Water Margin (16th century)

The Global Novel: a literature podcast

Water Margin (水浒传) is one of the earliest Chinese novels written in vernacular Mandarin, and is attributed to Shi Nai'an(施耐庵).It is also translated as Outlaws of the Marsh or All Men Are Brothers. The story, which is set in the Northern Song dynasty (around 1120), tells of how a group of 108 outlaws gather at Liangshan (梁山)Marsh to rebel against the government. Later they are granted amnesty and enlisted by the government to resist the nomadic conquest of the Liao(辽) dynasty and other rebels. It is considered one of the masterpieces of early vernacular fiction and Chinese literature. It has introduced readers to many of the best-known characters in Chinese literature, such as Wu Song(武松), Lin Chong(林冲), Song Jiang(宋江) and Lu Zhishen(鲁智深) to name just a few. Water Margin also exerted a towering influence in the development of fiction elsewhere in East Asia, such as in Japanese literature.

With us today is Professor. Andrew Plaks. He is Professor Emeritus of East Asian Studies and Comparative Literature at Princeton University. He is the author of Archetype and Allegory in the Dream of the Red Chamber as well as The Four Masterworks of the Ming Novel.
Recommended Reading:
Water Margin
The Four Masterworks of the Ming Novel
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