In the early years of the Republic of China, with constant fighting among the warlords, intellectuals wrote martial arts novels to amuse themselves, and magazine stories grew more and more decadent and extravagant, leading Lu Xun to describe them as "monstrous and evil at heart, and filled with descriptions of romance." These works invited their urban readers to escape the painful realities of their lives.
民國之後，軍閥混戰，知識份子為文自遣，結果使得大量雜誌小說日趨頹廢淫靡，如魯迅所說「妖異之心，脂粉之談」，迎合市民逃避現實的心理。