Four Great Classical Novels
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The Four Great Classical Novels, or Four Major Classical Novels (Chinese: 四大名著) of Chinese literature, are the four novels commonly counted by scholars to be the greatest in classical Chinese fiction. Extremely famous and well known to every Chinese reader in the 20th century, they are not to be confused with the Four Books of Confucianism.
In chronological order, they are:
- Romance of the Three Kingdoms (三國演義) (14th century)
- Water Margin (水滸傳) (also known as Outlaws of the Marsh) (mid-13th/14th/15th century?),
- Journey to the West (西遊記) (16th century),
- Dream of the Red Chamber (紅樓夢) (also known as The Story of the Stone) (first block print 1791)
Some consider Jin Ping Mei (金瓶梅) (The Plum in the Golden Vase or Golden Lotus) (1610) to be a fifth classic. In the late Ming Dynasty and early Qing Dynasty, Jin Ping Mei was considered with the first three as "Four Major Novels of Wonder" (四大奇書). Its position has since been usurped by Dream of the Red Chamber.
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