During the period of Huizong Xuanhe in the Northern Song Dynasty, due to political darkness and bureaucratic corruption, people lived in poverty, which aggravated the deterioration of social contradictions. A peasant uprising led by Song Jiang broke out in northern China. Although the Sung River Uprising failed, its heroic deeds were widely circulated among the people.

The whole book artistically reflects the whole process of Sung River Uprising in the history of China from its occurrence, development to failure by describing the grand story of Liangshan heroes resisting oppression, Liangshan in Shui Bo growing up and being supported by the Song Dynasty, fighting for the Song Dynasty after being supported by the Song Dynasty and finally dying.

The Literary Influence of Water Margin

The Water Margin is the first vernacular novel in the history of China. As a new style, it has since established its due position in the field of literature, and began to gradually change the face of the literary world with poetry as its authenticity.

From the perspective of novel creation, together with Romance of the Three Kingdoms, it laid the national form and style of China's ancient novels, which were loved by the broad masses of the people and formed the unique aesthetic psychology and appreciation habits of the Chinese nation.

But closer to life than the romance of the Three Kingdoms. The author began to pay attention to ordinary society, daily trivia and ordinary characters, paid attention to depicting the hierarchy and fluidity of characters, and skillfully used vernacular Chinese, which promoted the development of China's ancient novel art in many ways.