“笔记”作为中国最为源远流长的著述体式，以篇幅论，短小灵活；以内容论，博采广记，取材于“小”、“琐”、“杂”，情节故事不求完整曲折，往往是一个片段，一段言行，一则传闻；以形式论，主要在于“散”，结构散漫自如；以语言论，笔力精悍，文字简练。由此，中国古代笔记构成与传奇小说、话本小说和章回小说所全然不同的另一种古典传统。
基于“笔记”传统一直或隐或显存在于中国当代小说之中的文学事实。第一章研究“笔记”传统在当代小说中的再现。整章以“笔记”特质为统摄，将“笔记”传统进入当代小说的阶段划分为1950-1970年代、1980年代和1990年代至今三组。结合每一阶段的文本现象和文学场域，在文学文本内部与外部的互相凝视中考察“笔记”传统的“隐现”到“复活”再到“多元化”的历时性动态。
第二章从宏观考察转入微观解读，探究“笔记”传统在当代小说中的典型个案。“笔记”传统进入当代小说中细分为“历史琐记型”、“博物型”和“志怪型”三类。孙犁以实录精神再现历史的立场、以“志人”的剪裁笔法组构历史的方式、以论赞评判历史的策略，故为“历史琐记型”的典型样态。贾平凹以山水风习为取材、以五方地理观作空间美学、以“物”的形态结构行文，故为“博物型”代表。莫言以奇异作为艺术思维、以幻化形变作主要情节模式、以异代共置组构时间，是为“志怪型”代表。
在宏观与微观研究的基础之上，第三章进一步深化，探究“笔记”传统对当代小说承接与创造性转换古典资源的价值意义。其一，研究“笔记”传统对探索“中国故事”叙事形式自由度的价值，其中涵盖简洁古雅的语言观、散漫自如的结构观，以及由此生成文类文体的互渗三个层面。其二，研究“笔记”传统对中国当代小说审美的意义。“笔记”传统冲击着小说对于真实与虚构的界说，形成了朴素与丰饶共存的审美辩证法，以及完成之后再敞开的文本策略。其三，研究“笔记”传统对当代小说立场的作用。“笔记”使“小说”介于中国古典小说与五四现代小说的概念之间，促成小说特色发生“旧形式”向“民族形式”的跃进，而作家也在“民间”和“文人”的姿态之间调用古典笔记资源。

As the most long-established style of writing in China, "note" is short and flexible in terms of length; in terms of content, it is widely collected and remembered, with material taken from "small", "trivial" and "miscellaneous" sources. and the plot is often a fragment, a paragraph of words and deeds, and an anecdote; in terms of form, it is mainly "scattered", with a loose structure; in terms of language, the text is concise and well-written. Thus, ancient Chinese notebooks are different from Legendary novel, story-teller's script and chapter-styled novel.
Based on the literary fact that the tradition of note has always existed, implicitly or explicitly, in Chinese contemporary novels. The first chapter studies the reproduction of the "note" tradition in contemporary novels. The whole chapter takes the quality of "note" as a whole, and divides the stages of it into three groups: 1950s-1970s, 1980s, and 1990s-present. In the context of the textual phenomena and literary fields of each stage, the the tradition of note is examined in the context of the mutual gaze between the internal and external literary texts, from the "emergence" to the "resurrection" to the "diversification" of the tradition of note.
The second chapter moves from macroscopic examination to microscopic interpretation, exploring typical cases of the "note" tradition in contemporary novels. The "note" tradition in contemporary novels is divided into three categories: "historical trivial", "museum", and "supernatural". Sun Li's position of recreating history in the spirit of factual records, his way of constructing history with the cut-and-paste style of "zhiren", and his strategy of judging history with the praise of theories are the typical examples of "historical trivial notes". Jia Pingwa takes landscape customs as his material, uses the five geographical views as spatial aesthetics, and structures his writings in the form of "things", so he is a representative of the "museum ". Mo Yan takes "strange" as his artistic thinking, uses illusion and transformation as the main plot mode, and uses the co-location of different generations to organize time.So, he a representative of the "supernatural"
On the basis of macro and micro studies, the third chapter goes further to explore the value of the "note" tradition for contemporary novels to take up and creatively transform classical resources. First, it examines the value of the "notebook" tradition for exploring the freedom of narrative forms in the "Chinese story," which covers three levels: a simple and elegant view of language, a loose and free structure, and the resulting interpenetration of literary genres. Second, we examine the significance of the "notebook" tradition for the aesthetics of contemporary Chinese fiction. The "note" tradition has influenced the novel's definition of truth and fiction, forming an aesthetic dialectic of coexistence between simplicity and richness, and a textual strategy of opening up after completion. Third, we examine the role of the "note" tradition on the position of contemporary fiction. The tradition of note have placed the novel between the concepts of classical Chinese novel and the  modern novelwhich established in May 4th movement, and contributed to the transformation of the novel's characteristics from the "old form" to the "national form“. The writers also call upon the resources of the "notebook" tradition between the "folk" and "literati" postures.