All Men Are Brothers – [Shui Hu Chuan] – Intro #1

All Men Are Brothers – [Shui Hu Chuan] – Intro #1

Translated by Pearl S. Buck

I. Introduction by Lin Yutang – Part 1

There are 4 or 5 masterpieces of Chinese fiction that have, in the course of the last 400 years, become classics and wielded a tremendous influence over the thoughts and imagination of the Chinese people. Of these, the first 2 to come into being, The Three Kingdoms and All Men Are Brothers, were first written in the 14^th century and by a strong and persistent tradition ascribed to the same authors, Shih Nai-an (about 1290-1365) and his disciple Lo Kuan-chung (about 1330-1400). The Three Kingdoms is an historical romance, while All Men Are Brothers is a novel based on a cycle of stories about a certain band of beloved outlaws in the beginning of the 12^th century. This cycle and the novel carrying it were constantly improved upon and embellished until in the 16^th century an edition appeared which bore the unmistakable stamp of a literary genius and, despite later editorial changes, received the mature treatment in which it has survived to the present day. In the same century, under the Ming Dynasty, appeared two other masterpieces, Hsiyuchi, a highly humorous and imaginative account of the travel to India of the month Hsuan-chuang to obtain Buddhist scriptures, and Chinpingmei, a realistic and to a large extent pornographic novel dealing with the domestic troubles of the rascally Hsimen Ch’ing with his 6 women.

The 16^th century may therefore be said to be the classic epoch of Chinese fiction. The art of the novel was mature; characterization in all 4 novels was excellent, dialogue was true to life, and, for reasons we shall come to later, the structure was even better in the last 2, especially in Chinpingmei, because the authors were no longer bound by a cycle of historical legend known to everybody and had complete freedom to create their own story. The proper recognition of the novel as a form of literature came immediately with the appearance of these 4 masterpieces. Still shield at by the orthodox Confucian scholars, they received loud acclaim from the original critics, Yuan Hung-tao and Li Chih in the 16^th century and Chin Sheng-t’an and Li Lieh-weng in the 17^th, who openly compared them with such recognized classics as the Tsochuan and Szema Ch’ien’s History. The 4 novels became regularly known as the “Four Masterpieces” until Red Chamber Dream appeared in the 18^th century and replaced Three Kingdoms in ranking among the top 4 of Chinese fiction. Red Chamber Dream represents the peak of the novelist’s art and, when translated fully, will become acknowledged as one of the world’s greatest novels.

In commenting on 3 of these 4, the epigrammatist Chang Ch’ao says,” All Men Are Brothers is a book of anger; Hsiyuchi is a book of faith; Chinpingmei is a book of pity.” Seldom are literary dicta expressed with such depth and brevity. To understand why All Men Are Brothers is a “book of anger” is to understand the tremendous appeal it has for the Chinese people. This novel contains a delicate, though not entirely strange, doctrine for the Confucian scholars, namely, the right to disobedience and the compulsion to rebellion in times of bad government. How this doctrine plagued the later editors of the different editions we shall see later. But the immediate surface appeal is apparent. In the struggle between an unjust government and just outlaws, the sympathy of the readers was and always is with the outlaws; and, in effect, the novel became a glorification of banditry and of bandits who take the law into their own hands. But when innocent men are jailed by corrupt officials and the red tape and corruption of bureaucrats make legal redress slow, if not impossible, the most satisfying human emotion that can be evoked is to see some daring, resourceful and husky Gary Coopers and Randolph Scotts break jail and, by wit, trickery and sheer muscular prowess, rescue the innocent in the fashion of Robin Hood and The Lone Ranger. Coupled with this was the fact that these outlaw heroes showed an unusually high code of honor, solidarity and loyalty among themselves, and the popular admiration for this robber band was complete. Theirs was a loyalty well shown by their oath:

Here we come as thirty-six men,

We shall go as eighteen pairs,

If one of us is missing,

We shall not leave these lairs.

<Continued – part 2>