中國傳統文學理論基本上以「作者論」為核心，所開展出來的是一套強調作者情志表現及以社會影響為評價標準的「言志」、「載道」說；通俗小說則以「讀者論」為重點，強調作品可以透過何種方式攫掠、感動讀者，順此開展，應足以導生出一套迥異於傳統的文學理論系統，從而擴大文學的內涵與意義。武俠小說在中國通俗小說中流衍最久、作品最多、讀者最眾；同時由於「武」、「古代化」、「虛擬江湖」的類型特色，也最富涵傳統中國文化的氣息。欲研究現代中國通俗小說的特質，並由此嘗試建構新的文學理論體系，武俠小說無疑是最佳的研究起點。武俠小說的研究，可以從文化、社會、文學及娛樂性四方面，分途加以探討；而目前最重要、最迫切的研究基礎，則是迅速採取積極的行動，蒐羅、保存、整編已寖漸湮滅、流失的相關武俠文獻資料，包含書籍典藏、書目編纂、作家訪談等 工作。

　　　　　 Traditional Chinese literary theory focuses on the role of the author. It emphasizes the emotion of the author and highlights the social influence of literature; the popular novel, on the other hand, focuses on the role of the reader. It stresses that literature can, through certain ways, attract and move the reader. This situation leads to a new mode of literary conceptualization, differing from traditional literary theory, and consequently enlarges the content and meaning of literature. Among all kinds of modern Chinese popular novels, the knight-errant novel is the most popular and significant genre, from the perspectives of its quantity and readership. Furthermore, the characteristics of the knight-errant novel: "Wu," "Ancient" and "Virtual Society," make it rich in traditional Chinese culture. Analyzing the knight-errant novel provides us the best opportunity to understand the essential features of modern Chinese popular novels and build up new literary theories. The study of the knight-errant novel can be proceed from four different perspectives: cultural, social, literary and entertainment. For the time being, the most important and fundamental research work is to collect, compile and preserve those buried and obscure sources of knight-errant novels, including collecting documents, compiling bibliographies, and interviewing the authors of knight-errant novels.