Outlaws of the Marsh Book

China's great classic novel Outlaws of the Marsh, written in the fourteenth century, is a fictional account of twelfth-century events during the Song Dynasty. One by one, over a hundred men and women are forced by the harsh feudal officialdom to take to the hills. They band together and defeat every attempt of the government troops to crush them. Within this framework we find intrigue, adventure, murder, warfare, romance ... in a connected series of fascinating individual tales, told in the suspenseful manner of the traditional storyteller. --------------- The Patriotic and Righteous Outlaws of the Marsh is in one hundred chapters. Originally written by Shi Nai'an of Qiantang, and arranged by Luo Guanzhong. Luo Guanzhong, a native of Taiyuan, styled 'Wanderer of the Lakes and Seas.'He was solitary by nature, a writer of ballads and in esoteric language, which are original and fresh. Shidney Shapiro was born in New York, USA, in 1915. In 1937 he graduated from the Faculty of Law at St. John's University, and began to practice as a lawyer. During the World War II he was recruited into the army, and later studied Chinese at Columbia University and Yale University. He came to China in April 1947, and in 1948 he married the Chinese writer Feng Fengzi (Phoenix). From 1952, Shapiro worked as an English-language speicalist at the magazine Chinese Literature, and later at China Pictorial. He took Chinese citizenship in 1963, and was a member of the sixth, seventh and eighth National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference. He has translated Yuan Jing's Daughters and Sons, Ba Jin's Family, Mao Dun's Spring Silkworms, Qu Bo's Tracks in the Snowy Forest, Du Pengcheng's Defend Yan'an and Liu Qing's Builders of a New Life. Shapiro has also authored some books, including An American in China, My China, The law and lore of China: Criminal Justice, A Sampler of Chinese Literature- from the Ming Dynasty to Mao Zedong, Jews in Old China: Studies by Chinese Scholars and Ma Haide- Saga of an American Doctor George Hatem.Read More