Water Margin is one of the earliest Chinese novels written in vernacular Mandarin. It is one of the Four Classic Chinese Novels and is attributed to Shi Nai'an. It is also translated as Outlaws of the Marsh and All Men Are Brothers.
A page from a block-printed version of the novel Water Margin, brought to Copenhagen, Denmark in the early part of the 17th-century
A flag that says "Enforcing the Way in Heaven's Name" (Chinese: 替天行道; pinyin: Tì Tiān Xíng Dào) on Mount Liang in Liangshan County.
Lu Zhishen uproots a tree (Summer Palace mural)
Wu Song slaying a tiger (Summer Palace mural)
Mandarin is a group of Chinese language dialects that are natively spoken across most of northern and southwestern China. The group includes the Beijing dialect, the basis of the phonology of Standard Chinese, the official language of China. Because Mandarin originated in North China and most Mandarin dialects are found in the north, the group is sometimes referred to as Northern Chinese. Many varieties of Mandarin, such as those of the Southwest and the Lower Yangtze, are not mutually intelligible with the standard language. Nevertheless, Mandarin as a group is often placed first in lists of languages by number of native speakers.
A page of the Menggu Ziyun, covering the syllables tsim to lim