Who divided the four great masterpieces?

There were so many ancient novels in our country. There must be a reason why Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Dream of the Red Chamber, Water Margins, and Journey to the West were classified as the four ancient masterpieces of China. Then, who was the one who divided them? What was the reason? (I'm not doubting that person's level of classification, I just want to know these two questions.)

Answer 1

The Four Great Classics were the classics in the history of Chinese literature. The Ming Dynasty novelist Wu Chengen had classified the four novels, Dream of the Red Chamber, Journey to the West, Water Margins, and Romance of the Three Kingdoms, as the Four Great Classics according to the traditional Chinese literary classics. This classification method had been passed down in ancient Chinese literature for a long time and became one of the classics of Chinese literature.