People in the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) once called The Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Outlaws of the Marsh, Pilgrim to the West, and Jin Ping Mei (The Golden Lotus) as the Four Masterpieces of the period, for their uniqueness in contents and arts but also the originality embodied in them.

  The Romance of the Three Kingdoms

The Romance of the Three Kingdoms, written by Luo Guanzhong in the early Ming Dynasty, was based on folk legends, storytelling scripts and dramas. It is the most popular historical novel in China. It starts from the uprising of the Yellow Turbans and ends in the unification of the Western Jin Dynasty (265-316), revealing the turbulent events between 184 and 280. Through descriptions of the political, military and diplomatic confrontations among various sections of the ruling class, the novel exposes the underside of society in the late Eastern Han Dynasty (25-220), criticizes the violence of the feudal rulers, mirrors the people's sufferings and expresses the people's longing for a sage emperor and a stable life. The author followed the tradition of popular stories and took sides with Liu Bei and went against Cao Cao, which embodies the people's common desire to uphold a wise emperor and repudiate despotism in feudal society.

It is written in clear, concise and vivid language. The dialogue in the novel plays an important role in revealing the characters personalities. Zhang Fei's straightforwardness, Guan Yu's superiority, Cao Cao's craftiness and Kong Ming (Zhuge Liang)'s cleverness are revealed in a few very simple words.

  Outlaws of the Marsh

Outlaws of the Marsh was written by Shi Nai'an in the early Ming Dynasty. Like The Romance of the Three Kingdoms' it was also based on folk legends, storytelling scripts and dramas. Shi Nai'an lived in the time just before Luo Guanzhong. Outlaws of the Marsh is the first novel dealing with the subject matter of peasant uprising in China. It describes the full development of a peasant uprising from its inception, with the rise of a rebel group at Liangshan, down to its defeat, with all the rebels accepting amnesty and surrendering to the government.

Its successful portrait of more than 20 distinctive characters greatly contributes to the novel's enduring popularity. Shi Nai-an is skilled at revealing the inner world of characters through their behavior and language. This expressive technique originated from the "storytelling scripts," which due to its special form, does not allow much explanation about characters' appearances and psychological activities, therefore, it displays the figures' character mainly through their language and behavior, as well as conflicts and intrigues in which they are involved. The Outlaws of the Marsh further developed this expressive technique.

Another distinctive feature of Outlaws of the Marsh in characterization is to reveal the characters' different dispositions and their different forms of resistance to oppression through describing their different life experiences. Outlaws of the Marsh is based on storytelling scripts, therefore its language has a strong colloquial style: succinct, lively, accurate and very expressive.

 Pilgrim to the West

Pilgrim to the West, the most brilliant Chinese mythological novel, came out in the mid Ming Dynasty. It was written by Wu Cheng'en (c. 1500-c. 1582).

Pilgrim to the West tells the story of how Xuan Zang, a Buddhist monk of the Tang Dynasty (618-907), endures countless difficulties imposed by various monsters and demons, and finally gets to the West assisted by his three disciples: Sun Wukong (Monkey King, Pigsy and Friar Sha. The Monkey King is the most brilliant figure in the novel. He loves freedom and has a fighting spirit. He is arrogant and unyielding in face of gods and Buddha, but at the same time very obedient and loyal to his master, Xuan Zang. Xuan Zang's character embodies both the piety of a Buddhist monk and the stubbornness of a feudal scholar. The author criticizes Xuan Zang's timidity and incompetence by contrasting his character to Sun Wukong's bravery and resourcefulness. Pigsy is an important foil in the novel. He is rude and avaricious, and lusts after women. His arrogance and self-pitying behavior brings much comic relief to the novel.

Pilgrim to the West imagines a world of rigid hierarchy managed by gods, which apparently mirrors the social reality of the actual world. The almighty Jade Emperor (the Supreme Deity of Taoism), the High Lord, the Buddhist monks and all kinds of cruel monsters and demons are all archetypes to be found in real life.

Pilgrim to the West has a strong romantic flavor. The author creates a supernatural world, but the gods and spirits, their magic weapons and even the environment in which they live are all based on reality While depicting various gods and demons, the author not only endows them with supernatural abilities but also with the attributive character of an animal. For example, Sun Wukong's agility and impatience comes from a monkey's character, while his optimism and rebellious personality appear to be human. In different ways, rich and fantastic imagination and real life are well blended in Pilgrim to the West.

The structure of Pilgrim to the West centers on characters, with the plot being carried out with their actions. All the 81 difficulties Xuan Zang and his disciples encounter are vividly told around the complicated relationships among Buddhist monks, Buddhas and demons, with each story remaining relatively independent.

  Jin Ping Mei (The Golden Lotus) 

Jin Ping Mei (The Golden Lotus) is the first novel composed entirely by a scholar. It is thought to have been completed during the Wanli reign of the Ming Dynasty. The author's name was given as Lanling-xiao-xiao-sheng (a laughing scholar from Lanling). Lanling is today's Feng County in Shandong Province. The novel adopted a great deal of colloquial terms of Shangdong, therefore the author should be a native of that province, but his real name remains unknown.

In the late Ming Dynasty, the ruling class grew more and more decadent and moribund, and social morality declined. A number of works reflecting the decay of society appeared at that time, including Jin Ping Mei. The novel draws its subject matter from a story in Outlaws of the Marsh, which tells about how Wu Song kills his wicked sister-in-law to avenge his brother. By describing the rise to wealth and power and the sudden death of a local despot Ximen Qing, the novel portrays an evil world dominated by the decadent ruling class and the urban scum, and exposes these people's hideous natures. Ximen Qing lives a rotten life: although he has already a wife and two concubines, he still develops immoral relationships with Meng Yulou, Pan Jinlian and Li Ping'er, later taking them all as concubines. Moreover, he seduces and has an illicit affair with his slave girl, Chunmei.

The original artistic feature of Jin Ping Mei exerted a strong influence on the fiction of later time. For example, A Dream of Red Mansions was influenced greatly by it in subject matter and descriptive details. But the excessive pornographic descriptions in Jin Ping Mei seriously compromise its aesthetic value and set a bad precedent for the creation of pornographic novels in later periods.