Lu Xun's Literary Concept, From The History Of Chinese Fiction

Lu Xun was not only the founder of Chinese new-vernacular literature, but also the pioneer of the modern Chinese academic research. Brief History of Chinese Fiction is an important academic production of Lu Xun which studied the Chinese classical novel by modern West literary view. The publication of Brief History of Chinese Fiction break through the situation that there is no history of Chinese novel from ancient times to the present and open up a new prospect concerning the study of Chinese novel. As the important symbol of the transition from the traditional concept to the modern academic research, Brief History of Chinese Fiction was highly praised by Guo Moruo accompanying with A Survey on Song-Yuan Opera written by Wang Guowei.Lu Xun rationalized and described the historical development course of Chinese classical novel. At the same time he structured the framework of researching into Chinese classical novel. Moreover he elaborated and explained his own literary view by commentary on Chinese classical novels. Lu Xun had not written the special theoretical works about novel and literature. His novel and literary notion are all represented by criticizing literary works which are both ancient and modern, Chinese and foreign. In Brief History of Chinese Fiction, Lu Xun reviewed and recommended nearly all well-known works in the history of Chinese classical novel. Therefore, we can understand his novel and literary notion through the book systematically and comprehensively.This paper takes Brief History of Chinese Fiction as an object and attempts to analyze Lu Xun's literary concept which is contained within the book. The conclusion is that Lu Xun's literary concept mainly comprises three sides: Firstly, concept of literary history manifested by elaborating the origins and development of Chinese novel. Secondly, literary typical theory and realistic true view impenetrated in Lu Xun's literary creation and centralizingly reflected by his novelistic criticism. Thirdly, profoundly and uniquely ironical art theory and comedic concept manifested by Lu Xun's comment on ancient ironical novel. They integrated complete theory system of Lu Xun's literary concept, which is based on realism. The concept of history concerning literary origin and development realistically expounds the essence of literature. The realistic true view and the literary typical theory are the basic principles of realistic literary creation. Lu Xun's comedic theory emphasizes connotation and impartial satire theory. It embodies two features of realistic literature which are aesthetic pleasure and social utility.