Educational novels include educational novels in a narrow sense and educational novels in a broad sense. Educational novels in a broad sense refer to all novels, because novels themselves have the function of enlightenment. Excellent novels always imply the truth of life, morality and education. In Dewey's words, "Art is more moral than morality". [1] When Liang Qichao was expecting the birth of "Xinmin" in China, it was from this thought that he gave the hope of "Xinmin" to the "literary revolution". 1902, Liang Qichao put forward the "novel revolution" in "On the Relationship between Novels and Group Governance", and proposed that "if you want to build a new country, you must first create a new national novel." He regards the revolution in fiction as a common cause and attaches importance to the edification, infiltration, stimulation and promotion of novels.

In a narrow sense, educational novels are German initiation novels and English initiation novels. The Concise Encyclopedia Britannica defines Bildungsroman as: "A German novel that describes a person's life in the period of character formation. Sometimes it is also called' character-forming novel'. The first educational novel is Goethe's Apprentice of William Meister (1795- 1796). It is still typical of this novel. "

There are two kinds of educational novels in a narrow sense: one is a school education novel or a family education novel, which tells the story of school education or family education. Such as Rousseau's Emile and Pestalozzi's Lianhard and Godud. The authors of this kind of novels can be regarded as "writers of educators"; The second is "Bildungsroman", which describes a character's suffering and confusion in the critical period of growth, and then gradually matures, such as Goethe's The Learning Age of William Meister and Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye. In Bildungsroman, the scene of education turns from school to society. Educators are usually no longer teachers or parents, but life itself. The way of growth is no longer influenced by teachers or parents, but self-education. The authors of such novels can be regarded as "educators among writers".