Prosperity of Popular Literature

Popular literature has a long tradition in China and encompasses a wide range of ballads, ci and qu, novels, and legends. Although it was never considered as refined art, it was widely welcomed by the public. When it developed into the Qing Dynasty, it came in many kinds, of which chanting literature was the most accomplished and most widely circulated. Guci and tanci, as representative forms of chanting art in the south and the north, still keep their literary and artistic charm to this date.