On Romance of Mirrored Flowers and Novels concerning Talents and Their Learning of Qing Dynasty

The novels concerning talents and their learning were a special type of popular novels in Qing Dynasty. And they adapted themselves to the social and political situation and met the cultural demands of that time. Meanwhile, they were an attempt for the literati to avoid political persecution and exhibit their talents. The novel A Legend of Fairies published in the late years of Emperor Kangxi was the earliest example. And the novels Words of an Unknown Old Man, A History of Moths, An Unofficial History of Mount Yan and Spring and Autumn of Grass and Woods appeared in the periods of Emperors Qianlong and Jiaqing and were the development of A Legend of Fairies. However, Romance of Mirrored Flowers represented the highest achievement of novels concerning talents and their learning and established their status as a special type. Nevertheless, only when the popular novels show their popular stories in popular stylistics can they obtain the optimal popular effect. As for the novels concerning talents and their learning, they boast learning and knowledge, which is mostly beyond the description of their characters. This not only has destroyed the image of characters as a whole and hindered the plots from development, but has damaged the atmosphere constructed by novels and violated the artistic rules of which novels take figure shaping as their main task. In this sense, it is unadvisable and hard to be accepted by readers. Consequently, such novels declined after the period of Emperor Daoguang and only A Biography of Satisfying Men and Pavilion of White Fish have been considered as their successors.