Novels

     During the Ming Dynasty, the Chinese novel was developed. Most novels were written in the basic language that the people of China used everyday, called vernacular. What were considered to be the first four real novels, The Romance of the Three Kingdoms, The Water Margin, Golden Lotus, and The Monkey King, were created during the Ming dynasty. Chinese novels were generally about good versus evil. They usually included passages about everyday life mixed with the philosophical thoughts of scholars' writings. Lots of these stories were actually written by philosophers but they used pen names to disguise themselves.

     Storytelling had previously been the way to share a story but with novels you didn't have to rely on someone else to entertain you; the book would. The invention was important because it led to our current books and for many, many years books have been a main form of entertainment.