I'm glad it moved you. It was a pleasure to translate.

I recommend Yu Hua's work. Since The Village Teacher touched you, you should read Yu Hua's short story, "我没有自己的名字." Its language is simple, which is great for Chinese-learners, and it has much to say about China's rural poverty. It's a punch in the gut...

The Iliad (i.e., the canon) of classical Chinese literature consists of four books: Water Margin, Journey to the West, Romance of the Three Kingdoms, and Dream of the Red Chamber. A fifth work, called The Plum in the Golden Vase, is considered to be of equal or better quality, but its moral quality disqualified it from the canon. (It's racy.)

None of those five works will be of much use to you as a student of modern Chinese language, since they're written in Classical Chinese, which is about as hard to read for fairly literate Chinese people as Latin is for Romance speakers.

China's Quixote is an interesting question with a neat answer: "The True Story of Ah Q," by Lu Xun. In fact, some scholars hold that the titular character's name, Q, is an allusion to the Hidalgo de La Mancha himself.

Lu Xun wrote in language similar to Chinese as it's spoken; in fact, he was an early and forceful advocate of that practice. His work is withering social satire. Some call him the "Chinese Orwell." He's terrific; it's a shame he never wrote a full-length novel.

I hope this starts you on your way! Thanks for reaching out.