A Review and Retrospection of Early Literary Historiography in China

Great changes have taken place in the historiography of Chinese literature as a result of more than a century's practice in this field,but some key issues such as the selection of literary works,which is directly related to editors'narrative styles as well as their opinions on literary history,have hitherto been emphasized and preferred by literary historians.To be more specific,such problems as whether certain works should be included,what criteria are to be observed in the selection,how to interpret the text,and what it may mean to make a work classic,are in want of necessary reviews and research with the publication of more and more works on literary history.The present paper,based on a review of the early work in literary historiography in China,probes into and highlights the specific selections of literary works by several important works in this field,concerning their traditional discourses,sources of historical data,historical backgrounds,common practices of their times,academic relations of their editors,aesthetic tastes,political influences on them,etc.,attempting to find out the fundamental proposition that underlies literary historiography and the enlightenment of early literary historiography to the contemporary research on literary history.