When did the word "novel" begin to be used and how did it become popular?

The origin of the word "novel" can be traced back to ancient China. In the Tang Dynasty, the word "novel" had already appeared. In Europe, the concept of novels could be traced back to the ancient Greek epics, such as the Iliad and the Odysey. At the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, with the advancement of printing technology and the rise of vernacular literature, novels began to become popular in China. In 1902, the Beijing Bookstore published the vernacular novel Dream of the Red Chamber, which marked that the novel gradually became a major literary form. After that, novels gradually became popular around the world and became a widely used literary form.