"Young people should not read Water Margin, old people should not read Three Kingdoms" is an ancient saying, which means that people should not read "Water Margin" when they are young, and they should not read "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms" when they are old. 》.

There is no exact record of who this sentence came from. Just like the current Internet buzzword, its formation is both accidental and inevitable. The first person to say it may not have expected it to become a buzzword, but when other people are interested in what he said, it will be spread and become popular, because it takes a long time for it to become popular. In the process, many unexpected factors were added to the spread process, so after it became popular, the source could not be found.

The phrase "Young people should not read Water Margin" was placed on Jin Shengtan's head probably because no one in history has commented on "Water Margin" better than Jin Shengtan. "Jin Shengtan's Commentary on Water Margin", with its fine artistic analysis and beautiful text appreciation, overshadowed all previous versions. After entering the mid-Ming Dynasty, it became popular in society, so much so that it was mistakenly believed that the sentence "Young people don't read Water Margin" is from Jin Sheng sighed.

In fact, "Young people don't read Water Margin, old people don't read Three Kingdoms" is a complete sentence. Jin Shengtan has never commented on "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms", so how could this sentence come from Jin Shengtan.