|
|
 |
|
|
|
 |
March 8, 2014 |
|
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
Water Margin or Outlaws of the Marsh (Traditional Chinese: 水滸傳; Simplified Chinese: 水浒传; pinyin: Shuǐhǔ Zhu?n), sometimes also translated as All Men Are Brothers, is one of the most famous works of classical Chinese literature. Attributed to Shi Nai'an and Luo Guanzhong, the novel details the trials and tribulations of one hundred and eight outlaws during the early 12th century. Water Margin is vaguely based upon the historical bandit Song Jiang and his thirty-six companions. The group were active in the Huai River region and eventually surrendered to government troops in 1119. Folk stories about Song Jiang circulated during the Southern Song. The first text to name Song Jiang's thirty-six companions was the 12th century Guixin Zashi. Among the thirty-six are Lu Junyi, Guan Sheng, Ruan Xiaoqi, Liu Tang among others. Some of the characters to later become associated with Song Jiang also appeared around this time. They include Sun Li, Yang Zhi, Lin Chong, Lu Zhishen and Wu Song. A direct precursor of Water Margin was the Da Song Xuanhe Yishi (大宋宣和遺事), which appeared around the mid-13th century. The text was basically a written version of storytellers' tales, based loosely on historical events. It is divided into ten chapters, roughly covering the history of the Song Dynasty from the early 11th century to the establishment of the Southern Song regime in 1127. The fourth chapter covers the adventures of Song Jiang and his thirty-six companions, and their eventual defeat by Zhang Shuye (張叔夜). Some of the more well-known stories and characters of the Water Margin are clearly visible, including "Yang Zhi selling his sword", "Stealing the birthday present", "Song Jiang kills his slave girl", "Fighting Fang La" etc. It places Song Jiang and his bandits in the Taihang Mountains. Stories about the bandits of Mount Liang became popular as subject for Yuan Dynasty drama. During this time the material on which the Water Margin was based evolved into what it is today. Song Jiang's bandits were expanded to number one hundred and eight, and though they came from different backgrounds, all eventually come to occupy Mount Liang. There is considerable disagreement as to the author of Water Margin. Most consider the first seventy chapters to have been written by Shi Nai'an, whilst the last thirty chapters were written by Luo Guanzhong, also author of Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Luo may have been the disciple of Shi Nai'an. It has also been suggested that Shi Nai'an did not exist but was merely a pseudonym for Luo Guanzhong himself. Clues from the text itself strongly suggest that the author was a native of Zhejiang province (as both Luo and Shi were) who had little knowledge of northern China. The earliest extant edition of Water Margin is a 100-chapter printed text dating from the mid-16th century. This is generally regarded as Shi Nai'an's original. Another edition, with 120 chapters, has been preserved from the Wanli Emperor|Wanli era (1573-1620). There are a number of obvious inconsistencies and errors in Water Margin, which reflect its background in the story cycles and folklore. Some of the most glaring mistakes in the Water Margin are the many laughable geographic errors scattered throughout. For example, the route of an entourage bearing a birthday present from Daming to Kaifeng is said to travel through the bandit-ridden mountain region of Qingzhou, yet Qingzhou was historically more than 500km away from the Daming to Kaifeng route. Another example is the exaggerated rescue of Song Jiang. The outlaws of Mount Liang supposedly travel some 600 km to Jiangzhou (now Jiujiang, Jiangxi province), and are able to return apparently without harm. Interestingly, the waters of Mount Liang become frozen. In the famous story of Lin Chong at the Temple of the Mountain God (風雪山神廟), he walks ten days in mid-winter from a landscape covered in deep snow to find Mount Liang surrounded by "giant waves". The Water Margin was a successful Japanese television adaptation of the story, which was sold to many other countries. The novel also inspired the popular RPG video game series Gensou Suikoden. de:Die R?uber vom Liang Schang Moorfr:Au bord de l'eauja:水滸伝nl:Water Marginzh-cn:水浒传 This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Water Margin".
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||
![[F]](/images/site.gif){kind=small}
|
|||
|
|
|
|
|
|||
|
All informatin on the site is © FamousChinese.com 2002-2005. Last revised: January 2, 2004 Are you interested in our site or/and want to use our information? please read how to contact us and our copyrights. To post your business in our web site? please click here. To send any comments to us, please use the Feedback. To let us provide you with high quality information, you can help us by making a more or less donation: |