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A comment on Behemoth, bully, thief: how the English language is taking over the planet. Parent comment

Re:Behemoth, bully, thief: how the English language is takin... by pjscott on Friday July 27, 2018 @10:22PM (#17631135)
There are a few heavy-hitters, though. I'd expect China, for example, to have written some great literature over the years.

(Epistemic status: I don't actually know anything about Chinese literature, and I welcome correction on this point.)

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Re:Behemoth, bully, thief: how the English language is takin... by lunaru on Friday July 27, 2018 @10:28PM (#17631162)
Most discussions regarding Chinese literature would start with the big four (novels): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classic_Chinese_Novels
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Re:Behemoth, bully, thief: how the English language is takin... by pjscott on Friday July 27, 2018 @11:06PM (#17631294)
I'm queueing up one of these as the next book I'll read. Thanks for helping me out!
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Re:Behemoth, bully, thief: how the English language is takin... by lunaru on Saturday July 28, 2018 @12:13AM (#17631489)
I recommend Journey to the West out of the four. Kind of like an RPG-esque journey about a monkey and his gang traveling in search of Buddhist scriptures. You'll get to learn about Sun Wukong, who is the basis for a lot of Chinese, Japanese, and (I believe?) Korean spin-off characters, like Goku from Dragonball[1]

Another good option is Romance of the Three Kingdoms which will cover a good portion of Chinese history (in a mythological way). A lot of the characters like Zhu Geliang [2] are still highly influential in modern Chinese culture.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun_Wukong#Influence [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhuge_Liang

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Re:Behemoth, bully, thief: how the English language is takin... by oh-kumudo on Saturday July 28, 2018 @05:12AM (#17632335)
Chinese literature is indeed very rich, especially the ancient poetries/verses, from Tang and Song dynasty. They are indeed the essential part of, not only Chinese, but East Asian aesthetics in general.
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