上海租界地与晚清小说的繁荣

The Leased Territory in Shanghai and the Flourishing Success of Stories and Novels in Late Qing Dynasty

晚清上海租界在中国政治、经济、文化领域中所发生的积极与消极作用学者们论述的较多,而从文学的角度来研究上海租界对小说的影响,人们探讨的还不够深入。晚清小说的繁荣以上海为中心,其中的主要原因就是租界的存在。其中的报载小说的迅速发展又促成了古代小说的现代转型。

Plenty of profound discussions have been conducted of the positive and negative effects which the leased territory in Shanghai in late Qing Dynasty exerted on Chinese politics, economy, and culture, but explorations of its influence on stories and novels from the angle of literature cannot be said to be plentiful and profound enough. Shanghai was the center of the flourishing success of stories and novels in late Qing Dynasty mainly because there existed the leased territory. The prosperous economy, the special political environment, and the relatively free cultural market in the leased territory provided fiction with a strong material basis for their development and a desirable human environment for their circulation; meanwhile, the rapid circulation of modern newspapers and magazines supplied new media for them. As a result, periodicals which published fiction sprang up one after another; literature and art magazines and newspapers carried stories and novels in large numbers; publishing houses, book agencies and bookstores printed and distributed quite many stories and novels, hence the rare prosperity of the art of fiction in the leased territory in Shanghai. The rapid development of stories and novels carried in newspapers and magazines facilitated and promoted the transformation of ancient fiction in modern times.