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Sān Xiá W? Yì (Three Heroes and Five Gallants).

Attributed to SHÍ Yùkūn (1810?-1871), this novel of detection and derring-do collects popular stories about BāO Zh?ng, a clever and virtuous magistrate (usually called "Magistrate Bāo" in English) of the Northern Sòng dynasty (period 15b), who actually lived from 999 to 1072, and whose vigor in the cause of justice for ordinary people became the subject of plays and stories ever after.

Sānguó Y?nyì(Romance of the Three Kingdoms).

(Sometimes it is also called Sānguó zhi Y?nyìor Sānguó Zhì, "Chronicle of the Three Kingdoms.")

Author: Attributed to LUÓ Guànzhōng (Late Yuán dynasty, period 19, possibly 1330? - 1400？). The action is set in the Three Kingdoms (period 07), and the protagonists are a trio of sworn brothers unsuccessfully seeking the restoration of the ruling house of the preceding Hàn dynasty (period 06), in contention against the expansionist efforts particularly of the king of the kingdom of Wèi (07b), headed by the famous and terrifying warrior CÁO Cāo. The famous "Peach Garden Oath" uniting the three sworn brothers, LIÚ Bēi, GUāN Y?, and ZHāNG Fēi as they seek to restore LIÚ to his throne, provides the prototype for virtually all later oaths of sworn brotherhood, and copies of this text have been sworn to and burned in temples in China ever since. And the deeds of GUāN Y?, despite his being killed early in the novel, became the basis of a cult so important that by the end of the XIXth century there were more temples to GUāN Y? in China than any other kind, with the possible exception of small land-god shrines.

Shu?h? Zhuàn (The Lakeside Tales).

(Sometimes it is called "Water Margin" or "Outlaws of the Marsh" in English.)

Author: Attributed to late Yuán dynasty (period 19) author LUÓ Guànzhōng, author of the Sānguó Y?nyì, and to early Míng dynasty (period 20) author SHī Nài'ān, although the LUÓ's participation is doubted by some scholars..

Set in the Sòng dynasty (period 15), this volume celebrates deeds of derring-do by 108 "social bandits," most famously one SÒNG Jiāng. They are represented as outcasts defending local interests against oppressive central government forces. SÒNG Jiāng and his forces are the model for one common kind of processional element in local festivals.

Sōu Shén Jì(In Search of Gods).

Author: GāN B?o (Eastern Jìn dynasty, period 8c).

This is a compilation of religious and ghost tales dating from the period of the Six Dynasties (period 7e), when civil unrest resulted in much migration and the rapid spread of innovations. The discredit into which Confucianism had fallen as a means of managing society led to a great deal of tolerance for popular religion. The tales in this collection seem to have influenced the view of ghosts and miracles taken in later dynasties.

W? H? Píng Xī(Five Tigers Pacify the West)

An adventure tale set in the Northern Sòng dynasty (period 15b). The book incorporates the character of Magistrage Bāo —see the entry for Sān Xiá W? Yì— but is also the inspiration for a martial arts troupe sometimes found in religious processions.

Xīxiāng Jì (Chronicle of the West Wing).

Author: WÁNG Shíf?, a dramatist of the Yuán dynasty (period 19), is the author most usually associated with this story, although the underlying novel is of unknown authorship.

This is the classic story of two Táng-dynasty star-crossed lovers of the Táng dynasty (period 12), ZHāNG Shēng, the young scholar on his way to take an imperial examination, and CUī Yīngyīng, the beautiful lass whose father has died and who has fallen on hard times. It is love at first sight when they encounter each other in a monastery where each is virtuously staying. Love conquers all in the end by means of the energetic efforts of Yīngyīng's maid Hóngniáng, whose name has now become synonymous with matchmaking. (Nearly all modern matchmakers refer to themselves by the name hóngniáng, which has become a generic term.)

Xīyóu Jì (Journey to the West).

Author: WÚ Chéng'ēn (1500-1582, Míng dynasty, period 20).

A heavily mythologized account of the journey of the monk Xuánzàng , also known as "Tripitaka" (Sānzàng f?shī) from China to India to fetch Buddhist scriptures in the Táng dynasty (period 12). This novel, one of the masterpieces of Chinese imaginative literature, introduces a number of much loved animal companions for the monk, most prominently a magical and mischievous monkey who came to have a non-literary religious following as the "monkey god" SūN W?gōng. (His simian manner is easily imitated by an increasing host of spirit mediums, making this one of the most common cults among spirit mediums in Taiwan and elsewhere today.) Together with Fēngshén Y?nyì, this is probably one of the two novels most influential in the popular understanding of Chinese religion.