Water Margin (Unabridged Version of the Original Work, with Phonetic Annotations for Rare Characters)

Content introduction: "Water Margin" is a chapter-length novel written by Shi Naian in the late Yuan Dynasty and early Ming Dynasty. It is one of the four great classics in China. It is also the first epic work in Chinese history written in vernacular to praise the peasant uprising. The whole book is based on the Songjiang Uprising in the late Northern Song Dynasty and profoundly reveals the social reality of "officials forcing the people to rebel". The novel mainly tells the story of the late Northern Song Dynasty, when the emperor was fatuous and treacherous ministers (such as Gao Qiu and Cai Jing) were in power, resulting in the people's livelihood being in dire straits. One hundred and eight heroes headed by Song Jiang were forced to gather in Liangshanbo, Shandong due to persecution or heroic acts of justice. They raised the banner of "doing justice for heaven", robbed the rich and helped the poor, fought against corrupt officials, and experienced thrilling battles such as outsmarting the birthday card and attacking Zhujiazhuang three times, and their momentum grew day by day. However, as Liangshan's power increased, leader Song Jiang upheld the idea of ​​"loyalty" and finally accepted the imperial court's offer. After the recruitment, Liangshan heroes were sent to conquer Liao Kingdom, Tian Hu, Wang Qing and Fang La. Although they made great achievements, their brothers suffered heavy casualties. In the end, Song Jiang, Lu Junyi and other core figures were framed by traitors and died of poisoned wine. A vigorous peasant uprising ended in tragedy. The book has a grand structure and vivid characters. It vividly depicts heroes with different personalities such as Wu Song, Lin Chong, Lu Zhishen, and Li Kui. It shows the darkness and contradictions of feudal society and has extremely high literary value and ideological depth. Features of this book: 1. The complete unabridged version of one hundred and twenty chapters; 2. Provide comprehensive phonetic annotations for rare words, eliminating the need to look up dictionaries and dictionaries, making reading smoother; 3. Introduction by Xia Wei (researcher at the Institute of Literature, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences): sort out the relationships between important characters and events, and analyze the reading methods and literary value of Water Margin.