Brief Introduction to the Main Contents of Water Margin

Content abstract: The Water Margin is the first novel describing the peasant uprising. Focusing on the clue of "officials forcing the people to revolt", the book shows the whole process of a group of "heroes" who could not bear the oppression of tyranny, dismissing their posts and gathering people to make trouble in Liangshan, Shui Bo, until they accepted the appeal and led to the failure of the uprising.

With profound thoughts, extensive contents and outstanding art, it wrote heroic epics and revolutionary tragedies of peasant uprisings in feudal society, reflecting that the deep exploitation and cruel oppression in declining feudal society intensified class contradictions, and the darkness and decay of reactionary rule caused the resistance struggle of the broad masses of the people.

The Water Margin, one of China's four classical novels, is a chapter-by-chapter novel with the Sung River Uprising as the main story background at the end of the Northern Song Dynasty, which 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.

Taking the occurrence and development of peasant uprising as the main line, this book describes the whole process from individual awakening to small-scale joint resistance and then to the grand peasant uprising team through the different experiences of heroes being caught up with Liangshan, shows the inevitable law of peasant uprising in feudal times, shapes the group image of peasant uprising leaders, and profoundly reflects the political situation and social contradictions in the late Northern Song Dynasty.

On the side of the oppressed, the author praised the just actions of the leaders of the peasant uprising to rob the rich and help the poor, eliminate violence and quell chaos, and affirmed their revolutionary spirit of daring to resist and struggle.

Song Jiangyuan is a brave man who used his quick wits to help the poor. When he was driven to Liangshan, he strengthened the prestige of the rebels and won a series of victories. However, due to the duality of his personality and the limitations of his thoughts, he chose to compromise and win over when the uprising reached its peak, and finally ruined the uprising. Through the failure of Sung River uprising, the novel objectively summarizes the experience and lessons of the failure of peasant uprising in feudal times.

The story begins with the rise of Gao Qiu, which is intended to show that Gao Qiu is the representative of the feudal ruling group. The author also wrote a large number of corrupt officials and local bullies. It is they who collude with each other and fish the people, forcing the kind and upright people to take risks and rise up.

At the same time, the novel also describes the peasant rebels in tian hu, Wangqing, Fang La and other areas to a certain extent, and deeply digs into various social phenomena and problems in feudal times from the breadth and depth, as well as the deep-seated reasons of peasant uprisings.

References:

Water Margin-Baidu Encyclopedia