it may well be that Jin preferred not to continue the typical process of a further ten or fifteen years of scholarship necessary for success in the advanced degrees of the Imperial examination system. There is no reliable evidence of Jin having ever held public office, the goal of Confucian scholars, even at the county level to which he was qualified.21 Far from abandoning scholarship per se, it was in this time that Jin began his literary career, beginning work on The Water Margin which had enthralled him since the age of eleven. Additionally, it is also noted that Jin turned his vast knowledge of orthodox Confucian classics, as well as his extensive knowledge of historiography, popular literature, Buddhism, and Taoism against noted public lecturers, hectoring and ridiculing them to the delight of gathered crowds.22
The fall of the Ming in 1644 when he was in his mid-thirties and at the prime of his life, prompted Jin like many other Ming loyalist intellectuals, to reject public office under the new Qing Dynasty established by the conquering Manchus.23 How Jin supported his family in his rejection of public life is not known, although it has been supposed that he passed his time in intimate conversation with friends and writing in solitude, much like Shi Naian did, as related in the preface to the 70 Chapter version. This preface, presented as having been written by Shi Naian, was in fact composed by Jin himself. Therefore it is reasonable to expect that there may be some element of an autobiography in it. What is known is that while Jin may have rejected public office, unlike the “Shi Naian” of his fake preface, he certainly did not reject an intellectual interest in politics. From his humble, but satisfying household by the river depicted in the Water Margin preface, Jin Shengtan continued to turn his intellect to his literary work. In 1660, at the urging of his son, Jin began work on his analysis of the works of China’s greatest poet, the definitive Confucian scholar, Du Fu of the Tang Dynasty. It was to be Jin’s final and uncompleted work.
In 1661, perhaps inspired by his core Confucian principles or by Du Fu’s example of a diligent Confucian scholar willing to admonish the Emperor at the risk of his own life, Jin became involved in an episode of civil unrest which was to cost him his life.24 Jin Shengtan joined over a hundred scholars in protest over the excesses of the new Suzhou magistrate, who had imposed harsh penalties for late payment of taxes and who had been selling taxed grain for personal profit. Taking advantage of a gathering of all of Jiangsu province’s officials to mourn the passing of the Shunzhi Emperor, the scholars marched onto the home of the Prefect of Suzhou where the officials were gathered, collecting a over a thousand supporters along the way, demanding the resignation of the magistrate. Jin escaped the arrest of the leaders of the protest, after which the magistrate confessed that he had taken his unjust and illegal actions only to fund the gifts demanded of him by the provincial governor. To cover his own complicity the provincial governor reworded the magistrate’s confession to justify the actions in the name of military exigencies and, at the same time, sent a memorial to the new Kangxi Emperor denouncing the protest as a deliberate show of disrespect to the late Emperor. The response from the Imperial Court was savage. The Qing had been shaken by an invasion force of Ming loyalists (some twenty years after founding the Qing Dynasty) under Zheng Chenggong also known as Koxinga who had occupied Taiwan. Having driven back the invasion force and sensitive to outbreaks of disorder and disloyalty, the Kangxi Emperor ordered special envoys to deal with this case. This time, Jin Shengtan did not escape the retribution of the officials. Arrested, beaten, and tortured, Jin and 17 other leaders of the protests, along with 103 traitors connected to the Koxinga invasion were found guilty of treason. Jin’s property was confiscated and his family exiled. Writing home, Jin reflected on how he had come to this predicament unintentionally, and spoke of the only reprieve being an amnesty, though he knew that none would be forthcoming. Jin, along with the other “traitors” were decapitated by being “blown from the guns.”25 With a perfect irony which could not have possibly escaped him, Jin Shengtan the virtuous Confucian scholar, like his literary counterparts, fell foul of the excesses of corrupt officials, and was executed for doing what he knew to be right.
The Water Margin and the “Red Bandits”
The web of crossover from history to fiction to history is a pattern that becomes clearly visible once we recognize and become accustomed to the continuum between Chinese historical fiction and Chinese history. Chinese intellectual tradition has always “taken history as a mirror as a guide to the present” and indeed the great historiography of Chinese history by Sima Guang (1019–1086 CE) was titled The Comprehensive Mirror to Aid in Government (Zizhi Tongjian, 1084 CE). The sense of historical consciousness is so deeply ingrained in the Chinese cultural system, that it has always influenced the nature of popular culture, as even a superficial glance at contemporary Chinese film, literature, and stage will attest. Early Ming vernacular novels were no exception, and together historical fiction and historiography have guided political and historical commentary since that time.26
The power of The Water Margin and its theme of righteous bandit rebellion has resonated through the course of Chinese history, from its first publication some time around the beginning of the Ming Dynasty through to the modern day. In that time The Water Margin has long been an allegorical tool of historical and political commentary. Amidst the chaos of the final years of the fall of the Ming, an Imperial Edict was issued in 1641 by the last Emperor of the Ming, Chongzhen banning The Water Margin a mere three years before the final collapse of the dynasty.27 Despite official attempts, such as an Imperial Edict issued by the Jiaqing Emperor prohibiting the book, its printing, and distribution, The Water Margin was never wholly suppressed throughout the succeeding Qing Dynasty.28 In time, as is the tradition of dynastic cycles in Chinese history, another peasant rebellion, another band of outlaws rose against the dissatisfaction with everyday life, against the corruption and ineptitude of local officials, and challenged the dynasty itself. Just as Li Zicheng’s (1606–1645) peasant rebellion against the Ming marked the beginning of the fall of the dynasty, the massive Taiping Rebellion under its leader Hong Xiuquan (1814–1864), almost succeeding in toppling the Qing Dynasty, marking the beginning of its eventual fall. By the time of the final collapse of the Qing in 1911 and the subsequent chaos of Republican China, The Water Margin had developed a life of its own, adding further analogy and allegory to fuel the mythology of The Water Margin and its role in Chinese history. However, history had not quite finished with it.
The Water Margin featured amongst the influential works read by a young well to do Hunan peasant boy named Mao Zedong in the final years of the Qing Dynasty. Mao later revealed to Edgar Snow in Red Star Over China (1937):
“I knew the Classics, but disliked them. What I enjoyed were the romances of old China, and especially stories of rebellions. I read the Yue Fei Zhuan (The Yue Fei Chronicles), Shui Hu Zhuan (The Water Margin), Fan Tang (Revolt Against the Tang Dynasty), San Guo (Romance of the Three Kingdoms), and Xi You (Journey to the West, aka Monkey), while still very young, and despite the vigilance of my old teacher, who hated these outlawed books and called them wicked. I used to read them in school, covering them up with a Classic when the teacher walked past. So also did most of my schoolmates. We learned many of the stories almost by heart, and discussed and re-discussed them many times. We knew more of them than the old men of the village, who also loved them and used to exchange stories with us. I believe that perhaps I was much influenced by such books, read at an impressionable age.”29
As the young Mao grew to adulthood, he fell into the radical intellectual revolution of the New Culture Movement following the establishment of the Republic in 1912 and later the May Fourth Movement of 1919. With his eclectic blend of peasant roots, traditional literature, and modern scholarship, Mao Zedong became
