The novel "Ru Lin Wai Shi" can be called the pinnacle of China's ancient satirical novels, the author Wu Jingzi described a large number of typical characters in the novel, and unusually, he also used many pages to depict the customs and feelings of a county, that is, Wuhe County.
Although this is a satirical novel, Wu Jingzi's satire of the characters is gentle and subtle, in the words of Mr. Lu Xun, that is, "upholding the public heart" and "being gentle and ironic", but his satire on the customs of Wuhe County, without the slightest tact, is direct and violent:
The customs of Wuhe, when he talked about the man's character, he smiled crookedly; when he talked about the family clans of the previous few decades, he smiled in his nose, saying that that the person could write poetry and ancient texts, and he would smile at his eyebrows, and asked what kind of mountain and river scenery there was in Wuhe County, and there was a Peng squire; he asked what kind of things wuhe County produced were strange things, and there was a Peng squire; he asked the Wuhe County that had the quality and hope, it was to flatter peng squire; to ask that person who had virtue was to flatter Peng Xiangsheng: to ask that talented person, whether it was a special meeting to flatter Peng Xiangsheng. But there is another thing that people are still afraid of, that is, they are relatives with the Huizhou Fang family; there is another thing, people are still affectionate, that is, the big silver is taken out to buy fields.
If a person has character, what is so great; who will look up to the declining family clan; if a person has knowledge, then it is a fart! To say that the people of Wuhe County are the most respected, it must be said that it is the powerful Peng Xiang squire, and then there is the Fang family with a big bouquet of silver.
The two major families of Wuhe County, the Peng family and the Fang family
The biggest squire in Wuhe County is the Peng family, and the Peng family is still the most powerful in the county, the family "won a few jinshi, elected two Hanlin", it can be said that from the imperial court to the locality, the Peng family has officials, in this small Wuhe County, the Peng family is simply the existence of hand and eye to the sky.
The Fang family is a businessman from Huizhou, opening a pawn shop and selling official salt in Wuhe County, and if a foreigner wants to do a good business in Wuhe County, he must first get a foothold, and the best way is to marry the locals. Originally, the Yu family and the Yu family in Wuhe County had a tradition of marriage for generations, and later, some families coveted the generous dowry of the Fang family's women and began to marry the Fang family.
Gradually, the Fang family stabilized in Wuhe County, and it was not uncommon to marry these two families, and the Fang family not only did not have a rich dowry, but said that the Yu family and the Yu family were begging to marry them. It is no wonder that now the Fang family has climbed a high branch in Wuhe County, which is not, "Second Master Fang has been a relative in the fifth room of the PengXiang gentry's family, and the fifth master is a new branch of the jinshi." ”
So who is the matchmaker? He is the prince of the county.
In Wuhe County, the richest is the Fang family, the most powerful is the county prince, the most powerful is the Big Township Gentry Peng family, no wonder the people of Wuhe County will not hesitate to climb and flatter them.
A famous dish at a family banquet in Wuhe County
The four cousins of the Yu family sat together to eat wine, and the dishes served were "a plate of stir-fried meat with green cauliflower, a plate of fried crucian carp, a plate of powdered chicken, a plate of eggs, a plate of fried shrimp with green onions, a plate of melon seeds, a plate of ginseng fruits, a plate of pomegranate rice, and a plate of dried tofu", a total of nine plates of dishes.
Doesn't it feel a little awkward? The number of dishes served Chinese is generally even, because people think that even numbers are auspicious, so why do the Brothers of the Yu family only eat nine plates of dishes when they eat wine? Because there is another dish that is invisible, that is, various topics about the Peng family, which is excellent for accompanying wine.
"Today, Wang's parents (county order) are eating wine at Peng Lao'er's house", "Peng Lao's fourth o'clock examination" and so on, these are the major news in Wuhe County, and people are happy to exchange information on the peng family's recent situation at the wine table to show their close relationship with the Peng family. Some of the truths and falsity of the things being discussed cannot be discerned, and perhaps the person who spoke was simply hearsay, and even added some of his own fabrications or exaggerations.
Yu Yin said that when Hanlin Peng Laosi was about to retire from the dynasty, there was a sentence that did not answer very well, and the result was that the emperor slapped it, which was an anecdote about the Peng family and the current imperial court, and it was announced at a small family banquet in a small county town, and the people who spread the news should be very proud.
However, this was immediately debunked by Mr. Yu Da on the table, because above the court, the emperor sitting on the dragon chair said that he could not reach the officials standing at the bottom, so how could he photograph Peng Laosi?
Yu Shi also said that one day the emperor asked the ministers whether the officials of the Ying Tianfu should be replaced, and Peng Laosi replied that it was time to change, and then he also carried out a series of secret operations, and as a result, this was heard by Mr. Yu Er, peng Laosi was a Hanlin, and the change of officials was a matter of officials, and it was not the turn of the Hanlin Academy to talk more.
