The novels, created by many Chinese authors who felt obligated and responsible for pursuing a humane life, and whose main message is expressed in material that reveals and eliminates the corruption of the society, is called the anti-corruption novel. The anti-corruption novel is not a literary symptom suddenly appearing in the 20th century, but has a historic origin that we can find. Considering its background, material, subject matter and descriptive technique, the anti-corruption novel is connected to the condemnation novel in the late Ching period. The condemnation novels are followed by the political satire novels during from 1930 to 1940, and are connected to novels by those authors who advocate the literature"s participation in reality, and later to the reform novels in the 1980"s, and reach their peak in the anti-corruption novels in the 1990"s. This paper studies the historic origin of the anti-corruption novel by dividing the novels that reveal the corruption and the dark sides of the bureaucratic society into 5 categories : (1)condemnation novels during the late Ching period (2)the political satire novels during the Kuomindang"s ruling period from 1930 to 1940 (3)the participatory novels after the establishment of the new China (4)the reform novels in the 1980"s (5)the anti-corruption novels in the 1990"s.