FREE OUTLAWS OF THE MARSH PDF Luo Guanzhong,Shi Nai'an,Sidney Shapiro | 1642 pages | 04 Aug 2008 | Foreign Languages Press | 9787119016627 | English | Beijing, China Outlaws of the Marsh Series by Wei Dong Chen Goodreads helps you keep track of books you want to read. Want to Read saving…. Want to Outlaws of the Marsh Currently Reading Read. Other editions. Enlarge cover. Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Open Preview See a Problem? Details if other :. Thanks for telling us about the problem. Return to Book Page. Preview — Outlaws of the Marsh by Shi Nai'an. Luo Guanzhong. Sidney Shapiro Translator. China's great classic novel Outlaws of the Marsh, written in the fourteenth century, Outlaws of the Marsh a fictional account of twelfth-century events during the Song Dynasty. One by one, over a hundred men and women are forced by the harsh feudal officialdom to take to the hills. They band together and defeat every attempt of the government troops to crush them. Within this framework we f China's great classic novel Outlaws of the Marsh, written in the fourteenth century, is a fictional account of twelfth-century events during the Song Dynasty. Within this framework we find intrigue, adventure, murder, warfare, romance Get A Copy. Paperback4-Volume Boxed Setpages. Published August 1st by Foreign Languages Press first published More Details Original Title. Other Editions Friend Reviews. To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up. To ask other readers questions about Outlaws of the Marshplease sign up. Which Outlaws of the Marsh translation is recommended? See all 3 questions about Outlaws of the Marsh…. Lists with This Book. Community Reviews. Showing Average rating 4. Rating details. More filters. Sort order. Dec 27, Bryan Alexander rated it it was amazing Shelves: historical-fictionlitanarchismOutlaws of the Marsh. It concerns people who, for various reasons, Outlaws of the Marsh local authorities and join a bandit force hiding out on a marsh- surrounded mountain. The first three of four volumes Outlaws of the Marsh how and why these rebels come to Mount Lianshan. These books also detail how local, then regional, then imperial forces attack the outlaws, and how the outlaws cleverly defend themselves. By the fourth book the emperor grants the bandits an amnesty, then sends them on grueling military campaigns against enemies foreign and domestic. I came to Outlaws of the Marsh with some knowledge of Chinese literature and historyif not the language, and found the book delightful and ultimately moving. At times it challenges readers with repetition and too many names. It's hard to keep track of so many chieftains and generals, and the middle campaigns become somewhat repetitious. But the novel uses copia for good purposes. It teaches as a great deal about tactics, strategy, management, and infighting, using many examples and situations. And while the total amount of Lianshan chieftains is hard to keep track of, especially in their tactical dispositions, that number gives us a rich and realistic sense of the scale of events. Ultimately, too, the swarm of bandits becomes emotionally charged, as view spoiler [so many die. The campaign against Fang La takes a horrible toll, and the postbellum fates of Outlaws of the Marsh are bittersweet or tragic. Song Jiang "The Timely Rain" emerges as the bandits' leader, and is very different from them. He rarely fights, but organizes and strategizes. He becomes a tragic character given his abilities, humility, and deep empathy Outlaws of the Marsh the other bandits. Li Kui "The Black Whirlwind" is a manic murderer, Outlaws of the Marsh quick to anger and kill someone, always ready to flip out and go berserk. It's not a book focused on inner states, although it does a good job of tracking the bandits' main leader and his shifting moods. Instead Outlaws focuses on actions as expressions of thought and feeling. Indeed, the book is wildly action-oriented. Just about every chapter features battles, kidnapping, assassination, murders for revenge, torture, unlikely escapes, and nearly continuous single combat. This helps explain the novel's popularity. A fellow air traveler saw me reading one volume, recognized the book, and said that his martial arts instructor Outlaws of the Marsh it to his class. I can see why. The violence level can be daunting, in fact, nearly reaching the level of horror. While there are a great many encounters without either explicit or implicit carnage, we do read of some very gory events. Cannibalism appears during the middle volumes, such as with an anthropophagic innkeeper and wife who ultimately work for the heroes. Even Li Kui helps himself to freshly killed Outlaws of the Marsh when peckish One misbehaving character gets cut into, disemboweled, and her guts hung from a tree A sympathetic character and