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Classic Chinese Novels
In the Bridge of Birds author biography Barry Hughart mentions that the book was influenced by the fact that "vast numbers of Chinese deities had really originated as characters in novels" and Bridge of Birds contains substantial references and allusions to the Four Great Classical Novels of Chinese culture, especially Dream of the Red Chamber and Journey to the West.

The Dream of the Red Chamber, written by Cao Xueqin, is one of the Four Great Classical Novels of Chinese culture. This novel changed the style of Chinese writing. All fictional novels were the same but Cao Xueqin used personal experiences and tragedies to tell the story. Cao Xueqin turned Chinese writing away from a previous reliance on well-known myths and legends and stereotypical characters that earned fiction a reputation for moral irrelevance.

Journey to the West, by Wu Cheng'en, is also listed as one of the Four Great Classical Novels of Chinese culture. This novel tells a tale of a long journey, a pilgrimage from China to India, to find enlightenment. There are many obstacles like dragons, tigers, demons and monsters faced a long the way.

Romance of the Three Kingdoms, by Luo Guanzhong, is a story that filled with supernatural and folkloric material. Luo Guanzhong writes about political and military material for readers and exploits second- and third-century warlords contending for control of the empire of China at the end of the Han Dynasty. Even after bringing out all of the historical aspects of the novel remnants of mythic material remain; Romance of the Three Kingdoms presents historical characters but not always in historical situations. This novel, along with the other two, is one of the Four Great Classical Novels of Chinese culture.

The Water Margin, which is credited to both Shi Nai'an and Luo Guanzhong, is the last of the Four Great Classical Novels of Chinese culture. The Water Margin is a tale about a group of outlawed leaders who inhabited the Liangshan marshes. The group of heroic outlaws, many whom are actually historical, repeatedly meet and fight the most accomplished generals that the Chinese emperor sends against them. Most of the book deals with military exploits, just as The Romance of the Three Kingdoms did, and also with adventures that the heroic outlaws had.