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This book is an affectionate interpretation of "Water Margin" by modern and contemporary literature researcher Bao Pengshan. The book connects the entire "Water Margin" with 70 articles, and also connects "Water Margin" with traditional Chinese literature, history, and thought. Bao Pengshan not only made an emotional interpretation of the character, temperament, and destiny of the 108 Water Margin heroes based on his own reading experience, but also combined the Chinese Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism and the knight-errant temperament in the deep spiritual level of the Chinese people to give a literary critic-like interpretation of the creative intention, characters, and plot conception of "Water Margin." The book is both interesting and academic, and combines sensibility and rationality. It is a rare analysis of "Water Margin". Since its publication in 2018, the book has been very popular among fans of Chinese classical novels. This time it is reprinted in our library. Based on the original book's 58 chapters and 160,000 words, 12 more chapters with nearly 70,000 words have been added for the readers' enjoyment.

Bao Pengshan is knowledgeable, thoughtful and passionate. He interpreted "Water Margin" from the perspectives of culture, system, and human nature, focusing less on plot and more on details; less on what it is and more on why. Starting from Lin Chong, Wu Song, Li Kui, Lu Zhishen, Song Jiang and others, he broke through the simple retelling of the storyline of "Water Margin" and read out the extremely rich human connotation, cultural connotation and ideological connotation hidden behind the story. This book is a major breakthrough in the criticism of "Water Margin" by Jin Shengtan, Li Zhi and others.

This is a very emotional literary history. Bao Pengshan believes that literature is the refuge of the human spirit. This book attempts to penetrate into the inner soul and thoughts of the Chinese nation through novel interpretations and poetic reflections on the three thousand years of Chinese literary masters and masterpieces from the Book of Songs to The Dream of Red Mansions, and to show the nation's three thousand years of reason and emotion. In the book, we see that Bao Pengshan, who has passionate feelings and sharp thoughts, uses his highly personalized words to lead readers to find those souls who take refuge in literature, to get infinitely close to the true feelings of the ancients, and to feel the great beauty, great kindness, great sadness, great pain, great joy and great sorrow of ancient literature.