What is the novelty of patent?

According to China's current patent law, novelty means that before the filing date, no identical invention or utility model was published in domestic and foreign publications, publicly used in China or known to the public in other ways, and no identical invention or utility model was filed with the the State Council Patent Administration Department and recorded in the patent application documents published after the filing date (note: the patent law implemented in June 2009 revised novelty).