despite the excellent contemporary translations of the editions of Sidney Shapiro and of John and Alex Dent-Young, this version translated in 1937 by Jackson and now rejuvenated in 2009, remains the definitive English edition of the 70 Chapter version.
In the following introduction to this edition, I have not attempted any scholarly analysis or criticism of either Shuihu Zhuan as a work of literature or of J.H. Jackson’s translation of The Water Margin. This has been comprehensively done by many others scholars over the last 650 years, and has been done much more skillfully than I am able to do. I have provided some very basic coverage of literary criticism of Shuihu Zhuan and those readers wishing to further pursue this fascinating field may consider beginning with the references that I have cited. I have also introduced Jin Shengtan and his 70 Chapter version of the Shuihu Zhuan, as well as the themes and concepts surrounding the story of Shuihu Zhuan and their importance in the Chinese socio-political order. I also discussed the nexus of the concept of bandit rebellions with the Chinese socio-political order and how these are central to the Shuihu Zhuan story, and the influence of Shuihu Zhuan in Chinese history.
Finally, in the completion of this work, I must as always, thank Emma Runcie for her unconditional love and support. At Macquarie University, I must thank Professor Daniel Kane for the loan of his copy of the Shuihu Yuci Cidian which was of invaluable assistance. Just as importantly, I must also thank Professor Kane and Ms. Jennifer Cheng for guiding my Cantonese tongue through the finer points of the vivid gutter language of north China and the Central Plains.
Edwin H. Lowe
Macquarie University, Sydney
2009
Footnote
1 Pearl S. Buck, All Men Are Brothers. (Shui Hu Chuan). Translated from the Chinese By Pearl S. Buck. Vol 1 & 2. (The John Day Company, NY. 1933).
2 Pearl S. Buck All Men Are Brothers. (Shui Hu Chuan). Translated from the Chinese By Pearl S. Buck. Vol 1. (The John Day Company, NY 1933, reprinted 1968), p.v-vi.
3 J.H. Jackson, Water Margin, (The Commercial Press Ltd, Shanghai. 1937).
4 After Richard Gregg Irwin, The Evolution of A Chinese Novel: Shui-hu-chuan. (Harvard University Press, Cambridge. 1966), p96. For a more complete critique of Buck and Jackson’s translations see Ibid pp93-97.
5 Ibid.
6 J.H. Jackson, Water Margin, Vol 1, 5th Edition. (The Commercial Press Ltd, Hong Kong. 1976). p282.
7 Sidney Shapiro, Outlaws of the Marsh, Written by Shi Nai’an and Luo Guanzhong. Translated by Sidney Shapiro. Vol. 1 & 2 (Indiana University Press and Foreign Languages Press, Beijing, 1981).
8 John Dent-Young and Alex Dent-Young, Iron Ox: Part Four of The Marshes of Mount Liang. A new translation of the Shuihu zhuan or Water Margin of Shi Nai’an and Luo Guanzhong. (Chinese University Press, Hong Kong, 2002). p82.
Dedication
To little Harry,
25th Generation of the Liu clan of Zhongshan, Guangdong;
5th Generation of the Lowe family of Sydney, Australia;
67th generation descendant of Liu Bang,
The leader of the bandit rebellion who slew the snake near Mount Mangdan and who became Gaozu, the first Emperor of the Han Dynasty in 202 BCE;
with love.
Introduction
“The young should not read The Water Margin, and the old should not read the Romance of the Three Kingdoms.”
The power of literature in the tradition of the “Four Great Novels” of China, is such that this popular axiom acts as a warning about the nexus of fiction and politics in the Chinese tradition.9 Not only does this axiom warn against the nature of the plots and contents of two of these novels, but in doing so it also serves to illustrate the way that these novels have mirrored and at times, shaped the very course of Chinese history itself. In the Confucian society of China, the themes contained in these great novels—of loyalty, righteousness, and brotherhood, were a dangerous source of inspiration and example. Drawing upon those fundamental threads of Confucian values, for the old, the intrigues of strategy, politics, and war in Romance of the Three Kingdoms are a dangerous source of inspiration for those who seek glory when they should be better wisely governing the state. To the young, the gravity of those fundamental Confucian values, mixed with the heady tales of heroes, acts of justice and revenge against corrupt officials, The Water Margin could only teach the most dangerous of the Confucian values—the right to rebellion.
The Water Margin (Shuihu Zhuan) was first published as a novel ca.1368 CE, at the end of the Yuan Dynasty and the beginning of the Ming Dynasty. Compiled from a variety of plot lines from oral storytelling and Yuan Dynasty dramas, The Water Margin is based on the historical bandit, Song Jiang and his followers who were active during the reign of the Huizong Emperor (1100–1126 CE) during the Song Dynasty. Edited and reconceived as a vernacular novel amidst the chaos of the final years of the fall of the Yuan Dynasty, The Water Margin was published in a period marked by grinding poverty and suffering for the peasant population, of lawlessness and disorder of a society and government in disarray, and of large scale peasant uprisings against the Mongol occupation of the Yuan. Like the historical Song Jiang, The Water Margin follows the fortunes and adventures of the bandits of Liangshan Marsh, set in the final years of the Northern Song period in the reign of the Huizong Emperor, shortly before the loss of northern China to the invading Jurchens. The 108 bandit leaders are a disparate group originating from every level of society, ranging from minor officials of the Imperial civil service, the scholarly gentry, and Imperial army officers to assorted Taoist and Buddhists clerics, policemen, inn keepers, and soldiers. Despite their different origins, they are united as upright and virtuous Confucians, driven to become outlaws or refugees from a harsh, unjust society and the corrupt officials of the Song government. Beloved by ordinary people and feared by officials, the bandits sally forth from the marshes surrounding their base at Mount Liang (Liangshan), to restore justice and order to the land. Robbing from the rich and the corrupt and redistributing to the poor and the virtuous, the bandits of Liangshan Marsh act in the name of loyalty to the Emperor of the Song, whom they believe to be shielded to the injustices of his corrupt officials and the suffering of his subjects.
The Water Margin, like many of the vernacular novels of this new literary form of the Ming Dynasty shares a common thread of embellishing and further mythologizing known or acknowledged historical events, mixing historiography with fiction, folk tales, and popular legend. Most importantly these historical novels, particularly The Water Margin, are framed within the context of the Confucian moral order, so that like the equally loved Romance of the Three Kingdoms (Sanguo Yanyi) our heroes, formed out of a band of sworn brothers, are the epitome of Confucian virtue, fighting against the evil and the unvirtuous. For the readers of Ming China, the themes of loyalty, righteousness, fidelity, and benevolence were the very fabric of the ethical values of the Confucian socio-political
