Water Margin (Full Version, Volumes 1 and 2)

Author: Yu Wanchun (Qing Dynasty)
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2006-01-01
Features: The Complete Water Margin, also known as Suppression of the Rebels. The book consists of seventy chapters, with an additional "Epilogue," and was first published in the third year of the Xianfeng era (1853). It is a sequel to the famous Ming Dynasty novel Water Margin, written by Yu Wanchun. After the publication of Water Margin, feudal officials and literati had varying opinions on the actions and endings of the heroes of Liangshan. Some sympathized with them, while others despised them. For example, Chen Chen, a Ming Dynasty loyalist from Wucheng (now Wuxing) in Zhejiang, felt indignant about the Liangshan heroes and wrote The Sequel to Water Margin, allowing the heroes and their descendants to revive. On the other hand, Jin Shengtan disagreed, believing that the Liangshan rebels were not loyal but rebellious, and he also opposed the surrender to the imperial court. Therefore, he cut Water Margin in half and wrote The Dream of Lu Junyi as the ending. There was also Yu Wanchun, who not only agreed with Jin Shengtan's views but also "deeply detested the heretical doctrines that could mislead people" and believed that "loyalty and righteousness must be distinguished from banditry." Thus, he wrote a seventy-volume book titled Suppression of the Rebels, with the theme of "revering the king and suppressing rebels," to enlighten "the people of the world" that "bandits will ultimately fail, and loyalty and righteousness cannot be misrepresented or blurred," thereby fostering their "love for the king and respect for authority" (as quoted from Xu Peike's preface). Therefore, this book begins from the seventy-first chapter of Jin Shengtan's edition, depicting the heroes of Liangshan being annihilated one by one. The title Suppression of the Rebels clearly reveals the author's stance and feelings. Lu Xun, in A Brief History of Chinese Fiction, commented on the literary value of this book: "In creating plots and writing, it sometimes rivals the original Water Margin in quality, and the scenes it depicts also contain elements not seen in Shi Nai'an and Luo Guanzhong's works. Among the similar novels that follow the old works, it stands out as one of the best." Yu Wanchun (1794–1849), styled Zhonghua and styled Huilai Daoren, was from Shanyin (now Shaoxing), Zhejiang, and a scholar in the late Qing Dynasty. He was intelligent in his youth, well-read, proficient in classics and history, skilled in military strategy, and adept in archery and horseback riding. Around the age of twenty, he accompanied his father to Guangdong. From 1831 to 1832, during the Xiangxi and Guangdong Yao people's uprising, his father was ordered to suppress it, and Yu Wanchun distinguished himself in the campaign. Later, when the British invaded, he offered military strategies to the commander-in-chief and was rewarded by Governor Liu Yuapo. Yu Wanchun was skilled in traditional Chinese medicine. After his father's death, he practiced medicine in the Hangzhou area, built a cottage at Yuiping Mountain, and often boat-fished in West Lake, styling himself "Huangniu Daoren." He devoted himself to medicine, writing and publishing books, and later converted to Taoism and Buddhism, dying in the twenty-ninth year of the Daoguang era (1849). He wrote On Horsemanship and Archery, A Study of Firearms, An Explanation of Qi Nan Tang's Military Treatise, Distinguishing Symptoms in Medicine, and The Practices of the Pure Land, none of which were published, except for Suppression of the Rebels. Suppression of the Rebels was written from 1826 to 1847, spanning twenty-two years, and was only published in the first year of the Xianfeng era (1851) after being revised and edited by his son, Yu Longguang. In the third year of the Xianfeng era (1853), Xu Peike published it in Nanjing, with a preface by Huilai Daoren titled The Origin of Suppression of the Rebels, a preface by Guming Laoren, a preface by Chen Huan titled Preface to Yu Zhonghua's Suppression of the Rebels, another preface by Xu Peike, portraits of characters with accompanying praise, and the title was changed to The Complete Water Margin according to Guming Laoren's suggestion. It included comments by Yu Wanchun's friends Fan Jinemen and Shao Xunbo. This edition is based on the Nanjing edition published by Xu Peike, preserving the prefaces by Guming Laoren and others, the author's self-titled The Origin of Suppression of the Rebels, and the portraits of characters, while removing the comments. During the editing process, obvious errors in the original text were corrected directly, such as changing "Deng Zhongbi" to "Deng Zongbi" in the thirty-third chapter. For taboo characters, the original characters were restored. Some late Qing-era usage conventions that were easily misunderstood or ambiguous, such as "half a moment" (), "virtual curtain" (), "a shot" (), and "still" (), were changed to standardized characters in parentheses. Characters used inconsistently in the original text, such as "zhuo" (), "za" (), "lun" (), and "henhen" (), were also changed to standardized characters in parentheses. In addition to the above cases, no other changes were made. Furthermore, since this book serves as a sequel to Water Margin, the names of the characters are consistent and continuous, so in the editing process, "Xu Ning" in the base text was retained as "Xu Ning," and "Guan Sheng" was written as "Guan Sheng" to help readers better match the characters. For contradictions in the base text due to the author's carelessness, such as the ninety-ninth chapter where the leader of Qingyun Mountain, Yao Shun, is described as the messenger of the head leader Di Lei, who was already beheaded by Zhu Yongqing and Chen Liqing, but in the next paragraph is described as appearing as a general and being killed in battle—such inconsistencies were not corrected in the edited version to preserve the original form.