First published in July 1910, its original editors were Yun Tieqiao (恽铁樵) and Wang Chunnong (王莼农).
[1] In January 1921, Mao Dun (Shen Yanbing) became its chief editor beginning with Volume 10, Issue 1.
Fiction Monthly closed its doors in 1932 after the Japanese invasion of Shanghai with their naval and air bombardment (January 28 Incident).
It was the domain of "Mandarin Duck and Butterfly School"(鸳鸯蝴蝶派) literature, published entertaining and recreational articles.
[4] Soon after Shen Yanbing joined the Shanghai Communist Party group, the authorities of the Commercial press decided to adapt to the new trend of the May 4th movement and completely reform the Fiction Monthly.
It was printed much more closely than other journals, split to upper and lower halves in a regular format, fifteen lines of twenty-one characters on each of it.
Actually the selling amount of Fiction Monthly was not satisfying in the first year after the revolution of Mao Dun, it became hard to read for some readers.
[3] Although Zheng became the main editor from volume 14, he was involved in working on Fiction Monthly from two years ago.
Creative works Fiction Monthly published novels in abundance, followed by poetry, plays and essays.
They included "Duanwu Festival", "Upstairs in a Restaurant", "Social Drama" and other novels by Lu Xun 鲁迅.
These works show the bitterness of life and expose the dark side of society, sympathetic to the repressed people.
After 1923 other famous writers' works include Wang Tongzhao's "Dusk"《黄昏》, Zhang Wentian's "Travels"《旅途》, Lao She's novel Old Zhang's Philosophy《老张的哲学》, and poetry such as Zhu Ziqing's "Destruction" 《毁灭》, Ye Shaojun's "Liuhe battlefield"《浏河战场》 and Zhu Xiang's "Wang Jiao"《王娇》.
All of these writings gave a rich picture of life in China during the early 20th century from a panoramic perspective and a variety of viewpoints.
It introduced French romanticism, naturalism and realism in literature and plays, including Balzac, Maupassant, Phillipe, Anatole France, George Sand, and others.
Fiction Monthly provided a forum for critical reviews as a means to form the philosophical and technical foundations for the new vernacular literature.
In its entirety, these articles form an important comprehensive collection of research into old traditional Chinese literature even today.