陈羡

Chen Xian is an author about whom limited public information is available; neither nationality, dates of birth and death, nor educational background have been clearly recorded, and four of the author's works are held in the collection. Judging from the existing titles, Chen Xian's writing spans several fields: works such as Murder Advertisement, classified under foreign literature and social fiction; history titles including The Strife of Song, Qi and Northern Wei and The Road to Unification from the Three Kingdoms to the Sui; a narrative set in a troubled palace, A Pure Heart in a Chaotic Age; and writing in the otherworld-continent genre. The subjects range from historical conflict and dynastic unification to contemporary society and imagined worlds, indicating a broad scope of material. Owing to the lack of biographical information and the author's own statements on writing, a systematic account of style and influence is difficult, and readers may form their own judgment from the works themselves.