China's 4 Classic Novels Explained | Learn Chinese Now

Hey everyone and welcome to Learn Chinese Now. If you've studied Chinese history, or are starting to study Chinese, you may hear about the four classic novels from Chinese history. 四大名著,四大 means four big, we saw this before in 四大发明, the four great inventions. And then 名 means famous, it literally means name, but Chinese people use it to refer to something that is famous. And 著 in this context means a work of literature, so 名著 means like a famous work or a masterpiece of literature. So what are these four classic novels? Let's check them out. Number one, 水浒传, Water Margin, which is also sometimes translated as Outlaws of the Marsh. The book is set in the Song Dynasty and follows the story of 108 outlaws from Mount Lian who are eventually granted amnesty by the government and sent on missions to defeat foreign invaders. The novel introduced classic characters such as Wu Song, who was known for his martial arts skills. There is a story about Wu Song in which he stopped at a tavern and noticed a sign which read 三碗不过肝, after three bowls, don't cross the ridge. The three bowls referred to three bowls of wine. Wu Song didn't heed the advice and downed 15 bowls of wine, then snumbled drunkenly into the forest towards the ridge. He soon found out why it wasn't advisable to continue after too much wine. A huge tiger sprung out on him. Because anyone who's sober could defeat a tiger, right? It's only if you were drunk that you would have a problem. But even in a drunken state, Wu Song was able to give the tiger a good kicking and killed it with his bare hands. When news of his great achievement spread, he was given a high post in local government. I'll put a link to the rest of Wu Song's story in the description of this video. And remember, he is only one of the 108 characters in the novel. Number two, 三国演义, or Romance of the Three Kingdoms, is a novel about the unstable times at the end of the Han Dynasty as the country split into three warring kingdoms. The novel follows the leaders of three states as they battle for supremacy. The period contains some of the most intelligent examples of Chinese military strategy in history. In one story, armies are poised to attack on opposite banks of a river. Lacking ammunition, military strategist Zhuge Liang comes up with an idea to steal the enemy's arrows. He sends a fleet of boats with scarecrows on the deck across the river. Due to fog, the opposing army couldn't see that the figures on the boats weren't real soldiers, and they order their archers to launch. Arrows rain down, striking into the scarecrows and thatched roofs of the boats. The boats then turn back and unloaded about 100,000 arrows to their own camp, enough to launch their own attack, winning the Battle of the Red Cliff. This turbulent period of history has been the topic of several video games such as Dynasty Warriors and several movies such as Chi Bi, or The Red Cliff. Number three, Xi You Ji, or Journey to the West, is the story of an immortal monkey who was born out of a rock and then protects a Buddhist monk on his mission to India to obtain the Buddhist scriptures. Westerners may know the story from this cheesy Japanese 1970s TV show. Elemental forces caused the egg to hatch. From it then came a stone monkey. The nature of monkey was irrepressible. Born from an egg on a mountaintop, the funniest monkey that ever... The monkey is mischievous and has to be punished by the Buddha, but eventually redeems himself by converting to Buddhism and protecting the Tang monk on his quest. Each chapter contains many moral lessons and insights into Chinese Buddhist culture. The story really is classic and it's long. The English translation has four volumes and I'm about halfway through the first book. Number four, Hong Lou Meng, or Dream of the Red Chamber, follows the rise and decline of a Qing Dynasty aristocratic family. Some believe the stories were inspired by events in author Cao Xueqin's own family, kind of like a traditional Chinese version of a reality TV show. I've just been like so unhappy. What if the roles were reversed? You don't think I feel bad? I wish my dad was here. You put me in such an uncomfortable situation. Not quite. The novel is the most modern of the four classic novels and the language is written in the Beijing dialect of the time, although speakers of modern Chinese like us will still feel that it's reasonably classical. The book, like all Chinese novels, is incredibly long. Eighty chapters are attributed to the original author, with another 40 believed to have been added later. So guys, that's our guide to China's four classic novels. I will put links from Shen Yun Performing Arts to more information about some of the stories mentioned in this video in the description box. Shen Yun Performing Arts have some great resources on their website for learning about traditional Chinese culture. I also made a video on my personal channel last week about how to brew Chinese Pu'er tea, which is a very unique tea from China's Yunnan province in the southwest. You guys can check it out here or on the end card. We'll see you next time. Zaijian.