Secondly, in their youth people of his generation read many classical Chinese novels and built their foundations in Chinese literature from them. "Although ancient Chinese novels are difficult mixtures of classical literary and vernacular language, novels like The Scholars can be very telegraphic in their use of language, dispensing with the use of basic Chinese particles such as de for long sections.
其二，他這一代的人，因為大量閱讀舊小說而打下了中文根底，「舊小說雖文白夾雜，可卻簡練，像《儒林外史》，很長一段章節不用一個『的』字，照樣可敘事可抒情。」