Stories which happened in the capital have undergone an obvious narrative turn from the Tang Dynasty to the Song Dynasty.By comparing the typical works, we can see an evolution track from Chang’an story to Dongjing story, and then to that of Lin’an.The changes in the text form, like the author’s perspective, narrative tone, detailed description, etc., could be concluded from “Kaiyuan Tianbao Yishi” and “Da Song Xuanhe Yishi”.From “Chang’anQujiang Narrative” to “Lin’anWest lake Narrative”, with the palace scenes having been replaced by the folk scenes, it shows that the stories’main subject and spatial attributes are changed a great deal.“Huazhou Canjun” and “Legend of the White Snake”, as the classical pieces of the “Qujiang Narrative” and “West Lake Narrative” respectively, reveal how the turn of narrative style happened in the urban love romance.“Huazhou Canjun” is the lateTang style’s variation, while the latter one marks the maturity of the Song Style.In terms of cultural mentality, the “Chang’an narrative”in the Tang Dynasty connotes the idea that the capital is in accordance with the country, while the “Lin’an narrative” in the Southern Song Dynasty held a localized position.Furthmore, the local sentiment it constructed became one of the important sources of “local identity” in later generations’narrative.

Chang’an; Lin’an; story happened in the capital; narrative turn; cultural mentality