Short answers, pulled from the story.
Song Jiang gathered a group of outlaws at Mount Liang in the year 1120. Historical records from the History of Song describe how these rebels were eventually defeated by imperial forces.
Traditional attribution points to Shi Nai'an who lived between 1296 and 1372. Scholars remain divided on whether he wrote the entire work or if portions came from Luo Guanzhong, Shi Hui, or other candidates like Sun Kaidi.
Folk tales about Song Jiang circulated widely during the Southern Song dynasty forming the raw material for the novel. Real-life figures such as Fang La spread Manichaeism across China while Emperor Gaozong sent Han Shizhong to suppress uprisings around 1129.
The Chongzhen Emperor banned Water Margin during the Ming dynasty fearing its revolutionary themes would teach people criminal behavior. The Qing government banned the novel again in 1799 due to its influence on radical Boxer movements shaping their ideology.
The earliest printed copy dates from the Jiaqing reign between 1507 and 1567 titled Jingben Zhongyi Zhuan preserved today at Shanghai Library. A complete hundred-chapter version emerged in 1589 while Jin Shengtan published a truncated seventy-one chapter recension in 1643.