eventual leader deals with problem people like so: "[Lu] carved out their hearts, cut off their limbs, and cast their bodies on the ground" An unnamed character dies from horror at her husband's ugliness Prisoners are routinely killed. The bandits aren't above using blackmail and murder to nudge people into joining them; they may be heroes, but are certainly medieval. They do tend to avoid wanton slaughter, frequently issuing "don't kill everyone" notices after taking a town. Revenge motivates the rebels, and others, to gory acts Song Jiang sent [defeated general] Zhang Jian to the Governor in Suzhou to be executed and his head hung up on Outlaws of the Marsh. Song Jiang officiated personally at the ceremony. Obviously a book with outlaws as its main characters should incline us towards that assessment, but it's really quite a programmatic part of the novel. The rebels almost universally have excellent cause to exit the rule of law, as their rulers are usually despicable. The few good officials we see the emperor, one of his generals either go over to the rebels fairly quickly, or, remaining in government, see themselves outflanked by the typical, vile functionaries. In contrast, Mount Lianshan is supercharged with good stuff. It's where individual outlaws find fellowship and support. Each character rises in personal development, becoming more effective and satisfied in life. This anarchist mob is clever, learning new tactics and technologies, always smarter and more resourceful than the governments contending Outlaws of the Marsh it. When the bandits finally go over to the government, Outlaws of the Marsh results are mixed. They continue to be resourceful and energetic, winning battles against enormous odds, and succeeding where governments failed. And at every step forces in government suborn them. The final campaign against a rebel suggests the anarchists have wholly changed sides, but the picture is more ironic than that. The rebel king is an authoritarian, despoiling the people among whom he based his movement, rather than working with them. Worse yet, view spoiler [the campaign kills the majority of our bandit heroes. Victory in it turns to ashes when bad ministers trick the emperor into assassinating two of its surviving heroes, and forces Song Jiang to kill one of his best friends. State evil just goes on. Giving up anarchy for government work is a tragic and foul step in this novel. We see a glimpse of an alternate path when some new characters refuse the offer of government rank: "If we wanted positions, we could have become commanders under Fang La long ago But we seek only a free like, not rank. We'll go through fire and water if you need our help. But if you want to make us officials, we're not interested. Magicians join some Outlaws of the Marsh to conjure up demons, weather, fogs, and distractions. Several characters have supernatural abilities, like a man with the power to walk very Outlaws of the Marsh like the American legend of Ten League Boots. Ghosts appear and have real effects, even possessing the bodies of living people. Various supernatural being intervene, often to help the bandits: numinous support for anarchism, I say. Indeed, all of the rebel heroes are actually "heavenly spirits and earthly fiends" also "stars of destiny accidentally set free by a bumbling marshal during the novel's first chapter, who terrorizes some monks then lies about it. Outlaws of the Marsh | The Folio Society JavaScript seems to be disabled in your browser. For the best experience on our site, be sure to turn on Javascript in your browser. We use cookies to give you the best possible experience on our site. By continuing to use the site you agree to our use of cookies. Find out more. Introduced by Frances Wood. Translated by J. Illustrations from the Rong Yu Tang edition. From supernatural feats of endurance to tales of poisoning, witchcraft and cannibalism, the timeless tales of villainy and heroism have engrossed whole generations and still provide inspiration for comic books, films, Peking opera and computer games. Plague has descended on the people of the peaceful Song Dynasty and the Emperor is desperate to Outlaws of the Marsh a cure. The freed villains gather in the marshes Outlaws of the Marsh Liangshan, in Shandong province, and become the outlaws of the story. From their base, they fight to protect the vulnerable and re-establish a peaceful and harmonious society, becoming heroes of the people in the process. This two-volume edition reproduces the popular chapter version of the text which begins with the release of the demons and culminates with the full assemblage of the heroes at the Liangshan marsh. Frances Wood, former curator Outlaws of the Marsh Chinese Collections at the British Museum, introduces the novel with her fascinating historical perspective and academic insights.