Heritage of Narration in Pre-Qin Historical Literature and Its Impact on the Narrative Style of Song-Dynasty Poetics

As the representative of early Chinese narrative literature,the historical literature before the Qin dynasty(221 B.C.-206 B.C.) has had great impact on later narrative literature.Some of the narrative chapters in Han Shi Wai Zhuan during the Han dynasty(202 B.C.-220 A.D.) are obviously the direct inheritance of the style adopted in works of pre-Qin historical literature such as Zuo Zhuan and Yan Zi Chun Qiu.In the narrative of the then poetic study of Confucian classics,a common practice is the inheritance of the narrative tradition of unofficial historiography while discarding,adapting or casually handling of the stories told in Zuo Zhuan.This literary tendency of narration,aiming at the study of Confucian classics at that time,has resulted in prosperity of narrative literature and has directly influenced the argumentation-oriented novels and history-oriented biographies in later dynasties.By inheriting,developing and altering the earlier narrative tradition of historical literature,the Han-dynasty Confucianism-oriented narration has marked an important stage of early Chinese history of narrative literature.