Simply put, there is a market for literature in the form of novels. This kind of literature and novel actually existed before. In the Tang Dynasty, literary genres similar to novels appeared, such as legends. But the most popular literature at that time was poetry, so the influence of legends was not great. What needs to be explained in the Song and Yuan Dynasties is that the commodity economy has been very developed at this time, and a new class of citizens has emerged. For them, they need a certain literary form of their own, so ci and opera have developed rapidly.

This was especially true in the Ming Dynasty. High-end literati write poetry, the lower class people suffer, and the citizen class still pursues it. So popular literature also appeared. The development of novel as a literary style is closely related to its market. You can't develop without looking at it.

Peak means height, right? Is it level? Good or bad, bad or what?

Did Ming and Qing novels reach their peak? !

The subject and I understand differently? !

Why do I feel that Ming and Qing novels are the beginning and the Republic of China is the peak?

It was not until the Ming and Qing Dynasties that China's novels began to be valued and influenced, but poetry still occupied the mainstream and orthodox position. It can be explained that Qing Dynasty is the starting point of novel development. Of course, it was not in its infancy, and novels of various genres and themes appeared one after another during this period. Therefore, when studying novels in Ming and Qing Dynasties, it is always "China's first novel" and "China's first collection of vernacular short stories". .

During the May 4th Movement, Hu Shi, Lu Xun and others were deeply influenced by foreign thoughts. In literature, art, society and philosophy, they hope to realize social reform through literary reform, and propose that only by developing novels can a country's literature prosper. I can't remember clearly), so far, our country has put novels in an orthodox position.

It is also during this period that all kinds of well-known and unknown strength writers mainly focus on novel creation, boldly put western literary and artistic ideas into creation, and many innovative works were born.

Many western aesthetic consciousness (such as archetypal characters, critical realism, attaching importance to the fiction of literature, psychological description, balabala). ) coexists with the aesthetic consciousness of China traditional literature (characterization, facial makeup, legend, implication and euphemism, description by behavior, etc.). ) During this period.

There is no obvious standard for novel creation, and because of political reasons, writers are less bound and free to create, and their published works are colorful and colorful ... more breakthrough and mature than Ming and Qing Dynasties.

So I feel that during the Republic of China, the peak of novel creation was after the May 4th Movement.