A Brief History of Chinese Fiction
Written by Lu Xun between 1923 and 1924, this pioneering general history of Chinese fiction established Wu Cheng'en's authorship and defined Journey to the West as a masterpiece of the gods-and-demons genre.
A Brief History of Chinese Fiction is the first systematic general history of the Chinese novel, compiled by Lu Xun based on his lectures at Peking University. Comprising twenty-eight chapters, the work was published in two volumes by the New Tide Society in December 1923 and June 1924. Utilizing rigorous historical methods, the book traces the entire developmental trajectory of the novel from ancient myths to the exposes of the late Qing dynasty, exerting a profound influence on subsequent studies of classical Chinese literature. The seventeenth chapter, "The Supernatural Novels of the Ming (Part II)," focuses specifically on Journey to the West and marks the first time in modern Chinese academia that the authorship of Wu Cheng'en was established through systematic textual research. Drawing upon the Gazetteer of Huai'an Prefecture and local documents by Ding Yan and Ruan Kuisheng, Lu Xun argues that the author, Wu Cheng'en, was "quick-witted and resourceful, widely read in countless books, and skilled in the art of comedy." He further traces the origins of the work through sources such as the Journey to the West Drama and Tales of Tang Sanzang's Pilgrimage. Lu Xun famously observed that in Journey to the West, "the gods and demons all possess human feelings, and the spirits and ghosts are well-versed in the ways of the world," and he cited Xie Zhaopeng to interpret the work as a psychological allegory—a "metaphor for the quest to recover one's lost heart." This conclusion has long dominated the paradigm of modern research on Journey to the West.