What are the Four Great Wondrous Books of Ancient China?

The "Four Great Wondrous Books", also known as the "Four Great Long Novels of the Ming Dynasty", refer to: Romance of the Three Kingdoms (author: Luo Guanzhong), Water Margin (author: Shi Nai'an), Journey to the West (author: Wu Cheng'en), and Plum in the Golden Vase (author: Lanling Xiaoxiao Sheng).

These four novels were called the "Four Great Wondrous Books" by Feng Menglong, a famous popular writer at the end of the Ming Dynasty, a title that has been used ever since. They created the traditions of historical drama, heroic saga, novels of gods and demons, and novels of worldly affairs, respectively.

The title of the "Four Great Wondrous Books" is associated with the social and cultural background of the mid- to late-Ming period, in which capitalism sprouted, civic culture flourished, the traditional Confucian classics were questioned, and popular culture needed to establish its own classics; it is also associated with the social reality in which popular novels became the main object of cultural consumption by the general public, and popular literature had a significant impact on the spiritual life and cultural life of the general public. It is associated with the social reality that popular novels have become the main object of cultural consumption and popular literature has a great influence on the spiritual life and cultural life of the masses, therefore, the naming of the "Four Great Wondrous Books" has a profound cultural significance.

The four novels basically represent the four types of ancient Chinese novels, namely, historical novels, heroic and legendary novels, novels of gods and devils, and novels of worldly affairs; in fact, they are the continuation and development of the main four families of the art of speaking in the Southern Song Dynasty: namely, Water Margin is the development of the Iron Horseman, the first chapter-and-chapter novels in the vernacular in the history of China; Romance of the Three Kingdoms is the development of the novels of history, the first long novels of China; and The Three Kingdoms is the development of the novels of history, and the first long novels of China. The development of "Journey to the West" is the development of novels, is an artistic achievement, influential masterpiece of romanticism, China's first full-length novels of gods and monsters; "Jinpingmei" is the development of novelist's novels, China's first full-length novels independently created by the literati.

The structure of "The Acts" is centered on the conflict of Shu Han, and the conflict and struggle of the three kingdoms is the main line to develop the plot, which not only ensures the consistency of the development before and after, but also is rich in twists and turns and changes, and constitutes a rare structure in classical novels, which is both grandiose and tightly structured between the clear and lucid veins. The Acts contributes many distinctive images to the character gallery of classical novels, and its achievement in characterization marks the new development of characterization in classical Chinese novels. In describing the characters, the techniques of exaggeration, accentuation, and contrast utilized in the Shuiyi show the author's high artistic attainments. The language of the novel is colloquial, concise, lucid and very characteristic. At this stage of the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" is by the Qing dynasty Mao Lun, Mao Zongzang father and son, following the example of Jin Shengxuan deletion of the "Water Margin", pretending to get the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" of the ancient book, the original Luo Guanzhong deletion, and in between chapters to write the critique entitled "Shengqian outside of the book", "sound mountain set of other "