明代文言小说总集述略

Brief Exposition of General Anthologies of Classical Stories and Novels in Ming Dynasty

小说创作发展到明代,已成为白话小说兴盛的时代,文言小说创作相对处于不太景气的状态。但文言小说总集的编选却出现了异常繁盛的局面,并与白话小说融合为这一时代文学的主流。 但长期来,研究者对明代小说研究的兴趣,多集中于白话小说,研究文言小说的,也多注意明代新创作的作品,明代文言小说总集的研究基本上处于无人问津的状况,这不能不说是一个很大的缺憾。

With fiction developed into the Ming Dynasty, stories and novels written in the vernacular were flourishing, and creation of fiction in classical Chinese became relatively unpopular. However, the compiling of general anthologies of selected fiction in classical Chinese became unusually brisk and vigorous. General anthologies of classical stories and novels together with fiction written in the vernacular were integrated into the literary mainstream of that particular epoch. But for a long time, most literary researchers have concentrated their interest on vernacular fiction, and those who are devoted to classical fiction research have paid more attention to the newly created works in the Ming Dynasty. As a result, practically nobody is interested in conducting research into the general anthologies of classical stories and novels in Ming Dynasty, which can not but be said to be an obvious fault and pity indeed.