What are the 12 masterpieces?

They are:

1. Journey to the West:

The Journey to the West is the first romantic chapter-and-verse long novel of gods and demons in ancient China. Existing Ming publication hundred times of the book "Journey to the West" are not signed by the author. The author of Journey to the West was first proposed to be Wu Cheng'en of the Ming Dynasty by the Qing Dynasty scholars, such as Wu Yu_.

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 at that time. The book mainly depicts the Monkey King's birth and after making a fuss in the Heavenly Palace, he met the Tang Monk, Pigsy and Sha Monk, 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 Ru Lai, and finally the five saints became true.

2. Water Margin:

Water Margin, one of the four great masterpieces of China, is a chapter-length novel with the Song Jiang Uprising at the end of the Northern Song Dynasty as the main backdrop, and belongs to the heroic saga in type. 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 Liang Shan heroes to oppression, the growth of Liang Shan and its surrender to the imperial court, and the suppression of Tian Hu, Wang Qing, Fang La, and other political forces that rebelled against the government of the Song Dynasty after their surrender to the imperial court, and their eventual tragic defeat.

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

3. Chaohua xiqing:

Chaohua xiqing, originally titled Revisiting Old Matters, is a collection of 10 reminiscent essays written by Lu Xun in 1926, which was published by the Unknown Society in Beijing in 1928, and is now included in the Complete Works of Lu Xun, Volume 2.

This collection of essays, as a "recollection of memories," reflects Lu Xun's adolescent life in many ways, and visualizes the formation of his character and interests.

The first seven essays reflect his childhood in his family and private school in Shaoxing, while the last three recount his experiences from his hometown to Nanjing, then to Japan, and then back to China to teach.

Exposing the ugly and irrational phenomena of semi-feudal and semi-colonial societies, the book also reflects the difficult course of aspiring young intellectuals in searching for the light in the vast darkness of old China despite the difficulties and dangers, as well as expressing the author's nostalgia for his friends, relatives, teachers and teachers of the old days.

4. "Xiangzi the Camel":

"Xiangzi the Camel" is a long novel written by the people's artist--Lao She (Shu Qingchun), which describes the tragic fate of rickshaw drivers in the 1920s during the period of warlordism. Xiangzi is a representative character of the toiling masses in the old society.

"Xiangzi the Camel" tells the life experience of Xiangzi, a young, strong and full of vitality rickshaw driver in the city of Beiping, China, who has three ups and three downs.

Xiangzi comes from the countryside, a bankrupt young farmer, hard-working, simple and kind, retaining all that the countryside has nurtured and taught him, but never willing to go back to the countryside.

Coming from the countryside to the city, Xiangzi longs to buy a car of his own with his honest labor. Being an independent laborer is Xiangzi's volunteer, hope, and even religion. With hard work and perseverance, he spends three years saving money and finally realizes his ideal and becomes a self-supporting, upper-class carter.

But just pulling half a year, the car was taken by deserters in the military chaos, Xiangzi lost the foreign car, only to bring back three camels. Xiangzi was not discouraged, he was still stubborn to start from scratch, more self-centered to pull the car to save money. However, before he could buy another car, all his savings were extorted and looted by the detectives, and his dream of buying a car became a failure again.

When Xiangzi pulls up his car again, it is at the cost of a deformed marriage with Tigress. It didn't last long, because Tigress died in childbirth, he had to sell the rickshaw to take care of the funeral. As a result, his ideal of life is completely shattered. The suicide of Xiao Fu Zi, the woman he loved, blew out the last spark of hope in his heart.

Battered by life's blows, Xiangzi began to lose any hope and confidence in life, no longer able to drum up the courage to live, no longer proud of pulling a cart as in the past, he loathed pulling a cart, loathed labor.

By the trick of life, Xiangzi began to play life, eating, drinking, whoring and gambling. In order to drink, Xiangzi cheated money everywhere and degenerated into a "city trash". In the end, he relies on odd jobs to make ends meet.

Xiangzi has been reduced from a "decent, strong, dreamy, egoistic, personal, robust and great" low-class laborer to a "degenerate, selfish, unfortunate, socially diseased fetus, and the last ghost of individualism".

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5. "Starry Spring Water":

The author of "Starry Spring Water" is China's famous modern essayist, writer, educator, Bing Xin. Bing Xin's original name was Xie Wan Ying, and it was in September 1919 that she signed her pen name Bing Xin.

Maodun wrote in his Treatise on Bing Xin, "Of all the writers of the May Fourth period, only Ms. Bing Xin is most herself. In her works, she does not reflect society but herself, and she reflects herself no more clearly. In this respect, I think her prose is worth more than the novels, and the longer poems more than 'The Flourishing Star' and 'Spring Water.'"

