Water Margin

The story of "Water Margin" has long been recited among the people. In the Southern Song Dynasty, there were sporadic records in Wang Cheng's "Eastern Capital History" and other books. The survivors of the late Song Dynasty wrote "Thirty-six Praises to Song Jiang"; the anonymous person's "The Legacy of Xuanhe of the Song Dynasty" records the deeds of Song Jiang and others. There were 25 plays with Water Margin themes in the Yuan Dynasty. By the end of the Yuan Dynasty, the story of Water Margin had roughly formed the scale of the current version of "Water Margin". The whole book describes the story of a group of 108 people led by Song Jiang who gathered in Liangshan, Shandong in the late Northern Song Dynasty. The author stands from the standpoint of the oppressed, praising the righteous behavior of the leaders of the peasant uprising in robbing the rich to give to the poor and eradicating violence, and affirms their revolutionary spirit of daring to rebel and fight. Song Jiang was originally a righteous man who was in urgent need of help. After he was forced to go to Liangshan, he "acted for heaven", strengthened the reputation of the rebel army, and won a series of victories. However, due to the duality of his character and the limitations of his thoughts, he chose to compromise and accepted the recruitment when the uprising reached its peak, which ultimately ruined the uprising. Through the failure of the Song Jiang Uprising, the novel objectively summarizes the experience and lessons of the failed peasant uprising in the feudal era. "Water Margin" is the first full-length novel in Chinese history describing a peasant uprising.