Water Margin - (Annotated Edition)

Author: Shi Nai'an
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-05-01
Features: Water Margin is one of China's four great classical novels. With exquisite writing, it tells the thrilling story of 108 heroes led by Song Jiang, who were forced to rebel against the corrupt officials Gao Qiu and Cai Jing and fight for justice, ultimately leading to their downfall. The book portrays many vivid and well-known characters such as Song Jiang, Wu Song, and Lin Chong, making them household names. Water Margin has had a profound influence on later fiction, opera, and the thoughts of Chinese people. It is a renowned classic, with its 108 heroes and other diverse characters deeply ingrained in the collective memory. The novel successfully brings to life characters like Song Jiang, Wu Song, Lin Chong, Lu Zhishen, and Li Kui. The author skillfully places characters in real historical settings, highlighting their personalities through their identities and experiences. He also excels at depicting characters in life-or-death struggles, as well as using comparative and contrastive methods to emphasize their traits. This edition is based on Yuan Wuya's 120-chapter edition, with references to the Rong Yu Tang edition and other printed versions by People's Literature Press and Yue Lu Book Company. Besides converting traditional characters and variant characters to simplified forms, homophones and archaic characters remain as they were in the original text.