The Four Masterworks of the Ming Novel

The Four Masterworks of the Ming Novel (Ssu ta ch'i-shu) is a monograph on classical Chinese literature published by Princeton University Press in 1987 by Andrew H. Plaks, a professor of East Asian Studies at Princeton University. The work was awarded the Joseph Levenson Book Prize by the Association for Asian Studies. Plaks posits that Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Water Margin, Journey to the West, and The Golden Lotus represent the birth of a new genre of long-form fiction known as the "strange book" (qishu) style during the Jiajing and Wanli eras of the late Ming Dynasty. He argues that these works were deeply reconstructed by literati based on folk narratives to express the serious philosophical reflections of late Ming scholars on "nature," "the self," "the hero," "power," and "reality," utilizing "irony" as the central unifying rhetorical strategy. The chapter concerning Journey to the West is the longest section of the book. Following the interpretive tradition of Wang Guowei, Lu Xun, and Xia Zhiqing, Plaks proposes that the novel is an allegory of mind cultivation (psychomania of mind cultivation), using the pilgrimage of Sun Wukong, Tang Sanzang, and their disciples as a metaphor for the refinement of the heart and mind. By conducting a close reading of the text within the intellectual history of the Ming Dynasty—specifically the school of mind (Lu-Wang philosophy) and the syncretism of the Three Teachings—his work has profoundly influenced the modern academic paradigm for interpreting Journey to the West both in China and abroad. A Chinese translation by Shen Hengshou, titled Mingdai Xiaoshuo Sida Qishu, was published by the Living · Reading · Knowledge Three-Linked Bookstore in 2006.

Sources

• Wikipedia — Andrew H. Plaks
• Princeton University Press — The Four Masterworks of the Ming Novel