Also, he made a breakthrough in Traditional Chinese Novels by adopting limited narration of third person style, flashback, and predicted narration and so on. On the other hand, he could follow the change of the times, constantly improving and reforming the content of the novels; when he was pursuing entertainment, he tended to turn on advisability and advocate innovation to make his writings have vivid temporal spirit. Through a series of changes from content to art form, successfully, Zhang Henshui pushed traditional novels to a new phase. This paper focuses on Zhang Henshui'three great novels in his prophase, which mainly analyzes Chun Ming Wai Shi, A Nobly Family, Ti Xiao Yin Yuan, and discusses Zhang Henshui' modernized changes of Traditional Chinese Novels. The paper includes three parts listed as follows:Chapter one is introduction. It briefly introduces the theoretical meaning of the study of the topic, the related backgrounds, the actuality and the literature summary of Zhang Henshui. And it also introduces the problems the study is going solve, which will give prominence to the value of this study.Chapter two is the main part of this paper and it includes three parts. Part one is modernized novel concept. The writing concept of Zhang Henshui will be discussed by three ways:the writing consciousness focusing on readers, aesthetic thought of novel based on authenticity, and the new ending concept of modern novels.Part two is the modernization of the writing content. It firstly expounds the compound of his novels between subject and content, and the modern turning of the social romantic novels' theme; then it starts with thought, analyzing anti-feudal spirit and the modern value orientation containing equality and democracy, which are displayed by the three writings.Part three is the modernized changes of Traditional Chinese Novels by art style. First of all, it, by the style of couplet title, textual pleasantries, poetry and language, expounds his inheritance of the style of Traditional Chinese Novels and his developing of the useful and discarding of the useless as well. Secondly, it discusses his using western novel skills for reference and introducing them, by psychological and scenery description, the conversion of narration style and the adopting the techniques of movie art. This chapter is the core chapter, putting emphasis on the detailed interpretation and analysis in order to make the achievement of Zhang Henshui stand out clearly.The last chapter is concluding Zhang Henshui's writing experience of improving Traditional Chinese Novels and pointing out his limitations to objectively orient his status in the history of Chinese contemporary novels.