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Preface

About the Book, its Translation, Revision, and Romanization

The Water Margin (Shuihu Zhuan) is a classic Chinese novel dating from the beginning of the Ming Dynasty in 1368 CE. Notionally written by Shi Naian (ca.1296–1372 CE), in the Chinese tradition of vernacular literature, it evolved under the editorship of many editors and commentators until it was published as a 120 chapter version in 1592 under the editorship of Li Zhi. In 1641, Shuihu Zhuan was published as a 70 chapter version under the extensive editorship and commentary of Jin Shengtan. Despite being banned by Imperial Edict at the end of the Ming Dynasty and again during the Qing Dynasty, the novel became one of the most influential of the “Four Great Classic Novels” of vernacular Chinese literature.

Shuihu Zhuan was first translated into English by Pearl S. Buck in 1933 as All Men Are Brothers.1 Using Jin Shengtan’s 70 Chapter version, Buck based the title of her work on the famous quote from Confucius; “Within the Four Seas, all men are brothers,” which was quoted by several characters in the Shuihu Zhuan, since she believed that this quotation captured the true spirit of the novel. Buck believed that the literal translation of Shuihu Zhuan, the “Chronicles of the Water Margin,” to be meaningless for the English language reader acquainting themselves with the “Shuihu” story for the first time.2

This edition of Shuihu Zhuan was originally published by the Commercial Press Ltd in Shanghai and translated by J.H. Jackson in 1937. It was this translation that gave the English language the title The Water Margin.3 J.H. Jackson’s translation of the 70 Chapter version improved several shortcomings of Pearl Buck’s initial translation. Unlike Buck’s version which impeded the narrative by her “artificial style” and “pedestrian progress,” Jackson managed to maintain the rapid pace of action in the story.4 However, there are shortcomings in Jackson’s translation, which have been attributed to his desire for literal exactness and his prosaic style which often compounded descriptive lines and passages into terse and abrupt statements.5 It is not known how long Jackson took to translate his version of Water Margin nor under what conditions did he work. Jackson’s original translation shows some degree of inconsistency in the translation of recurring titles or terms. It is possible that this is indicative of a hurried translation and publication process, though it is rather more likely given the enormity of the task, that that the process of translation was slow, perhaps taking years. It is rather more plausible that the task was secondary to whatever Jackson’s vocation was (Water Margin appears to be J.H. Jackson’s only known work), taking a long period of time and set aside from time to time, which may explain any minor inconsistencies. History may have also caught up with J.H. Jackson, since by 1937, China had already been wracked by ten years of civil war between the Chinese Communist Party and the Kuomintang government. Adding to the social chaos, after many years of Japanese incursions and skirmishes, tensions were beginning to reach boiling point. In 1932 the building of Jackson’s publisher, the Commercial Press Ltd in Shanghai was bombed during a Japanese air raid on the city. In July 1937 the Sino-Japanese War, ie China’s Second World War, broke out in earnest with a full scale Japanese invasion.

Little is known about J.H. Jackson today, with which might otherwise provide an insight into his translation of Water Margin and his treatment of the contents. Jackson’s use of the English language does not present any particular flavor of idiom to suggest his nationality, though I do believe that he was American. Water Margin does use American spelling of the text (though this may simply be indicative of the origins of the Commercial Press Ltd as the American Presbyterian Mission Press) and in one instance, Jackson uses the phrase “Go tell that to the marines!”6 This phrase while British in origin, is mostly associated with an American usage, particularly after the 1927 film set in China, Tell It To The Marines. It is possible that Jackson, like so many translators of the period such as Pearl Buck, was himself a missionary or of a missionary family. There are perhaps some clues in Jackson’s translation of distinctly Christian terms such as “hell,” “Satan,” “God,” “devil,” and the like, for distinctively Chinese concepts, characters, and deities from mythology and folk religion or from Buddhism and Taoism. However, in the context of catering for the level of Sinological knowledge of the average 1930s reader, this in itself is again not particularly indicative of any philosophical or religious origin. Similarly, Jackson’s translation also uses what we may now consider to be degrading English language terminology of the early 20th century, such as the use of the word “coolie” for “laborer,” as well as more archaic Sinological terms such as “yamen runner” for “court aide.” Additionally, Jackson uses Anglophone terms and titles such as “Mr. Wu” and “Mrs. Wang” throughout the text which tends to sound awkward in the setting of Song Dynasty China. Similarly, it is absolutely perplexing why alone of all characters; Jackson translated the name of the infamous Ximen Qing into the literal translation of “Mr. Westgate.”

