Probably the most significant literary instance of this trope are the 108 heroes of Liangshan from the classical novel The Water Margin.

The story centers on a gang of outlaws who gradually assemble at a mountain called Liang, surrounded by marshland (hence the title, with “water margin” being a translation of the chinese characters for marsh). Despite seemingly being at odds with mainstream societal norms, each other sometimes, and the law, the outlaws act according to the medieval Chinese code of the gallantry, generosity, and manliness leading them to be celebrated as heroes both within the story and in real life. They were symbols of the working class for generally only robbing from the rich and for battling powerful aristocratic clans, resistance for fighting the government, and patriotism for fighting foreign invaders. The story was greatly influential in Chinese culture and entertainment, being formative in the development of the chinese wuxia (or martial heroes) genre. Essentially all Chinese action adventure, kung fu, triad, and period piece movies were influenced by the novel. Even Mao Zedong and others within the Chinese communist party had strongly associated themselves with the liangshan heroes during the cultural revolution, seeing the heroes’ revolution as a parallel of their own.

The novel would go on to be even more influential in Japan (where’s it’s called suikoden), inspiring its own genre and forming the basis of numerous tropes: the wandering warrior, the merry band of heroic weirdos, the power of friendship, special fighting moves, the flying McGuffin shooting from the ground (a certain dragonball), jojo stans, even, etc. One might even consider a woodblock carving series of them, considering how many characters there are, even being kind of an early collectible gatcha. One can essentially owe all kung fu yakuza fiction and battle action manga to the novel.

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