Is there a notion of ‘realism’ in traditional China?

Abstract

Realism has been the main genre of fiction in twentieth-century China, with critical realism and socialist realism (in the Soviet sense) as its two main forms. It is usually implied in manuals of Chinese literature that realism was a Western import, and that the adoption of Western realism was a defining characteristic of the ‘new literature’ that broke with tradition, classical Chinese and ancient culture around 1920. But while there is no question that there had been no concept of ‘realism,’ and no realist literary school in traditional China, one can however find in ancient texts ample evidence of descriptions that can be labeled ‘realist,’ moreover with social concerns that to some extent antedate the spirit of modern Chinese literature. In this case study, examples taken from classical fiction and poetry will substantiate the idea that realism was perhaps not a complete newcomer when it prevailed in its Western form at the beginning of the twentieth century. A possibility is that modern Chinese realism was indeed influenced by ancient notions of literature or, at the least, that ancient forms of realism helped modern authors to adopt Western realism. In more general terms, this essay will also contribute to the idea that the break between ancient literature and modern literature was not as thorough as Chinese orthodox manuals of modern literature routinely present it.