108 Heroes from Outlaws of the Marsh: How would you accomplish this?

General Memory Chat
1

Hi Folks,

I’d like to examine a particular problem as an example of what can be accomplished through memory techniques. My basic question here is

a) How would you accomplish this task?

or

b) What are some effective methods that could be employed?

In other words, I’m looking for some specific ideas here. I don’t mind if different people bring different ideas to the table, or if they contradict one another. I know that there may not be one definitive method. But I’m looking for hints as to how one could go about this task. Personal experience with such problems, or methods that have been applied to similar problems will be helpful to consider.

The task:

-Memorize, in order, the 108 major protagonists from the Chinese classic novel Outlaws of the Marsh (also known as Water Margin). These protagonists have a clearly defined ranking, and they can be divided into a higher order, the 36 stars of Heavenly Spirits, and a lower order, the 72 stars of Earthly Fiends.

-For each protagonists, remember: Their Chinese Name, Their Nickname, One or more “major narrative facts.”

(It’s noteworthy here that the “nicknames” already serve a mnemonic function. The author clearly assumed that readers could become confused by the complex narrative and large array of characters without giving each a memorable image such as “Dry Land Crocodile,” or “The Master Hand.”)

-Be able to recall the data in a variety of ways, so as to answer such questions as:

  1. What was the nickname of Ling Zhen? (Answer: “The Heaven-Shaking Thunder”)
  2. What was the Chinese name of “The Suppressor of Three Mountains”? (Answer: Huang Xin)
  3. What was the rank of Wu Song? (Answer: 14th Heavenly Spirit)
  4. Who was the 29th Earthly Fiend? (Answer: Li Gun a.k.a. “The Flying Divinity”)
  5. Who uprooted a tree in a temple garden? (Answer: Sagacious Lu)
  6. What is a major narrative fact about “Beautiful Beard?” (Answer: He was responsible for the son of a prefect, when the child was kidnapped at a fireworks festival and murdered).

Note: The ranking of characters is clearly established, but the Romanized spelling of names will differ between translations, as will the nicknames. Some characters may have more than one Chinese name, or variations in the nicknames used. To simplify the task, I can rely on one source for the list of names and nicknames. I’m electing to use the Sidney Shapiro translation, which I’ve personally read. In my next post, I’ll present a list of basic starting data.

2

As a starting point, here is the list of characters with their rank, Chinese name, and nickname. As for “major narrative facts,” that’s a subjective judgement that could take a lot of review time of the text (which is several thousand pages in length), but perhaps somewhere out there, there may reside an already prepared list of such details. But for now, I don’t have that important element assembled.

Heavenly Spirits

Rank—Name—Nickname—Facts

01—Song Jiang—The Timely Rain
02—Lu Junyi—The Jade Unicorn
03—Wu Yong—The Wizard
04—Gongsun Sheng—The Dragon in Clouds
05—Guan Sheng—The Big Halberd
06—Lin Chong—The Panther Head
07—Qin Ming—The Thunderbolt
08—Huyan Zhuo—The Two Rods
09—Hua Rong—The Lesser Li Guang
10—Chai Jin—The Small Whirlwind
11—Li Ying—The Heaven-Soaring Eagle
12—Zhu Tong—The Beautiful Beard
13—Sagacious Lu (Lu Da)—The Tattooed Monk
14—Wu Song—The Pilgrim
15—Dong Ping—General Two Spears
16—Zhang Qin—The Featherless Arrow
17—Yang Zhi—The Blue-Faced Beast
18—Xu Ning—The Metal Lancer
19—Suo Chao—The Urgent Vanguard
20—Dai Zong—The Marvelous Traveler
21—Liu Tang—The Red-Haired Demon
22—Li Kui—The Black Whirlwind
23—Shi Jin—The Nine Dragons
24—Mu Hong—The Unrestrained
25—Lei Heng—The Winged Tiger
26—Li Jun—The Turbulent River Dragon
27—Ruan the Second—The Ferocious Giant
28—Zhang Heng—The Boat Flame
29—Ruan the Fifth—The Recklessly Rash
30—Zhang Shun—The White Streak in the Waves
31—Ruan the Seventh—The Devil Incarnate
32—Yang Xiong—The Pallid
33—Shi Xiu—The Rash
34—Xie Zhen—The Two-Headed Snake
35—Xie Bao—The Twin-Tailed Scorpion
36—Yan Qing—The Prodigy

