Four famous works: "Water Margin", "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", "Journey to the West", and "A Dream of Red Mansions" (in order of completion).
The Four Great Classical Chinese Novels, referred to as the Four Great Classics, refer to the four masterpieces "Water Margin", "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", "Journey to the West", and "A Dream of Red Mansions" (in the order in which they were written).
The Four Classical Classics are classic works in the history of Chinese literature and precious cultural heritage in the world. The status of these four masterpieces in the history of Chinese literature is indistinguishable. They all have extremely high literary standards and artistic achievements. Their meticulous depictions and profound thoughts have been praised by readers of all ages. The stories, scenes, and characters in them have been praised by readers of all ages. It has profoundly influenced the Chinese people's ideas and value orientation. They can be described as four great monuments in the history of Chinese literature.
"Water Margin" is the first chapter-length novel in Chinese history written in ancient vernacular to praise the peasant uprising. It takes the uprising army led by Song Jiang as the main theme and uses a series of Liangshan heroes to resist oppression. The vivid story of the heroic struggle exposed the decadence and cruelty of the ruling class in the late Northern Song Dynasty, exposed the sharply opposed social contradictions at that time and the cruel reality of "officials forcing the people to rebel".
"The Romance of the Three Kingdoms" is a comprehensive collection of folk legends, operas, and scripts, combined with historical materials from Chen Shou's "Three Kingdoms", Fan Ye's "Book of the Later Han", the Yuan Dynasty's "Three Kingdoms Pinghua", and Pei Song's annotations, as well as It is written based on the author's personal understanding of social life. The Jiajing edition of the Ming Dynasty is the oldest one currently seen, divided into 24 volumes and 240 chapters. In the early Qing Dynasty, Mao Zonggang and his sons made some modifications, and it has become the most common 120-chapter version now.
"Journey to the West" is based on the folklore story of Tang Monk's Buddhist scriptures and related scripts and dramas (written by Yang Na in the late Yuan and early Ming dynasties). The first seven chapters of "Journey to the West" describe the birth of Sun Wukong and the havoc in heaven. After that, he wrote the story of Sun Wukong following Monk Tang to learn Buddhist scriptures from the West, eliminating demons and demons and overcoming difficulties along the way. The characters of Tang Monk, Sun Wukong, Zhu Bajie, and Sha Monk are vividly depicted in the book, with a large scale and complete structure. Moreover, "Journey to the West" is rich in Buddhist color, and its hidden meaning is very far-reaching. There are different opinions and opinions. It can be appreciated from multiple perspectives including Buddhism, Taoism, and secularism. It is a great romantic literary work among Chinese classical novels.
"A Dream of Red Mansions" is a chapter-length novel. In the early days, only the manuscripts of the first eighty chapters were circulated, and the parts after the eighty chapters were unfinished and the original manuscripts were lost. The original name is "Zhi Yanzhai's Re-Evaluation of the Story of Stone". Cheng Weiyuan invited Gao E to collaborate and compile and publish the complete version of 120 chapters, naming it "A Dream of Red Mansions". There is also a version called "Golden Jade Fate". "A Dream of Red Mansions" tells the story of people and things that happened in a large feudal family in a fictional dynasty. It takes the emotional entanglement between Jia Baoyu, Lin Daiyu, and Xue Baochai as the main line and reflects the life of the Jia family through the description of some daily events. The love, hate and sadness of the women in the Grand View Garden are mainly represented by the Twelve Hairpins of Jinling. At the same time, the sub-line from Jia's mansion to decline and decline reflects the decline of a large family and the ugly inner nature of this seemingly gorgeous family.
The four treasures of the study are unique Chinese calligraphy and painting tools (calligraphy and painting utensils), namely pen, ink, paper, and inkstone.
The name of the Four Treasures of the Study originated from the Northern and Southern Dynasties.
Throughout history, the objects referred to by the "Four Treasures of the Study" have changed frequently. In the Southern Tang Dynasty, the "Four Treasures of the Study" specifically referred to Zhuge's brush in Xuancheng, Anhui, Li Tinggui's ink in Huizhou, Anhui, Chengxintang paper in Huizhou, Anhui, and Longwei inkstone in Wuyuan, Huizhou, Anhui.
Since the Song Dynasty, the "Four Treasures of the Study" have specifically referred to Xuan brush (Xuancheng, Anhui), Hui ink (She County, Huizhou, Anhui), Xuan paper (Jingxian, Xuancheng, Anhui), She inkstone (She County, Huizhou, Anhui), Tao Inkstone (Zhuoni County, Gansu Province), Duan Inkstone (Zhaoqing, Guangdong Province, known as Duanzhou in ancient times).