What is the writing background of the author of Water Margin?

In the Southern Song Dynasty, the story of Liangshan heroes was widely circulated. At that time, Gong Kai, a painter and writer, wrote a preface to the praise of thirty-six people in Song Jiang, saying: The stories of thirty-six people including Song Jiang have spread all over the streets; Painters also write pictures and shadows for them.

The earliest blueprint of Water Margin is the legacy of Xuanhe in Song Dynasty, which focuses on the main characters such as Yang Zhi selling knives, Chao Gai ganging up to grab the birth outline, Song Jiang killing and Lin Chong, jy, and He Lu. During the Song and Yuan Dynasties, there were many stories adapted from Water Margin. In Yuan Zaju, the number of Liangshan heroes increased from 36 to 108.

Shi Naian sorted out and processed the stories and characters in Water Margin, and faithfully accepted the views of the people in the process of writing Water Margin, which is the ideological basis for the great achievements of Water Margin.

Extended data:

The Water Margin is one of China's four classical novels. It is a chapter-by-chapter novel with the Sung River Uprising as the main story background at the end of the Northern Song Dynasty, and it belongs to a heroic legend in genre. The author or editor is generally regarded as Shi Naian, and most of the existing periodicals have one or two people, Shi Naian and Luo Guanzhong.

After the publication of Water Margin, it had a great impact on the society and became a model of China's novel creation in later generations. During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, several versions of the sequel to Water Margin appeared, and many other novels and dramas were adapted from the stories in Water Margin. For example, Jin Ping Mei, a love novel of Ming Dynasty, developed from the plot of Song Wu killing his wife in Water Margin.

Baidu Encyclopedia-"Water Margin"