Classic Chinese Novels

41 languages
​ Article
​ Talk
​ Read
​ Edit
​ View history
Tools
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

(Redirected from Four Great Classical Novels)

Not to be confused with Four Books and Five Classics.

Four Classic Novels in Chinese opera

Sha Wujing, Tang Sanzang, Sun Wukong, and Zhu Bajie (Journey to the West) in Shao opera

Lin Daiyu and Jia Baoyu (Dream of the Red Chamber) in Yue opera
 Zhang Fei, Liu Bei, and Guan Yu (Romance of the Three Kingdoms) in Sichuan opera

Ma Lin, Lin Chong, Hu Sanniang, and Qin Ming (Water Margin) in Peking opera

Classic Chinese Novels (traditional Chinese: 古典小說; simplified Chinese: 古典小说; pinyin: gǔdiǎn xiǎoshuō) are
[1]
the best-known novels of pre-modern Chinese literature. These are among the world's longest and oldest novels.

They represented a new complexity in structure and sophistication in language that helped to establish the novel as a
respected form among later popular audiences and sophisticated critics.

They include the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Water Margin, Journey to the West, and The Plum in the Golden
Vase of the Ming dynasty and Dream of the Red Chamber (The Story of the Stone) and The Scholars of the Qing
dynasty. The Chinese historian and literary theorist C. T. Hsia wrote that these six "remain the most beloved novels
[2]
among the Chinese."

Nomenclature and subgroupings[edit]

The literary critic and sinologist Andrew H. Plaks writes that the term "classic novels" in reference to these six titles is
a "neologism of twentieth-century scholarship" that seems to have come into common use under the influence of C.
T. Hsia's The Classic Chinese Novel. He adds that he is not sure at what point in the Qing or early twentieth century
[3]
this became a "fixed critical category" but the grouping appears in a wide range of critical writing. Paul Ropp notes
 [4]
that "an almost universal consensus affirms six works as truly great". Hsia views them as "historically the most

[5]
important landmarks" of the novels of China.

There have been a number of groupings. Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Journey to the West, Water Margin and
The Plum in the Golden Vase were grouped by publishers in the early Qing and promoted as Four Masterworks
[6]
(Chinese: 四大奇書; pinyin: sì dà qishù; lit. 'four great masterpieces'). Because of its explicit descriptions of sex,

The Plum in the Golden Vase was banned for most of its existence. Despite this, Lu Xun, like many if not most
[7]
scholars and writers, place it among the top Chinese novels. Several Western reference works consider Water

Margin, Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Journey to the West, and Dream of the Red Chamber as China's Four
[8][9]
Great Classical Novels.

Textual history and authorship[edit]

None of the six were published in the author's lifetime. Three Kingdoms and Water Margin appeared in many variants
and forms long before being edited in their classic form in the late Ming. There is considerable debate on their
authorship. Since the novel, unlike poetry or painting, had little prestige, authorship was of little interest in any case.
While tradition attributes Water Margin to Shi Nai'an, there is little or no reliable information on him or even
confidence that he existed. The novel, or portions of it, may have been written by Luo Guanzhong, perhaps Shi's
[10]
student, who was the reputed author of Romance of the Three Kingdoms, or by Shi Hui (施惠) or Guo Xun (郭勛).

Journey to the West is the first to show signs of a single author who composed all or most of the text, which became
[citation needed]
more common in later novels.

In the late Ming and early Qing, new commercial publishing houses found it profitable to issue novels that claimed
specific authors and authentic texts. They commissioned scholars to edit texts and supply commentaries to interpret
them. Mao Zonggang, for instance, and his father Mao Lun, edited Three Kingdoms and Jin Shengtan edited Water
Margin, supplying an introduction to which he signed Shi Nai'an's name. In each case the editor made cuts, additions,
and basic alterations to the text, misrepresenting them as restoring the original. They also supplied commentaries
with literary and political points that modern scholars sometimes find strained. Their editions, however, became
standard for centuries, and most modern translations are based on them. Zhang Zhupo likewise edited The Plum in
the Golden Vase. Zhang worked on an abridged and rewritten text of 1695; the 1610 text, however, was a more
[11]
coherent and presumably closer to the author's intent.

In chronological order of their earliest forms, they are:

●