Water Margin
Based upon the historical bandit Song Jiang and his companions, this Chinese equivalent of the English classic Robin Hood and His Merry Men is an epic tale of rebellion against tyranny and has been thrilling and inspiring readers for hundreds of years. This edition of the classic J. H. Jackson translation features a new preface and introduction by Edwin Lowe, which gives the history of the book and puts the story into perspective for modern readers. First translated into English by Pearl S. Buck in 1933 as All Men Are Brothers, the original edition of the J.H. Jackson translation appeared under the title The Water Margin in 1937. In this updated edition, Edwin Lowe addresses many of the shortcomings found in the original J.H. Jackson translation, and replaces the original grit and flavor of Shuihui Zhuan found in Chinese versions, including the sexual seduction, explicit descriptions of brutality and barbarity, and the profane voices of the thieving, scheming, drinking, fighting, pimping lower classes of Song Dynasty China. Similarly, the Chinese deities, Bodhisattvas, gods and demons have reclaimed their true names, as has the lecherous, over-sexed and ill-fated Ximen Qing. All of which was sanitized out when first published in 1937. While Chinese in origin, the themes of The Water Margin are universal enough that it has served as a source of inspiration for numerous movies, television shows and video games up to the present day.
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- Can you please recommend an introductory Jin Yong book or two? I'm a Western Shaw Brothers and Golden Harvest fan and this sounds right up my alley. (Thanks SBS Cult Movie nights). I've read and enjoyed The Water Margin fwiw.
- Seconded. They are excellent. I must re-read them.
Water Margin[0] came to UK on TV in the early 80s from Japanese TV. Gained quite a following.
Journey to the West came to the UK as Monkey[1] (again a Japanese adaptation) around the same time. It was the most ridiculous, weird thing on TV. Most people at school were addicted to it. It became a cult classic. Sadly Saiyuki 2 never made it to the UK.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Water_Margin_(1973_TV_seri... [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monkey_(TV_series)
- I'm currently reading Water Margin which was translated to English by the Foreign Language Press[0]. Although very simplified in tone and diction, the translation is still amazing and it comes in four volumes as well so it's around 2000 pages of text.
- You don't read many old books, do you? The most popular stories of the 19th century -- consider Maupassant, Victor Hugo, Dostoyevsky, Dickens, etc. -- were set in the real world of that same era. Even the pulp fiction of that era, the "penny dreadfuls," were generally gothic stories set in the real world.
This is quite nice, as it allows you to learn a lot about history by reading books from that time. It almost gives you an immersive sense of history, in a way.
Even the oldest legends of Europe -- Arthur, Holger Danske, Orlando Furioso, the 8th century BC Iliad, and I could go on -- ostensibly concerned themselves with the real world. (And, to strengthen Greer's point, often contained noble Saracens and other villains.)
Same goes for Asia, by the way. The great legends of Asia -- from the Three Kingdoms, to the Water Margin, to the Tale of Heike -- were at least nominally "real." Not concerned with imaginary worlds.
The myths we create today are qualitatively different in straightforward and obvious ways.
- Historians usually say China's first dynasty is the Qin. The Qin were hated and were quickly replaced by the Han who lasted until approximately the year 200 AD. The Chinese people proudly refer to themselves as "Han".
When the Han dynasty fell, there was a long period of confusion until the founding of the Sui dynasty approximately in the year 600 AD. The Sui built the grand canal which was used to transport rice harvests from the South to North. The Sui were hated and were quickly replaced by Tang and later by the Song. Most Chinese people think of Tang and the Song were China's golden age.
What is interesting and sparks debate is what happened afterwards. The Song dynasty fell approximately in the year 1100 after a series of "barbarian" conquests. There was the Khitan Liao who ruled northern China and who were related to proto-Mongols. There was the Jin took much of the Khitan's territory and who were related to the Jurchen/Manchu. And the Mongols who conquered the Khitan, the Jin, and Song. This turbulent era was the backdrop to one of China's classical novels "Water Margin" aka "All Men are Brothers" and tells the fictional tale of Song patriots fighting against their own government in an effort to repel the steppe "barbarians". A more modern novel based on this setting is the "Condor Heroes" which features a backstory of the Mongols, the Jin Jurchens, and the Song.
After the Mongols were repulsed by the Ming dynasty, the Ming dynasty eventually fell to the Manchu who were another "barbarian" peoples. The Manchu lasted until the modern era. There are those who claim the Manchu adopted Han culture and should be considered Han. Some modern scholars who read the actual Manchu records in the actual Manchu language (not the Mandarin transcript) said the Manchu never considered themselves Han but actually the rulers of five different peoples: Manchu, Han, Tibet, Mongol, and Uighur.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_Chinese_history https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_Margin https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Legend_of_the_Condor_Heroe... https://www.history.ucsb.edu/wp-content/uploads/Evelyn-Rawsk...
- It's not as farfetched as you seem to believe.
I've been reading a translation of Water Margin; here's a bit from the story of Wu Song:
Actually, first, here's Wu Song's dictionary entry in the Hanyu Da Cidian:
> 《水浒传》中人物。勇猛刚烈，曾在景阳冈徒手打死猛虎。后参加梁山农民起义军，到处诛除强暴，是人民群众所喜爱的英雄形象之一。
[A character in Water Margin. Brave, fierce, strong, and violent, he once beat a man-eating tiger to death with his bare hands in Jingyang Pass. Afterward he joined the peasant uprising in Liangshan, with brutal killing [and rape?] everywhere, he is one of the heroic figures that the common people love.]
OK, now, the excerpt from Water Margin:
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[Wu Song has been framed for theft by a conspiracy of three men, beaten, and exiled. He has just returned to the home of the highest-ranking conspirator (General Zhang), beheaded all three of them at the self-congratulatory party they were holding, and left a note claiming responsibility in blood on the wall.]
From all this killing the pavilion was swimming in blood, bodies could be seen lying everywhere in the flickering light of the candles. Wu Song said to himself: "It had to be all or nothing; kill a hundred, you can only die for it once." Sword at the ready, he went downstairs.
"What's all the hullabaloo upstairs?" the General's wife was inquiring as Wu Song rushed in. At this monstrous sight she shrieked: "Who are you?"
But Wu Song's sword was already flying. It caught her square in the forehead and she fell with a shriek right there in front of the pavilion. Wu Song held her down but when he tried to cut off her head the sword wouldn't cut. Baffled, he saw by the light of the moon that the blade was completely blunted. "So that's why I couldn't get her head off," he thought.
He slipped out of the back door to get his halberd again and threw away the blunt sword. Then he turned and went back to the tower. A lamp could be seen approaching. It turned out to be the singing girl, Yulan, the one he'd had the trouble with before. She was accompanied by two children. When the light of her lamp fell on the General's wife where she lay dead on the floor, Yulan screamed: "Merciful Heaven!"
Wu Song raised his halberd and ran her through the heart. He also killed the children, a single thrust to each. He went to the central hall, bolted the main door, and returned. He found two or three more young girls and stabbed them to death too. "Now at last," he said, "my heart is eased. Now it's time to stop."
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This is the heroic figure that the common people love. The story is not short on villains, but Wu Song is not one of them.
Wu Song befriends a husband and wife who operate a series of inns, where they drug and butcher travelers who make the wrong impression in order to serve their meat to the other guests. They aren't villains either.