The Flourishing Stars is a collection of 164 small poems. Bing Xin believed in the "philosophy of love" throughout her life, believing that "with love, there is everything". In Stars, she constantly sings the hymn of love. What she is most passionate about is mother's love. In addition to loving her own parents, Bing Xin also cherished the love of her hands and feet.

She loved her three brothers. She later wrote an essay "send small readers - newsletter thirteen", but also three younger brothers compared to three bright stars. Bingxin celebrated her mother's love, the love of mankind, and the heart of a child, and she also celebrated nature, especially the sea, which she had known so well in her childhood.

Songs of praise for nature, songs of praise for children's hearts, songs of praise for mother's love have become the eternal theme of Bing Xin's lifelong creation. Its themes are: mother's love, nature, childlike innocence, and life.

6. Robinson Crusoe:

Robinson Crusoe is a long novel by British writer Daniel Defoe. It was first published on 4/25/1719.

It focuses on the protagonist Robinson Crusoe, who was born into a middle-class family with a lifelong ambition to travel the world.

On one occasion, he encounters a storm while sailing to Africa, and drifts to an uninhabited desert island, where he begins a life of isolation. With his strong will and unremitting efforts, he survived on the deserted island and was able to return to his hometown after 28 years, 2 months and 19 days.

The novel was inspired by a true story written by Defoe in September 1704, when a Scottish sailor named Alexander Selkirk had an argument with his captain and was abandoned by him in the Atlantic Ocean, where he lived on a deserted island for four years and four months before being rescued by Capt. Woods Rogers.

Defoe took Selkirk's legend as a blueprint, poured his own years of sea experience and experience into the character, and fully utilized his rich imagination for literary processing, so that "Robinson" not only became a heroic figure in the minds of the small and medium-sized bourgeoisie at that time, but also became the first in Western literature. The idealization of the emerging bourgeoisie.

The novel was translated into many languages and widely circulated all over the world, and has been adapted into movies and TV dramas many times.

7. Biographies of Famous Men:

Biographies of Famous Men, is a biographical work written by Romain Rolland (1866~1944), a famous French critical realist writer in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, which consists of three biographies: Biographies of Beethoven (1903), Biographies of Michelangelo (or transliterated into Michelangelo) (1906), and Biographies of Tolstoy ( 1911) three biographies.

The biographies are known as the "Three Heroes" and the "Three Giants". Now has been selected for the human education version of the eighth grade next book language masterpiece reading. This book is also a very good proof of an old Chinese saying: those who have achieved great things in the past and present, not only have the talent of the world, but also have the will of perseverance and perseverance.

The three men in this biography are Beethoven, a German musician; Michelangelo, an Italian sculptor, painter, and poet; and Lev Tolstoy, a Russian writer, thinker, and literary figure.

Although their respective careers were different, their contributions were different, and they lived in different times and countries, they were all great geniuses, all great men in their fields. They went through all the trials and tribulations of life, both physically and mentally, but contributed their whole lives to the creation of monumental masterpieces.

They were either afflicted with illnesses, tragic encounters, or inner pangs and contradictions, or all three superimposed on one another in a deep affliction, almost suffocating the breath and destroying the reason.

The reason they persevered in their grueling journeys was because of their love for humanity and their faith in people. Beethoven's music for everyone's enjoyment was the joy he exchanged for pain. Michelangelo's monumental masterpieces for future generations are the cohesion of his life's blood and tears.

Tolstoy, in his novels, describes the smallness and greatness of thousands of living beings, describes their pain and the harmony they get from their pain, by spreading the seeds of love to convey his faith: "All those who live not for themselves, but for God"; "When all people have realizes happiness, only then can happiness exist on earth.

8. Gulliver's Travels:

Gulliver's Travels is a book-length travelogue satire by the English author Jonathan Swift (also known as Jonathan Swift), first published in 1726.

The work recounts the travels of Captain Rimel Gulliver (also translated as Lemuel Gulliver) as he travels around four countries. Through Gulliver's strange encounters in Lilliput, Brobdingnagian, Flying Island Country, and Wise_Country, it reflects the corruption and evil of the British ruling class in the first half of the 18th century.

It also expresses the author's ideology in a more perfect art form, and the author uses rich satire and fictional fantasy to write absurd and bizarre plots.

