Why are the Four Great Classics all novels?
The Four Great Classics referred to the four classic works of Chinese classical novels: Dream of the Red Chamber, Journey to the West, Water Margins, and Romance of the Three Kingdoms. The reason why these four works became classics was because they all had high literary and artistic value. Among them, Dream of the Red Chamber was the pinnacle of ancient Chinese novels and was hailed as the epitome of the history of Chinese novels. It depicted the life of the aristocratic society in the Qing Dynasty and expressed the deep level of human nature. Journey to the West tells the story of Xuanzang, a monk of the Tang Dynasty, who took his three disciples, Sun Wukong, Zhu Bajie, and Monk Sand, to India to obtain the true scriptures after going through 81 difficulties. This story was full of myths and legends, showing the good and evil of human nature, desire and adventurous spirit. Water Margins described the life of a group of righteous thieves at the end of the Song Dynasty, showing the kindness, justice, and courage of human nature. There were many famous characters in this story, such as Lin Chong, Song Jiang, Wu Yong, and so on. Their ups and downs of fate and their psychological journey were the essence of this story. Romance of the Three Kingdoms was a historical story about the Three Kingdoms period, describing the wars and political struggles between Wei, Shu, and Wu. There were many famous characters in this story, such as Cao Cao, Liu Bei, Zhuge Liang, etc. Their ups and downs in fate and their psychological journey were also the essence of this story. The reason why the four masterpieces became the classics of Chinese classical novels was that they all had high literary value, artistic value and historical value. They showed the good and evil, desire, adventurous spirit, justice, kindness, courage and other qualities in human nature. They were the treasures of Chinese literature history.