The four brothers sat together and ate wine, especially Mr. Yu Da and Mr. Yu Er brothers who sat outside to teach all year round, and everyone rarely got together to talk about their respective experiences, tell each other about their own homework, and have to talk about the "next door account" of the Peng family.
The question of where to eat
The most faceful thing that people in Wuhe County said was that they could go to the Peng family or the Fang family for a drink, and even if there was no real matter, they could make up it several times to scare people. Yao Wuye had just finished lunch at Yu Huaxuan the day before, and when he went out, he told Tang Erbao that he had eaten at Renchang Dianfang Lao Liu's house, and as a result, the next day he was exposed by Tang Erbao in front of Yu Huaxuan.
After Yao Wuye finished eating at Yu Huaxuan's house, he was going to go out for a walk again, and Tang Erbao said to him, you should tell others this time that you just ate at Peng Lao'er's house, right? Yao Wuye smiled and said, "Today I am here to accompany Mr. Yao, everyone knows it, it is not easy to say that it is elsewhere." Then smiled and left.
In order to show that his relationship with the Peng family and the Fang family is good, and telling such a lie to others is already boring enough, and when he is ridiculed by others, he can actually laugh to explain, which shows that this person's shamelessness has reached the height of perfection.
Father Cheng is a "head of the xingxing dealership", that is, the middleman of the folk trade, he lived in Yu Huaxuan's house for a few days, and he lied in passing, saying that the Fang family wanted to invite him to dinner, and as a result, he was fiercely teased by Yu Huaxuan.
Yu Huaxuan first looked for someone to inquire about whether the Fang family had invited guests that day, and when he got a negative answer, he asked people to write an invitation to Cheng Lao's father under the guise of the fang family's name, and then secretly put it in Cheng's room.
Old Father Cheng went home to see it, and he was happy, he didn't expect that a lie he accidentally told had become a real thing, so on that day, Old Father Cheng came to Fang's house happily, and as a result, he and Fang Laoliu began to chat awkwardly, and finally had to leave in a polite manner.
Old Father Cheng returned to Yu Huaxuan's house with doubts in his heart, and at this time, Yu Huaxuan was eating and drinking with several people. Seeing that Old Father Cheng had returned, Yu Huaxuan suppressed the smile on his stomach, quickly let Old Father Cheng sit down aside, and asked the next person to bring him a bowl of Chen tea, saying that this would be a good way to digest the good things he had just eaten at the Fang family banquet. Old Father Cheng watched several of them happily eating meat and drinking wine, and was so angry that "the fire was directly bubbling up at the top door", but there was no way to attack, so he had to wait until the guests dispersed, and quietly went to the butler's room to ask for a bowl of fried rice to soak and eat.
Between clans and forces, how to choose a side
In ancient times, if there was one or more women and martyrs in the family who were selected for the festival martyrs' shrine and were honored by posterity, it was a big thing that flowed through the ages and shone brightly, and Wuhe County also carried out this activity, of which there was one ancestor of the Yu family, there were two ancestors of the Yu family, Yu Huaxuan and Mr. Yu Da went to inform the people of their own clan, and when they met, they sent the ancestors of the family to the temple, and they each touched a nose of ash.
Because an old lady of the Fang family also wants to enter the temple, they have to go to the Fang family to "accompany the sacrifice and wait for the delivery", where is the time to send their ancestors?
On that day, the rest of the yu and Yu families ran to the back of the Fang family's team, and also gave the Fang family a lot of yellow umbrellas, flags, and golden signs, which were very solemn, and the pavilions and blowing hands used by the Yu family and the Yu family, as well as the poor few people, looked so shabby and desolate compared with the Fang family.
Of course, the author did not forget to satirize the family by the way, sketching a disgusting picture for them:
Then there was a woman who sold flower teeth, surnamed Quan, with a pair of feet, walked up to the cabinet, laughed and said, "I came to see the old lady enter the temple!" Fang Liu smiled brightly and stood with him, crouching on the railing to watch the deacon. Elder Fang Liu pointed at him one by one and listened to him. The right seller held the railing with one hand, pulled open the waistband of his pants with the other hand to catch lice, and caught them, one by one, and sent them into his mouth.
After the incident, Mr. Yu Da angrily said to Yu Huaxuan: "Cousin, in our county, etiquette, righteousness, honesty and shame are always extinct!" ”
Why did the author spare no effort to criticize Wuhe County? Probably someone in Wuhe County had once fiercely offended Wu Jingzi, otherwise, he was describing Wuhe County according to his experience in his hometown quanjiao. Although his life in Quanjiao was not long, it was the most painful place he experienced in his life: the death of his relatives, the defeat of the imperial examination, the coveting and robbery of his inheritance by the children of the clan, and the ridicule and ridicule of the villagers after he was angry and scattered his family wealth...
Now, there is a Wuhe County in the north of Anhui Province, but the people there don't have to worry about it, whose hometown does not have a little shadow of Wuhe County!