Furthermore, there are some confusing inconsistencies in Jackson’s translation that have more to do with Sinological nuances than Jackson’s ability as a translator. Primarily these can be found in the interchangeable terms of “soldier” and “policeman,” as well as the blurred distinctions of titles and ranks of “Inspector,” “Lieutenant,” “officials,” “judge,” “magistrate,” and the like. This problem arises in the fact that until the 20th Century, there was no independent police force from the army or militia. Likewise, in pre-modern China, officials at all levels of the Imperial civil service held dual responsibilities of judicial and civil administration, and these distinctions can become blurred in the translation.

Jackson’s own level of Sinological knowledge is therefore difficult to determine, given some of these Anglicizations, simplifications, perplexing errors and the need to cater for the average reader. However, given that he completed the mammoth task of translating the difficult text of The Water Margin in an admirably readable style, we can assume that Jackson’s Sinological knowledge, like his ability with the Chinese language was in fact, quite considerable. Contrastingly and with a precision that may actually have been pedantry, Jackson translated such obscuranta as of the names of Chinese star constellations into their English language equivalents, as well as expressing the “watches of the night” (the measure of time) in precise terms of twelve hour “AM/PM” time. Jackson not only translated the original Chinese measures of weights and distances such as jin, liang, and li into the English measures of taels (ounces) and catties (pounds) and miles as used in the Far Eastern and China trade, but also precisely converted their numerical values. Additionally, Jackson translated the poetic verse studded throughout Jin Shengtan’s version of Shuihu Zhuan into English rhyme and for the most part, managed to convey their meanings.

In common with Buck’s translation, Jackson’s translation is somewhat sanitized compared to the Chinese text. Jackson originally omitted the vulgarity and the profanity of some of Water Margin’s most beloved characters such as Lu Da and Li Kui, and other minor characters of the common social classes, which gave the original Chinese text its vigor and verve. In doing so, Jackson removed the literary vehicle which allowed the reader to contrast the sober propriety of the well educated scholars (which Jackson naturally conveyed very well), with the vulgarity and profanity of the common soldiery and citizenry. At best and wherever possible, Jackson, like Buck provided literal translations of some of the more vulgar profanities or appellations, which conveniently and ironically, masked their true vulgarity. Likewise, in keeping with the Edwardian sensibilities of the pre-war world, Jackson omitted the more ribald descriptions of sexual seduction and intrigue, the vivid descriptions of death by arsenic poisoning, the blow by blow descriptions of the blood splattering disembowelment, dismemberment, and mutilation of murder victims, and the precise description of what Westerners considered the most barbarous of Chinese judicial punishments, the lingchi, the public “death by slow slicing” or “death by a thousand cuts.”

In this edition of J.H. Jackson’s The Water Margin many of these shortcomings have been addressed. Retaining Jackson’s translation and therefore Jackson’s original narrative and voice as much as possible, this edition of Jackson’s Water Margin has been restored to a degree of its original grit and flavor as Shi Naian, Jin Shengtan, and other editors had intended in their telling of Shuihui Zhuan. I have translated and reinserted the sanitized descriptions of sexual seduction, the explicit descriptions of brutality and barbarity, and the profane voices of the thieving, scheming, drinking, fighting, pimping lower classes of Song Dynasty China. Similarly, the Chinese deities, Bodhisattvas, gods and demons have reclaimed their true names, as has the lecherous, over-sexed and ill-fated Ximen Qing.

The more nuanced and archaic idioms such as “Go tell it to the marines,” “coolie,” “Mr.,” “Mrs.,” “Miss,” and “yamen runners” have been either neutralized or updated for the Sinologically aware 21st Century reader. Similarly, I have retained the still familiar old trade term of “tael” in preference of “ounce,” but replaced the now forgotten “catty” with the Chinese word for the pound, “jin.” Conversely, I have replaced the English “mile” with the now more familiar Chinese word “li.” Of the system of romanization of Chinese names and places, Jackson used the then standard Wade-Giles system. In this edition I have updated these proper nouns using the pinyin system, which is the official standard of romanization of the People’s Republic of China. I have also used a little more care and consistency (since I am neither caught up in a civil war nor a foreign invasion) in order to distinguish “soldiers” from “policemen” and county magistrates, city prefects, provincial governors from one another. Historical titles, correct in Jackson’s literal translation, but incorrect in their definitions have been corrected, so that Jackson’s “Imperial Tutor T’sai” is more accurately “Prime Minister Cai.” Likewise incorrect translations of titles such as “Minister of War” have also been corrected to “Marshal of the Imperial Guard.” Jackson also made explanations and comments in the form of in-text notes in parentheses. Some of these were quite awkward and at times superfluous. I have tidied these up by either deleting them or adding further comments of my own wherever they were required as footnotes. I have done this in order to distinguish my comments from Jackson’s. Any errors and omissions in this process of editing are of course mine alone.

