WATER MARGIN is ridiculous. I'm really not sure what to make of these characters

I really can't tell whether this book is serious or joking when it talks about the virtue and heroism of its bandit-protagonists. I think it's a little of both. I know that morals were different in the 15th century, when this was written, but some of these behaviors are so appalling that there is no way the author could have approved. 

For instance, afte…