Compared with the other three of the four famous novels, the version of "Water Margin" is undoubtedly the most, but before the liberation, there were only two basic versions that were widely circulated: one is the seventy copies of the so-called "halved" by Jin Shengsi's "waist cut" in the mouth of the later Water Margin experts, which is also the most circulated version before the liberation; The second is the hundred chapters, and after the seventy chapters, there are more tragic endings of accepting Zhao'an, Zhengliao and Fang La, and finally being killed by traitors, but because the style of writing is far rougher than the first seventy chapters, the unique "Water Margin" is also gone all of a sudden, and the plot and character are also extremely abrupt and suddenly changed from the beginning, so there have always been people who think that the next thirty chapters and the first seventy chapters are not the same author, and Hu Weidong also supports this point of view.

After the founding of New China in history, the publishing house whimsically excerpted the plots of Hirata Tiger and Wang Qing from another novel "Zheng Sikou", the theme of which was the heroes of Heiliang Mountain, and after a slight modification, it was inserted between the last 30 chapters and the first 70 chapters of the 100 chapters, becoming the 120 chapters with the greatest influence in later generations. Because the middle paragraph is shoehorned in (patchwork is not absolutely impossible to produce masterpieces, such as the classic cartoon "Battlestar" in the 80s, but after all, that is only a small probability event, and in most cases it will greatly reduce the level of the whole book.) ), both the literary level and the echo of the context are a mess, this one hundred and twenty copies are undoubtedly the worst version of the Water Margin.

However, the cultural life of the masses at that time was so poor that the demand for the quantity of cultural products even exceeded the quality, and the 120 editions were even more because of the chapters. On the contrary, it is more popular than the classic seventy editions, but it is somewhat similar to the situation that the update of online articles in later generations is more important than quality. Of course, the number of prints is also a reason, the strength of the printing industry in New China, which quickly became an industrial country after liberation, is far from being comparable to before, so although the 120 editions were printed later, the total amount is the largest

However, Hu Weidong also read another version of the 120th edition of "Water Margin", and that version claimed to be "Ancient Water Margin", which means that it is the real 120 originals written by Shi Nai'an

The first seventy chapters of "Guben Water Margin" are no different from other versions, but the last fifty chapters are completely different, after the sky descends from Shijie and the heroes of Liangshan are seated. The heroes of Liangshan in the book were not immediately recruited by the imperial court. Instead, he continued to act for the heavens and developed the Liangshanbo Righteous Army. The zuihou part of this edition is also only a side-by-side description of the reaction of the leaders of Liangshan to the well-known Zhang Shuye (who put down the Songjiang Uprising in history) to take up the post of Jeju Taishou and Gongsun Sheng's departure from Liangshan (he was the first to go, and Lu Zhishen then also took Wu Song to Wutai Mountain). "Gang is a hero, should be robbed." Heaven sends chaos to order. The elder holds the bow; Spear iron. The war horses neighed in the wind, the clouds flew and the stars scattered, and the water was blue and the mountains were empty. (Note 1). hinted at the tragic ending of Liang Shanbo, and the ending ended with the book of heaven (Song Jiang forgot the advice of the original Xuannu Niangniang and promised to show the three volumes of the book to the brothers, and the result was tragic), and the thunder and thunder made the whole book come to an abrupt end

Compared with the 100 chapters, the plot of the last 50 episodes of "Guben Water Margin" is better connected with the first 70 episodes, and the characters do not change too abruptly (there are also some changes, but there is a process, rather than suddenly and inexplicably changing like the last thirty episodes of the 100 chapters). At the same time, like the first seventy times, it continues the characteristics of Shi Nai'an's love for echoing before and after (likes to dig pits and has pits that must be filled), if Shi Nai'an really wrote more than seventy times, then this one hundred and twenty times of "Ancient Water Margin" is undoubtedly the most likely to be the real book in each version.

However, those Water Margin experts in later generations also found an obvious flaw in "The Ancient Book of Water Margin", although it did not reduce the level of the book, but made it much less likely to be a real ancient book. It turned out that the last fifty episodes of "Guben Water Margin" actually appeared many times in the colloquial language of the Republic of China, so later generations of Water Margin experts generally believe that "Guben Water Margin" and its predecessor "Guben Water Margin" (this is the title of the 1933 edition, the "Guben Water Margin" published in 1985 has been compiled, and a small number of other versions and even newly created content have been added, which is different from the 1933 edition, of course, it is generally the same. The last fifty times are forgeries, and Mei Jihe, a Chinese medicine doctor in Changshu during the Republic of China, who was the first to come up with this version, was considered by them to be the most suspicious, and the turmoil caused by "Guben Water Margin" at that time basically subsided

Originally, according to the thinking of ordinary people, this matter should be closed to the conclusion at this point, but Hu Weidong has never been afraid to suspect people with the greatest malice, he knows that if "Guben Water Margin" is really proved to be the original written by Shi Nai'an, then the biggest blow is undoubtedly the so-called "Water Margin" experts at that time, because the knowledge they relied on for food will all come to naught.

As the saying goes, "Cutting off people's wealth is like killing your father." Those so-called academic authorities will not let "Guben Water Margin" "straighten" in any case, so they naturally try their best to search for clues that are favorable to their arguments, and use their discourse power to desperately amplify it. Perhaps they felt that this was not safe, and even used the public opinion they had in their possession to define the difference between the 100 chapters that were obviously not the work of one person and that were very close (in addition to the problems of plot and character building, the problem of language and phrases in the last 50 chapters of "Guben Water Margin" also existed in the last 30 chapters of the 100 chapters (Note 2), but those "brick families" turned a blind eye to this with double standards) as the original, and their hidden selfishness is not difficult to see.

Note 1: That is, it is said that Tiangang should rob the mortal world and disturb Shijie, and later Zhang Shuye (the elder man holding the bow refers to the historical Zhang Shuye's pacification of the Songjiang Uprising, which is also hinted at in the Lu Junyi dream plot at the end of the seventy chapters. The plan is settled, everyone is scattered, the guns and horses are useless, and only Liangshanbo with beautiful mountains and rivers remains. Gongsun Sheng's message not only pointed out the ending of Liangshanbo's hero, but also responded to the plot of "Taiwei Hong mistakenly walking away from the demon" in the wedge and Lu Junyi's frightening dream at the end of the seventy episodes

Note 2: Of course, it is not the language habits of the Republic of China, but the middle of the Ming Dynasty, but Shi Nai'an was a person from the late Yuan Dynasty and the early Ming Dynasty, and the book of the rebellion of the Water Margin only had enough creative motivation at the end of the Yuan Dynasty, when the people were not happy. (To be continued......)