Abstract

The studies on the historical materials in modern Chinese literature have not been conducted broadly and thoroughly for years.There are three major weaknesses in this area.First，the publications on this subject are insufficient and some of them are erroneous on historical facts.Second，some republished literatures were editorially modified at will from the original work without any notes to the readers.Lastly，the literary criticism is not always carried out in an objective and dialectic manner and based on the historical materials;instead，disputes in the academic studies are often judged by forces outside the academic field.The author calls these deficiencies as the“soft ribs”of the research of literature.

The book“Discovery and Interpretation:An Account of the Exploration of the Historical Materials of the Modern Chinese Literature”aims on searching solutions to above issues.The study of literary historical materials in modern Chinese literature is an open and developing system.In such a system，discovering materials and interpreting them are always closely linked.Discoveries include both reviewing and reexamining the historical materials that have been studied before，and exploring and rediscovering the historical materials that have either not been studied extensively or been blind to the researchers for a long time.The topics of this book such as Studies on the Newspapers，Journals and their Editions as Historical Materials，On Letters and Diaries from the Writers，Exploring，Rereading and Questioning，etc.，are all new research areas that the author has developed in his studies.If the discoveries of the historical materials form the foundation of the study，the interpretation of them will demonstrate the values of the historical materials，which is the only way to mine out the spirits implied in the historical materials，and uncover the hidden historical contents.The integration of discovery and interpretation of the historical materials makes it possible to unify the researchers’methodologies of going back to the “genuine”raw materials and extracting and interpreting the information from their individual perspectives，which will promote overall quality of the researches.

With the subtitle“An Account of the Exploration of the Historical Materials of the Modern Chinese Literature”，the author intends to reveal the efforts on how to turn the researches into lively and fruitful activities by mingling the study of the literary historical materials with the real life activities.The characters who appeared in Sections“Talks with Writers”and“Snapshots of Scholars”are both scholars in the studies of literary history materials in modern Chinese literature and the subjects in the studies.Approaching them，talking with them，questioning and consulting with them，and listening to their comments on the studies about their works make us to obtain not only new“discoveries”of the historical materials，but new views and perspectives on interpreting the materials.

This book can be considered as a companion volume of“The Study of Historic Materials in Modern Chinese Literature”(Shanghai Central West Publisher，2013)from the author.This book exposes the historical material with details，while the previous book describes the core components of the studies of the historical material in modern Chinese literature.