Ways and Means of Expression in Ming-Qing Chapter Novels and the Tradition of Narration in Classical Chinese

Ways and means of expression in chapter novels (with each chapter headed by a couplet denoting its gist) during the Ming and the Qing Dynasty were considerably influenced by the tradition of narration in classical Chinese. Therefore,it is very difficult to obtain a thorough grasp of such fiction if we focuse merely on the tradition of oral narration. Several classical works of Ming-Qing chapter novels have attained noteworthy achievements in the aspects of presenting narration limited by the angle of vision in the third person,of deliberately endowing texts with indefinite meaning,and of merging realistic portrayal with poetic sentiment,thus manifesting the bright style of novels by scholars. This type of novels by men of letters cannot be read or explained clearly in ways that popular literature is studied.