The novels of this class are written in the vernacular, are long, and are told in chapters, each chapter relating one stretch of the story and the next taking it further. This form is called the chaptered novel, and it tells the long course of its characters and events.
At the end of the Yuan and the start of the Ming, Luo Guanzhong compiled the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, and the chaptered vernacular novel took shape. In the Wanli era the Shidetang edition of Journey to the West appeared, and it was counted with Water Margin and others as the "marvellous books" of the Ming.
At the end of the Qianlong reign Cheng Weiyuan and Gao E first printed the 120-chapter Dream of the Red Chamber, which then circulated widely. Dream of the Red Chamber portrays human nature and fate with realism.
Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Water Margin, Journey to the West and Dream of the Red Chamber are together called the Four Classic Novels and are the representatives of this class.
Vernacular Fiction is the class in the chapter on Letters on the full-length vernacular novel, represented by the Four Classic Novels, Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Water Margin, Journey to the West and Dream of the Red Chamber: the chaptered novel took shape in the late Yuan and early Ming, the Shidetang edition of Journey to the West appeared in the Wanli era, and the 120-chapter Dream of the Red Chamber was first printed at the end of the Qianlong reign.
