Will Reading
Water Margin
Make My Kid Violent?
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The full narration of the video.
An old saying warns: don't let the young read Water Margin. Yet schools assign it. It's on the required reading list in ninth-grade Chinese class. But flip through it, and parents get nervous. Killing, arson, a roadside inn that robs its guests, chapter after chapter.
The hardest part: Li Kui kills a four-year-old boy with his axe. That's the old worry: hot-blooded teens read it, want to be heroes, and start fighting. So do kids really copy the fighting they see?
Psychology has a famous experiment on this. An adult kicks and punches an inflatable doll. The clip is shown to preschoolers. But the endings differ. Some kids see the adult rewarded with candy and soda. Some see him scolded; some see nothing happen at all.
Then each child is led into a room with the same doll. Kids who saw the scolding hit it the least. Kids who saw a reward, or no consequence, hit it more. Then the researchers said: show me what he did, and you'll get a prize. Suddenly all three groups could do it, even the scolded one.
Kids remember the hitting after one look. Whether they do it depends on what they think will happen next. Back to Water Margin. The book calls these men heroes. After a killing, they often just drink and join the band. A child reading alone mostly sees the thrill.
It's like a match with no referee. A foul goes unwhistled, so the young fan thinks the move is fine. Read alongside them, and you become the referee. When Li Kui swings his axe, stop and ask: what did that little boy do wrong?
At the robbers' inn, ask: did that traveler have family waiting at home? The whistle doesn't stop the game. It makes the child see the one getting hurt. Psychologists call this observational learning: kids learn from what others do and what follows. Blowing the whistle fills in what follows.
The book adds some of that itself. By the end, most of the 108 heroes are dead or scattered, and Song Jiang drinks poisoned wine from the court. Ninth graders can handle the original. Younger kids can start with an abridged edition. Reading together isn't a guarantee; every child is different. And it's not just about this book. In cartoon fights and tough talk online, kids are watching who comes out ahead.
When you reach that axe, what will you ask your child?
The saying and
the syllabus disagree
"The young shouldn't read Water Margin; the old shouldn't read Three Kingdoms." It's a well-known Chinese saying, and nobody knows who said it first. The worry: hot-blooded teens read it, want to be the outlaw heroes, and start fighting.
Yet Water Margin is required reading in China's ninth-grade Chinese textbook.
Parents flip through
and get nervous
An experiment with
an inflatable doll
Psychologist Albert Bandura ran a famous experiment. Preschoolers watched a short film of an adult kicking and punching a big inflatable doll.
The film had three endings: the adult got candy and soda; the adult got scolded; nothing happened. Kids who saw the scolding hit the doll the least.
But when offered a prize for copying, kids in all three groups could do it.
One look is enough to learn how to hit. Whether a child does it depends on what they think will happen next.
A match with
no referee
A child reading Water Margin alone is like watching a match with no referee. A foul goes unwhistled, so the young fan thinks the move is fine.
Read alongside them, and you become the referee.
The whistle doesn't stop the game. It makes the child see the one getting hurt.
Its real name:
observational learning
Kids learn from what others do and what follows. Psychologists call it observational learning. Blowing the whistle fills in the "what follows" box.
The book fills some of it in, too. By the end, most of the 108 heroes are dead or scattered, and their leader Song Jiang drinks poisoned wine sent by the court.
What age,
which edition
Reading together isn't a guarantee. Every child is different, and you know yours best.
It's whether someone blows the whistle.
Quick check
When your child reaches Li Kui's axe, what helps most?
Like a referee at a match: blow the whistle on the foul, and the young fan learns the move isn't okay.
