The Water Margin is one of the works with epic characteristics in Chinese language and literature, which has a profound impact on the narrative literature of China and even East Asia, and is also one of the four famous works in China, written in the late Song Dynasty and early Ming Dynasty. Most of the stories described in "Water Margin", including many place names, are not fictional, but the crystallization of the "Liangshanbo Story" from the end of the Southern Song Dynasty (early 12th century) to the middle of the Ming Dynasty (the end of the 15th century) for 400 years. So the author of "Water Margin" said that the story takes place in Shandong, is this really the case?
The earliest blueprint of "Water Margin" is the Song people's "Xuanhe Legacy", which focuses on the stories of Yang Zhi selling knives, Chao Gai and other gangs robbing Shengchengang and Song Jiang killing Yan Poxi, and also describes the main characters such as Lin Chong, Li Kui, Wu Song and Lu Zhishen. In the Yuan miscellaneous drama, the heroes of Liangshan have grown from 36 to 108. Shi Nai'an sorted out and processed the stories and characters related to "Water Margin", and most of the signatures of the existing publications are one of Shi Nai'an and Luo Guanzhong, or both.
The character dialogues of "Water Margin" appear in a large number of "er" endings, a total of more than 1,000 places, which are the distinctive characteristics of the Hangzhou dialect, such as "hats", "chopsticks" and "fighting", etc., there is no such frequent "er" endings in other parts of the country, and Shandong also does not.
There are many errors when writing about the climate and scenery in the north, such as Lin Chongxue going to Liangshan at night, and when he arrived at Liangshanbo, he saw "the mountains are lined with huge waves, and the water is connected to the sky", but this should be a scene only in late spring and early summer. What's even more surprising is that in the "Liangshan Bo Yishi Zun Chao Gai" once, the cottage held a celebration banquet, and the recipe has "new peaches, apricots, plums, plums, plums, loquats, mountain dates, persimmons, chestnuts and the like on the Shannan tree", among which the loquat is the first fruit that grows in the south of the Yangtze River, and Shandong does not grow at all. There is also the bitter bamboo of Liangshanbo scenery described in the book, which does not grow in Shandong, but is densely planted in Zhejiang.
In the 32nd chapter of "Water Margin", Song Jiang passed by Qingfeng Mountain and was robbed, and was rescued by Zheng Shou, a "white-faced man", and other three people, the book said, "This hero's ancestral home is Suzhou, western Zhejiang, surnamed Zheng, and his double name is Tianshou." Because he was born white and handsome, people called him a white-faced gentleman." So how can Suzhou here be western Zhejiang? Originally, China set up "Zhejiang West Road" and "Zhejiang East Road" as early as the Tang Dynasty, when people thought that the Qiantang River was flowing in the north-south direction, and the southern Jiangsu and northern Zhejiang in the north were called the west, and the south was regarded as the east, but this area was still Zhejiang.
At the end of the Northern Song Dynasty, the peasant rebel army led by Song Jiang was finally recruited by the imperial court, and Song Jiang began to conquer Fangla in the south. Fang La, also known as Fang Thirteen, is a native of Muzhou (now Weiping Town, Wanping Township, Chun'an County). In the autumn of 1120 he revolted, and millions of people were responded. In order to commemorate the leader of the peasant uprising, Fang La, the descendants erected a stone tablet at the site of the Fang La uprising, and the three characters of "Fang La Cave" on it are still written by Guo Moruo, and the location is still in Zhejiang.
Today's Hangzhou can still find many places described in "Water Margin", such as Yongjinmen on the east bank of the West Lake, where Zhang Shun, the "white strip in the waves", was shot to death. The Xiling Bridge on the west bank is the place where Zhang Shun dived into the West Lake and walked on the road of no return. Fengshan Water Gate, the generals of Song Jiang once disguised themselves as boatmen, infiltrated the city of Hangzhou from here, and captured Fang La's grain ship.
Even the well-known story of Wu Song's fight against the tiger is also created by the example of the Zhuji version of Jiang Lutian fighting the tiger and the Xiaoshan version of Wang Changzhi fighting the tiger five or six hundred years ago. The author's long article and **, after strict review by the editor, have been published in the 10th issue of "Chinese Martial Arts" magazine in 2017.
All the place names, roads and bridges written in "Water Margin" are almost the same as the current names and actual conditions. However, when the author of "Water Margin" writes about the north, he often mistakes the geography and scenery, because the author of "Water Margin" is a southerner who is only familiar with the situation in the south of the Yangtze River, but has never been to Shandong.
The 108 heroes described in "Water Margin" are related to Hangzhou, including Luda and Wu Song, as well as the urgent pioneer Suo Chao, the fire-eyed Deng Fei, the red-haired ghost Liu Tang, the mourning god Bao Xu, the gibbon Hou Jian and the golden retriever Duan Jingzhu, etc., all of whom died in Hangzhou; Zhang Heng, Mu Hong, Mao Tou Xing Kong Ming, Zhu Gui of the Early Land, Bai Sheng of the White Day Mouse, Zhu Fu of the Smiling Tiger, Lin Chong of the Leopard Head, Yang Xiong of the Sick Guan and Shi Qian of the Drum Flea all died of illness in Hangzhou. The prodigal son Yanqing also fled to Hangzhou. Zhejiang not only gave birth to the story of "Water Margin", but also accepted many heroes, which are described in these books, but contrary to the author's own original intention that the story takes place in Shandong, that is, the prototype Zhejiang is inadvertently leaked out (using many place names and stories in Zhejiang, etc.).
On March 31, 2020, a senior chief inspected the Xixi wetland in Hangzhou, and specifically pointed out: "Shi Nai'an wrote 'Water Margin' here." Don't you see the scenery of the knotweed, Liangshanbo, and reeds? He wrote the ...... of "Water Margin" based on the scenery hereHe also clearly asked Hangzhou to study and promote the Water Margin culture, which once again shows the origin and special status of "Water Margin" and Zhejiang.
Because "Water Margin" is written about the peasant rebel army led by Song Jiang, and the peasant rebel army is officially called "thieves" in history, the author wrote a book to promote their rebellion, and if they are caught, they will be beheaded, even so, the second half of the ** still writes Zhao'an - obey the rule of imperial power. In addition, the book can be written faster and easier with the facts, scenes and real people in Zhejiang, so the author said that the story of "Water Margin" took place in Shandong, or that the author was familiar with the situation in Zhejiang, took local materials, and "moved" to Shandong when creating "Water Margin", but the actual story prototype or place of occurrence was in Zhejiang.