TLW's Chinese Novelist Historyscope |
By T.L. Winslow (TLW), the Historyscoper™ |
© Copyright by T.L. Winslow. All Rights Reserved. |
Original Pub. Date: Aug. 26, 2015. Last Update: Aug. 26, 2015. |
Westerners are not only known as history ignoramuses, but double dumbass history ignoramuses when it comes to Chinese novelist history. Since I'm the one-and-only Historyscoper (tm), let me quickly bring you up to speed before you dive into my Master Historyscope.
In 1400 Luo Guanzhong (1332-1400) dies, leaving the 800K-word 120-chapter historical novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms, set in the Three Kingdoms (Cao Wei, Shu Han, Eastern Wu) era of 169-280 C.E., covering 1K dramatic chars, becoming the Shakespeare of Chinese lit.; he also leaves (with Shi Naian) Outlaws of the Marsh (Water Margin), becoming the first two of the Four Great Classical Novels of China along with "Journey to the West" and "Dream of the Red Chamber".
In the 1590s Journey to the West is pub. anon. during the Ming Dynasty, based on the swan song memoirs of Chinese Tang Dynasty Buddhist monk-scholar Xuanzang (Hsuan-tsang) (Hiuen-Tang) (602-664), who travelled to India to obtain the Tang Sanzgan (Three Collections of Buddhist Scriptures), becoming one of the Four Great Classical Novels of China.
In 1763 Nanjing-born Han writer Cao (T'sao) Xueqin (Zhan) (Chan) (1724-64) writes Dream of the Red Chamber (Mansions) (Story of the Stone) (Honglou Meng) AKA Story of the Stone (Shitou Ji); a semi-autobio. novel about his family, with a huge cast of chars. esp. hot babes, becoming the last of the Four Great Classical Novels of China; it circulates in ms. form until its first print pub. in 1791.