12 chapters of "Ancient Water Margin", is it Shi Naian's original work?

I remember that when The Water Margin was first published in 1985, I indicated in the preface that the book was written by Shi Naian, which caused an uproar in the research field of Water Margin, and the voice of criticism obviously exceeded the voice of praise.

it's no wonder that the appearance of the ancient water margin itself is in opposition to many traditional views in the field of water margin. The hundred copies of the book that used to be regarded as the original tolerance hall will be regarded as a follow-up book, and many issues that are regarded as conclusive will be re-discussed.

With people's in-depth study of the Ancient Water Margin, especially after Liu Dong, a famous expert on the study of the Water Margin, published an article on the study of novels in Ming and Qing Dynasties in 1988, many scholars published articles confirming that the author of the Ancient Water Margin should be Shi Naian.

Why is Shi Naian the author of The Water Margin?

It's hard to say clearly in a few words. Here, I will introduce the relevant research as briefly as possible and comprehensively, hoping to enlighten readers. Finally, some difficulties encountered in the research are introduced, and I hope to get help from the fans of Water Margin.

Attachment: Preface of the 1985 Hebei People's Edition "Ancient Water Margin"

The ancient water margin has now met with the readers. This is the only 12-story Water Margin written by Shi Naian that we have seen so far.

The first 7 chapters of this book are basically the same as the Water Margin, which was edited by Jin Shengtan. The last 5 chapters are completely different from the popular 12 chapters of The Water Margin. The Liangshan heroes here were not embraced. Until 12 times, they were still fighting bloody battles with loyalists. The last 5 times were printed separately by Shanghai Chinese and Western Bookstore in 1933, and the preface of Mr. Mei Jihe recorded the details of the publication at that time.

The last 5 chapters of The Water Margin in Ancient Books are full of twists and turns and distinctive characters. After studying it carefully, I think it is the same person as the author of the first 7 chapters. Comparing the last 5 episodes with the first 7 episodes, we can find that the plot structure before and after is consistent, and the layout echoes before and after, forming a tight unity; Without the former, the latter cannot be established; Without the latter, it is difficult to understand and accurately arrange many plots in the first 7 episodes. The image characteristics of the characters before and after are consistent, and the main characters in the last 5 chapters can judge who he is just by his words and deeds, but all other sequels that can be seen now can not reach this level. The world view reflected before and after is consistent; Consistent artistic style; In particular, the characteristics of the times and places of language are also consistent. More interestingly, in terms of artistic description and language expression, the last 5 chapters not only reproduce the advantages of the first 7 chapters, but also reproduce some weaknesses of the previous ones.

The Water Margin is a great work produced in a specific environment, which is a high concentration of certain social phenomena. At the same time, it also shows that the author has a very high political, ideological, military and artistic level, and has rich and unique life experiences. It is also the first long vernacular novel in China, which has obvious characteristics of connecting the past and the future. It is hard to imagine that future generations can imitate such a masterpiece without leaving traces. The last 3 chapters of the Water Margin and the first series of follow-up works of The Water Margin written by Rong and Tang are not only very different from the first 7 chapters in terms of language features, but also many of those characters are out of shape.

People may ask, since this book was written by Shi Naian and published in 1933, why is it so little known so far?

it seems strange, but the reason is simple. In 1933, Chinese and Western Bookstore only printed the last 5 chapters of this book, which was incomplete. In addition, there were a lot of Water Margin published in the name of "ancient edition" at that time, which were mixed and difficult to sell. At that time, the Chinese and Western Bookstore only printed 1,5 copies, which failed to be sold out and failed to have an impact among the masses. At the same time, the bookstore has no contact with the academic circles and has not been publicized in the newspaper, resulting in the book being buried again. Look up the famous researchers of Water Margin at that time, such as Lu Xun, Hu Shi, Zheng Zhenduo and so on. Although they have made extremely detailed research on the versions, they have never mentioned this ancient version of Water Margin.

The academic circles first knew about the existence of such a book, probably in 1975. At that time, a preface to The Water Margin compiled by Fudan University in Shanghai included Mr. Mei Jihe's "Ancient Water Margin". However, few people have read the book because there are not many surviving copies of The Water Margin in Ancient Books.

who is the author of this book? This is obviously not conclusive in a short time. Now it will be collated, collated and rearranged for publication, which will provide a brand-new version for scholars and experts to study. At the same time, for the readers, it is undoubtedly an artistic treasure worthy of appreciation.

Thanks to the comrades in Shanghai Library for agreeing to arrange and publish, and for their strong support.

The collation of this book is based on the Mei's ancient Water Margin published by Shanghai Chinese and Western Bookstore in 1933. Referring to other books, it is divided into sections, punctuated and corrected obvious typos. In addition to deleting all comments made by Jin Shengtan, some technical treatments were made, all of which were noted. All are rearranged according to the simplified characters of the specification, while others all retain the appearance of the original book.

Jiang Zugang

February p>1985