Classical Literature 古典文学
《西游记》——路、妖与心 English Journey to the West is the strangest of the Four Great Novels and, in certain respects, the most philosophically ambitious. On the surface, it is an adventure story: a Buddhist monk, Xuanzang, travels from Tang dynasty China to…
《水浒传》——义、忠、江湖 English Water Margin is the most politically uncomfortable of the Four Great Novels — the one that authorities across different dynasties have most frequently tried to suppress, edit, or redirect. Its subject is a group of people whom the…
《红楼梦》——繁华与幻灭 English Dream of the Red Chamber is the novel that readers of Chinese literature tend to save for last — not because it is the most difficult, but because it asks the most of the person reading it. It…
《三国演义》——乱世、忠义与谋略的重量 English Romance of the Three Kingdoms begins with one of the most famous opening lines in Chinese literature: “The empire, long divided, must unite; long united, must divide. Thus it has ever been.” In these words, Luo Guanzhong announces…