3

Earthly Fiends

01—Zhu Wu—The Miraculous Strategist
02—Huang Xin—The Suppressor of Three Mountains
03—Sun Li—The Sickly General
04—Xuan Zan—The Ugly Son-in-Law
05—Hao Siwen—The Wild Dog
06—Han Tao—The Ever-Victorious General
07—Peng Qi—The Eyes of Heaven General
08—Shan Tinggui—The Water General
09—Wei Dingguo—The Fire General
10—Xiao Rang—The Master Hand
11—Pei Xuan—The Ironclad Virtue
12—Ou Peng—The Golden Wings Brushing the Clouds
13—Deng Fei—The Fiery-Eyed Lion
14—Yan Shun—The Elegant Tiger
15—Yang Lin—The Elegant Panther
16—Ling Zhen—The Heaven-Shaking Thunder
17—Jiang Jing—The Magic Calculator
18—Lu Fang—The Little Duke
19—Guo Sheng—The Second Rengui
20—An Daoquan—The Skilled Doctor
21—Huangpu Duan—The Purple Beard
22—Wang Ying—The Stumpy Tiger
23—Hu Sanniang—Ten Feet of Steel
24—Bao Xu—The God of Death
25—Fan Rui—The Demon King Who Roils the World
26—Kong Ming—The Comet
27—Kong Liang—The Flaming Star
28—Xiang Chong—The Eight-Armed Nezha
29—Li Gun—The Flying Divinity
30—Jin Dajian—The Jade-Armed Craftsman
31—Ma Lin—The Elfin Flutist
32—Tong Wei—The Dragon from the Cave
33—Tong Meng—The River Churning Clam
34—Meng Kang—The Jade Flagpole
35—Hou Jian—The Long-Armed Ape
36—Chen Da—The Gorge-Leaping Tiger
37—Yang Chun—The White-Spotted Snake
38—Zheng Tianshou—The Fair-Face Gentleman
39—Tao Zongwang—The Nine Tailed Tortoise
40—Song Qing—The Iron Fan
41—Yue He—The Iron Throat
42—Gong Wang—The Flowery-Necked Tiger
43—Ding Desun—The Arrow-Struck Tiger
44—Mu Chun—The Slightly Restrained
45—Cao Zheng—The Demon Carver
46—Song Wan—The Guardian of the Clouds
47—Du Qian—The Skyscraper
48—Xue Yong—The Sick Tiger
49—Shi En—The Golden-Eyed Tiger Cub
50—Li Zhong—The Tiger-Fighting General
51—Zhou Tong—The Little King
52—Tang Long—The Gold-Coin Spotted Leopard
53—Du Xing—The Demon Face
54—Zou Yuan—The Dragon from the Forest
55—Zou Run—The One-Horned Dragon
56—Zhu Gui—The Dry-Land Crocodile
57—Zhu Fu—The Smiling Tiger
58—Cai Fu—The Iron Arm
59—Cai Qing—The Single Blossom
60—LiLi—The Hell’s Summoner
61—Li Yun—The Black-Eyed tiger
62—Jiao Ting—The Merciless
63—Shi Yong—The Stone General
64—Sun Xin—The Junior General
65—Mistress Gu—The Tigres
66—Zhang Qing—The Vegetable Gardener
67—Sun Erniang—The Witch
68—Wang Dinliu—The Lightning
69—Yu Baosi—The Spirit of the Dangerous Road
70—Bai Sheng—The Daylight Rat
71—Si Qian—The Flea on the Drum
72—Duan Jingzhu—The Golden Dog

4

my 2 cents:

12 groups of 9 characters interacting in short stories. Give each character distinct visual characteristics and incorporate the sound of their names into their faces (look up names and faces on the forum). Have them interact with each other in ways consistent with the stories and their individual class. Once you have distinct visual characteristic and a loci for the 12 groups reading the story should offer you much you need to fill in the short stories that can help you remember all you want.

you could also make a really long poem

5

You could create 2 journeys and place all characters in order into them. For example for your Heavenly Spirits:

Loci 01—Song Jiang— (The) Timely Rain
Jane (from Tarzan) is swinging on a song script, accidentally bumping into the rabbit from Alice in Wonderland who’s mumbling that he got no time while checking his watch. The whole scene gets covered in a heavy rainstorm.

Loci 02—Lu Junyi— (The) Jade Unicorn
Lucy Lu is playing Jumanji,riding on a huge jade unicorn

Loci 03—Wu Yong—(The) Wizard
Wolverine is throwing Mahjong pieces at the Wizard of Oz
…

You could put all the places into Anki, recalling them like:
Question: Journey-Name 01
Answer: Song Jiang— The Timely Rain

6

Try to get the book “Remember, remember” by Ed Cooke. He does something very similar to what you proposed…