Thoughts? Are any of the Chinese Big 4 readable?
>>24858389Good, but because I'm a westerner it's hard to remember all the Chinese names because they all sound the same
>>24858401It's not just that, but so many names are dumped in the beginning. At least in War & Peace, they give you a chart at the beginning of the book.
>>24858412My copy of A Dream of Red Mansions has family tree at the beginning.
>>24858389>Are any of the Chinese Big 4 readable?Yeah but why waste time when you could be reading superior Western literature?
>>24858389reading it right now
>>24858389This one you can skip. It can't decide whether it wants to be a confucian or a taoist text and it is not nearly exotic enough to warrant getting through the hundreds upon hundreds of pages of just women bickering
>>24858401>Chinese namesWe should translate them like we do with native american names, "Magnificent Jade" or "Pure Snow" or whatever.
>>24858442>t. filtered
And what about this? I've had my phases with Three Kingdoms and Wukong outside their respective books, but I know nothing about Margin and Red Mansions.
>>24858816Water Margin was highly popular in Edo Japan, more than the other two Ming novels
>>24858816I read an unabridged English translation of The Water Margin (aka Outlaws of the Marsh) and I think it's terrific. It's grittier and more down to earth than Three Kingdoms: it's about criminals and bandits and clashes with the state and stuff, but with a huge variety of genre. Like Three Kingdoms, it moves really fast, it's very direct, and there are a million characters.
>>24858442>can't decide whether it wants to be a confucian or a taoistyou mean kind of like china?
>>24858816I read that exact edition. I loved it. I read Anthony C. Yu's Journey to the West and enjoyed it a fair bit.
>>24858883Looks pretty kino
>>24858389I made it through the major classics of Britain, America, Germany, France, Japan, Korea, much of the Native American lore, and a good chunk of the Roman classical. I went through War and Peace as a teenager. I still couldn't force myself to finish the Chinese classics. They're just so tedious and boring and pretentious.
>>24861237that's sinophobia.
>>24858891I wouldn't know, my guess would have been that communism would have gave then coherence or an entirely new kind of neurosis, but I know nothing about modern China and have only read those three bodies novels form modern times and they were awfulAnyway it representing China ethos would make the country a mess, and not make the novel any better
>>24858389Yes. It's possibly the greatest novel of all time. It isn't any harder to read than other doorstoppers with a massive cast of names. Jot them down and you'll breeze through it in its entirety.