Readers of this edition must understand that this is in no way a new translation, or a reinterpretation of the Shuihu story. In my more fanciful and vain glorious moments, I see myself merely continuing the Chinese literary tradition of editorship and revision of Shuihu Zhuan rather than “changing” or “re-writing” Jackson’s The Water Margin. From Shi Naian, Shuihu Zhuan was passed through the editorship of many until the 120 chapter version reached Jin Shengtan. From Jin Shengtan, a 70 Chapter version passed into the English language through Pearl S, Buck, J.H. Jackson, and now from Jackson to me. In 1981, Sidney Shapiro the Brooklyn born US soldier, lawyer, and naturalized Chinese citizen translated the 100 chapter version of Shuihu Zhuan as Outlaws of the Marsh.7 This edition is excellent in its English translation, though given the mores of China and the United States in 1981, it does not do the more colorful gutter language its full justice. From 1994 to 2002, a new translation by John and Alex Dent-Young of the 120 chapter version was published as The Marshes of Mount Liang. This too is an excellent translation, with a restoration of the more vivid language of the Chinese text. One possible minor problem however, is the use of British idiom, such as:

“Why are you staring at me mate?”

The other replied: “I ain’t yer mate”8

While it may be quite natural to the Dent-Young’s and I to refer to another person as “mate” in an ambivalent manner; and while it may be delightfully refreshing reading to those of us who use the British or Commonwealth idiom, it may be difficult for others not so accustomed.

Therefore despite the excellent contemporary translations of the editions of Sidney Shapiro and of John and Alex Dent-Young, this version translated in 1937 by Jackson and now rejuvenated in 2009, remains the definitive English edition of the 70 Chapter version.

In the following introduction to this edition, I have not attempted any scholarly analysis or criticism of either Shuihu Zhuan as a work of literature or of J.H. Jackson’s translation of The Water Margin. This has been comprehensively done by many others scholars over the last 650 years, and has been done much more skillfully than I am able to do. I have provided some very basic coverage of literary criticism of Shuihu Zhuan and those readers wishing to further pursue this fascinating field may consider beginning with the references that I have cited. I have also introduced Jin Shengtan and his 70 Chapter version of the Shuihu Zhuan, as well as the themes and concepts surrounding the story of Shuihu Zhuan and their importance in the Chinese socio-political order. I also discussed the nexus of the concept of bandit rebellions with the Chinese socio-political order and how these are central to the Shuihu Zhuan story, and the influence of Shuihu Zhuan in Chinese history.

Finally, in the completion of this work, I must as always, thank Emma Runcie for her unconditional love and support. At Macquarie University, I must thank Professor Daniel Kane for the loan of his copy of the Shuihu Yuci Cidian which was of invaluable assistance. Just as importantly, I must also thank Professor Kane and Ms. Jennifer Cheng for guiding my Cantonese tongue through the finer points of the vivid gutter language of north China and the Central Plains.

Edwin H. Lowe

Macquarie University, Sydney

2009

Footnote

1 Pearl S. Buck, All Men Are Brothers. (Shui Hu Chuan). Translated from the Chinese By Pearl S. Buck. Vol 1 & 2. (The John Day Company, NY. 1933).

2 Pearl S. Buck All Men Are Brothers. (Shui Hu Chuan). Translated from the Chinese By Pearl S. Buck. Vol 1. (The John Day Company, NY 1933, reprinted 1968), p.v-vi.

3 J.H. Jackson, Water Margin, (The Commercial Press Ltd, Shanghai. 1937).

4 After Richard Gregg Irwin, The Evolution of A Chinese Novel: Shui-hu-chuan. (Harvard University Press, Cambridge. 1966), p96. For a more complete critique of Buck and Jackson’s translations see Ibid pp93-97.

5 Ibid.

6 J.H. Jackson, Water Margin, Vol 1, 5th Edition. (The Commercial Press Ltd, Hong Kong. 1976). p282.

7 Sidney Shapiro, Outlaws of the Marsh, Written by Shi Nai’an and Luo Guanzhong. Translated by Sidney Shapiro. Vol. 1 & 2 (Indiana University Press and Foreign Languages Press, Beijing, 1981).

8 John Dent-Young and Alex Dent-Young, Iron Ox: Part Four of The Marshes of Mount Liang. A new translation of the Shuihu zhuan or Water Margin of Shi Nai’an and Luo Guanzhong. (Chinese University Press, Hong Kong, 2002). p82.