How good would you say Water Margin is as a piece of literature? Such as it is well written or is it a fun/enjoyable read? The characters writing and event that happened in it. Is it any good/interesting?
It is probably the most value-dissonant of the Four Classics. Some may say it is intentional, others, including the novel's most famous annotator Jin Shengtan, see it as a failing because to him, living in the late Ming where peasant rebellions were popping up everywhere, it's too sympathetic to the rebels (surprisingly tho, he absolutely loathes Song Jiang while kinda liking Li Kui).
Personally, I see Water Margin as a novel about Jianghu in its rawest form——the low-class commoners and urban dwellers, the vagrants, the criminals, the *marginal* who come together to form this undercurrent of liveliness and unrest.
They are the people who suffer the most from official corruption and fall through the faultlines of traditional Chinese society, yet they are also bringers of suffering, bandits who have no qualms about taking the lives of innocent bystanders and subjecting women and children to gruesome violence.
They are united by their marginality and the "code of honor" within a traditional brotherhood, yet that brotherhood is not without its complex internal power dynamics, and, like the dynastic society they are a part of, are even more misogynistic in its idealization of said male brotherhood.
Ultimately, despite their status as bandits and rebels, they cannot escape from the framework of loyalty——either to their leaders, brothers, or emperor——that the corrupt Northern Song court is built upon.
At the same time, it paints a vivid picture of that life on the margins (no pun intended), with many memorable and colorful characters who are weaved together in this "group portrait" plot structure.
It's an enjoyable read *if* you can get past the value dissonance and the cannibalism, don't mind a tragic ending, and can stomach the more repetitive second half of the novel.