Description:

Simply put, The Water Margin is a book about how bandits and robbers came into being. Many people regard it as history. In fact, strictly speaking, Water Margin is not even a historical novel, but a fictional romance novel, in which the characters and stories are true or false. The so-called "romance novels" refer to some characters and stories in novels, which do exist in history, but quite a few or even most of them are fabricated.

In other words, The Water Margin is just a collection of historical figures and events. It's just written so well that future generations think that this is history, but the real history has retired.

Extended data

There are only 36 people in the prototype of "Hundred Single Eight Generals"

"The Water Margin" shaped Liang Shanbo's "hundreds of single and eight generals", each with a vivid image and vivid story. However, compared with the history books, there are only 36 characters in history, and the remaining 72 are mostly fabrications, which are purely false.

According to historians' research, during the reign of Xuanhe in Song Huizong, there was indeed an uprising by Song Jiang and Liang Shanbo, which was a historical event in which 36 people, including Song Jiang, ran amok in Huainan, but there were not as many 108 generals as described in Water Margin, and there were not so many vivid and dramatic scenes. These 36 people have no objective and specific records in the official history books, and most of them are re-processed according to folklore. In this way, the characters in the whole novel are true and false.

The scale of Sung River Uprising

According to Biography of Hou Meng, History of the Song Dynasty and Records of Xuanhe, there are only 36 people. According to Lang Ying's seven revisions of the manuscript, these 36 people are: Song Jiang, Chao Gai, Wu Yong, Lu Junyi, Guan Sheng, Shi Jin, Chai Jin, Ruan Xiaoer, Ruan Xiaowu, Ruan Xiaoqi, Liu Tang, Zhang Qing, Yan Qing, Sun Li, Zhang Shun, Zhang Heng, Hu Yanchuo, Li Jun, Hua Rong, Qin Ming, Li Kui, Lei Heng and Li Shun.

There is something suspicious about this list, that is, as an influential peasant uprising, only 36 people "made wild in Wei Qi", and tens of thousands of officers and men could not resist, which is impossible. So some people think that these 36 people may be the total number of rebel leaders, that is to say, 36 people who participated in the uprising with Song Jiang, each of whom later commanded an army, but for convenience, they are still called by their names. This explanation is also reasonable. So, how many people were there in the peasant uprising led by Song Jiang? Because there is no record in history, the specific number cannot be counted, and it is speculated that there should be at least thousands.

According to historical records, there were 36 heroes in the Sung River Uprising. Why did it become 108 in Water Margin? Perhaps it is the author's "to write a book, taking thirty-six as the highest heaven, and adding the names of seventy-two people" (contained in Lang Ying's seventh edition), which makes the novel more legendary, catchy and easy to spread to cater to people's preferences.

References: Don't treat Water Margin as true history _ People's Network