What is the reason why Water Margin is called the four classical novels?

The text itself contains a lot of information, which has significance beyond the original story and literature, such as historical value.

In fact, among the four classical novels, "Shuixue", that is, the study of water margin, is second only to "Dream of Red Mansions". An important reason for this situation is that there are many versions of Water Margin, and the differences between them are not small. Judging from the frequency, there are 70 copies, 100 copies and 120 copies. . N kinds. Among them, there is a wide spread and great concern. First, there are hundreds of copies with few returns but rich descriptions (so-called "complex and simple"), which are generally called "complex copies"; The second is the "simplified version", which has many stories and simple descriptions (so-called "simple words and complicated things"). One of the major difficulties in the study of "water science" is to argue who first formed these two books.

This may sound a bit boring, but it actually has practical significance. Because tracing back to different versions and comparing the development and evolution of the plot, we can see the development vein of this wonderful folk reading more clearly, and then interpret more information about the social, cultural and artistic trends of thought and even political and military aspects at that time.

In fact, the original work has already had this effect: because the story originated in the Song Dynasty, the book itself was created by the people and written in vernacular, so the Water Margin retained a lot of vocabulary and social customs in the Song and Yuan Dynasties. Many scholars of Song history, such as Wang Zengyu and Long, have written articles to study Water Margin and the history of Song Dynasty.

(by the way: ms nowadays, many online writers like to discuss how to write a real dialogue or style with the feeling of a specific historical dynasty. In fact, if you want to write a story related to the Song Dynasty, the language of the characters is almost the same as that of the Water Margin. It's not far, though it's missed. )

For example, judging from some early texts in Water Margin and its earlier story sources, such as Song Jiang's Thirty-six Zans and Song Xuanhe's legacy, there is no doubt that the original location of the story of Water Margin is not in Liangshan, Shandong Province (now Dongping-Liangshan-Yuncheng-Juye, Shandong Province), but at the junction of Shanxi, Hebei and Henan. Mr. Ma Youyuan once wrote a special article to analyze that the "Wanzicheng" in Water Margin was actually written by taking the courtyard of Guanwanzicheng on Taihang Mountain as a metaphor.

At the time when the story of the Water Margin began to spread, Taihang Mountain was the base camp of the northern folk anti-gold armed forces. Now researchers can basically be sure that there are many deeds of Taihang Rebels and even Yue Jiajun's resistance to gold at the turn of the Northern Song Dynasty and the Southern Song Dynasty in Water Margin. Many scholars, such as Wang Qili, Zhang, Yan Dunyi, Hou Hui, Sun Shuyu and so on, directly believe that this story was originally created and spread with the theme of resisting the Jin rebels and Yue Fei. But why did it become like this later? Because there are not many materials found, it is still not completely certain, so there are many arguments and speculations. However, if new materials can be found in the future to make up for this evolution, it will undoubtedly not only fill the gap in the study of Water Margin, but also be of great benefit to the historical research at that time.

And seriously, how the story system of Water Margin changed from resisting Jin Yijun to a pure bandit, how it moved from Taihang Mountain area to Song Jiang, a "giant thief" who was active in Huaibei, Shandong and southern Hebei at the end of the Northern Song Dynasty, and finally settled in Liangshan Park where Song Jiang and others did not stay for a long time. In fact, it can be used to write another novel. As long as you know the relevant information, the brain hole is big enough.