On The Prehistory of the Shui-hu-chuan [antikvár]

Acta Orientalia Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae, Tomus XXV, pp. 77-81 (1972) ON THE PREHISTORY OF THE SHU1-HU-CHUAN BY B. CSONGOR The historieal existence of Sung Chiang is anestablished fact, though not without problems^Nevertheless, the attempts at identifving any of his followers with persons mentioned in Sung historiography have yielded rather meagre results up to now.2 Researches into the prehistory of the növel Shui-hu-chuan have not fared better so far either.3 The third statement is primarily vahd as far as the earliest data are concerned, and it is this problem that falls within the scope of the present paper. In this case one has to bear in mind that the few and scattered data most probably emerged out of a changing, fluid and complex fabric of a rich oral traclition, the extent and nature of which, as a whole, has to remain hopelessly beyond our knowledge.4 Xevertheless, the Sung Chiang table as found in the Hsüan-ho i-shih (HSH) seems to furnish a certain amount of relevant information. The narrative and the list of the thirty-six (or seven, with Sung Chiang added) show several discrepancies and contradietions. It had already been eoncluded that this story, at least in the form as we know it, was compiled from various sources.5 The present study is concerned with three of them, i.e. 1.The story of Yang Chih and his men, turning ultimately into bandits in the T'ai-hang-shan mountains; 2.The story of Ch'ao Kai, i.e. the theft of the birthday gift; 3.The story of Sung Chiang, the rangé of which does not seem to be entirely clear: its nucleus was probably the murder of Yen P'o-hsi.