In the thirty years from the literary revolution of 1919 to the establishment of the People's Republic of China in 1949, China experienced a great flowering in literary creativity. The present selection comprises twenty-four outstanding short stories by twenty-four of the most talented writers of this period. The stories reveal the sufferings of the Chinese people in the years before liberation and show also the revolutionary course taken by them in their search for a new life. They also demonstrate the high level of writing achieved in this period: each is a valuable contribution to the treasury of modern Chinese literature. In compiling this collection, the editors have taken into account both the position of the author in modern Chinese literary history and the representativeness of the story in the author's creative work. For the convenience of the readers, each story is followed by a brief biography of the author.