1. The plot of the original classical Chinese version of the four famous works
"A Dream of Red Mansions" - the love is intense, the night is full of flowers, the meaning is lingering, the quiet sun is fragrant; listening to the music, Wen Baoyu enlightens Zen, and the machine-made lantern fan Jia The tragic prophecy of politics; the nightmare magic sister and brother meet the five ghosts in the Dream of Red Mansions and meet two true souls; Concubine Yang plays with colorful butterflies and buries in the incense grave, and the swallows weep in the red color
"Journey to the West" - Spiritual Genyu The source of pregnancy flows out of the mind and practice the great path; I, the Buddha, created a sutra and preached extremely optimistic news and went to Chang'an on the edict; the ghost king visited Tang Sanzang at night and deified Wukong to lead the baby; the outer protector with money was stung by the devil and the ghost appeared to save the original; after ninety-nine counts, the devil was destroyed Return to the roots after completing three lines
"Romance of the Three Kingdoms" - Burning the Golden Palace, Dong Zhuo murders and hides the jade seal, Sun Jian breaks the promise; Liu Huangshu Beihai rescues Kong Rong, Lu Wenhou Puyang defeats Cao Cao; Cao Pi takes advantage of the chaos to accept the legacy of Guo Jia, the Zhen family Liaodong was settled; Ma Chao fought against Jiameng Pass and Liu Bei took over Yizhou as herdsman; Sun Quan surrendered to Wei and was accepted by the First Lord of Jiuxi to conquer Wu and reward the six armies
"Water Margin" - Nine-patterned dragon jian path and red pine forest, Lu Zhi was burned deeply The Crock Temple; the Flower Monk single-handedly defeated the Erlong Mountain Green-faced Beast and the two captured the Pearl Temple; the martial artist got drunk and drilled holes to brighten the brocade-haired tiger to explain Song Jiang; the two carved the book of life and death against the sky, Song Gongming and one dozen Zhujiazhuang; Zhang Qingyuan paired with Qiong Ying and Wu Yongji. Wu Li 2. The four major classics all have vernacular versions. Which version is better, the classical Chinese version or the vernacular version?
The classical Chinese version has more charm, while the vernacular version is more understandable. Both have their own good points.
The Four Great Classics, also known as the Four Great Novels, refer to the four classical Chinese chapter novels "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", "Journey to the West", "Water Margin" and "A Dream of Red Mansions". It is a rare work in Chinese literature. These four works have endured for a long time and are rare works in Chinese literature. The stories and scenes in it have profoundly affected Chinese people's ideas and value orientations. The four works all have a high artistic level, and their detailed descriptions and thoughts have been praised by readers of all ages.
One:
The story of "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms" begins with the sworn alliance between Liu Bei, Guan Yu, and Zhang Fei in Taoyuan, and ends with Sima's defeat of Wu and the start of the Jin Dynasty. It describes the late Eastern Han Dynasty and the Three Kingdoms era of Wei, Shu , the situation of the three kingdoms of Wu and the history of the founding of the Jin Dynasty. The writing is simple, the characters are profound, the plot is tortuous, and the structure is grand.
At the end of the Yuan Dynasty and the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, my country's novel creation entered a new period, especially the chapter novels entered a stage of perfection. China's first chapter-style classical novel "The Popular Romance of the Three Kingdoms", also known as "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms", was born and became popular in the world through the writing of Luo Guanzhong, an outstanding novelist who lived in this historical period. He made indelible and great contributions in the history of literary development in our country. At the same time, it also adds brilliant brilliance to the treasure house of world literature.
2:
"Journey to the West" is based on the folklore story of Tang Monk's Buddhist scriptures and related scripts and dramas (written by Yang Na in the late Yuan and early Ming dynasties). The first seven chapters of Journey to the West describe the birth of Sun Wukong and the havoc in heaven. After that, he wrote the story of Sun Wukong following Monk Tang to learn Buddhist scriptures from the West, eliminating demons and demons and overcoming difficulties along the way. In the book, the images of Tang Monk, Sun Wukong, Zhu Bajie, and Sha Monk are vividly depicted, large in scale, and complete in structure. It is a great romantic literary work among Chinese classical novels.
The content is divided into three parts: the first part (chapters one to seven) introduces Sun Wukong’s vast supernatural powers and causes trouble in the heaven; the second part (chapters eight to twelve) narrates the reasons why Tripitaka obtained the scriptures; the third part (Chapters 13 to 100) are the main body of the story in the book. They describe Wukong and others subduing demons and finally reaching the West to retrieve the scripture.
Three:
"Water Margin" was created by the author on the basis of "The Legacy of Xuanhe" and related scripts and stories. The main theme of the book is the description of the peasant war, shaping Liangshan heroes such as Song Jiang, Wu Yong, Li Kui, Wu Song, Lin Chong, and Lu Zhishen, and revealing the social contradictions at that time. The story is full of twists and turns, the language is vivid, and the characters are distinctive, making it a high artistic achievement.
