Hòu Shuǐhǔ Zhuàn 後水滸傳
Later Water Margin by 青蓮室主人
About the work
Hòu Shuǐhǔ Zhuàn 後水滸傳 is a 45-chapter Qīng-dynasty sequel novel to Shuǐhǔ Zhuàn 水滸傳 (Water Margin), written under the pen name Qīnglián Shì Zhǔrén 青蓮室主人 (“Master of the Blue Lotus Chamber”). The text is unrelated to the Hónglóu Mèng cluster; it continues the Shuǐhǔ narrative after the deaths of Sòng Jiāng 宋江 and the dispersal of the Liángshān 梁山 band, focusing on Yān Xiǎoyǐ 燕小乙 (Yán Qīng 燕青), the Dòngtíng Lake 洞庭湖 insurgents under Yáng Yāo 楊幺, and ultimately the intervention of Yuè Fēi 岳飛 to suppress the rebellion.
Tiyao
No tiyao found in source.
Prefaces
The Kanripo text opens with a preface (xù 序) by “Cǎihóng Qiáo Shàng Kè” 采虹橋上客 (Guest Above the Rainbow Bridge), written at the “Tiānhuā Cáng” 天花藏 (Heavenly Flower Repository), with publisher marks “Sùzhèng Táng” 素政堂 and “Tiānhuā Cáng” 天花藏. These colophon names are associated with a Qīng-dynasty commercial publisher active in the seventeenth-to-eighteenth century, the same imprint known for publishing the “Tiānhuā Cáng Cái Zǐ Shū 天花藏才子書” series. The preface is written in a moralistic vein: it argues that the heroes of Liángshān and the Dòngtíng Lake uprising were compelled into rebellion by corrupt officials and evil underlings — “此大概也，分而論之，則楊幺之孝義可嘉” (taken individually, Yáng Yāo’s filial loyalty and righteousness are praiseworthy). The preface signals that the narrative is a vehicle for oblique moral-political commentary.
Abstract
The Hòu Shuǐhǔ Zhuàn begins with Yán Qīng 燕青 revisiting the deserted Liángshān marsh and lamenting the fallen comrades, then receiving a vision from the Daoist immortal Luózhēn Rén 羅真人 announcing a new cycle of heroes. The narrative then pivots to the Sòng-dynasty Dòngtíng Lake insurgency led by Yáng Yāo 楊幺 — a historically attested rebellion of the 1130s — and the heroes who eventually join it: Mǎ Yù 馬癒, Tài Yuán 邰元, Sūn Běn 孫本, Hé Néng 何能, Yuán Wǔ 袁武, Hè Yúnlóng 賀雲龍, and others. The novel ends with Yuè Fēi 岳飛 suppressing the Dòngtíng Lake rebels in 45 chapters, culminating in the souls of the 108 outlaws (三十六天罡 / 七十二地煞) dissolving back into the cosmos.
Authorship and dating. The pen name Qīnglián Shì Zhǔrén 青蓮室主人 is unidentified; it has no connection to Lǐ Bái’s style name (Qīnglián Jūshì 青蓮居士) beyond the common character. The “Tiānhuā Cáng” imprint places the publication in the seventeenth to early eighteenth century. On balance, a date in the range 1650–1750 is most defensible. Modern Chinese literary bibliography places this work in the mid-Qīng popular fiction tradition, as a companion to such works as Shuō Yuè Quán Zhuàn 說岳全傳 and Fěng Shén Yǎnyì 封神演義.
Translations and research
No substantial secondary literature located.
Links
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