1, Romance of the Three Kingdoms
Romance of the Three Kingdoms, the full name of which is popular Romance of the Three Kingdoms, is also called Romance of the Three Kingdoms, History of the Three Kingdoms, and Biography of Heroes of the Three Kingdoms. This is the first long historical romance novel in the history of China literature. It is also the first literati novel. At the end of Yuan Dynasty and the beginning of Ming Dynasty, Luo Guanzhong synthesized folklore, drama and script, combined with the historical materials of the History of the Three Kingdoms by Chen Shou and Pei Songzhi's notes, and created the Romance of the Three Kingdoms according to his own understanding of social life. Romance of the Three Kingdoms is one of China's four classical novels and four wonders.
2. Journey to the West
The Journey to the West, also known as The Journey to the West or The Journey to the West for short, is the first romance novel in ancient China in the Ming Dynasty, with 585,000 words (Shidetang Edition), and one of the four wonderful books in China's four classical novels. The book was written in the middle of the Ming Dynasty in the16th century, and it is generally believed that the author was Wu Cheng'en of the Ming Dynasty. The book tells the story of Tang Sanzang and his disciples the Monkey King, Zhu Bajie and Sha Wujing who went to the Western Heaven to learn Buddhist scriptures. It shows the ancient theme of punishing evil and promoting good, and some people think that The Journey to the West is a satirical novel that alludes to the officialdom of power.
3. A Dream of Red Mansions
A Dream of Red Mansions is a classical novel by China and one of Four Great Classical Novels in China. Other nicknames mentioned in A Dream of Red Mansions are The Record of Love Monks, Treasure Mirror and Twelve Women in Jinling. The story begins with a stone left by the goddess of mending heaven (that is, Jia Baoyu in the book), so it is also called a stone. In the forty-ninth year of Qianlong, Chen Jia (1784) dreamed that the master made a preface, entitled A Dream of Red Mansions (preface by Chen Jiameng). 179 1 After the first movable type printing (Cheng Jiaben), A Dream of Red Mansions replaced The Story of the Stone as a popular title.
4. Water Margin
The Water Margin is a novel written in Mandarin, which is listed as one of China's four classical literary masterpieces and one of the six gifted scholars' books. The date of writing is controversial, and the mainstream supports the theory of Ming Jiajing, about 1524. Its content tells the story of Liangshan hero, headed by Song Jiang, in Liangshan Park, Shandong Province in the Northern Song Dynasty, who was forced to become an outlaw and grew stronger until he was wooed by the imperial court and explored the east and the west. Also known as The Water Margin of Loyalty and Righteousness and The Water Margin, the book was finalized in the Ming Dynasty. The author has been controversial. It is generally believed that it was written by Shi Naian, compiled by Luo Guanzhong, and reduced to seventy by Jin Shengtan.