Water Margin (Shuihu zhuan) is one of the earliest Chinese novels written in vernacular Mandarin, and is attributed to Shi Nai'an. It is also translated as Outlaws of the Marsh and All Men Are Brothers. It is considered one of the Four Great Classical Novels of Chinese literature. It has introduced readers to many of the best-known characters in Chinese literature, such as Wu Song, Lin Chong, Pan Jinlian, Song Jiang and Lu Zhishen. Water Margin also exerted a towering influence in the development of fiction elsewhere in East Asia, such as in Japanese literature.