The Gathering Company: The Marshes of Mount Liang Part Three

This is the third installment of a new English translation of the classic Chinese novel commonly known as The Water Margin. In this volume, the group of outlaws residing on Mount Liang continues to expand, with the addition of a butcher, a blacksmith, a public executioner, a petty thief, and the usual defecting government generals. Lu Zhishen, the Flowery Monk, and his companions from Twin Dragon Peak reappear and ultimately join the group, thereby uniting two significant narrative threads. While some episodes are relatively lighthearted, such as the theft of a tiger or the illicit consumption of an innkeeper's beloved rooster, the overall mood is rather dark. A lecherous wife's naked body is gruesomely dismembered, and an innocent child is mercilessly killed to secure a reluctant recruit. Chao Gai, the leader of the Mount Liang outlaws, is killed in battle, and Song Jiang takes his place, though the question remains how long he can maintain control over his unruly forces.

Despite the allure of the marshland life, with its rootless freedom and rough code of honour, the reader is not to forget the story's origins, when 108 Demon Princes were released in a dark cloud. This new translation by John and Alex Dent-Young is the first English version of the 120-chapter edition of The Water Margin. The translators have endeavoured to make the English text as accessible to Western readers as possible, finding meaningful equivalents for many local terms and idiomatic expressions, while still preserving a sense of the original's historical and cultural context. Even readers in the West with no specialized knowledge of Chinese will undoubtedly enjoy the captivating stories and memorable characters presented in this classic novel.

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