The author thinks that Zhang Henshui's research in the stage of "background regression" has three characteristics. (1) Look at the existence and value of popular literature from the perspective of cultural strategy. (2) Recognize that cultural development is multi-line evolution, multi-coexistence, multi-directional communication and integration. (3) Pay attention to the research on the relationship between the aesthetic value system of popular literature and social and cultural mentality. Chen Jinquan and Wan Xinghua made a comprehensive and in-depth aesthetic investigation of Zhang's novels from the aesthetic point of view. In Zhang Henshui's Novels: The Direction of China's Popular Novels, Chen and Wan put popular literature works and Zhang Henshui's novels in the origin of China's traditional literature, and took aesthetic function and aesthetic acceptance as the literary classification criteria, including Taoist literature, pure beauty literature and popular literature, thus completing the dual orientation of Zhang Henshui's novel research. In concrete analysis, Chen and Wan believe that popular literature inherits and develops ancient myths in aesthetic form and way, and is related to the aesthetic genes of ancient myths and legends. There is only the change of homogeneity and abnormity, and there is no complete subversion of heterogeneity and abnormity. The aesthetic gene of Zhang Henshui's novels has a long history and profound aesthetic essence, which theoretically explains why Zhang Henshui's novels have a broad aesthetic market. The significance of analyzing the aesthetic gene correlation between Zhang Henshui's novels and ancient myths and legends lies in linking the traditional aesthetic genes that have been deeply accumulated in the aesthetic body of popular literature and confirming the objective existence of traditional aesthetic genes in the aesthetic structure of modern readers. In terms of aesthetic function, Chen and Wan demonstrated that romance and entertainment are closer to the true nature of literature, and that Zhang Henshui's novels have the meaning of romance and entertainment. Positive writing, such as History of the Spring and Autumn Period and the Ming Dynasty, Family of Golden Powder, Cause of Crying and Laughing, etc. And negative writing, such as five children admitted to the university, Bashan Night Talk, Golden Drunk, etc. Any description of aesthetic charm can activate readers' aesthetic taste, produce strong and rich aesthetic entertainment, and then cut into the deep layer of aesthetic essence. Zhang Henshui's novels are truly Chinese novels. Kong's article "Zhang Henshui Goes to New Literature" combs the relationship between Zhang Henshui and Chinese popular literature and new literature by comparing the double-line history of popular literature and new literature in the Republic of China, thus obtaining the refined and popular attribution of Zhang Henshui's novels during the Anti-Japanese War. Kong believes that the core of the elegance of Zhang Henshui's novels during the Anti-Japanese War lies in the creative purpose and ideological theme. He finally went from entertaining literature to listening to literature, and finally "learned from teachers" and was recruited by new literature, and finally felt at home. But on the other hand, this feeling makes him relax in the elegance of artistic skills. The common fault of novels during the Anti-Japanese War is poor sense of structure, and the structure of Eighty-one Dreams can only be said to be unique and not worthy of being set as a model. Secondly, the narrative language is not as smooth and delicate as before the war, and the narrative interference increases, which is a retrogression of the novel style in the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China. In terms of artistic skills, the consciousness of psychological description seems to be more conscious than before the war, which makes Shadow World and Flowers of Ao Shuang more durable to read. But he wrote so many corrupt officials and vendors, but he failed to leave a few vivid characters. Eighty-one dreams and other works of "beheading ghosts" can only be seen in his "warlords" when things turn around. When Zhang Henshui is mentioned, people think more of his "Modern Youth" series before the war. Is it that the new literature no longer encourages the exploration of "carving small skills", or that Zhang Henshui himself thinks that "Xiaoya" is "elegant" as long as it is "striving for perfection" in thought, or that the times are asking both old and new literature to move closer to a new form of "four unlike"? This kind of gain and loss is worth pondering. Zhang Henshui, who moved towards new literature, left a long question mark in the history of modern popular novels. The reflection on Zhang Henshui here is sincere and to the point. Any writer's study should be serious and true. You can't "kill with one stick" or "kill with one stick", and you don't have to be shy about noble people. This is the first essence of historical management. Zhang Henshui's research should also pay attention to this problem. Summer Xu thinks that Zhang Henshui's entry into the history of literature as a popular literature writer makes up for the regret of the literary world. However, when researchers increasingly bring popular literature into their research horizons, they find that the attention and analysis of this master writer are not in-depth. The reason why Zhang Wei hates water as the "master" lies in his unique ability of "dancing with shackles" in the gap between the creative mode of Yuanyang Butterfly School and the creative road of the May 4th new novel: he persists in low-level tastes and breeds elegant feelings, lingers on old programs and explores new skills, caters to the civic circle and adheres to the subjectivity, and his works present aesthetic characteristics of combining the old with the new and appealing to both refined and popular tastes. Two representative works, The Family of Golden Powder and The Reason for Ridiculous, are excellent reading cases in the field of popular literature research. Popular literature and elegant literature have their own aesthetic fields, but there is no insurmountable gap between them. With the passage of time and the displacement of elegance and vulgarity, those exquisite popular literature will often become fine works in elegant literature. Those well-known classic literary works in history have long proved this point. In the 20th century, some successful popular literature writers used this literary law to create works that appeal to both refined and popular tastes, making them elegant works in popular literature. Zhang Henshui is one of the outstanding representatives. He built a bridge between popular literature and elegant literature with his own works and won a glorious seat in the history of literature. The above three representative articles are the confirmation of the research characteristics at this stage.

Summarizing the artistic features of Zhang Henshui's novels is the value of Zhang Henshui as a novelist and the main support of Zhang Henshui's research. Many scholars have done research in this field and gained a lot, but the research on Zhang Henshui himself needs to open up new ideas. For example, Zhang Henshui himself was influenced by Buddhism and Taoism, which is the lack of in-depth and meticulous research. In what way and to what extent was Zhang Henshui himself influenced by Buddhism, and what role did Zhang Henshui play in his life?