All Men Are Brothers – [Shui Hu Chuan] – Intro #3

All Men Are Brothers – [Shui Hu Chuan] – Intro #3

Translated by Pearl S. Buck

I. Introduction by Lin Yutang – Part 3

Plainly, All Men Are Brothers is a book of anger, giving popular vent to a general dissatisfaction with a government which found no legitimate outlet in the orthodox classical writings of the scholars. It is wrong for some critics to assume that, in the development of this cycle of outlaw stories; the robbers gradually became popular heroes in the 14^th century dramas and not from the very beginning, for the anti-government nature of these stories is basic. The Hsuanho Chronicles which, although chronologically arranged, already assumed the form of stories rather than history, was based upon story-tellers’ copy in the 12^th century. Already, in these Chronicles, Sung Chiang was pictured as having raised a banner on his fort with the words: To render Justice for Heaven and Save the People.

During the greater part of the 12^th and 13^th centuries, north China was under foreign rule, and, when the Mongol Dynasty (1277-1367) of Kublai Khan began, the whole of China was placed under a foreign yoke. It was under this Dynasty that Shih Nai-an and Lo Kuan-chung devoted themselves to novel writing. The founder of the following Chinese Ming Dynasty was a pig herd by profession and murdered all the generals who had helped him to power. Lo Kuan-chung lived to see this, too. On the whole, the rule of the eunuchs predominated in the Ming Dynasty. Against such a background of foreign rule and maladministration, it is easy to understand why the people found some solace and vicarious joy in listening to the tales of the brave men of the forest who dared to defy the government and to rebel.

Li Chih, who wrote the preface to his edition in the 16^th century, expressed most forcefully the reason why the mountain lair of these robbers went by the name, The Hall of the Just and the Patriotic: “The ancients did not write books unless they felt some great indignation. To write a book without some great indignation would be like shivering without feeling cold and groaning without pain, and would be entirely futile. All Men Are Brothers is a book written out of indignation. For since the Sung House weakened, unprincipled men came into power; the able and honest lived in retirement while the cunning and deceitful were sitting on top. Very soon China itself was the ruled while a foreign race was the ruler. Yet the emperors and their courtiers were disporting themselves in ease and pleasure, while they paid tribute to the foreign master, called themselves his servants and bent their knees before the dogs and swine. Shih (Nai-an) and Lo (Kuan-chung) lived in the Mongol Dynasty, yet their hearts were with the Sungs. Born under Mongol rule, they were indignant at the affairs of the previous dynasty. To give vent to their anger over the captivity of the emperors, they depicted the conquest of the Liaos, and in their dissatisfaction with a dictated peace, they described the conquest of Fang Lah (stories omitted in the present edition). Who could have helped them give vent to their anger but these brave men of the mountain lakes? We cannot but grant them the title of ‘the Just and the Patriotic’. That was why the authors, Shih and Lo, after having written the story, called it The Story of the Just and the Patriotic. “ (This is a popular name of the novel appearing in many editions.)

<Continued – part 4>