Chinese civilization - Essay Example

Outlaws of the Marsh, Monkey (Journey to the West) and Golden Lotus (Jin Ping Mei) educate readers what honor meant to the Chinese. Water Margin (In Chinese it is more commonly known as Shuihu Zhuan) or Outlaws of the Marsh was written in the 14th century and is part of the four greatest (classical) books on Chinese literature. Shi Nai’an is the creator of this marvelous text and is originally written in Chinese language. The events in the book take place during Song dynasty. One hundred eight outlaws huddle together at Mount Liang (also referred to as Liangshan Marsh).

Their intentions are to build a strong and brave army and they succeed in gathering men for this job. Later they are given amnesty by the Chinese emperor. In fact they now serve the government by going on various quests to resist rebellion upsurges in the country and to fight off foreign invaders. Wu Song, Lin Chong and Lu Zhishen are some of the major characters that stamp their bravery honor and courage on the pages of the novel. The book is divided into 100 chapters and the plot is woven around many fictional characters.

For instance chapters 7-12 are based on a fierce warrior by the name of Lin Chong. Chong (also goes by the name of Panther Head) and holds the 6th rank out of 36 heavenly spirits of 108 Liangshan heroes. Lin’s heroics are based on honor. For instance, Lin protects his wife many times from sexual advances of Gao Yanei, but later falls victim to a plot against him. Gao asks his father to help him frame Lin so that he could get his hands on his wife. He takes a special liking to his wife. Gao’s father Gao Qiu sells a valuable sword to Lin through a weapon trader.

And later invites Lin to show him his new weapon. Through trickery Lin enters White Tiger Hall carrying a weapon which used to be a punishable crime. He gets arrested and exiled. This is where the Chinese honor manifests as when he is escorted by guards, they try to kill him (on orders from