This paper compares Quelling the Demons’ Revolt ( QDR ) with another novel, Romance of Late Tang and Five Dynasties ( RLTFD ) whose authorship by Luo Guanzhong is established and which shares a similar genre. Independent samples t -tests were conducted to compare the usage frequency of 90 most frequent characters (MFCs) and 16 lexical features between 20 chapters of QDR and 60 of RLTFD . Additionally, the study employed principal component analysis (PCA) to determine whether these two novels exhibited distinct stylistic variations regarding MFC usage and lexical features. The results of independent samples t -tests show that 64 out of 90 MFCs are used with significantly ( p < .05) different normalized frequencies and there are significant differences ( p < .05) in nine out of 16 lexical features between the two novels. The results of PCA also show that QDR and RLTFD present entirely distinct styles in terms of MFC and lexical features. Thus, from the perspective of stylometry, it could be concluded that the author of QDR is likely not Luo Guanzhong. The conclusion is validated by comparing chapters within RLTFD with the same methods. This conclusion not only poses a great challenge to the dominant view but shows that PCA can be treated as an effective way to solve the questions concerning controversial authorship.
Yang et al. (2025) studied this question.