Also known as: Water Margin, Legend of Loyalty and Righteousness, Water Margin.
Authors: Most of the authors are Shi Naian, and some are co-authors of Luo Guanzhong, Shi Naian and Luo Guanzhong.
Publication time: In the middle and late Ming Dynasty at the latest, there are many versions, among which 19 copies of Wanli in Ming Dynasty, Rongyu Tangben and Shuangfeng Tangben are more representative.
Writing time: According to the available information, it will be in the middle of Ming Dynasty at the latest.
Style: Zhang Hui's novels
Literary Status: One of China's Classical Four Great Classical Novels.
Huizhang: There are mainly 70 chapters, 100 chapters and 120 chapters.
World influence: there are dozens of translations in major languages.
Concise/simplified version
Bamboo slips contain all the plots of Zhao 'an, Liao, Shou, Wang Qing, Fang La and Song Jiang. It is called the simplified version because the text is relatively simple and there are few details. The simplified versions found are: 1 15, 1 10, 124.
An unabridged version/book
Many books are written in detail and are the most widely circulated. However, the main rewrites and supplements are the plots after enlistment.
One hundred copies
After Song Jiang was embraced, there were plots such as "levying Liao" and "levying Fang La".
120 copies
At the end of the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty, Ding Yang inserted the plots of tian hu and Wang Qing into 120 volumes on the basis of 100 volumes.
Seventy copies
In the Qing Dynasty, Jin Shengtan abridged one hundred books to woo and follow-up events, ending with the seventy-first book of Lu Junyi's Dream, and then taking the first book as a wedge, that is, seventy books.
It is generally believed that only one hundred editions may be the earliest version of the story of Water Margin, and it is also the version closest to the legendary story. The known and existing early versions of Water Margin are Ming editions. Li Kaixian, a scholar between Zheng De and Jiajing, included twenty volumes of Water Margin in Ci Hai. Some researchers believe that "20 volumes" means "20 volumes". Generally speaking, the Wu Ding version of Guo Xun's Water Margin published during Jiajing period is close to the original, but the original version of Guo Xun has disappeared. Some researchers believe that the other five Jiajing editions of Water Margin are Guo Ben, and therefore Guo Ben is 20 volumes. During the Jiajing period of Ming Dynasty, the loyalty and righteousness of Water Margin recorded in Gao Ru's Hundred Rivers Annals was 65,438+000 volumes. Today, an earlier and more complete 65,438+000 volumes is Preface to Foreign Ministers in Heaven, which was written in Wanli Hou Ji (65,438+0589). Preface to Foreign Ministers in Heaven was published in Guoben, but the number of volumes was different. Guo Ben (20 volumes) 100 times, and Preface to Foreign Ministers in Heaven 100 volumes 100 times. This book accepts courtship and arranges seats immediately after collecting Liao Heping Fang wax, but there is no story of Heping Wang Qing. During the Wanli period, Yang 120 manuscripts appeared again, mainly based on 100 manuscripts, adding the stories of Ping Ping and Wang Qing (the characters are different from the traditional manuscripts, or the simplified manuscripts have been polished). In the late Ming Dynasty, Jin Shengtan (see Jin) deleted the part after ranking and added a nightmare of Lu Junyi as the ending, in which 100 people were all killed. The original one was changed into a wedge for the first time and 70 copies were made. This book has been the most popular since the Qing Dynasty. Today, there are two short editions of Ming Dynasty, namely, the new edition of Biography of Jing Ben Zeng Wang Yishui and the Ming edition of Biography of Zhong Yishui, but both of them are incomplete. Qing version 10 volume 1 15 Huizhong Shuihu is a relatively complete simplified version. After the founding of New China, 70 volumes, 120, 100, 100, photocopied 100 and printed several volumes. I also photocopied the short version of Water Margin.