Abstract: The Chinese popular novel is a genre of Chinese novels and is not in the same system as those collected in official history books as Annals of Literary Works or Annals of Classic Works. On a whole, it belongs to the folk literature which is excluded by orthodox. It employs language that common people can understand, describes social daily life. And it is characterized by folk orientation, narration, interest, aesthetics, amusement and colloquialism. It originated directly from people’s talking in Song and Yuan Dynasties. And it can be dated further back to actors and novels concerning them in pre-Qin time. Though some fruits have been achieved in the history compilation of Chinese popular novels, they are far from satisfying. People’s understanding of popular novels in ancient China is influenced to some extent by modern conceptions and can hardly treat the objects entirely objectively. However, the ancient popular novels, in essence, are history in stead of reality, so we should observe them from a historical perspective, understand them with historic conceptions, interpret them with historic methods, and comment them with historic attitudes. On this base, we can compile an objective history of popular novels that is in accordance with their practical development.