Profoundly reflects the meaningless partisan struggles in the British Parliament at that time, the ruling group's mediocrity and corruption and profit-oriented, and exposes and criticizes the cruelty and brutality of the colonial wars; at the same time, it glorifies to a certain extent the heroic struggles of the colonial people against their rulers.

Gulliver's Travels was first published in England in 1726 and sold out within a week. Over the centuries since its publication, it has been translated into dozens of languages and widely circulated in countries around the world. It is also one of the most influential foreign literary works in China, and has been listed as a compulsory reading book in the new language curriculum standard. Movies based on its contents were brought to the big screen in 1977, 1996 and 2010 respectively.

9. Childhood - On Earth - My University:

Childhood - On Earth - My University is a trio of novels written by (Soviet) writer Maxim Gorky. Childhood, On Earth, and My University are Gorky's trilogy of autobiographical novels, written with Gorky's knowledge of suffering, his unique insights into social life, and a raw and unending fervor and strength surging between the lines.

Connotation rich, intriguing, for us to depict a wonderful and colorful spiritual world.

This world-renowned trilogy of autobiographical novels looks at and understands the world around him through the eyes of a growing child, giving us a headstrong, compassionate, and ever-pursuing portrayal of adolescents and young adults in their formative years, with all the problems and psychological trials they endure, which is immensely relatable and touching to the reader.

It is a must-read book for growing up that should not be missed. In addition: autobiographical trilogy "Childhood", "on earth", "my university":

10. "How steel is made":

"How steel is made" is a long novel written by the Soviet writer Nikolai Ostrovsky, written in 1933.

The novel tells people through the recounting of Paul Kochagin's path of growth that only when a person defeats the enemy as well as himself in the hardships of the revolution, and only when he links his own pursuits with the interests of the motherland and the people, will he create miracles and grow up to be a warrior of steel.

11. "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 chapter-and-chapter historical novel, the full name of "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" (also known as "Romance of the Three Kingdoms"), the author of the late Yuan and early Ming Dynasty's famous novelist Luo Guanzhong.

After the completion of the book, there were many versions of "Romance of the Three Kingdoms," such as the Jiajing rengwu version, and at the end of the Ming and the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, Mao Zonggang reorganized the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" by revising the repertoire, amending the text, and replacing the poems and verses.

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 first historical novel, and the first literati novel

12. Dream of Red Mansions:

Meng of the Red Mansions, an ancient Chinese chapter book, also known as The Book of Stones, etc., is ranked as the first of the four great masterpieces of the Chinese Classics, and is generally believed to be written 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 whose behavior and insights are superior to those of the bearded men, and shows the true beauty of human nature and tragedy, and it can be said to be 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.

Note: The rankings are not in any order.

Expanded Information:

World Masterpieces refer to writings that have gained wide recognition and attention worldwide, and whose value has been passed on because they have transcended the era itself. It should be noted that the world's great works in a broad sense include not only literary masterpieces, but also social science masterpieces, humanities masterpieces and so on.

"Masterpieces" generally have the widest possible readership. Rather than being popular for only a few years, they are enduring bestsellers. Gone with the Wind has a relatively smaller audience than Shakespeare's plays or Don Quixote.

It has been more realistically estimated that Homer's epic poem, the Iliad, has had at least 25 million readers in 3,000 years. A masterpiece does not necessarily become a bestseller in its time when it is released; it takes a certain amount of time for it to have an increasing number of readers.

"Masterpieces" are easy to understand, and they don't sell. They are not specialized works written by experts for professionals, whether on philosophy or science, history or poetry, they deal with subjects of interest to mankind***, not with pedantic talk. These books were not made for professors, but for the common man.

To learn advanced material, one must first learn basic material. "In this sense, we can say that the "masterpieces" are the basic textbooks, but they are not a set of interrelated textbooks, and they are not organized according to the degree of difficulty and the technicality of the problems.

There is one type of book that should be read first in order to facilitate the reading of the masterpieces, and that is the other "masterpieces" that the author of the masterpiece has read. Take Euclid's Fundamentals of Geometry and Newton's Principles of the Teaching of Physics, for example.

No prior study of mathematics is required to read Euclid's book, since it is a veritable introduction to geometry and basic arithmetic. The same cannot be said of Newton's book, because Newton used math to solve physical problems, and his writings were heavily influenced by Euclid's treatise on proportions and areas, which would be difficult for even scientists to read without first reading Euclid's book.

I don't mean that the great works of science can be read easily, but that they can be read in historical order. Just as Euclid inspired one to read Newton and Galileo, Newton and Galileo helped one to understand Einstein. This idea also applies to reading philosophical writings.

References:

Baidu Encyclopedia - The World's Greatest Writers