This is the anterior half of the Chinese translation of ” A Short History of Reading Public: Before the Rise of the National Literature” by the famous Japanese critic, Ai Maeda. Ai Maeda was born in Kannakawa county in 1931, and died in 1987. Ai Maeda has taught in Rikyo University of Tokyo for many years. Ai Maeda has established a multi-dimensioned scholarly world, he is devoted himself to pioneering many new issues such as urban literature, reading public, space theory those which are discussed twenty years after his death. This paper is a good example for how Japanese intellectuals made their culture discourse from their own cultural context through comparing with the western theory. Ai Maeda made a performance in many aspects not less more a literary critic who left many important issues to be discussed further today. All the notes is added by translator. (to be continued)