The first popular short novel for people to read at bedtime was FENG Meng-long's Sanyan. The production of short novels reached a high peak in the late Ming Dynasty and the early Qing Dynasty, declined in the middle of Emperor Kangxi's reign. It was not revived until the modernization of printing and the popularization of newspaper as a new medium a century later. Then, short novels became an important part of modern novels. This paper outlines the whole process of the rising, declining and revival of popular short novels, and analyzes its characteristics, laws and causes.