since the author last engaged with the history of novels, and he aims to present this summary after years of study and observation. Xun Lu acknowledges the growing scholarly interest in the field, citing important discoveries such as those made by Professor Yan Guojieshan related to Yuan dynasty novels. He expresses a sense of responsibility to document the topic while lamenting the lack of new sources, which has necessitated a reprint of older texts with only slight revisions to certain chapters. Through this prologue, the author establishes the foundational significance of novellas within the context of Chinese literary traditions and signals an examination of their historical lineage. (This is an automatically generated summary.)