過去的古典小說研究者，向來很少以「文類」（genre）的觀點看待白話短篇小說──更準確一點講，白話短篇小說的發展始終罕被研究者視為中國古典小說的一種「次文類」（sub-genre）──泰半只是把心力投注於短篇小說的本事檢索（即其與講唱文字之間的關係），以及作品所反映的社會內容（即將之視為某種歷史文本）。這麼講絕無貶仰傳統研究成果的用意，而是強調缺乏獨立關照的中國短篇小說，它的藝術整體性或將因此受到嚴重忽視。本文試圖將《三言》所開啟的白話短篇小說傳統視為一個整體，將過去所謂的『話本小說』和「擬話本小說」統稱作「文人話本小說」，並且將之視為中國白話短篇小說主要（也是唯一）的藝術形式。先是考察《三言》、《二拍》如何從文言小說那裡蛻變而來，進而以《二拍》開啟的文人意識，連接起清初文人話本小說沒落的原因，冀望能對中國古代白話短篇小說的發展理出清晰的面貌。

　　　　　After the mid-Ming, Hua-Ben (script for story-telling) and Ni-Hua-Ben (stimulant script for story-telling) featured a noticeable tendency of literati stylization. The development of literati stylization of Hua-Ben generally experienced there periods: during the Song and Yuan periods, Hua-Ben reflected the living and the thinking of civilians; during the period of San-Yan and Er-Pai, literati subjects and civil subjects existed simultaneously; after that, Hua-Ben (or Ni-Hua-Ben) almost all reflected the savor and the wisdom of literati. This paper points out that the tradition of the ancient Chinese colloquial short story was founded upon the art forms which were initiated by San-Yan. And it tries to observe the qualitative change from the classical Chinese short story to the colloquial short story. Finally, it attempts to explain why literati stylization had a strange influence over the colloquial short story and contributed to its decline.