The lost four wonderful books and ancient books

We all know China's four classical novels: Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Water Margin, The Journey to the West and Dream of Red Mansions, but in fact we had seven famous novels before, three of which were deleted because they were not suitable for people at that time. Moreover, China people have a strange psychology of "making up four" and want to make up four for everything, which is why we have these "four classic novels" that have been handed down to this day.

The other three masterpieces were Jin Ping Mei, Strange Tales from a Lonely Studio and The Scholars.

In fact, the literary value of Jin Ping Mei has always been talked about, and some people even regard it as the originator of A Dream of Red Mansions. We all know that A Dream of Red Mansions was written by Cao Xueqin in the Qing Dynasty, and before The Dream of Red Mansions came out, Jin Ping Mei was the "Four Wonders" of the same level as the other three masterpieces.

Feng Menglong first put forward the concept of "Four Wonder Books", but Jin Ping Mei was not recognized by the world because its content was too explicit and vulgar. As a result, Jin Ping Mei was banned for a long time. Even in people's oral conversation, Jin Ping Mei is regarded as a pornographic book, and no one really pays attention to and analyzes the phenomena reflected in it.

Strange Tales from a Lonely Studio and The Scholars are also excellent literary masterpieces, but their contents and central ideas have not been recognized by the rulers. Therefore, after the appearance of A Dream of Red Mansions, the "four classical novels" as we know them now were formally established.