《水浒传》的时间设置带有鲜明的“夜化”倾向,并且给人以增强性的叙事效果。首先,从叙事机制来看,为了把故事讲得头头是道,《水浒传》不仅将故事的发生时间具体到“是夜”、“当夜”等时间段,而且还细化到更次明晰的“三更”、“四更”、“五更”等更次,乃至“已牌时分”等时刻,既增强了故事的紧张感和惊险度,又增强了结构的逻辑性和严密性。其次,从叙事视角看,作者善于通过灯光月色的设置,来打开文本人物的内部限知视角,从而增强了读者对人物行踪的身临其境质感。再次,从叙事意趣看,作者善于通过将人物活动布设在灯前月下,给人以“加倍”的视觉效果,从而达到增强故事审美意趣的目的。 “Water Margin” time setting with a clear “night shift” tendencies, and gives an enhanced narrative effect. First of all, from the perspective of the narrative mechanism, in order to put the story to its fullest, Water Margin not only defines the time of the story as “night,” “night,” and other time periods, but also to a more clearly defined “three More ”,“ four more ”,“ five more ”and more, and even“ branded hours ”and so on, both to enhance the tension and thrill of the story, but also enhance the structure of the logic and rigor. Secondly, from a narrative perspective, the author is good at opening the inner limiting perspective of text characters through the setting of moonlight, which enhances the immersive texture of readers. Thirdly, from the perspective of narrative interest, the author is good at achieving the goal of enhancing the aesthetic interest of the story by laying the characters’ activities under the lamp before the moon, giving the visual effect of “doubling”.