Customer Reviews

All Men Are Brothers

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Nobel Prize winner, West Virgina born, Pearl S. Buck is primarily known for her novels on her childhood and early life in China. However, her 1933 translation of the Chinese epic story of a band of patriots in China of latter part of the Sung Dynasty, struggling to help the emporer rid himself of the despotic Prime Minister, became popular again with release in 1990 of the Japanese developed software game--Bandit Kings of Ancient China by KOEI Corporation.

The epic story took place about 100 years prior to time of Robin Hood. But the story contains many parallels to the story Robin Hood. Just as Robin and his merry band hid in the woods of Nottingham and, in the name of Richard III against the usurping King John, robbed the rich to help the poor, so too did the bandit kngs live as outlaws from the authorities in the "water margins" (marshes) of Sung Dynasty China coming out only to harass the prime minister's troops and attempt to solicit followers to overthrow the corrupt prime minister in the name of the emporer.

The two volume set is a splendid read and helps the reader understand more about the Chinese government and culture in the eleventh century.

Originally published as two 700-page volumes, Pearl S. Buck's translation of Shi Napan (1290-1365) and Luo Guanzhong's (1330-1400) Chinese martial arts novel "All Men Are Brothers" is now available in a new single volume edition from Moyer Bell. This 600 year-old epic tale of a band of patriots in the latter part of the Sung Dynasty is the story of a band of 108 outlaws 9105 men and 3 women) who struggle to help the Emperor rid himself of a despotic prime minister. Also involved in this work of classical Chinese fiction are ghosts, innkeepers who augment their groceries with the bodies of their guests, giants with superhuman strength, lovely ladies in distress, wily intellectuals, crafty merchants, and more! A sage replete with sorcery, action, beats, demons, and heroes, "All Men Are Brothers" is a terrific read from beginning to end and a very highly recommended addition to academic and community library collections!

I had read this Shui Hu Chuan or as translated by Pearl S. Buck: ALL MEN ARE BROTHERS several times.
The title is based on a saying by Confucius: "Among the four seas, all men are brothers. How can the gentleman bemoans that he is without one?" I bought the bound volume way back in 1959. Pearl S. Buck has done an excellent in translating this famous book of the Chinese. Reportedly, all the Chinese leaders are fond of this work. This work is based partly on fact and partly on imagination of the original author: Shi Nai An. In those days of Shi, tales of Shui Hu Chuan were told and retold at popular teahouses where the folks gathered to drink tea and for a few copper coins would listen attentively to the storyteller's retelling of the story from his prompt books. Then the author gathered all these prompt books and assembled them after editing into bookform as we are able to enjoy it today.
This story is the awesome adventures of the one hundred and eight martial heroes and the book have been translated into several foreign languages, notably Korean, Japanese and Vietnamese. I had personally saw a Korean translation of Shui Hu Chuan in a Korean book shop in Canada. In 1995, the CCTV or China Central Television successfully made a 43-episode docudrama of this famous novel and the depiction of the actions of the heroes are excellently done. Each episode last about 45 minutes and the TV drama is available on DVD but unfortunate the subtile is not yet available in English for Western viewers!
The Shui Hu Chuan (Shui means water, while Hu is lake and Chuan means story)is the first martial arts novel in both China and the world. Historically, there is a vast reedy marshed lake in the interior of Shandong Province and there the heroes gathered to fight several great battles with the corrupted and decadent Emperor and his officials in the troubling days of the Song Dynasty (960-1279 AD.I highly recommend Pearl S. Buck's excellent translation to all readers of Amazon.com. Pearl did a line by line translation and her English was written in such a way that when a Western reader reads the novel, it would appears that he or she is reading the version in Chinese...so expertly does Pearl S. Buck has rendered her translation way back in the 1930s. Finally, the Shui Hu Chuan is considered one of the ten classical literature that China has ever produced, preserved and existed to the present day.
The other great Chinese literary works are: Romance of the Three Kingdoms (San Kuo), Dream of the Red Chamber (Hung Lou Meng), The Scholars (Yu Lin Whai Shi), Journey to the West (Shi Yu Chi), The Golden Lotus (Chin Peng Mei), Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio (Liao Chai), and The Western Chamber (Shi Shang Ki). All of these great works of Chinese literature have been rendered into English as well. Cheers!

This was the first classical Chinese novel I ever completed, having previously given up on trying to read 'Romance of Three Kingdoms'. I prefer this novel to 'Scholars'.

Unlike some other translations, Pearl Buck tries to refer to characters with just a single name. This is an issue, as Chinese novels sometimes refer to the same character by several different names, making it much harder to follow the plot.

I remember a story being told that a father introduced this novel to his son before other classical stories not because it is the 'best' Chinese novel, but because he knew his son would read 'All Men are Brothers' eventually anyway and he wanted to guide his son through its more contentious passages!

The stories contained within 'All Men are Brothers' are enthralling, and provided an insight into a life and culture which no longer - or perhaps ever - exists, but still has echoes in Chinese society (and movies!) today. One warning, the 'prologue' describing the release of the spirits is one of the more confusing and perhaps boring chapters of the book. The rest of the book is much less confusing.

Oh, I did play the computer game mentioned by another reviewer, but only after I read the book!

I searched for years to find an out of print copy of this book. I only found the Pearl Buck translation after having read the Beijing foreign press version titled "Outlaws of the Marsh", and immediately enjoyed the Pearl Buck narrative. In the "Outlaws of the Marsh" narrative the band of heroes goes through a decline that is considered to be a "censored" method of telling the story. The Pearl Buck narrative tends to focus on characterization and relationships, but ends prior to the "decline" where the heroes are brought into service of the emperor (and split apart to weaken their numbers). It is often said that "the youth should not read "All Men are Brothers" and the old should not read "Three Kingdoms", the Pearl Buck narrative supports this theory. However, I suggest the Pearl Buck narrative for anyone, it is entertaining and a little rebelling from the youth may be a good thing now and again.

I was fascinated to be reading such an old story, beautifully translated. Each character, and there are many, have excellent stories accompanying them. Somehow these numerous characters are to come together by the end of the book. I had to back track now and then to get my guys straight - such as which one slayed the tiger and which one killed the general. There is a great listing at the end of the book with each characters name and poetic name. Awesome to slip into an ancient time and place. Crazy at times how the "gang" would kill a persons family so they wouldn't have an excuse not to join up with them. Then it's like "Okay, I guess since I no longer have a family or responsibility, I can join your gang now." With no grudge of course since it's for the greater good. Go figure. Obviously the mind set with this group and time is totally unlike anything we can easily relate to.

Very pleased with my purchase. It arrived faster than I expected. was exaclty what I ordered & was in fantastic shape.