晚清之際，嚴復、夏曾佑、康有爲等人意識到小說對整治社會的影響力，遂將小說推至「文學之最上乘」的地位。梁啟超除了提出「新小說」一辭，並於1902年在日本橫濱創刊《新小說》，正式吹響小說界革命的號角。因此，「新小說」在晚清文學行列中，乃是一個極具歷史概念的語辭，本文基於「新小說宜作史讀」的觀點，探討歷史敘述在晚清新小說的運用情形。首先，就「晚清新小說」一辭引發的問題意識提出說明，釐清「晚清新小說」意涵。其次，從公共領域、社會史、史傳等角度觀察歷史敘述與晚清新小說的關係。第三，從「覺世」角度著手，可見新小說廣泛運用歷史敘述，緣自於作者對時代的危機感與心靈感傷，可作爲深入觀看晚清歷史的參照。第四，以「再創」精神來看晚清新小說，發現新小說運用歷史想像，形成新型態的小說文體，可謂「翻新小說」，是故，閱讀晚清新小說必須賦予新眼光。

During the late Qing dynasty, scholars like Yan Fu(嚴復), Xia Zengyou (夏曾佑)and Kang Youwei(康有爲)were conscious of the social power of the novel and raised this genre to ”the highest status” in literature. In 1902, Liang Qichao(梁啟超)published The New Novel journal in Yokohama, Japan and initiated a revolution in the field of the narrative. The ”new novel” thus became a historical term of significance in the late Qing dynasty. This article argues that the new novel should be interpreted as an historical narrative and explores its development and functions in the late Qing from four perspectives. First, the problems involving the term ”the new novel of the late Qing” are explained so as to clarify its meaning. Second, by applying the perspectives of the public field, social history, and biography, this article studies the relationship between the historical narrative and the ”new novel.” Third, from the perspective of enlightenment, this article asserts that due to the authors' sense of crisis and feeling of sorrow in their time, the ”new novel” reveals a great deal of the late Qing history in its narration. Fourth, in terms of re-creation, this article discovers that ”the new novel of the late Qing” used historical imagination to establish a new narrative style, which may be termed as ”renovated novel” and concludes that the “new novel” should be studied with new perspectives.