Bandits in Print: "The Water Margin" and the Transformations of the Chinese Novel

The classic novel The Water Margin was adapted and altered in the early modern era as it crossed the boundaries of elite and popular, private and commercial, and civil and martial, according to Scott W. Gregory's book Bandits in Print, which argues that the traditional novel is best understood as a phenomenon of print.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 192 pages
Publication date: 15 April 2023
Publisher: Cornell University Press

Bandits in Print delves into the realm of print in early modern China, with a specific focus on the renowned classic novel, The Water Margin (Shuihu zhuan). The experiences offered by The Water Margin varied greatly depending on the edition a reader encountered, a trait characteristic of the early modern Chinese novel genre and the evolving print culture of the era.

Scott W. Gregory contends that the traditional novel can be most effectively understood as a product of print. He explores the ways in which this influential novel underwent adaptations and alterations during the early modern period as it traversed the boundaries between elite and popular, private and commercial, and civil and martial. Gregory shifts his attention away from ultimately unanswerable questions about authorship and urtext, instead focusing on the editor-publishers who played a crucial role in shaping the novel through their own print editions. By examining the novel in its various incarnations, Bandits in Print demonstrates that print not only serves as a stabilizing force on literary texts but, in certain circumstances and with specific genres, can also be an agent of textual change.

Weight: 28g
Dimension: 229 x 152 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781501769689