**Named by Men's Health: "50 Books Every Man Should Read Before
Turning 50"**
Based upon the historical bandit Song Jiang and his companions, The
Water Margin is an epic tale of rebellion against tyranny that will
remind Western readers of the English classic Robin Hood and His Merry
Men.
This edition of the classic J. H. Jackson translation brings a story
that has been inspiring readers for hundreds of years to life for modern
audiences. It features a new preface and introduction by Edwin Lowe,
which gives the history of the book and puts the story into perspective
for today's readers. First translated into English by Pearl S. Buck in
1933 as All Men Are Brothers, the original edition of the J.H. Jackson
translation appeared under the title The Water Margin in 1937. In this
updated edition, Edwin Lowe addresses many of the shortcomings found in
the original J.H. Jackson translation, and reinserts the grit and flavor
of Shuihui Zhuan found in the original Chinese versions, including the
sexual seduction, explicit descriptions of brutality, and the profane
voices of the lower classes of Song Dynasty China. Similarly, the
Chinese deities, Bodhisattvas, gods and demons have reclaimed their true
names, as has the lecherous, ill-fated Ximen Qing. This 70-chapter book
includes much that was sanitized out of the 1937 publication, giving
Anglophone readers the most complete picture to date of this classic
Chinese novel.
While Chinese in origin, the themes of The Water Margin are so
universal that they have served as a source of inspiration for numerous
movies, television shows and video games up to the present day.
