Water Margin

"Shui Hu Zhuan", "Outlaws of the Marsh", and "All Men are Brothers" redirect here. For other uses, see Shui Hu Zhuan (disambiguation).

Water Margin
A page from a block-printed version of the novel Water Margin, brought to Copenhagen, Denmark in the early part of the 17th-century
AuthorShi Nai'an (subject to academic debate)
Original title水滸傳
TranslatorJ. H. Jackson, Fang Lo-Tien (editor), Sidney Shapiro, Alex and John Dent-Young
LanguageWritten vernacular Chinese
GenreHistorical fiction
Set inMount Liang, c. 1120
Publication date
Uncertain, perhaps mid-14th century; definitely before 1524
Publication placeChina
Published in English
1937, 1980, and 1994–2002
895.1346
Original text
水滸傳 at Chinese Wikisource
Water Margin
"Water Margin" in Traditional (top) and Simplified (bottom) Chinese characters
Traditional Chinese水滸傳
Simplified Chinese水浒传
Literal meaning"Water Margin Story"
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu PinyinShuǐhǔ zhuàn
Wade–GilesShui3-hu3 chuan4
IPA[ʂwèɪ.xù ʈʂwân]
Wu
RomanizationSy去 vhu平 tsuae平
Yue: Cantonese
Yale RomanizationSéui-wú jyuhn
JyutpingSeoi2-wu2 zyun6
IPA[sɵɥ˧˥.wu˧˥ tsyn˨]
Southern Min
Hokkien POJSuí hóo tuān

Water Margin, also called Outlaws of the Marsh or All Men Are Brothers,[note 1] is a Chinese novel from the Ming dynasty that is one of the preeminent Classic Chinese Novels. Attributed to Shi Nai'an, Water Margin was one of the earliest Chinese novels written in vernacular Mandarin Chinese.[1]

The story, which is set in the Northern Song dynasty (around 1120), tells of how a group of 108 outlaws gathers at Mount Liang (or Liangshan Marsh) to rebel against the government. Later they are granted amnesty and enlisted by the government to resist the nomadic conquest of the Liao dynasty and other rebels. While the book's authorship is traditionally attributed to Shi Nai'an (1296–1372), the first external reference to the novel only appeared in 1524 during the Jiajing reign of the Ming dynasty, sparking a long-lasting academic debate on when it was actually written and which historical events the author had witnessed that inspired him to write the book.[1]

The novel is considered one of the masterpieces of early vernacular fiction and Chinese literature.[2] It has introduced readers to some of the best-known characters in Chinese literature, such as Wu Song, Lin Chong, Pan Jinlian, Song Jiang and Lu Zhishen. Water Margin also exerted a significant influence on the development of fiction elsewhere in East Asia, such as on Japanese literature.[3][4]


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  1. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference methodology was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ Li (2001), p. 626.
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference Hedberg2 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference D'haen was invoked but never defined (see the help page).