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This collection takes the Song Dynasty, which ended in 1894, as the modern period of ancient Chinese literature. It focuses on the study of popular novels and also discusses Shanren poets, a weak link in the study of Ming and Qing literature. On the basis of attaching great importance to data research and excavation, the author places relevant literary phenomena and creations in recent times within the framework of the development of Chinese cultural history, explains their connotations, and evaluates their gains and losses. Specifically, it includes three major topics: first, comprehensive research on the history of novels from a cultural perspective; second, case studies of novel writers and works from a cultural perspective; third, research on mountain poets of the Ming and Qing Dynasties and others.

This book includes an introduction, the remainder of the essay, and four chapters. It discusses the rise of popular entertainment culture in Jiangnan and popular novels in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the popularization of education in Jiangnan and the readers and creation of popular novels in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the book industry culture in Jiangnan and the rise and fall of popular novels in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, and the creation of popular novels and the generation of novel culture in Jiangnan during the Ming and Qing dynasties. From the perspective of Jiangnan culture, comprehensive social history, education history, publishing history, and multidisciplinary research have solved some long-suspended academic mysteries, clarified some specious and vague understandings, and expanded and deepened some specific cases that have already produced rich research results. For example, there is a series of new understandings of the occurrence, development, and evolution of the history of popular novels; the research on the creation of popular novels in Jiangnan during the Ming and Qing Dynasties has opened up new fields; and the examination of individual cases of writers' works from the perspective of Jiangnan culture has made new discoveries. All these enrich the intellectual and theoretical genealogy of the novel history of Ming and Qing Dynasties.