Encyclopedia of India–China Cultural Contacts v2.c10.s1.t2.1

v2.c10.s1.t2.1

*The Legend of the Tang Dynasty* is the classical Chinese novel consciously created by literati in Tang Dynasty in China. In Lu Xun’s opinion, Chinese novels before Tang Dynasty were basically not created consciously, and only from Tang Dynasty onwards, literati began to consciously create novels. Novels in this period not only inherited the tradition of anecdote novels and mystery novels in Wei, Jin, Northern and Southern dynasties but also were innovative and were strengthened in depiction and fiction, making the plots more complicated, characters more vivid, theme broader and the aspect more involved in social life, especially the works of those describing the love story between men and women were strong in romance.