How much do you know about the four great masterpieces of ancient Chinese literature?

Water Margin

is the first long novel in Chinese history to be written in the ancient vernacular to glorify peasant uprisings, with the uprising led by Song Jiang as the main target, and through a series of vivid stories about the heroes of Liangshan Mountain's resistance to oppression and heroic struggle, it exposes the decadence and brutality of the ruling class of the imperial court at the end of the Northern Song Dynasty and the sharp and antagonistic social contradictions and the cruel reality of "official oppression", eulogizes the peasants' spirit of resistance, and also exposes the peasants' struggle. It exposes the sharp social contradictions and the cruel reality of "official oppression", eulogizes the spirit of resistance of the peasants, and exposes the compromises and limitations of the peasants' struggle.

The Romance of the Three Kingdoms (《三国演义》)

is China's first full-length novel in chapters. The story begins with the Yellow Turban Uprising and ends with Sima's destruction of Wu and the opening of the Jin Dynasty. It focuses on the depiction of war and strategy, reflecting the political and military struggles between the three political groups of Wei, Shu, and Wu, and showcasing the nearly one-hundred-year period between the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty and the early years of the Western Jin Dynasty, and successfully portraying a large number of characters such as Zhu Geliang, Liu Bei, Cao Cao, Sun Quan, Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, Zhao Yun, Zhou Yu, and many other powerful and heroic characters.

The Journey to the West

is based on the folklore of the story of the Longevity Monk fetching scriptures, together with the Buddhist teachings as well as the author's rich imagination to create, starting from the story of Sun Wukong's emergence from the world, the Great Foul of the Palace of Heaven, etc., and writing about the Sun Wukong following the Longevity Monk to fetch scriptures from the West, getting rid of the evil spirits and defeating the demons and overcoming difficulties along the way. In the book, the characters of the Tang Monk, the Monkey King, Pigsy and Monk Sha are vividly portrayed, and the story is grand in scale and complete in structure. The Journey to the West is rich in Buddhist colors, and its implied meaning is very far-reaching, with many different opinions. It can be understood and appreciated from a variety of perspectives such as Buddhism, Taoism, and secularism, and Journey to the West is worthy of being an outstanding representative of the great romantic literary works in Chinese classical fiction.

Meng of the Red Chamber

Tells the story of a large feudal family, which is based on the emotional entanglements between Jia Baoyu, Lin Daiyu, and Xue Baochai, and embodies the love and hate of the women in the Grand View Garden of Jia's mansion, featuring the Twelve Haircuts of the Golden Haircatchers, through the descriptions of some daily events. At the same time, the subplot of the Jia Mansion's decline from wealth and splendor reflects the decline of a large family and the ugly inner workings of this seemingly magnificent family. Dream of Red Mansions is also an encyclopedic novel, centering on the upper class aristocratic society, depicting the whole life at the end of the feudal society in China in the first half of the 18th century in a very real and vivid way, fully utilizing the excellent traditional techniques of calligraphy, painting, poetry, song and music, etc., and demonstrating the tragedy of a social life.

The stories of China's four great classical literary masterpieces are now a household name, known to women and children, especially because many of the words, poems, idioms, and stories in them have been integrated into our daily lives. I don't think it's possible to say that you haven't read the four great masterpieces. Only by reading the four great masterpieces can you have a deep understanding and mastery of traditional Chinese culture, and can you pass on and carry forward our excellent traditional culture. Especially in this new era of socialism with Chinese characteristics, where does the cultural confidence we advocate come from? There is a lot of inexhaustible material within the four great masterpieces.

The Four Great Classical Masterpieces of Literature are the classics of Chinese literary history and a valuable cultural heritage of the world. The status of these four masterpieces in the history of Chinese literature is difficult to distinguish between high and low, all have a very high level of literary and artistic achievements, meticulous portrayal and the profound ideas contained in the readers of successive generations, the stories, scenes, characters have been y influenced by the ideological concepts of the Chinese people, values, and can be said to be the history of the four great monuments in Chinese literature. The four masterpieces have been adapted into various art forms such as movies, TV dramas and operas, and even more, and have had a very great influence in the world.