Water Margin is one of the best novels in ancient China. It has been widely circulated and had a great influence on later generations. Its version has two systems: simplified version and traditional version. Since the Ming and Qing Dynasties, there have been many versions circulated, and the differences between each version are obvious. The three most popular versions are the 70-chapter, 100-chapter, and 120-chapter versions. The main versions of "Water Margin" are:
1. The 100-chapter version of "Water Margin" published by People's Literature Publishing House and written by Shi Naian and Luo Guanzhong. The original version used in this edition is the Hangzhou Rongyu Tang version printed in the late Ming Dynasty (around 1610 AD) and stored in the Beijing Library. The original book contains one hundred volumes and one hundred chapters, titled "Mr. Li Zhuowu's Criticism of the Loyalty and Justice Water Margin". At the time of publication, the author's name was added, the four comments attached at the front of the book were deleted, the eyebrow comments in the text, the interline notes and comments, the illustrations and the volume type were corrected, and the obvious misreading of the text was corrected. Except for some ambiguous and easily misunderstood characters, which are in traditional Chinese characters, the rest are typeset in simplified characters, with punctuation and segmentation. Among the one hundred chapters, the earliest one is that of Guo Xun, the Marquis of Xingding in Jiajing of the Ming Dynasty. Only a few chapters exist today. The earlier ones include the Preface to Foreign Ministers of Tiandu published during the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty, followed by the Rong Yutang version.
2. The 120-chapter version of "Water Margin" written by Shi Naian and Luo Guanzhong, published by Shanghai People's Publishing House. This edition is based on the 120 chapters prefaced by Yang Ding at the end of the Wanli era of the Ming Dynasty, and was edited and printed. The 120-chapter version of Yang Ding's preface was published based on the original Tiandu version with the addition of stories about Zheng Tianhu and Wang Qing. The above two versions, although they are different in traditional and simplified versions, both show the whole process of Shui Bo Liangshan 108 from gathering to dispersing.
3. The seventy-one chapters of "Water Margin" written by Shi Naian and published by People's Literature Publishing House. This volume is compiled and printed based on the 70 chapters deleted and revised by Jin Shengtan. At the end of the Ming Dynasty, Jin Shengtan cut off more than 20 chapters from the 100-chapter version, deleted the plots such as being recruited and conquering Fang La, and added "Nightmare" as the ending, making it a 70-chapter version. When publishing this time, the "Nightmare" was deleted and restored to its original appearance according to the one hundred and twenty chapters. The "wedge" of the gold edition was slightly trimmed and changed to the first chapter. In fact, the book has seventy chapters. Once. Regarding "Water Margin" written by Jin Shengtan after it was cut in half, it can be said that benevolent people have different opinions and wise people have different opinions. After it was published, there were mixed reviews. Lu Xun believed that Jin Ben had lost "the honesty of the original work" and was like a "dragonfly with its tail cut off".
The "Cultural Revolution" has become a thing of the past, but these three main versions of "Water Margin" have become witnesses of history, because not only are Mao Zedong's words about "The Book of Water Margin" printed in bold on the front of the book, , the good thing is to surrender", and two quotations from "The Water Margin only fights against corrupt officials, not against the emperor", as well as excerpts from Lu Xun's comments on the Water Margin, which means that the Water Margin does not fight against the emperor, but goes to fight after recruiting peace The other robbers are finally slaves. Plus a "preface" with distinctive characteristics of the times. The publication of this book has a strong special imprint, and it will surely become one of the rare "Cultural Revolution" collections for bibliophiles in the future.