Water Margin - Editions

Editions

The earliest editions of the Water Margin (in manuscript copies) were from the late 14th century. The earliest extant complete edition of Water Margin is a 100-chapter printed book dating from the mid-16th century. Another edition, with 120 chapters by Yang Dingjian (楊定見), has been preserved from the reign of the Wanli Emperor (1573–1620) in the Ming Dynasty. Yet other editions were published since this era to the early Qing Dynasty, including a 70-chapter edition by Jin Shengtan.

A printed copy of the Water Margin, dating from the Jiajing Emperor's reign in the Ming Dynasty, titled Jingben Zhongyi Zhuan (京本忠義傳), is currently preserved in the Shanghai Library. The various editions of Water Margin can roughly be classified into two groups - simplified and traditional.

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Famous quotes containing the word editions:

    The next Augustan age will dawn on the other side of the Atlantic. There will, perhaps, be a Thucydides at Boston, a Xenophon at New York, and, in time, a Virgil at Mexico, and a Newton at Peru. At last, some curious traveller from Lima will visit England and give a description of the ruins of St. Paul’s, like the editions of Balbec and Palmyra.
    Horace Walpole (1717–1797)

    The next Augustan age will dawn on the other side of the Atlantic. There will, perhaps, be a Thucydides at Boston, a Xenophon at New York, and, in time, a Virgil at Mexico, and a Newton at Peru. At last, some curious traveller from Lima will visit England and give a description of the ruins of St Paul’s, like the editions of Balbec and Palmyra.
    Horace Walpole (1717–1797)