Have you read, or heard of, the great classical Chinese novels written between 14th and 18th centuries? Still part of folk culture, they’re known to most Chinese. I learned of them and their contexts while reading The Search for Modern China by Jonathan Spence. Here are five of them:

Journey to the West: “China’s most beloved novel of religious quest and picaresque adventure” … published in the 1590s in the waning years of the Ming dynasty, when “essayists, philosophers, nature poets, landscape painters, religious theorists, historians, and medical scholars all produced a profusion of significant works, many of which are now regarded as classics of the civilization.” The novel’s hero, “a mischievous monkey with human traits … accompanies the monk-hero on his action-filled travels to India in search of Buddhist scripture.” * It’s “a first-rate adventure story, a dispenser of spiritual insight, and an extended allegory in which … pilgrims journeying toward India stands for the individual journeying toward enlightenment.” Indeed there aren’t many books in which “go west, young man” would be a call to go to India. 🙂

Golden Lotus: Published anonymously in early 17th century, this is a “socially elaborate and sexually explicit tale, the central character (who draws his income both from commerce and his official connections) is analyzed through his relationships with his five consorts, each of whom speaks for a different facet of human nature.” It can be read as “allegory, as a moral fable of the way greed and selfishness destroy those with the richest opportunities for happiness; yet it also has a deeply realistic side, and illuminates the tensions and cruelties within elite Chinese family life as few other works have ever done.” *

Dream of the Red Chamber: “China’s greatest novel,” was written in late 18th century by Cao Xueqin, and in simple outline is a love story. It “presents a meticulous description of the Jias, a wealthy Chinese extended family who occupy a series of linked mansions in an unnamed big city” that bears resemblance to Nanjing and Peking … “the ‘dream’ that is ascribed to the ‘red chamber’ constitutes an elaborate yet mysterious foretelling of the fates of the main female protagonists who are related or linked to the Jias in some way.” * “The novel is remarkable not only in its huge cast of characters — over 400 in all, most of whom are female — and its psychological scope, but also in its precise and detailed observations of the life and social structures of 18th-century China.”

Romance of the Three Kingdoms: Stories in this novel “existed as oral traditions before any written compilations,” and are based on “events in the turbulent years near the end of the Han Dynasty, and the Three Kingdoms (220–280).” It’s current form is attributed to Luo Guanzhong in late 14th century, and illustrates his gift for storytelling with a rich tapestry of personalities … Characters take on “exaggerated and mythical characteristics, often becoming immortals or supernatural beings with magical powers.” It reflects the Confucian values prominent at the time … “loyalty to one’s family, friends, and superiors [was] one of many measures to distinguish good and bad people.”

Water Margin: Attributed to Shi Naian (same as Luo Guanzhong?), “the novel details the trials and tribulations of 108 outlaws during the mid Song Dynasty … The group was active in the Huai River region and eventually surrendered to government troops in 1119.”

Read more about these and other classical Chinese novels here and here.

* Most quotes for the first three titles above are from The Search for Modern China by Jonathan Spence. The rest are from Wikipedia.