Abstract

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Abstract:: With Edo Period as the watershed, the formation of author groups of Japanese Chinese-character novels presents different pictures. Before the Edo Period, most of the authors were nobles, but after it most of them were Confucian scholars and ordinary literati. Such a change had a direct impact on the materials of the fiction and the selection of descriptive objects. In that case, the life of lower class attracted much more attention. The writing of the Japanese Chinese-character novels was actually motivated by the following four purposes: to prepare materials for writing history and make up for the deficiencies of historical biography; to offer the way of following rules and managing a country and the method of cultivating and conducting oneself in society; to share joys with others and display the social graces; and to show the way of writing novels to Chinese learners. Basically, the Japanese Chinese-character novels inherited all the styles of the Chinese ancient novels and in particular the genres of miscellaneous records and legends.