China's Four Great Novels — Why Are They Still Read After Centuries? | A Simple Guide

Hundreds of years ago, China had four great novels. It came to be known as the Four Great Classical Novels, Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Water Margin, Journey to the West, and A Dream of the Red Chamber. Hundreds of years have passed, and people are still reading them, generation after generation. Some people say Power and Stranger in Romance of the Three Kingdoms, some say Rebellion in Water Margin, some say Growth in Journey to the West, and some say Life itself in A Dream of the Red Chamber. But if we look at the four books together, then we find something interesting. They are all talking about the same questions. How should people deal with each other? What should we do when the rules are unfair? You weigh her power. How should we use it? What if success in the outside world conflicts with the life we truly want? What should we choose? Let's start with Romance of the Three Kingdoms. At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, China fell into chaos. Cao Cao, Liu Bei, and Sun Quan, three powers began fighting for control of China. The most interesting part of this book is not who won in the end, it's what happened during those years. How did these three sides deal with each other? Let's look at Sun Quan. He was not as powerful as Cao Cao, and he did not have Liu Bei's royal family background. But after years of fighting, Sun Quan was the one who kept Diang Dong in his hands. When Cao Cao's army moved south, Sun Quan joined forces with Liu Bei. The weaker sides joined together to fight the strongest one. After they won, Liu Bei became more powerful, and he started to threaten Diang Dong. Sun Quan quickly became careful of Liu Bei again. Yesterday, they were allied fighting Cao Cao. Today, they were watching each other. Sun Quan did not change. The situation changed. With two sides, you can simply see who is stronger. The logic is simple. But when there are three sides, everyone has to think about the other two. Join forces when you need to. Be careful when you need to. What really matters is not always standing with the same person. It's knowing where you stand now and where you want to go. This is one of the key ideas in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Now, let's talk about the rules. Water Margin is about more than a hundred people who were parted to the side by a society. They gathered at Liangshan. In the government's eyes, they became rivals. This is what makes this book so frustrating. Sometimes, the more you try to follow the rules, the less the rules protect you. Lin Chong was an instructor in the imperial army. He had a good position. He had a job. He had a family. His life was going well. He was not someone who wanted to rebel. Quite the opposite. He wanted to keep his normal life. Then, Gao Qiu's adopted son wanted his wife. Gao Qiu was a powerful official. He was a kind of man whose words carried weight. Lin Chong tried to endure it. He thought that if he stayed out of trouble, everything would pass. But he didn't. He was set up. He was tricked into entering the White Tiger Hall. Then, he was sent away to Changzhou. He almost died on the way. Even as he starved in the yard, he still hoped to return to a normal life someday. It was not until that cold snowy night that he finally understood something. If the rules are controlled by someone else, following the rules does not guarantee fairness. So, he brought down his storied yard. Then, he went to Liangshan. Many people at Liangshan had similar stories. Many of them never wanted to rebel. They were pushed to the aid again and again. That was what bothered them there. They went to Liangshan and thought they were finally free. But guess what happened? Liangshan soon had its own rankings, its own rules, its own rewards and punishments, and its own leaders. They escaped one system. Then, they built another one themselves. You can escape one set of rules, but it's hard to escape the need for rules itself. Because when people live and work together, they need some kind of order. The Journey to the West takes us one step further. It tells the story of Sun Wukong traveling west with Tang Wang to find the Buddhist scriptures. They face 81 trials, and in the end, they bring back the scriptures. The whole story mainly follows Sun Wukong, and the real question is this. What do you do when you have power and your own judgment, but the world still has its own order? Sun Wukong was born from a stone. He used his own power to take control of Flower Mountain. He went to the Dragon Palace and took the magic staff. Then, he challenged heaven and demanded a title, the Great Sage Yiku to heaven. His thinking was simple. I have this much power, why should I listen to you? Then, a Buddha stepped in. He trapped Sun Wukong under Five-Fingered Mountain for 500 years. For the fourth time, he faced a different kind of power. It was not because he was weak. It was because the world had an order that he had to face. 500 years later, he tried with Tang Ma, and he had a magic headband on his head. Many people think Sun Wukong was finally dead. The Great Sage, who feared nothing, became obedient to him. But he kept watching, and he still saw Sun Wukong. When it's time to fight, he never hesitated. His personality has not changed. What really changed was that he learned something. Not every problem can be solved with force. Sometimes, he needs other people's help. Sometimes, he needs to use his brain. Sometimes, he needs to wait for the right moment. The power is still his, but he finally understands one thing. Having power and knowing how to use it are two different things. That's why his final title is so interesting. Fighting Buddha. Fighting is Elder Sun Wukong, the one who started to challenge Heaven. Buddha is Sun Wukong who finally understood the relationship between power and order. He did not give up his power. He simply learned where to use it. The first three books are keeping asking one question. How should a person live in this world? Then, they came to dream of the Red Chamber. And suddenly, the question changed. What kind of love do you really want? The story follows Jia Baoyu, a wise young man in the Qing Dynasty. He spends most of his time with Lin Daiyu, Xue Baochai, Tan Chun, Xi Chun, and other young women in his garden. In the end, the family falls apart. The people in the garden live one by one, and Baoyu becomes a monk. No dialogue. Baoyu was born with a piece of jade in his mouth. In his family, everyone expected him to have a successful life. A study passed the exam bringing honor to the family. It sounds pretty good, right? But Baoyu slowly realized something. This kind of success is not what he truly wants. What he truly cares about is the time he spends with the young women in the garden, reading poems, talking, sharing feelings that bring no money or status, but still feel real. The outside world is about fame, money, and status. To Baoyu, this world feels false. But here is the problem. You can dislike this world, but it's hard to truly live it. The people he cares about the most also live in that family, and that family is slowly falling apart. Later, Yuan Chun dies, Dai Yu dies too. Tan Chun marries and lives. Xi Chun becomes a nun. The world Baoyu wanted to protect slowly disappears. In the end, the Jia family falls apart. Baoyu leaves that world behind. He did not become the successful man everyone wanted him to be. But he also could not keep the things he loved most. That's what makes A Dream of the Red Chamber so painful. It's not simply that Baoyu became a monk. The real question is this. If you do not want to treat what you truly value for worldly success, can you live with the cost of that cost? The book gives us no answer. I'll put these four books together, and they are really asking the same question. Step by step, they move from the outside world to the inside. Romance of the Three Kingdoms asks, where should I stand in a world of conflicted relationships? Water Margin asks, what should I do when the roads are no longer far? A Journey to the West asks, when I have power, where should I use it? Dream of the Red Chamber asks, what should I do if that's not the life I truly want? No one out of the four books gives us a standard answer. Maybe that's what makes the four great classical novels so powerful. They do not tell us how we should live. They simply write down the questions people have asked for hundreds of years. Then they leave those questions to every reader, and let each person find their own answer.