Shi Naian's novel "Water Margin" contains extremely vivid life scenes, colorful characters, and 108 heroes with different identities and temperaments. It is a wonder among ancient Chinese novels.
The text of "Four Classic Paintings by Famous Painters - Water Margin" incorporates 293 traditional Chinese paintings, which were jointly painted by 41 famous traditional Chinese paintings such as Dai Guobang, He Youzhi, and Chen Baiyi. The painters painted vivid life scenes with their skillful hands. , the characters and plots are vivid and have profound meaning.
Four:
"A Dream of Red Mansions" has become China's most accomplished classical novel and chapter novel with its rich content, tortuous plot, profound ideological understanding, and superb artistic techniques. It is the pinnacle of the work that one work constitutes an academic independent research discipline - Red Studies, which is extremely rare in the history of world literature.
Gao E lived in Beijing in the early Qing Dynasty. When I was young, I loved traveling. I once went to the foreign classroom in middle age. He is familiar with classics and history, works in eight-legged prose, and is also proficient in poetry, novels, operas, paintings, and epigraphy. In the prosperous period of the Tang Dynasty, the poetry style was close to that of the Huajian School, and the thesis stated that "words must be based on their roots, and cultivation must be based on sincerity", emphasizing the main meaning. He was keen on becoming an official, but failed to pass the examinations. In the fifty-third year of Qianlong's reign (1788), he became an examiner in the Shuntian Township Examination. Jinshi in sixty years. The secretary of the official cabinet and the minister of the cabinet read. In the sixth year of Jiaqing (1801), he was the same examiner of Shuntian Township Examination. In the fourteenth year, the imperial censor of Jiangnan Province was selected by the attendant. In the eighteenth year, he was promoted to the Criminal Division and transferred to Shizhong. During his tenure, he was known for his "strict conduct, diligence in political affairs, and talent." In his later years, his family was poor and his official position was cold, and his sleeves were full of breeze. Therefore, although there are numerous works, many of them failed to reach the end of their time before they were published. The last forty chapters of "A Dream of Red Mansions" were continued by Gao E and Cheng Weiyuan. However, the view in 2000 is that the last forty chapters were continued by an unknown person; Gao E and Cheng Weiyuan were just the compilers. 3. How to understand the four major classics in ancient Chinese?
The four major classics are actually not difficult to understand. In fact, they are all vernacular novels. Some versions of the book have already explained difficult words and sentences. If you really don’t know, you can think about it in context and get a rough idea. That’s enough. If you have read many such articles before and have some foundation, it will be easier to read. You don't have to buy something like "Ancient Chinese Dictionary". There are many difficult words in the book, which have little impact on understanding the article. If you really want to know what the meaning is and how to pronounce it, you can have a "Modern Chinese Dictionary" at hand. Generally speaking, if you read a lot and see a lot, then reading classics is actually quite simple.
There is a method of accumulation: write down the difficult words in a specially prepared notebook, as well as some annotated common sentences, so that you can read them frequently in the future and become familiar with them.
This method was taught to me by a person. I didn’t practice it because I was just lazy. I could only rely on memorizing it after reading a lot.
I can probably only say so much at the moment, it’s all based on my experience. 4. How to understand the four major classics in ancient Chinese?
The four major classics are actually not difficult to understand. In fact, they are all vernacular novels. Some versions of the book have already explained difficult words and sentences. If you really don’t know, you can think about it in context and get a rough idea. That’s enough. If you have read many such articles before and have some foundation, it will be easier to read. You don't have to buy something like "Ancient Chinese Dictionary". There are many difficult words in the book, which have little impact on understanding the article. If you really want to know what the meaning is and how to pronounce it, you can have a "Modern Chinese Dictionary" at hand. Generally speaking, if you read a lot and see a lot, then reading classics is actually quite simple.
There is a method of accumulation: write down the difficult words in a specially prepared notebook, as well as some annotated common sentences, so that you can read them frequently in the future and become familiar with them.
This method was taught to me by a person. I didn’t practice it because I was just lazy. I could only rely on memorizing it after reading a lot.
I can probably only say so much at the moment, it’s all based on my experience. 5. The main content of the original text of the Four Great Classics
"Dream of Red Mansions": Since this masterpiece is composed of several major themes interspersed with many small stories, there is no unified theme of "Dream of Red Mansions" so far. However, the most important one is the love triangle between Jia Baoyu, Lin Daiyu and Xue Baochai. Some people think that this masterpiece is a description of the corruption and decadence of traditional Chinese aristocratic life. The book contains many thoughts about Buddhism, Taoism, and Confucianism, which are rich in mythology and reflect the political etiquette, social life, economic system and cultural development at the time when the book was written, as well as clothing, food and medicine, building pavilions, and boats and carriages. sedan and so on.
The full name of "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms" is "The Popular Romance of the Three Kingdoms". A representative work of ancient Chinese historical romance novels.
