Chinese Storytelling

The Water Margin saga Shuihu relates the adventures and exploits of a bandit group from Shandong province during the late Song period, around 1120. The group had its stronghold in the Liangshan mountains and the surrounding moors and marshlands that have given name to the saga. The leader of the bandits, Song Jiang, belongs to Chinese official history, and banditry was widespread at the time, but none of his one hundred and eight men seem to have any background in historical fact. They are part of the Chinese folklore pantheon of gods and heroes, well known to everybody. The stories selected here are all related to one of the most famous heroes of the marshes—Wu Song.

The extracts are selected from the first cycle of episodes in the repertoir of the Wang School, called Ten Chapters on Wu Song Wu shi hui. The first extract is taken from the very first episode of this cycle, Wu Song Fights the Tiger Wu Song da hu. It is here rendered in an original spoken version for radio 1961 by Wang Shaotang (1889-1968), the founder of the Wang school. Another extract from the same episode was told 1992 by his son and disciple, Wang Xiaotang (1918-2000). The following two extracts, told 1998 and 1992, are by Ren Jitang (1942-) and Hui Zhaolong (1945-) who belong to the next generation of storytellers who studied with Wang Shaotang, Wang Xiaotang and Wang Litang (1940-), daughter of Wang Xiaotang.

With the exception of the radio performance by Wang Shaotang, the other performances were tape- and video-recorded by the author of this website. The photos are by the late Jette Ross, initiator of this website. Here you will find short glimpses of the performances in sound, picture and text. For complete performances in text—English and Chinese—as well as longer extracts on VCD, see Chinese Storytellers.