During the Ming and Qing dynasties, literary creation became more secularized. Novels that were previously unpopular became the "learning of the generation", including the four great classics of China, vernacular novels in three words and two beats, and the classical Chinese novel "Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio". " etc. all appeared during this period. In addition, drama creation also achieved high achievements. Tang Xianzu's "The Peony Pavilion", Kong Shangren's "The Peach Blossom Fan", and Hong Sheng's "The Palace of Eternal Life" were born. Although the creations of literary genres such as poetry and Sanqu that once shone in the literary world are relatively mediocre, they have not stagnated. With the rise of the urban economy, the art of folk songs has also prospered relatively.
The Four Classical Classics "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms": The waves swept away all the heroes. The Romance of the Three Kingdoms is China's first chapter-length retrospective novel and the first historical romance novel. The book contains 120 chapters and 650,000 words, describing the nearly 100-year history from the Yellow Turban Uprising to the unification of the Western Jin Dynasty. "Water Margin": How are 108 good men made? "Water Margin" is also called "Water Margin" and "Loyalty and Justice". "Water Margin" occupies a very high position in the history of Chinese literature. It and the Romance of the Three Kingdoms of the same period laid the foundation for the form and style of ancient Chinese novels. Water Margin adopts a single-line vertical narrative structure. "Journey to the West": The legend of a magical monkey. Most of the popular novelists in the late Ming Dynasty were keen on writing novels about monsters and monsters, among which the most literary one is "Journey to the West". "Journey to the West" is a supernatural novel and an excellent literary work. It has two very prominent artistic features, one is fantasy and the other is humor. "A Dream of Red Mansions": a page full of absurd words and a handful of bitter tears. Among the novels written in the Ming and Qing dynasties, "A Dream of Red Mansions" is the one with the highest evaluation by later generations. In terms of language, "A Dream of Red Mansions" can be said to be the pinnacle. Cao Xueqin made extensive use of northern Mandarin and integrated it with classical written language, ultimately forming a concise, smooth, natural, vivid and highly expressive language feature. The four famous works highlight the four major aspects of novels of this era: feelings of family and country, heroism, gods and monsters, and love stories.
In the middle and late Ming Dynasty, short vernacular novels developed rapidly, and various collections of novels were published one after another, the most representative of which was Sanyan, Erpai. Three Words refers to the collective name of the three collections of novels compiled by Feng Menglong: "Famous Sayings to the World", "Words of Warning", and "Words to Awaken the World". Erpai is the general name for the two novel collections "The Surprise at the First Moment" and "The Surprise at the Second Moment" written by Ling Mengchu. Sanyan Erpai has two main characteristics in its artistic expression techniques. One is that it is good at writing ordinary stories with richness, and the other is that it makes the language more popular, convenient and easy to read and understand.
Legends originally referred to short classical Chinese novels in the Tang Dynasty. In the Ming Dynasty, they became a general term for all kinds of medium-length dramas other than Zaju. Ming legends developed from the Southern Operas of the Song and Yuan Dynasties. The play is called a legend, and the masterpieces of Southern Opera of the Yuan Dynasty such as "Worship the Moon" and "Pipa Ji" are included in the legend. Tang Xianzu's "The Peony Pavilion", together with the previously written "Purple Hairpin", "Nanke" and "Handan" are collectively known as the Four Dreams of Linchuan, also known as the Four Dreams of Yumingtang. Tang Xianzu was of the same era as the great British dramatist Shakespeare, and died in the same year. In addition, Tang Xianzu's lofty status in the Chinese drama circle is comparable to that of Shakespeare in the Western world, so people call him the "Shakespeare of China."
Drama developed rapidly in the Qing Dynasty. During the Kangxi period, a highly accomplished work "The Peach Blossom Fan" appeared. The author of "The Peach Blossom Fan" was the famous dramatist Kong Shangren. "May I be gentle all my life, and the white clouds will not envy the fairyland." Hong Sheng is a dramatist as famous as Kong Shangren. "The Palace of Eternal Life" and "The Peach Blossom Fan" tied for the most influential drama works during the Kangxi period. The language of Hong Sheng's "Palace of Eternal Life" is very intimate, delicate and touching. Hong Sheng combines the characteristics of Tang poetry and Yuan opera, and uses many famous lines, and uses them very cleverly, giving people a refreshing feeling.
Feng Menglong, a famous writer and dramatist, showed great enthusiasm for collecting and organizing folk songs, and compiled two works, "Tong Chi Yi Nong·Gua Zhi Er" and "Tong Chi Er Nong·Folk Songs" Collection of folk songs. In the early years of the Qing Dynasty, many survivor poets appeared. Their poems mostly expressed the pain of the country's subjugation and had high literary value. Among these poets, Huang Zongxi, Gu Yanwu and Wang Fuzhi were the most famous. Nalan Xingde was one of the most famous poets in the Qing Dynasty, and was even praised as "the first poet in the early Qing Dynasty" by Kuang Zhouyi, a poet in the late Qing Dynasty. Among Nalan Xingde's poems, his love poems are the most well-known, and his mourning poems are the most touching.
In the early years of the Qing Dynasty, while vernacular novels were popular, some classical Chinese novels also appeared. The most valuable one is Pu Songling's collection of short stories "Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio". The literary value of "Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio" is firstly reflected in the character creation. The whole book creates a large number of flesh-and-blood, vivid and distinctive characters. Secondly, in terms of plot, the differences in the plots of each novel lead to the diversified characteristics of "Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio". In terms of language, although it is written in classical Chinese, the language is much more popular than ordinary classical Chinese, and it incorporates the characteristics of spoken language and is easy to read. Especially the characters in the novel have their own unique languages. Wu Jingzi's long satirical novel "The Scholars". "The Scholars" is a great chapter-length realistic satirical novel. There are four condemning novels: "Revelation of Officialdom", "Strange Current Situation Witnessed in Twenty Years", "Old Can's Travels", and "Nie Haihua".