The novelist Luo Guanzhong of the Ming Dynasty processed and re-created this long chapter novel based on the history and miscellaneous notes about the Three Kingdoms, and on the basis of extensively absorbing folklore and the creative achievements of folk artists. The work describes the complex struggles in politics, military, diplomacy and other aspects between the three feudal ruling groups of Wei, Shu and Wu during the historical period from the end of Han Dynasty to the beginning of Jin Dynasty. Through these descriptions, the darkness and corruption of society are exposed, the cruelty and treachery of the ruling class are condemned, and the people's suffering and the desire of a wise king and benevolent government in turbulent times are reflected. The novel also reflects the author's prejudice against the peasant uprising, as well as the ideas of karma and fatalism. The description of war is the outstanding artistic achievement of "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms". Through thrilling military and political struggles, this novel uses artistic techniques such as exaggeration, contrast, contrast, and rendering to successfully create a number of vivid and vivid characters such as Zhuge Liang, Cao Cao, Guan Yu, and Zhang Fei. "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms" has a majestic and rigorous structure, and its language is concise, bright and vivid. Some critics believe that the artistic shortcomings of this work are the lack of development and changes in the characters' personalities, and some characters are exaggerated and distorted. "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms" marks the glorious achievement of historical romance novels. It has played an active role in disseminating political and military struggle experience and promoting the prosperity of historical novel creation. The main versions of "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms" include the Jiajing edition of the Ming Dynasty "The Popular Romance of the Three Kingdoms" and the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" with additions, deletions and comments by Mao Zonggang of the Qing Dynasty.
The content of "Journey to the West" is the most complex. It integrates the thoughts and contents of Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism. The human world of the real society is injected into the world, and sometimes a few Confucian wise sayings are dropped like a book bag, making it seem both solemn and humorous, and full of fun. This feature undoubtedly makes the book win the favor of readers of all cultural levels. The emergence of "Journey to the West" opened up a new category of long chapter novels about gods and demons. The book's clever combination of good-natured ridicule, bitter satire and serious criticism directly affected the development of satirical novels. "Journey to the West" is the peak of ancient romantic novels. In the history of world literature, it is also a masterpiece of romanticism.
"Water Margin" uses its outstanding artistic description method to reveal some essential aspects of the occurrence, development and failure process of peasant uprisings in China's feudal society. The social significance of "Water Margin" lies first in profoundly exposing the darkness and decadence of feudal society and the sins of the ruling class, and explaining that the fundamental cause of peasant uprisings is "the government forcing the people to rebel." The beginning of the work tells about Gao Qiu, a young man from a down-to-earth family who had always been despised. He was spotted by King Duan for playing football. Later, King Duan became the emperor (Huizong). Gao Qiu was promoted to the rank of Taiwei in the Palace Commander's Palace. The emperor was nothing more than a wandering dandy who only knew how to go around. His trusted ministers also include Cai Jing, Tong Guan, Yang Jian, etc., who form a supreme ruling group. Cai, Gao and others use their relatives and disciples as their confidants, such as Liang Shijie, Prefect Cai Jiu, Prefect Murong, Gao Lian, and Prefect He. Under them, there are some corrupt officials, local tyrants and bullies. From top to bottom, they work together in collusion, harm the loyal, oppress the good, and brutally exploit and oppress the people, forming a ruling network. When "Water Margin" reveals the crimes of corrupt officials and local tyrants who oppress the people, it first tells the story of Gao Qiu's persecution of Wang Jin because Wang Jin's father knocked down Gao Qiu with a stick during a martial arts competition in his early years. After he was appointed as the Taiwei of the Palace Commander's Mansion, on the first day he took office, he avenged himself and punished Wang Jin for no reason, causing Wang Jin to run away with his mother overnight. The author also wrote that Gao Qiu tried every means to murder Lin Chong in order to let his son take over Lin Chong's wife. As one of the representatives of the ruling group, Gao Qiu embodies the brutal and insidious characteristics of power, as well as the ugly and decadent nature of the feudal ruling class. In addition, "Water Margin" also describes various evil behaviors of landlord bullies, such as Zheng Tu occupying Jin Cuilian, Ximen Qing killing Wu Dalang, and Mao Taigong colluding with the government to frame Orion to unravel treasures and treasures. 6. Which version of the four major classics is good for junior high school students? Those who can’t understand the ancient Chinese version are afraid of reading the translated version
It is best to read the original version of Water Margin and Three Kingdoms. Relatively speaking, Water Margin and Three Kingdoms are more vernacular. Okay, basically I can still understand it. I was watching Water Margin when I was 4-5 years old, although I had a little understanding of it at that time.
As for Red Mansion, it depends on whether you are interested in it. If you are interested, just watch the original version, although it is a bit difficult. Just read the original version of Red Mansion, and it will be boring if you read it in vernacular.
As for Journey to the West, it doesn’t matter. Journey to the West is mainly about storytelling, so you can also read the vernacular version.
I don’t agree with the first floor’s statement. I’m already in junior high school and still reading the Pinyin version. When I was in junior high school, I read a lot of ancient Chinese tomes.
My opinion is that you can read Red Mansions less often and Water Margin and Three Kingdoms more. I can never get tired of reading these two books no matter how many times.
I hope my suggestions can help you.