"Then I'll take my leave."
Lin Ke cupped his hands toward Chen An and left with Yu Chu's Miscellaneous Tales.
Chen An began setting up a Novel World in his cramped home.
Back home, Lin Ke began reading Yu Chu's Miscellaneous Tales.
In his previous life, Yu Chu had been a novelist of the Western Han, known as the "Yellow-Carriage Envoy," and a native of Luoyang, Henan.
He had served as Court Attendant of the Fangshi under Emperor Wu of Han.
His Zhou Tales had greatly influenced the writing of fiction in ancient China. It comprised 943 pieces, but the original work had been lost.
According to Ying Shao of the Eastern Han, "His tales took the Book of Zhou as their basis," meaning that Yu Chu had written his fictional Zhou Tales based on the Book of Zhou.
Thus, some conjectured that Zhou Tales closely resembled a popular historical romance about the Zhou dynasty.
The three passages from the Book of Zhou quoted in volume three of Imperial Readings of the Taiping Era had a writing style similar to the Classic of Mountains and Seas. Scholars of the Qing dynasty believed them to be lost writings by Yu Chu.
In ancient times, the concept of fiction differed from its modern meaning.
"The novelists' tradition likely arose from minor officials; its works were fashioned from street talk and alley gossip, from things heard along the roads."
Clearly, fiction at the time broadly referred to miscellaneous accounts and snippets gathered among the common people.
Although the Novelists' School stood as a school in its own right, its standing was low, and it was dismissed as beneath serious consideration.
At the end of the Eastern Han, elite scholars loathed fiction and advocated burning it all. Yu Chu's Miscellaneous Tales had not