What are the eight masterpieces of classical Chinese literature?

1. Dream of Red Mansions

Meng of Red Mansions, an ancient Chinese chapter-length novel, also known as The Book of Stones, etc., is ranked as the first of the four great masterpieces of classical China, and is generally believed to have been authored by Cao Xueqin, a writer of the Qing Dynasty.

The novel takes the rise and fall of the four great families of Jia, Shi, Wang, and Xue as its background, and takes the rich son Jia Baoyu as its point of view, and depicts the life of a group of ladies of the court who are superior to those of the men in terms of demeanor and insights, and shows the true beauty of human nature and tragedy, which can be regarded as an epic poem that shows the beauty of women from all angles.

The versions of Dream of the Red Chamber can be divided into two systems: the 120-volume Cheng text and the 80-volume Li text. Cheng Ben is the printed version of Cheng Weiyuan, and Lipan Ben is the early handwritten version copied and evaluated by Li-Yan-Zhai at different times. Lip-Ben is the base of Cheng-Ben. The new version of this book, the first 80 according to Lip-Ben, the last 40 according to Cheng-Ben, signed "Cao Xueqin, Anonymous, Cheng Weiyuan, Gao Osprey finishing".

A Dream of Red Mansions is a humanistic novel with world-wide influence, recognized as the pinnacle of Chinese classical fiction, the encyclopedia of Chinese feudal society, and a masterpiece of traditional culture.

The novel to "talk about love, the actual record of its own things" self-criticism, only according to their own things, according to the trail, get rid of the old set, fresh and chic, has achieved extraordinary artistic achievements. "The real thing is hidden, false language village language" of the special writing style is to make the later readers of the brain, speculation of the said long and then more. The later generations around the "Dream of the Red Chamber" reading research has formed an obvious science - red science.

2, "Romance of the Three Kingdoms"

"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 late Yuan and early Ming Dynasty, the famous novelist Luo Guanzhong.

After the book "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" was written, there were many editions such as Jiajing rengwu book passed in the world, and at the end of the Ming and early Qing dynasties, Mao Zonggang rectified the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", corrected the text, and changed the poems and text.

The Romance of the Three Kingdoms depicts nearly a hundred years of history from the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty to the early years of the Western Jin Dynasty. It focuses on war, telling the story of the wars between the three kingdoms in the late Eastern Han Dynasty, and the political and military struggles between Wei, Shu, and Wu, which culminated in the establishment of the Jin Dynasty under the unification of the three kingdoms by Sima Yan.

Reflecting the transformation of all kinds of social struggles and contradictions in the Three Kingdoms era and summarizing the great historical changes of this era, it portrays a group of powerful and heroic characters of the Three Kingdoms.

The book can be roughly divided into five major parts: the Yellow Turban Uprising, Dong Zhuo's Rebellion, the Group of Heroes, the Three Kingdoms, and the Return of the Three Kingdoms to the Jin Dynasty. On the vast historical stage, a magnificent war scene is staged. Author Luo Guanzhong blends the Thirty-six Stratagems of War into his words, both the plot and the tactics of war.

The Romance of the Three Kingdoms is the first chapter book in the history of Chinese literature, the founding 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 in 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 is the Ming dynasty Wu Chengen?

The author of the Journey to the West is Wu Chengen of the Ming Dynasty.

The novel is based on the historical event of "The Longevity Monk's Journey to the West", and through the author's artistic processing, it profoundly depicts the social reality of that time.

The book mainly depicts the story of Sun Wukong, the Monkey King, who met the Tang Monk, Pigsy and Monk Sha after he came out of the world and created havoc in the Heavenly Palace, and traveled to the west to fetch the scriptures, subduing demons and subduing devils along the way, and went through nine hundred and eighty-one difficulties, and finally arrived at the Western Heaven to meet Buddha Rulai, and finally the five saints became true.

4, "Water Margin"

"Water Margin", one of China's four masterpieces, is a chapter-length novel in the late Northern Song Dynasty Song Jiang revolt as the main backdrop for the story, 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.

The book is a magnificent story of the resistance of the Liangshan heroes to oppression, the growth of Liangshan and its surrender to the imperial court, and the suppression of the political forces that rebelled against the Song government, such as Tian Hu, Wang Qing, and Fang La, which led to a tragic defeat after their surrender to the imperial court.

Artistically reflecting the whole process of the Song Jiang Uprising in Chinese history from its occurrence, development to its failure, it profoundly reveals the social roots of the uprising, enthusiastically glorifies the resistance of the uprising heroes and their social ideals, and also concretely reveals the inherent historical reasons for the failure of the uprising.

