Short answers, pulled from the story.
Water Margin is a Ming dynasty Chinese novel set during the Northern Song dynasty around 1120. It follows 108 outlaws who gather at Mount Liang (Liangshan Marsh) to rebel against a corrupt government, receive amnesty, and are then enlisted by Emperor Huizong to fight invaders from the Liao dynasty and internal rebels. The novel ends with the tragic dissolution of the outlaw band and the poisoning of their leader, Song Jiang.
Water Margin is traditionally attributed to Shi Nai'an (1296-1372), but the authorship remains disputed. Some scholars believe Luo Guanzhong, the author of Romance of the Three Kingdoms, wrote or revised portions of it. Other candidates proposed over the centuries include the playwright Shi Hui and the politician Guo Xun. The first external written reference to the novel appeared in 1524.
Water Margin exists in several editions of different lengths. The earliest extant complete printed edition, published in 1589, contains 100 chapters. A 120-chapter edition from the Wanli Emperor's reign extends the campaigns further. Jin Shengtan's influential 1643 edition reduced the text to 70 chapters. Simplified editions range from 104 to 164 chapters.
Water Margin directly inspired multiple rebellions and secret societies. Rebels in late Ming Hebei used slogans from the novel. The Baguadao sect used a Water Margin-derived banner during the Eight Trigrams uprising of 1813. The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom modelled its fraternal hierarchy partly on the Liangshan outlaws. The Triad criminal networks adopted the novel's concept of "yi" (unquestioning comradeship). The Qing government banned the novel in 1799 partly because of its influence on the Boxer movement.
Mao Zedong presented a commentary on Water Margin on the fourteenth of August 1975, describing it as a political text useful "for learning by negative example, letting the people know the capitulationists." The Gang of Four immediately launched the Criticize Water Margin Campaign, using Song Jiang's fictional surrender as coded criticism of Deng Xiaoping and Zhou Enlai. The campaign backfired and Deng ultimately emerged from the political struggle victorious.
In 1827, publisher Kagaya Kichibei commissioned Utagawa Kuniyoshi to produce a series of woodblock prints illustrating the 108 heroes. The series, completed in 1830, catapulted Kuniyoshi to fame and sparked a craze for multicoloured pictorial tattoos covering the body from the neck to the mid-thigh. Japanese translations of the novel date back to at least 1757, and Kyokutei Bakin's 1805 illustrated translation by Hokusai became a success during the Edo period.