To rebel is justified, said Chairman Mao Zedong, and he urged everyone on the mainland to read Outlaws of the Marsh, China's classic Robin Hood yarn.
These days the Chinese are not so sure.
Some viewers of a 43-part television dramatisation that has split the nation have written to newspapers to cheer on the 108 heroes who take to the hills and fight for justice against a heartless central government and its corrupt officials.
Others, especially in the capitalistic South, say they are disgusted by the story's rebellious message. Some say the rebels sought justice by killing the rich and helping the poor. 'But why should someone be murdered just because he is rich?' asks Yu Fu from Guangzhou in the Southern Weekly.
It is a thought that prompted many Chinese emperors to ban the book, also known in English as The Water Margin, which they feared would inspire any peasant with a grievance to rebel.
'Everyone wants to help the poor but we don't want to do it by forcing the rich to cough up,' wrote Li Ping, a Guangzhou resident worried about a revival of a Maoist class struggle.
