The reason why only novels are included is not to ignore the value of China's ancient poems and dramas, but because the "Four Great Classical Novels" invented by the editor was actually born out of the "four wonderful books" that existed in the Ming and Qing Dynasties: The Romance of the Three Kingdoms, The Journey to the West, The Water Margin and Jin Ping Mei, all of which were widely circulated in Fu Zi in the Ming Dynasty.
However, for predictable reasons, the publishing house chose to replace Jin Ping Mei, so the substitute was the peak novel Dream of Red Mansions in the Qing Dynasty. (By the way, in order to be catchy and easy to popularize, the popularity of the title Romance of the Three Kingdoms has since covered Romance of the Three Kingdoms. ) Are there any classical novels that surpass or keep pace with these four books?
I can add two other novels, Jin Ping Mei and The Scholars, which are recognized as the "six great novels". These six vernacular novels are really classic from many aspects, such as artistry, ideological value, literary history status, social influence and so on, and from my superficial understanding of the history of novels.
Foreign language novels such as Shi Shuo Xin Yu, Sou Shen Ji, Jian Deng and Strange Tales from a Lonely Studio. And the vernacular short stories such as Sanyan Erpai are also important towns, which can be roughly regarded as equal to the four classical novels. As for other schools, there is no comparative significance.