Shi Naian 
Accessible Reading Edition of China’s Four Great Classic Novels 
Water Margin

The Water Margin is one of the four classical masterpieces in China. The book describes the story of 108 heroes led by Song Jiang who gathered in Liangshan in the late Northern Song Dynasty, and the story of accepting amnesty and fighting around after the gathering. The Water Margin is also one of the most epic works in Chinese literature. It is one of the earliest chapters written in vernacular in Chinese history. The Water Margin is a novel about the ancient peasant uprising. It vividly describes the whole process of peasant uprising from its occurrence, development to failure, profoundly revealing the social root of the uprising, and enthusiastically praising the resistance and struggle of the uprising heroes and their social ideals, and also specifically revealing the internal historical reasons for the failure of the uprising.