Listen free for 30 days
Listen with offer
-
The Water Margin
- Outlaws of the Marsh
- Narrated by: Jonathan Booth
- Length: 33 hrs and 41 mins
Failed to add items
Add to basket failed.
Add to wishlist failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
£0.00 for first 30 days
Buy Now for £26.99
No valid payment method on file.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Summary
The Water Margin is one of the most popular classics of early Chinese literature. It tells the vigorous story of 108 characters who, falling foul of the established state authorities, are forced to become outlaws. They form a bandit community in Liangshan Marsh, becoming such a formidable force in their own right that they threaten the power of government itself.
The author, Shi Nain, writing in the 14th century, the time of the Ming Dynasty, presents the tale with all the force and directness of a live story-teller. He describes in some detail the numerous one-to-one combats with a wide variety of weapons, as well as hand to hand fights. Despite written over half a millennium ago, it all seems very familiar to the contemporary listener, for the style lives on in the Chinese martial arts movies of today.
He pulls no punches with the events themselves. There is deception, murder, torture, adultery, beheadings and massacre on a grand scale, reflecting the disorderly nature of the time—it is set 200 years earlier in a lawless period during the Northern Song dynasty.
But the power of the story lies in the portrayal of the individuals who cover the wide spectrum of human kind. There are the honorable figures, wrongly branded on the face as criminals and forced to wear the heavy cangue—the massive wooden collar, punishing and restricting movement. There are the mighty warriors who, despite good deeds (killing tigers that are terrorizing the neighborhood) are forced to flee established society by powerful but envious officials. There are monks displaying varying degrees of ethical behavior. And there are some who simply love to fight, anywhere, anytime, with any weapons, and find themselves most comfortable in the outlaw milieu.
The Water Margin has come down to us in various forms—its huge size attracted abridgements—and the version recorded here is the 70-chapter chronicle by Jin Shengtan, dating from the 17th century. The translation by J. H. Jackson appeared in the 1930s. But it has been recently revised by Edwin Lowe, who wanted to bring back the earthy flavor of the original, reintroducing the strong language, the brutality and the unexpurgated nature of Shi Nain's language.
In short, it is a rip-roaring tale, unrelenting in its energy, more akin to the modern thriller than the elegant, reflective character one would expect from a Chinese classic! Nevertheless, it often exhibits the features of the morality tale with wise aphorisms.
Jonathan Booth gives a virtuoso presentation with vivid characterization of the principals, and the hundreds of minor individuals who pop up in this detailed account of medieval life in the raw.
What listeners say about The Water Margin
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Christian B
- 15-02-24
Very engaging but too many characters
I do highly recommend this. It’s very engaging and I enjoyed most of it but by the end it was just too long, primarily in the sense of number of characters, for me to follow along with fully.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful