People who have read the original work of Water Margin, when they read it for the first time, should have the same question as me, why such a violent and dark novel can become one of the four famous works. In addition to Lu Zhishen being a chivalrous guest, there is also Wu Song and Lin Chong are also heroes, and the others are basically bandit bullies, blocking roads and robbing, killing people and setting fires, how can they be called good men, and can also be included in one of the famous works.
With such a question, I read it several times, and I also checked many interpretations of the Water Margin, and gradually the doubts in my heart were also relieved a little.
First of all, since it is a literary masterpiece, it must be said from a literary point of view, not from the storyline and the three views of our modern society.
Speaking of the 108 characters portrayed by the Water Margin, each personality is different, even if there are some similarities, but it is absolutely not repeated, speaking of each character, you can list a biography, and then carefully understand each character will find that everyone is alive and vivid, the vivid image portrayed has a three-dimensional sense, from this point of view alone, it is included in the four famous works is also indisputable.
Returning to the story of the Water Margin, although many of the characters in it did nothing evil before going to Liangshan, blocking the road and cutting paths, killing people and setting fires, and even eating people, after going to Liangshan, everything returned to the concept of loyalty. And finally accepted the court's offer, in the process of conquest of Fang La, did not drag mud and water, but tried their best, although the result was tragic and unsatisfactory.
Moreover, Shui Hu reflected the darkness of the Song Dynasty at that time from people of different classes, including Chai Jin of the aristocratic class, Lu Junyi and Qin Ming of the upper class, Song Jiang and Lin Chong of the middle class, and Wu Song of the commoner class, etc., portraying and narrating the darkness of the imperial court at that time from three different classes, each with its own difficulties, from many aspects and different angles to tell the imperial court at that time, what kind of environment the society was in at that time.
In terms of returning to the story, the twists and turns of the water margin story and the coherence of the plot are not inferior to any martial arts novel. Whether it is Lu Zhi's deep fist beating the town of Kansai, or Lin Chong's snowy night on Liangshan, or Wu Song's beating of the tiger knife blood splashing the Mandarin Duck Tower, each story has a strong logic, the story is full, and the character's psychological portrayal is delicate. Back to the big story of the conquest of Fang La later, the strategy written in the whole story, how to dispatch grain and grass, water road troops and horses, siege of the city, and then to the pre-battle duel, is not even worse than the Three Kingdoms, it is like a miniature version of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms.
In addition to the wonderful writing of the Water Margin story, there is also one point that is also one of the famous works, that is, the authenticity of the writing, although Song Jiang sits in the first chair in the Water Margin, many characters worship him when they see him, but those who worship Song Jiang are either wearing the body of sin, or they are small officials and petty officials at the middle and lower levels or they are people who are mixed in the rivers and lakes, but people who really have a certain social status at that time, such as Cai Jin, Lu Junyi, Qin Ming and other people, only respect Song Jiang, but there is absolutely no plot to worship Song Jiang. From this point alone, the logic of Water Margin's story is already incomparable.
Water Margin and Jin Yong's martial arts novels have one thing in common, that is, the heroes are not short of money anywhere, and when they go to the restaurant, they drink in large bowls and eat meat, never ask how much money, but Jin Yong's novels basically do not know how the money of those chivalrous guests comes from, but Water Margin writes very clearly, from this point, it can also be seen where Jin Yong's novels are inferior.
A seemingly nonsensical novel, the words are written in the bones of reality.
Although most of the characters in the Water Margin are villains, what does the imperial court look like when they do these things? Wu Song was framed by Zhang Dujian, Zhang Dujian made money to buy Wu Song's life, it was Shi En who also made money to save it, Lin Chong is a good character, just because his wife is beautiful, he caused some tragedies in the later series. Gao Li became a lieutenant all the way because he could play football, Cai Jing had a birthday, his son-in-law was able to scavenge so many gold and silver jewelry and let the government escort it to the capital, and so on, there were too many things like this to be counted one by one, if all of them were counted, the whole book was put here.
As for why the author calls those who kill people and set fires as good men, I think there are two points, one is that they dare to rebel against fate and are not willing to be squeezed and cut leeks, and the other is that when describing some things, they do not write from a positive point of view, but they stand on the true side of the sick society at that time, with a very strong irony.
These are on the surface, and there are still many places that need to be carefully tasted and not written directly, such as the art of scheming, how Song Jiang stepped up to the top position step by step, treating different people in different ways, treating Li Kui with one set, and Wu Song is another set. It describes a large number of factional struggles, how to get on the throne, how to win over, how to fight the opponent, how to pull a faction to fight a faction, how to employ people and wait for a series of things worth playing, xiaobian level is limited, can not come together. When you look at famous works, you must not only look at the superficial stories, but also the more wonderful ones are in the invisible places.
The key character of the whole book, I first recommend Lu Dalu Zhishen, he is also the soul of the whole book, although the whole book gives people the feeling that it should be Song Jiang, then this is the story level, and the soul of the whole book must be Lu Zhishen, he killed people and set fires all his life, but in the end he got the right results. He knows what is right, but also knows what is wrong, as long as it is right, he must do it, do not do what is wrong, do something, and when the road in front of him goes all the way to the end, he looks back at his life and suddenly has an epiphany. Lu Zhi deeply saw through the entanglement of those worldly red dusts, and what he saw was those illusory benevolent morality, but he directly walked out of the circle that bound people's behavior and entered a completely new field.
The dark side of this book does exist, but they exist in the sick society at that time, and it is those dark pictures that give people a strong sense of shock. They performed a farce, but brought people a realistic drama.