The American scholar and literary critic Andrew H. Plaks ranks "Jin Ping Mei" as one of the "Four Masterworks of the Ming Novel" along with "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", "Water Margin", and "Journey to the West", which collectively constitute a technical breakthrough and reflect new cultural values and intellectual concerns. It has been described as a “milestone” in Chinese fiction for its character development, particularly its complex treatment of female figures. Phillip S. Y. Sun argued that although in craftsmanship it is a lesser work than "Dream of the Red Chamber", it surpasses the latter in “depth and vigour”.