The Water Margin (Shuihu Zhuan) is one of what are known as the ‘Four Great Novels of China’ and was originally written by Shi Naian during the Ming Dynasty and published in 1368 AD. Though there is scholarly dispute on dates and authorship, I will go with what is generally accepted as I do not know better and probably never will. It is set during the Song Dynasty in the 1120s and concerns the historical Song Jiang, the leader of the 108 bandits of Liangshan Marsh. It is one of the most famous of the Chinese Classics and is well-known in China, Japan and I assume Korea and other surrounding Asian nations.
It was first translated into English in the 1930s and the edition above (which I read) was translated by J.H. Jackson in 1937. The first translator was Pearl S. Buck in 1933 who changed the title to All Men Are Brothers but the Jackson’s version is considered superior. Complicating this is that the work has been edited in Chinese since it was first written and both these translations are based on the shorter 70 chapter version by Jin Shintang in the 1640s. The original is 120 chapters and has since been translated to English though it doesn’t seem to be as widely available. While the edition is mostly the Jackson translation, the editor Edwin Lowe has made a number of changes which included restoring violence and vulgarity found in the original Chinese that Jackson opted not to include. These re-inclusions are infrequent and relatively mild in comparison to many modern novels today. After reading it through, I wouldn’t say their inclusion adds anything to the text other than making the translation more accurate. It is likely Jackson was a Christian missionary so it is unsurprising he decided to smooth these rough edges out.
As I mentioned in my post on the Analects last month, I received this and the Romance of the Three Kingdoms for Christmas and rapidly read through this in the first three weeks of January. What follows will be a mixture of thoughts on the book which I really enjoyed as can be inferred from the pace with which I read it.
The Analects of Confucius translated by Simon Leys