CHIN 374 - Reading Early Chinese Novels: The Four Masterworks

This course explores the development of the novel as an artistic literary form in late imperial China by introducing students to representative novels from the Ming dynasty (fourteenth through seventeenth century), particularly the “four masterworks” (四大奇書) including Romance of the Three Kingdoms (三國志通俗演義), Outlaws of the Marsh (水滸傳), Journey to the West (西遊記), and Jin Ping Mei (金瓶梅). Through closely reading select chapters of these four novels, we will explore the relationship between the Ming masterworks and a number of other factors, ranging from history (the long tradition of historiography in China as well as changes in intellectual history during Ming), the rise of material culture, shifting societal norms, and the growing focus on the individual, to more literary concerns with authorship, genre, intertextuality, and reception history. Close textual analyses of the primary sources will be supplemented by critical and theoretical readings that will introduce us to current scholarly approaches to the study of early modern Chinese fiction and help us dialogue with specialists in the field with our own interests and interpretations. We will also examine adaptations of these monumental novels in a variety of other popular media to appreciate their long-lasting cultural influences across (and beyond?) East Asia. All readings are available in translation. Students taking the course for Chinese credit will meet for an additional hour of reading in the original language.

Unit(s): 1
Group Distribution Requirement(s): Distribution Group I
Prerequisite(s): Sophomore standing. For Chinese credit, CHIN 212 or equivalent.
Instructional Method: Conference
Grading Mode: Letter grading (A-F)
Cross-listing(s): LIT 319
Not offered: 2024-25
Group Distribution Learning Outcome(s):

Understand how arguments can be made, visions presented, or feelings or ideas conveyed through language or other modes of expression (symbols, movement, images, sounds, etc.).
Analyze and interpret texts, whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts.
Evaluate arguments made in or about texts (whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts).