Also called "The story of the Stone (Shitouji 石頭記)", this novel written by Cao Xueqin 曹雪芹 (d. 1763) is said to be the greatest masterpiece of Chinese fiction. A wide branched scholarship does not consent about the main theme of this novel, should it be a novel of sentiment, of Daoist-Buddhist enlightenment, of social observation, of the decay of an aristocratic familiy, or even a veiled attack on Manchu rule. The frame of the novel is the contest of a Buddhist and a Daoist priest who make be born a young noble boy called Jia Baoyu 賈寶玉 and his girl cousin Lin Daiyu 林黛玉. With a loving detail describing the life of then. After the downfall of Shang, the suicide of king Zhou and the exorcism of Daji by Jiang Ziya 姜子牙, King Wu enfeoffs all his followers with a part of the kingdom, creating the Zhou feudal system. The deceased and killed heroes (the "gods" of the title), even the enemies, are invested with a heavenly constellation.
The novel is well-composed and organized in an endless sequence of battles between the heroes that are not only fighting with weapons but also with words, trying to persuade the opponent to follow the justified side. The monotony of the endless battles makes the book a quite boring lecture, even if the author tries to introduce unexpected elements like suddenly joining Daoist magicians or even Buddhist deities.