The Four Masterworks of the Ming Novel

Download or read book The Four Masterworks of the Ming Novel written by Andrew H. Plaks and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2025-03-11 with total page 430 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A new interpretation of some of the great works of Chinese fiction of the late Ming dynasty In this book, Andrew Plaks reinterprets the great texts of Chinese fiction known as the “Four Masterworks of the Ming Novel” (ssu ta ch'i-shu). Arguing that these are far more than collections of popular narratives, Plaks shows that their fullest critical revisions represent a sophisticated new genre of Chinese prose fiction arising in the late Ming dynasty, especially in the sixteenth century. He then analyzes these radical transformations of prior source materials, which reflect the values and intellectual concerns of the literati of the period.