Text | Reading Jun
Reading Junkan Literature Series
Literary works are the products of human spiritual culture. Literary works are actually a miniature version of social diversity.
The four famous works of China are well known to everyone. Among them, "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" and "Water Margin" are loved by many male readers.
However, there has always been a common saying: "The old do not look at the Three Kingdoms, less do not look at the Water Margin".
Why is that?
01 The old man does not look at the Three Kingdoms
First of all, as we all know, "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" is a book describing military warfare, and the novel not only creates various distinct characters, but also writes about various grand battle scenes, and also writes about the use of various strategies and strategies.
The reason why readers like to read "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" is not only because of the macro-historical nature of the work itself, but also because the book has a lot of literary background and a lot of strategic wisdom.
As we all know, from the 8th century BC to the 3rd century BC, that is, the Spring and Autumn Warring States period, it was the most turbulent and strife-filled era in ancient Chinese history.
It is said that "the times make heroes", in such a chaotic era, heroes are born, and everyone wants to try to control the world and try to compete for political power.
War and killing inevitably lead to death.
"Romance of the Three Kingdoms" is based on the military, political and diplomatic struggles between the three kingdoms of Wei, Shu and Wu as the object of depiction, and the particularity of the subject matter determines that this novel work must be full of bloody storms and swords and shadows.
For example, in the novel, from the first time to the historical events of the great general Dou Wu and Taifu Chen Fan who "rebelled against the eunuchs" because they plotted against the eunuchs, to the 120th time to describe the plot of the Eastern Wu ministers "cutting cen dim and destroying their flesh" for the crime of misleading the country at the time of the large-scale conquest of the Wei army, almost every chapter writes about killing and death.
Death is one of the biggest "highlights" of this book, and the various forms of character death depicted in the novel have become the most colorful strokes of this book.
And the various deaths in the novel are almost all abnormal deaths, most of them are killed, rather than normal life, old age, illness and death.
For example, after Dong Zhuo was killed by Lü Bu in the ninth time of the novel, not only did he lose his head, but his body was also abused. What's more, his relatives were not spared, and all his men, women and children, young and old, were all cursed.
Readers who like to read this novel will definitely have a deep understanding of the death "characteristics" of this work.
It can be said that the various depictions of killing and death written in the novel "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" and the many violent depictions of "Water Margin" actually have many similarities.
Such a work full of killing and death, its work itself inevitably has many oppressive and cruel colors, which is
For older readers, it is definitely not conducive to self-cultivation.
People who enter the old age, the body has gradually declined, itself is more taboo about death, the whole novel is basically the tone of fighting and killing, death, elderly readers read more, easy to produce negative emotions.
Secondly, "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" shows the reader the use of various strategic strategies. This kind of scene depiction similar to the intrigue in the palace fight drama is very brain-burning in itself.
In the old age, life has entered a relatively peaceful state, and at this time, it is necessary to enjoy the joy of life, rather than studying various strategies for fighting, killing and killing.
Moreover, the world, all sentient beings, the cycle of all things, life, old age, illness and death are the norm of life. We should learn to seize the time, to enjoy life, and to leave no regrets.
In the old age, people have reached the final stage of life, at this time, they should learn to look down on everything and learn to cherish every day of life, rather than fantasizing about making meritorious achievements, bravely breaking into society, and delving into various heroic schemes.
Life is hurried for decades, and when you are old, in fact, most of the things in life have basically become a fixed number, and there is no longer much point in demanding it.
When you are old and still pursue fame and fortune, and still think of playing all kinds of tricks, it is easy to let yourself die with lifelong regrets.
02 Don't look at the Water Margin
Although "Water Margin" and "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" have some differences in themes, the violent depictions they show are basically the same.
As we all know, the novel "Water Margin" depicts a world of civil society fighting and killing, eating wine and meat, and knives, guns and sticks.
The biggest feature of this novel is that the "righteousness of the jianghu" is thick, and the 108 good men alone have fascinated many male readers.
Many people regard "Water Margin" as a heroic, courageous, and heroic novel, especially for those teenagers whose three views have not yet been formed. Therefore, there is a saying of "less water margin".
Teenagers are the pillars of the future of the motherland and the hope of the nation, and the healthy development of the psychological development of adolescents is inseparable from a good environment. Scenes of violence or ideological construction in literary works can easily affect the minds of young people.
