What are the four great masterpieces of China?

The four great masterpieces of classical Chinese novels, or the four great masterpieces for short, are the four masterpieces of Water Margin, Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Journey to the West, and Dream of the Red Mansions (in the order of their composition).

1, Water Margin

Water Margin, one of the four great masterpieces of China, is a chapter-length novel in the late Northern Song Dynasty Song Jiang Uprising as the main backdrop, the type of heroic saga. The author or editor is generally considered to be Shi Nai-an, and most of the surviving publications are signed by one or both of Shi Nai-an and Luo Guanzhong.

2, Romance of the Three Kingdoms

The Romance of the Three Kingdoms is one of the four great classical Chinese novels, is China's first full-length historical novel in chapters, the full name of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms (also known as the Romance of the Three Kingdoms), the author of the end of the Yuan and the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, the famous novelist Luo Guanzhong. The Romance of the Three Kingdoms is the first chapter book in the history of Chinese literature, the first work of historical novels, and the first literati novel.

3. Journey to the West

The Journey to the West is the first romantic chapter book novel of ancient China. Existing Ming publication of the hundred books "Journey to the West" are not signed by the author. Qing Dynasty scholars, such as Wu Yuzhong, first proposed that the author of the Journey to the West was Wu Cheng'en of the Ming Dynasty.

The Journey to the West is a classic of Chinese novels about gods and demons, reaching the peak of ancient long romantic novels, and is known as one of the Four Great Classical Novels of China together with the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, the Water Margin, and the Dream of the Red Mansions.

4, Dream of Red Mansions

Meng of Red Mansions, an ancient Chinese chapter-length novel, also known as The Book of Stones, etc., is listed as the first of the four great classical Chinese masterpieces, and is generally considered to be written by Cao Xueqin, a writer of the Qing Dynasty. The novel depicts the life of a group of ladies of the court who are superior to men in demeanor and insight, and shows the true beauty of human nature and tragedy, which can be said to be an epic poem that shows the beauty of women from all angles.

Expanded:

The Four Great Masterpieces are not only grandly constructed, but also beautifully written, with fascinating stories and familiar characters or story sequences. The Four Great Masterpieces promoted the development of Chinese literary history, enriched the treasury of Chinese culture, added creative genres, greatly stimulated the creative enthusiasm of the literati, and made the history of Chinese literature vigorously developed.

And the four masterpieces in addition to "Dream of Red Mansions", the other three are actually not a person can be completed, is by the Han people by word of mouth, folk storytellers after years of artistic processing;

Till the Ming Dynasty, and then by Shi Nai-an, Luo Guanzhong, Wu Chengen, which are a few learned and widely heard of the talent after more than a dozen years of careful collection of compilations, can be made into a book, and has been passed down through the ages. It can be said that this is the crystallization of the collective wisdom of the Han people, the pride of the Han nation.

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Baidu Encyclopedia - The Four Great Masterpieces