Bryan Alexander's Reviews > Outlaws of the Marsh

Outlaws of the Marsh, a/k/a The Water Margin and other titles, is an epic Chinese novel about rebels, resistance, war, and friendship. It concerns 108 people who, for various reasons, defy local authorities and join a bandit force hiding out on a marsh-surrounded mountain.

The first three of four volumes describe 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 history , if 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 many are bittersweet or tragic. (hide spoiler)]

Some characters stand out. 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 with the other bandits. Li Kui ("The Black Whirlwind") is a manic murderer, comically quick to anger and kill someone, always ready to flip out and go berserk. Others are memorable due to persistent nicknames and repeated actions, like Bao Xu the God of Death, "Cut Your Heart Out" Wang, Lin Chong Panther Head, the Blue-Faced Demon, Ugly Son-in-Law, Oily Mudfish Sun the Fifth (!), or Kick a Sheep to Death. There's Mu Hong the Unrestrained and his younger brother Mu Chung the Slightly Restrained (770).

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 recommended 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 human when peckish (903). One misbehaving character gets cut into, disemboweled, and her guts hung from a tree (980). 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" (1420). An unnamed character dies from horror at her husband's ugliness (1353). 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 display. [Defeated general] Zhange Tao was disemboweled in front of the camp and his heart raised towards Heaven in a sacrifice to [several dead fellow heroes]. (2009)
Cai Qing cut out Du Wei's heart and offered it, dripping blood, in sacrifice to the chieftains who died in the Clear Stream battle. Song Jiang officiated personally at the ceremony. (2087)
(view spoiler)[Fang La was sliced to bits and beheaded in a public square of the Eastern Capital, and the remains placed on display for three days. (2113)
(hide spoiler)]

I placed Outlaws on my anarchism shelf, and think we should consider this an anarchist classic. 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. Governments are generally bad things, showing themselves to be evil and/or dangerously incompetent throughout. 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 with it.

When the bandits finally go over to the government, the 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. when the emperor figures out what's gone wrong, he doesn't do anything to punish these clearly malign ministers. State evil just goes on. Giving up anarchy for government work is a tragic and foul step in this novel. (hide spoiler)] The last page focuses on the people, seeing them as a repository for goodness and hope. 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." (1967)

I also added this to my fantasy shelf because of the novel's steady reliance on the supernatural. Magicians join some armies to conjure up demons, weather, fogs, and distractions. Several characters have supernatural abilities, like a man with the power to walk very fast (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 108 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. Their opponents can be magically fierce:

[Bao Daoyi] studied the unorthodox school of Taoism... [and] used his magic to harm others. He had a precious sword called the Occult Universe which would fly a hundred paces and kill a man. (2050)

In short, I recommend this to most readers. You'll need some patience or stamina during the first two volumes as the novel gradually assembles the bandit force. You might want to explore Chinese history and culture to better understand some details of formal speech, food, government, and daily life. You may also decide to take up martial arts, or open a friendly inn.