The Ming–Qing canon · 冊頁
The classical novels, as lookup tools
四大名著
Not essays — tables, trees, indexes and painted leaves you can filter. Each tool answers a question with a row or a branch: who held which rank, which demon carried which treasure, who is whose mother in the Jia house. All four great novels now hold a table here; the fourth's painted leaves arrive when the ink dries.
The tools 四冊
The 108 Stars of Water Margin
Every star in rank order: heavenly or earthly, nickname in Chinese and English, name, and a condensed fate from the campaign chapters. Stars with a leaf of their own open into a painted portrait and their deeds in chapter order.
Demons & Tribulations of Journey to the West
Each named antagonist episode: place, demon, magic treasure or ability, how it was resolved, and the chapter range — with a painted leaf for everyone in it, pilgrim, god or monster.
Red Chamber: Family Tree & Twelve Beauties
The Jia house as an expandable tree, the Jinling register with its verses, glosses and fates, and a painted leaf for every named person in the house — many headed by the 判詞 written about them in chapter five.
Romance of the Three Kingdoms
The era as two dated tables: the lords, strategists and warriors who moved it — allegiance, courtesy name, fate — and the battles that turned provinces, every row cited to its chapters. Painted leaves for the oath brothers follow the ink.
Star of the day 每日一將
My shelf 我的書架
Nothing kept yet — open any character leaf and press the seal to shelve them here.
Why tables and not articles 以表代文
The novels are public domain; the readings are not. A table makes its claims checkable — rank against rank, chapter against chapter — where prose hides them. Where a field is a gloss or a condensation, the page says so.
New here? Which of the four to read first →
New — the Water Margin nickname quiz, ten a day →
New — Bamboo Scroll: the history behind the novels, in free sourced comics →