Four Great Classical Novels Thread

[Anonymous No.16656234]

Has /lit/ read any of the Classical Novels? If so, which ones?
So far, I've read pic related, and am about to start Outlaws of the Marsh. Reading Three Kingdoms was one of the comfiest experiences I had last year, so I have high hopes.

[Anonymous No.16656251]

I want to read the unabridged Journey to the West, Waley's Monkey was a blast.

[Anonymous No.16656267]

I read Journey to the west, the green one from the same publisher.
Shit is beyond comfy but repetitive, I liked the illustrations thought.
I was planning to read outlaws of the marsh, gave up on dream of the red chamber since was pure court drama and Three Kingdoms seems like political autism to me.

[Anonymous No.16656286]

>>16656267
>political autism
The politics are certainly there, but the majority of the book is just plain, old fashioned autism. Especially when it comes to Kongming.

[Anonymous No.16656301]

>>16656286
How autistic, exactly?

[Anonymous No.16656318]

>>16656301
Kongming is a 500 IQ megagenius who singlehandedly defeats Cao Cao multiple times, bends the elements to his will, conquers Vietnam through the usage of fake cardboard dragons and becomes a constellation after he dies.
Meanwhile, Lord Guan becomes a buddhist spirit after HIS death, vowing to dedicate his eternal life to peace, forgiveness, etc., only to make a man explode two chapters later.

So very autistic.

[Anonymous No.16656326]

>>16656318
Good old fashioned Chinese autism.
You convinced me alright

[Anonymous No.16656330]

>>16656234
The Water Margin was cool, seemed like a peak into some nice legends, the Red Chamber was kino, one of the most immersive stories I've ever read.
Couldn't find a good copy of Dragon Ball and Three Kingdoms seems incomplete and expensive, every Chinese just knows it via osmosis.

[Anonymous No.16656341]

>>16656234
I liked the jinpingmei more
on that note, does anyone know of any translation of the secret history of the scholars? I swear that book only exists in history books because I can't find it anywhere

[Anonymous No.16656346]

>>16656330
The ones from the FLP are alright, only issue at least with Journey to the West is that some names of places and things are translated literally. I like that but your mileage may vary

[Anonymous No.16656383]

>>16656346
>some names of places and things are translated literally
I was reading the Red Chamber in my native language and funnily enough they did the same with a few names, it was a bit jarring because you would have someone be referred to as a flower and then another man in the same sentence would be just a romanization of the Chinese name. Not too bad though, I think I'll check FLP later.

[Anonymous No.16656398]

>>16656341
it was translated in the 50s by that married couple whose name i can't remember, you can still find it second hand

[Anonymous No.16656402]

>>16656346
How's the FLP translation of Red Chamber? Apparently its not as good as the Penguin translation, but I couldn't find any examples online.

[Anonymous No.16657353]

>>16656318
Don’t forget Liu Bei’s baby football scene.

[Anonymous No.16657378]

>>16657353
What

[Anonymous No.16657422]

>>16657353
Apparently that didn't happen in real life, it was just something that Luo Guanzhong put in because he was bored.

Which makes it even funnier, imo.

[Anonymous No.16657839]

>>16656318
God I hate how Romance of the Three Kingdoms shafted Zhou Yu. Actually defeats Cao Cao in history, then is shown as a little jealous bitch constantly losing to Zhuge Liang in the Romance.

[Anonymous No.16657924]

>>16656341
In German it is more widely available, zvab.com lists several copies, if that helps you.

[Anonymous No.16658082]

Thinking about buying pic related to learn Chinese, is it any good? Is it possible to teach yourself Mandarin?

[Anonymous No.16658113]

>>16656234
A Dream of Red Mansions is without a doubt one of the greatest novels ever written. I regret not learning Mandarin, since I understand how much I'm missing out on by reading it in English. Still exceedingly comfy in English, though. It's such a shame that the author died before he could finish the end of the book

[Anonymous No.16658118]

>>16658082
seems okay, esp. since it covers the HSK vocab
you can teach yourself anything if you have the patience and discipline, though personally i don't see much value in writing chinese (as in by hand)

[Anonymous No.16658125]

>>16658082
>Is it possible to teach yourself Mandarin?
Yes. There's a ridiculous amount of material out there for learning the language. The only thing you'll struggle with is pronunciation, but that doesn't matter all that much if you're just planning on learning it for reading. No idea about pic related, but it's probably decent enough

[Anonymous No.16658156]

>>16658118
Agree with not bothering to learn how to write. Unless you plan on having calligraphy as a hobby, no point. Most communication is with keyboards now, so just recognizing the characters is enough.