The Chart of Roles is a well-received phenomenon with popular novels in Pre-modern China, as it runs through the whole development process of ancient popular novels, and brings out the very Chinese national characteristics. From the 108 heroes in Outlaws of the Marsh, novelists tended to summarize and check all the main characters, then present them orderly. This kind of content is most common with Ming and Qing Dynasties, more of which are announced at the end of the book, as the conclusion and summary of the whole story. This text mode is nourished by a rich tradition, both historically and poetically. The core of a Chart is to shape the identity of each character, and also contains deep ethical thinking. Generated in the overall social interaction of Ming and Qing, it suggests a unique period in the history of Chinese classical literature.

This essay will, firstly, trace back the denotation and connotation of a "chart", explaining  the relationship between this practical name and those fictional texts; secondly, it will distinguish 3 different performative levels of the "chart" within popular novels, among which we will focuse on the discussion of its textual mode. In the chapter of "Generating of the Charts", the emergence of the chart will be reduced to the emergence of popular novels. As a structural tool mainly aiming for organizing the materials, the Charts gradually solidified into a concrete narrative mode, in return, it also provided support for the development of the fictional ability of romantics. In between the collision of these two different narrative styles, the characters of historic novels evolved abundant and flexible, and the romantic novels began to challenge a larger structure,  thus giving the "charts" more expanded functions.

The second chapter, the Form, starting from the variable forms of a Chart, and strive to make a comprehensive summary of its specific features. Different types of novels also have different emphasis on distinguishing or criticizing on characters' identity, and singular comments on each person was becoming more and more important. In respect of arranging the characters, the development of charts corresponds with the change of the focus of popular novels, from diachronic plots to synchronic scenes. Meanwhile, the marching from the diachronic "historical list" to the synchronic "florilegium" indicates that the charts in popular novels are a parodytotheauthority of traditional political discourse, and technically reducing its power. And when the chart is referencing to these figures, the focus of their performance also changes from their functional status to a grasp of their inner characteristics.

The chapter Rhetoric of Charts mainly focuses on the artistic touch towards the characters. The most basic way is to collect the characters with the help of a specific image of objects. This can also be expanded from a sentence to a poem. while some of those poems praising this person directly, it can also generated a poetic puzzle, such as the Dream of the Red Chamber did. In the end, we will focus on the attachment between the charts to the existing ethical concepts, including the favor for Wuxing (Five elements) and Bagua (the Eight diagrams), etc.. This kind of spatial sense is the cornerstone of the chart, and could a chart set up characters successfully as well as follow the concepts, it will bring great appeal and become the idol that continues to be iterated.