Huaben Xiaoshuo

“Huaben” is what Lu Xun refers to as promptbooks for storytellers to fall back on: “Though storytellers had to rely on their ingenuity and ready wit, they also had promptbooks known as ‘huaben’ to fall back on”. This definition has been accepted and commonly used in the history of literature, fiction and related treatises, and it does not seem to be a problem. However, this definition is still somewhat questionable and needs further discussion. Reading Seven Types of Legendary Writings in the Ming Dynasty by Ye Dejun (1911–1956) cited the text of “Liu Sheng Looking for Lotus” and pointed out that people in the Ming Dynasty called such Chuanqi tales as Serendipity ( 天缘奇遇), The Strange Encounter with Li Zhi ( 荔枝奇逢) and Refined Collection of Romance ( 怀春雅集) as “huaben”.