Water Margin

Author: Shi Nai'an (Ming Dynasty)
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-09-01
Features: Water Margin is a long novel that emerged during the late Yuan and early Ming periods. It vividly and profoundly depicts and reflects the heroic and tragic deeds of a peasant uprising led by Song Jiang in the late Northern Song Dynasty, featuring numerous heroic figures. The author does not merely focus on isolated fragments or episodes of the peasant uprising but attempts to portray the entire process. From its inception, development, decline, to its disintegration, it is all captured in his writing. His creative intent lies in vividly portraying and reflecting the complete process of a historical peasant uprising, summarizing its experiences and lessons, and prompting deep reflection. Structurally, Chapter 82 serves as a turning point, dividing the entire work into two parts. The author employs two distinct tones and invests them with different emotions. The first half has an upbeat and high-spirited tone, filled with the thunderous momentum of heroic deeds. In the second half, the tone shifts to melancholic and somber, shrouded in a gloomy atmosphere, evoking a sense of bitterness. From the evolution of Water Margin versions, the traditional characters () predate the simplified characters (), with the simplified version being essentially a condensed version of the traditional one. The original Water Margin should have been a 100-chapter work. The stories of suppressing Tian Hu and Wang Qing were later added, with their timeline dating back to the Wanli era of the Ming Dynasty. The 70-chapter edition published by Guanhua Tang was created by Jin Shengtan's "amputation" of the traditional version.