Best list of four classic novels

The first one is A Dream of Red Mansions, which is undoubtedly the highest in terms of artistic appreciation. The author broke through the etiquette system of traditional feudal families and highlighted the freedom of personality and the right to pursue love. Journey to the West and the Monkey King also had this rebellious character, but after setbacks, the Monkey King gave in to feudal autocracy. Jia Baoyu has a tenacity in his bones that is incompatible with Xifeng's paternalistic style. After he was beaten, this resistance became more intense. This character of pursuing personality liberation at the expense of life is very admirable and moving. Cao Xueqin's taste is more elegant and his knowledge reserve is amazing. He has profound attainments and unique views on architecture, medicine, diet, tea ceremony, gardens, flowers, costumes, paintings, poems and songs, Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism. In his stories, he interspersed the essence of China's profound traditional culture with ingenious ideas, and listed them one by one in front of readers, giving people beautiful enjoyment.

At the same time, Cao Xueqin's methods of depicting characters are diverse. For example, Lin Daiyu is clever, beautiful and kind, but narcissistic, sarcastic and narrow-minded. Wang Xifeng is a good housekeeper and financial manager, but she flatters her superiors and bullies her subordinates. Xue Baochai pretends to be generous and knowledgeable, but in fact she has a deep mind; Jia Baoyu is charming, but he lacks the courage to fight for it. At the beginning, if he pointed out his marriage relationship with Daiyu to Jia Mu, Jia Mu still loved him deeply and did not necessarily disagree, but he never said anything or simply left home. When it comes to the story of Sima Xiangru and Zhuo Wenjun, he may not be so passive, but he is not. This may also be the author's attachment to him and the rich and gentle land. Even a small person like Yuanyang, while highlighting her strong character, the author did not forget to take a walk and said that there were still a few freckles on her face. Diversified characterization enriches the whole book.

Cao Xueqin was confused when he was writing A Dream of Red Mansions. He didn't finish it, which made later generations feel sorry. Some people use the statue of Venus to describe the imperfection of A Dream of Red Mansions as a kind of beauty. I beg to differ. The statue of Venus deliberately left an imaginary space for future generations, but the incompleteness of A Dream of Red Mansions is due to the author's death from hunger and cold, which is a bit sad as "dying before conquering". Later generations went on to say that it was passable on the whole, but there were many loopholes and mistakes in details, which has been recognized by people. In addition, no matter how many sequels there are, there is no one who is superior or inferior!

Ranked second is Romance of the Three Kingdoms, which is a magnificent war book. If A Dream of Red Mansions has a typical feminine beauty, it is full of masculinity. The whole Romance of the Three Kingdoms portrays dozens of fierce men, who have no hesitation, are afraid of death, and hate that kind of behavior, such as describing Xia Houdun gouging out his eyes. The chapter describing Guan Yu's bone scraping and poison treatment is equally wonderful. The knife beats the bone, and Guan Yu is free to play. Can this extraordinary gentleman image make people unconvinced? There are more heroes who insist on upholding justice for themselves, despise wealth and are not afraid of difficulties.

In addition, The Romance of the Three Kingdoms is also very successful in shaping think tanks. These people are men of insight, with great care and good intentions. They make accurate judgments when they are healthy and can grasp the fighters. They really have the ability to mediate between heaven and earth and revolve around Gan Kun. Some of them are laughing and charming, portraying the image of a wise man in people's minds to the extreme. Lu Xun said: "Strong Zhuge, wise near the devil." This is also the failure of Luo Guanzhong. He blamed Zhuge Liang for many things he didn't do in history, but made what he said untrue.

The Romance of the Three Kingdoms can be appreciated by leaders with certain rights and people from all walks of life, mainly because of his military strategy. Romance of the Three Kingdoms is of great practical value. Now, politicians and businessmen are willing to read The Romance of the Three Kingdoms in order to upgrade their ranks and increase profits and taxes, hoping to learn something useful from it. A dream of red mansions is nothing compared with it.

In his martial arts novels, Jin Yong borrowed the technique of Romance of the Three Kingdoms many times. For example, the condor gods captured Ouyang Feng three times and Meng Huo seven times. In the legendary swordsman, Zuo Lengchan's admiration or disapproval of Wulin also shows the traces of "cooking wine as a hero". It can be seen that The Romance of the Three Kingdoms still has a great influence on the writing of novels in later generations, and it is better than The Water Margin. Creation is not difficult, but not as good as the Three Kingdoms. He can't write well without superb historical knowledge. Later, there were many romance novels, none of which were as good as the Three Kingdoms. Four Great Classical Novels ranks second only to the three countries.

The water margin ranks third, and many people don't want it. The characters depicted in the Water Margin are much richer and more delicate than those in the Three Kingdoms, and their thinking characters also change with the deepening of the story. The thinking and personality of the characters in the Three Kingdoms are unchanged from beginning to end, such as Zhang Fei, who was violent and happy at first and never changed in the end.

In addition, the female characters describing San Francisco Lotus in Water Margin implicitly reveal women's resistance. Although the author is critical, people can still see from here the feudal society's resistance to the unreasonable system of women, which is much richer than the story of Diusim described in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Diusim's story is more like a unkempt figure, even without any thoughts of his own, just a tool for the sacrifice of the upper struggle.

The practical value of Water Margin is not very high. There are thinkers Wu Yong and Gongsun Sheng, intellectuals in the Three Kingdoms are a dime a dozen, and Water Margin can only rank third.

Journey to the West is a fairy tale novel, which young readers may like, but it is also difficult to squeeze into the four classic novels. The second half of the story is the same, and the author enjoys it. The Journey to the West successfully created the images of the Monkey King, Tang Priest, Pig Bajie and Friar Sand. The Monkey King's judgment is incomplete and blind. Tang priest is the most incompetent, but because Jin Chan got away, he can be a leader. Although the Monkey King obeyed the leader after many twists and turns, whenever there was a conflict between the Monkey King and the top Tang Priest, Pig Bajie would beat the Monkey King, fanning the flames, and Friar Sand would only live in hope. Even if there were a few monsters in the Western Heaven, the Monkey King didn't lose himself. Most of these goblins have their own origins, such as the goddaughter of King Tota, the uncle of Tathagata Buddha, the riding of Taibai Venus (equivalent to the driver of the leader), and the boy of Daxian. These leaders may be busy and neglected in management. These people have become "black under the lamp" and become a menace, and so have the goblins in the Western Heaven.

The practical value of Journey to the West is not high, and it is a bit difficult to squeeze into the four classic novels.