Interesting I'll keep my eye on Water Margin. I hadn't heard of it before! Oh and I actually have started reading Journey to the West though I am just on volume 1. I also have something I have to get off my chest about Journey to the West. Shit is a hard read lol. Mostly because I am unfamiliar to Buddhist teachings and stories outside of a cursory understanding of it. Which makes some parts of the book a damn hard read. Still I want to make one other thing clear. Even though I am struggling with the book and constantly have to read the reference guide in the back of the book to understand stuff. I'm still enjoying the shit out of my read for this classic.
Ever play any of the Suikoden RPGs by Konami? The basic idea of those games (the 108 stars of Destiny concept, and having a base where you gather all these characters into a sort of rebel army) comes from Water Margin, you can even draw some comparisons between some of the game characters and their respective character in the book in the early games. The basic premise of the novel is there is a corrupt official whose actions cause (either directly or indirectly, depending on the character) the formation of a large bandit camp out in a marsh made up of people who basically hate him and want him dead. The early chapters consist of how these numerous characters came to be outlaws and made their way into the marsh. It's sort of like Robin Hood, if I were to compare it with a western story, only with 108 characters, and more cannibalism and poisoned tea.
The Plum in the Golden Vase is actually based on a couple of minor characters from Water Margin, with their final fate retconned from that story. It's the story of a woman who is married to the brother of one of the bandits who murders the brother so she can marry a prosperous merchant. The merchant has like six wives and concubines, including her, and most of the chapters have explicit sex scenes with the merchant and like 20 different people, including his wives and concubines (which led to it being a banned book for most of it's existence). In Water Margin, the Bandit tracks them down and kills the merchant in broad daylight as revenge for his brothers murder, while at the end of The Plum in the Golden Vase the merchant dies of an overdose of the aphrodisiac given to him by the murderess. Which is why I called it a fanfic. ;) Also, fun fact: Jackie Chan's very first movie role was as a minor character of an adaption of this novel to film.
Yeah the Buddhist influence can trip you up and Journey to the West is probably the hardest for westerners to get into and understand, but compared to Water Margin and Romance of the Three Kingdoms, it has a much more manageable cast of characters to keep track of, and who doesn't like the Monkey King. ;)