The novel "Water Margin" is just full of a lot of violent and violent thought descriptions.
The many killing scenes depicted in the novel are shocking.
For example, in the twenty-sixth time in the novel, "Brother Yun makes a big fuss in the official hall, Wu Song fights and kills Ximen Qing", it is described that Wu Song wants to kill his sister-in-law Pan Jinlian to avenge his brother, and the text describes it like this:
"The woman saw that her head was not good, but she was about to be knocked down by Wu Song's brain and ripped open her breasts and clothes. It was too late, it was too late, it was fast, I took the sharp knife to the chest, took the knife in my mouth, opened my chest with both hands, took out the heart, liver and five internal organs, and offered it to the spirit. With a knife, he cut off the woman's head, and blood flowed all over the ground. ”
This can be said to be an extremely bloody scene description, and this passage vividly portrays a character who kills people without blinking.
However, for such a character image, some readers regard it as a "hero" who dares to love and hate, and has righteousness. In particular, teenagers who are still shaping the three views are not able to distinguish between black and white, and it is easier to regard such an act of avenging their brother as a "heroic" act, thus subtly identifying with this cruel means of killing.
Another example is the Sun Erniang who is a human flesh bun written in the twenty-seventh time of the novel "Mother Night Fork Mengzhou Road Selling Human Flesh, Wudu Head Cross Slope Meets Zhang Qing", and the description of this scene activity is also chilling.
The novel reads:
"In fact, just wait for the merchants to pass by, and there is one who has entered the eye, so he will take some sweat medicine, eat it with him, and die." Sell large pieces of good meat, cut into yellow beef, scrap small meat, and make stuffed buns. When I saw it in the human flesh workshop, I saw that there were several human skins on the wall..."
Given the bloody and cruel text, it is not all unfolded here.
For such a violent and bloody scene depiction of such a murderous and overstepping, even adult readers will feel creepy and frightened.
"Water Margin" was once called "The Legend of jianghu high-rollers", just by listening to the name, you can probably know how strong the jianghu color of this novel is.
Many of the good men in Liangshan Pojuyi in "Water Margin" were previously robbers who robbed houses and occupied mountains as kings, and not only liked to rob the small people around the village on weekdays, but even pedestrians, boats, and guests staying in the hotel.
For example, Li Zhong and Zhou Tong, who robbed their homes at Taohua Mountain; Wang Lun, Song Wan, and Du Qian, who robbed houses in Liangshan, and Zhang Heng and Zhang Shun, who dominated the Xunyang River, were themselves bandits, and even though they occupied one side and dared to resist oppression, they could not escape their own low morals.
There are many similar cruel methods of killing, and all kinds of cruel acts such as wanton killing and eating human meat buns fill the entire content of the novel.
However, teenagers are still in the growth stage of physical and mental development, the "three views" are undecided, the thinking is not yet mature, and the cognition of good and bad is insufficient, and it is easy to take such a cruel concept as a correct understanding, or even imitate it.
03 Reading Jun said
Literary works serve the public and should provide aesthetic aesthetic value for the public. As one of the four famous works in China, "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" and "Water Margin", its novel content itself has great artistic value. But everything has to be dialectical, and literature is no different.
Objectively speaking, the violent color of "Water Margin" is indeed too strong, and it is easy to bring bad demonstration effects to teenagers. Jin Sheng sighed and praised the book "Don't say the strange things of ghosts and gods, it is his strength that is superior." The scenes of wanton killing in the book can easily make people have a fixed form of normalized thinking when reading, mistakenly thinking that this is the daily normal.
The novel "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", as a heroic rendition book that has been circulated in literary history for thousands of years, this book not only describes the fierce war, but also various strategic cognitions that test thinking. Judging from the historical value that this book does not have, its literary value is extremely high. For older readers, it may not be the best reading, but it does not negate its own value.
Overall, reading can be a persistent process or an age-based process. Some books are suitable for a lifetime, and some books are suitable for reading at a certain age.
However, in any case, when reading literary works, we cannot only know to pursue some detailed things in the book, and ignore the cultural heritage and artistic value of the entire work.
Resources:
Liu Lingna, Shang Li and Shang Yi – The focus of the depiction of death in Romance of the Three Kingdoms
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