Quattuor magnae mythistoriae classicae

Quattuor magnae mythistoriae classicae sunt opera Sinensia inter annum 1300 et 1800 scripta. Ea sunt valde celebria in Sinis et creduntur esse praestantissima exempla litteraturae Sinensis. Veterrimus eorum Margo Aquae est, qui scriptus est saeculo quarto decimo. Secunda scriptu est Fabula Trium Regnorum, ex eodem saeculo. Tertium est Iter Ad Occidentem, saeclo sexto decimo scriptum et quartum opus est Somnium Cubiculi Rubri, saeclo duodevicesimo scriptum. Haec opera magnopere innotuere in partibus Orientis Extremi, imprimis in Iaponia et Corea extra Sinis.

Opera

Servato temporis ordine sunt:

Latine	Sinice simpliciter	Sinice traditionaliter	Pinyin	Auctor attribuitus	Tempus
Margo Aquae	水浒传	水滸傳	Shuǐhǔ Zhuàn	Shi Nai'an	14 saeculum
Fabula Trium Regnorum	三国演义	三國演義	Sānguó Yǎnyì	Luo Guanzhong	14 saeculum
Iter Ad Occidentem	西游记	西遊記	Xī Yóu Jì	Wu Cheng'en	16 saeculum
Somnium Cubiculi Rubri	红楼梦	紅樓夢	Hóng Lóu Mèng	Cao Xueqin	18 saeculum

Bibliographia

• Chang, Shelley Hsueh-lun (1990). History and Legend: Ideas and Images in the Ming Historical Novels. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. ISBN 047210117X  279p. Explores the Ming world of fiction and ideas of historical change; the hero; social, political, cosmic order and morality; and reactions to the growth of imperial despotism.
• Hanan, Patrick (1964), "The Development of Fiction and Drama", in Dawson, Raymond, eds., The Legacy of China, Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 115–143 
• Hegel, Robert E. (1994). "Traditional Chinese Fiction--the State of the Field". The Journal of Asian Studies 53 (2): 394–426 
• Hsia, Chih-tsing (1968). The Classic Chinese Novel: A Critical Introduction. New York: Columbia University Press  rpr. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1980; 413p. ISBN 0253202582). A key introduction for Western general readers to six novels considered in China to be the classics: Three Kingdoms (Sanguozhi yanyi); Water Margin (Shuihu zhuan); Journey to the West (Xiyou ji); Golden Lotus, or Plum in the Golden Vase (Jinpingmei); The Scholars (Rulin waishi); and Story of the Stone (Hongloumeng or Shitou ji)
• Knight, Sabina (2012). Chinese Literature: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780195392067 
• Li, Wai-Yee (2001), "Full-Length Vernacular Fiction", in Mair, Victor, Columbia History of Chinese Literature, New York: Columbia Univ Press, pp. 620–658 
• Lu Xun, A Brief History of Chinese Fiction. (Foreign Languages Press, 1959 Translated by Gladys Yang and Yang Xianyi. Various Reprints). China’s leading early 20th-century writer surveyed traditional fiction in this pioneering survey, based on a series of 1923 lectures, in order to serve as a basis for modern writers.
• Plaks, Andrew H. (1978). "Full-Length Hsiao-Shuo and the Western Novel: A Generic Reappraisal". New Asia Academic Bulletin 1: 163–176 
• Plaks, Andrew H. (1987). The Four Masterworks of the Ming Novel : Ssu Ta Ch'i-Shu. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press. ISBN 0691067082  A seminal exploration of 'literati novels.' Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Water Margin (or, Men of the Marshes), Journey to the West, and Golden Lotus (or Plum in a Golden Vase).
• Rolston, David L. and Shuen-fu Lin (1990). How to Read the Chinese Novel. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press. ISBN 0691067538  534 p. Chinese critics of the 17th and 18th centuries wrote commentaries – called dufa ("how to read") – which were interspersed in the text so that the text and the commentary formed one experience for the reader. Scholars in this volume translate and introduce such commentaries for the six now classic novels.
• Ropp, Paul S. (1990), "The Distinctive Art of Chinese Fiction", in Ropp, Paul S., eds., The Heritage of China: Contemporary Perspectives, Berkeley: University of California Press, pp. 308–334, ISBN 0-520-06441-0  Introductory article summarizing scholarship in the field.
• Wu, Yenna (1999), "Six Classic Chinese Novels", in Schellinger, Paul, ed., Encyclopedia of the Novel, Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn, pp. 1226–1231, ISBN 1579580157 . Three Kingdoms (Sanguozhi yanyi); Water Margin (Shuihu zhuan); Journey to the West (Xiyou ji); Golden Lotus, or Plum in the Golden Vase (Jin ping mei); The Scholars (Rulin waishi); and Story of the Stone (Hongloumeng or Shitou ji).