The Water Margin

"I’ve always been interested in Chinese attitudes towards life: towards what happens, the misfortunes of life, and how they handle life in their society. And I think that, although you get a lot of hard facts through the historical record, of course, in order to get the mood and to understand deeper you need to look into literature. The first novel I really like is The Water Margin. It’s one of the four great classical novels of Chinese literature, but it’s very different because it’s a story of bandits – in a way it’s like a Chinese equivalent of Robin Hood. The novel came out of stories told among the people before the 14th century, and all these folk tales were taken together and put into written form by someone called Shi Naian, although it’s not even sure if this man existed. The story is based upon some historical facts: there was a bandit called Song Jiang who rebelled against the Song dynasty in the early 12th century. The novel takes the story of this bandit and his companions, and puts them into a kind of epic tale of rebellion against tyranny, which has been thrilling and inspiring Chinese readers for centuries. The novel is beautiful, because the personal stories of each of the bandits are taken together and also pursued individually, and as you have 108 characters it’s an extraordinary feat. It’s very vivid, and it shows the reactions of ordinary Chinese people: how they have a sense of justice, generosity, and humanity. And it also shows the extraordinary violence of Chinese society, and the way people make their lives with that: how they are able to subdue this violence, and turn it into human relations. Yes, they are the good guys! They are all painted as heroes of justice and people who want to be righteous, but in the end the chief bandit surrenders to the Emperor. Of course this has been disturbing to the Communist interpreters of this novel, but it is also very telling because it shows that Chinese people still have this feeling of justice, that they want to stick together. What I think is interesting is that we often have an idea of China as a beautiful, great thing which is harmonious, and so grand that nobody dares to attack it. Here you see it in another light, and at the same time you understand how the people, despite their rebellions, like to be in an orderly society – and that tension is very strong in this novel. It shows that people are not slaves, they’re not blind to what is going on in their society and they’re able to act against it. It also gives ideas about what people like in life: how they like to drink wine and enjoy life and how they find ways to have a decent life even if they don’t have money or much means to do it. It’s extremely full of life, and it shows many aspects of Chinese social life in a very realistic way."