The "Four Great Classics": "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", "Water Margin", "Journey to the West", and "A Dream of Red Mansions".
Four Great Classics:
China’s Four Great Classics are "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms", "Water Margin", "Journey to the West" and "A Dream of Red Mansions". These four works have endured for a long time and are rare classics in the history of Chinese literature. The stories, scenes, and characters in it have profoundly affected Chinese people's ideas and value orientations. The four works all have high literary standards and artistic achievements. The meticulous characterization and profound thoughts contained have been praised by readers of all ages. They are four great monuments in the history of Chinese literature. The status of these four masterpieces in the history of Chinese literature is difficult to distinguish.
About the work:
"The Romance of the Three Kingdoms" describes the historical events of nearly a hundred years from the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty to the early years of the Western Jin Dynasty. The whole book reflects the political and military struggles of the Three Kingdoms era, reflects the penetration and transformation of various social contradictions in the Three Kingdoms era, summarizes the great historical changes of this era, and creates a group of powerful heroes. In terms of grasping the history of the Three Kingdoms, the author showed an obvious tendency to support Liu and oppose Cao. He took the Liu Bei Group as the center of the description, praised the main figures of the Liu Bei Group, and tried his best to expose and criticize Cao Cao. Today we should have a dialectical understanding of the author's tendency to support Liu and oppose Cao. Respecting Liu and rebelling against Cao was the main trend in folklore, which during Luo Guanzhong's time implied the people's hope for the revival of the Han Dynasty.
Shi Naian's novel "Water Margin" contains extremely vivid life scenes, colorful characters, and 108 heroes with different identities and temperaments. It is a wonder among ancient Chinese novels. The text of "Four Classic Paintings by Famous Painters - Water Margin" incorporates 293 traditional Chinese paintings, which were jointly painted by 41 famous traditional Chinese paintings such as Dai Guobang, He Youzhi, and Chen Baiyi. The painters painted vivid life scenes with their skillful hands. , the characters and plots are vivid and have profound meaning.
Wu Chengen's mythological novel "Journey to the West" is magnificent in scale, with twists and turns in the plot, vivid language, and the use of romantic creative techniques. It is extremely rich in imagination and is a treasure among ancient Chinese novels. "Four Classic Paintings by Famous Painters: Journey to the West" invited more than 40 famous painters, including Dai Dunbang and Zhao Hongben, to paint 240 Chinese paintings with high artistic value, which are either bold and rough, or simple and beautiful. The paintings include humans, gods, demons, monsters, mountains, etc. Water, flowers, insects, birds, beasts, etc. are colorful. The painting methods may be meticulous sketching or freehand brushwork. The style may be bold and rough, or simple and beautiful. The techniques are outline, rendering, contrasting, splashing ink, vivid and colorful. It shows the most exciting scenes in the novel. The text adds elegance to the painting, and the painting adds unique charm to the text. The pictures and text are alternately blended together.
With its rich content, tortuous plot, profound ideological understanding, and exquisite artistic techniques, "A Dream of Red Mansions" has become the pinnacle of China's most accomplished classical novels and chapter novels, so much so that it has become the pinnacle of China's most accomplished classical novels and chapter novels. This work constitutes an academic independent research discipline - redology, which is extremely rare in the history of world literature.