After its release, Water Margin had a great impact on society and became a model for later generations of Chinese novel writing. Water Margin is one of the earliest chapter novels in Chinese history written in vernacular language, which has been widely circulated and popular; it is also one of the works with epic character in Chinese literature, and has had an extremely far-reaching influence on narrative literature in China and even in East Asia.

5. Liaozhai Zhiqi

Liaozhai Zhiqi (Liaozhai for short, commonly known as Ghosts and Foxes) is a collection of short novels in the literary language written by the Chinese novelist Pu Songling during the Qing Dynasty.

The whole book*** has 491 short stories (Zhang Youhe's Liaozhai Zhiyi will be schooled and annotated will be commented on) (Zhu Qikai's "The Whole Book of New Notes on Liaozhai Zhiyi" is 494).

They either expose the darkness of feudal rule, attack the corruption of the imperial examination system, or rebel against the bondage of feudal rites, and are rich in profound ideological content. The works depicting the theme of love are the most numerous in the whole book, and they show the strong spirit of anti-feudalism. Some of these works show the author's ideal love through the love between a flower demon, a fox charm, and a human being.

6, "The Outer History of Confucianism"

"The Outer History of Confucianism" is a long novel written by Wu Jingzi in the Qing Dynasty, which was written in the 14th year of the Qianlong reign (1749) or a little before, and was first circulated as a codex, and first engraved in the 8th year of the Jiaqing reign (1803).

Fifty-six times in the book, it depicts the different behaviors of various kinds of people towards "merit and wealth" with realism, on the one hand, it reveals the process of human nature being corrupted and the reasons for it, and thus y criticizes and ridicules the corruption of the official rule, the malpractice of the imperial examination, and the hypocrisy of the rites and teachings at that time.

On the other hand, the novel enthusiastically celebrates the protection of human nature by a few characters who insist on their own way of life, thus implying the author's ideals. The novel's use of vernacular language has become pure and comfortable, and the characterization of the characters is quite deep and delicate, especially the use of superior satirical techniques, which makes the book a masterpiece of classical Chinese satirical literature.

The History of Confucianism represents the peak of ancient Chinese satirical novels, and it creates an example of direct evaluation of real life by novels. After the manuscript of The History of Confucianism and Forestry came out of the press, there were handwritten copies of the book, which were highly evaluated by the later generations. Lu Xun thought that the content of the book was "upholding the public spirit and criticizing the ills of the time", and Hu Shih thought that the artistic characteristics of the book could be described as "refined and refined".

In the international Sinological world, the book is even more influential, as early as the English, French, German, Russian, Japanese, Spanish and other languages, and was highly praised by the Sinological world, some believe that "The History of Confucianism" can be ranked among the world's masterpieces of literature, and can be compared with the works of Boccaccio, Cervantes, Balzac, or Dickens, and so on, and it is an outstanding contribution to world literature.

7, "Fengshen Yanyi"

"Fengshen Yanyi" is generally commonly known as "Fengshen Bang", also known as "Shang Zhou Li Guo Quan Zhuan", "Wu Wang Zhou Zhou Yi Shi", "Fengshen Chuan", is the Ming Dynasty Xu Zhonglin (controversial) created a long novel, about the book in the Longqing, Wanli years.

The whole book of Fengshen Yanyi (封神演义), which consists of one hundred episodes, is about King Wu's campaign against the Zhou Dynasty. The first 30 times focus on the tyranny of King Zhou, Jiang Ziya returned to hiding, King Wen visited the wise, Jiang Ziya's assistance, King Wu completed the crusade against King Zhou.

Seventy times after the main business, the war between the two countries, and mixed with religious struggle, hermeneutics to help the week, the interception of religion to help the business, each show Taoism, killing each other, the result of the interception of the failure of the religion, king yue fierce and self-immolation, king wu took over the world, the division of the feudal kingdom, ginger tooth back to the country to seal the gods, so that the country's merit in the people and the ghosts of the return to some.

The novel, with historical and political concepts as the ideological framework supporting the whole book, is laced with a lot of grandiose imagery, showing the author's embrace and praise for benevolent and virtuous rulers as well as his dissatisfaction and rebellion against immoral and fainting kings.

8, "East Zhou Lieguo Zhi"

"East Zhou Lieguo Zhi" is an ancient Chinese historical novel written by Feng Menglong, a novelist at the end of the Ming Dynasty.

The novel, written in ancient vernacular, mainly depicts the history of more than five hundred years from the period of King Xuan of the Western Zhou until the unification of the six states by Qin Shi Huang.

Baidu Encyclopedia - The Eight Greatest Classical Chinese Novels