The reason why the four masterpieces have become classics is because they are profound. Profound is profound in revealing a variety of truths, including the profound philosophy of human survival and individual survival. "Journey to the West" tells people that the gods and immortals are unreliable, "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" tells people that the leadership is unreliable, "Dream of the Red Chamber" tells people that the family is unreliable, and "Water Margin" tells people that the brothers are unreliable. So what's so reliable? Then there must be a pair of eyes to look for in the expositions of the sages. Among the four famous works, the closest to all sentient beings is "Water Margin", so let's start with "Water Margin".
Water Margin, what is it? Guo Pu's note in "Erya": "All the big water overflows, don't be the name of the small water." Roughly speaking, there are four orientations to the examination of the name of "Water Margin": one is to say that taking the water side of the Zhou Wen King has achieved the foundation of the Zhou Dynasty for eight hundred years, implying the Liangshan cause of Song Jiang and others; the second is to say that taking the Fa Jiang Ziya is waiting for the waterside, implying that Song Jiang and others are temporarily gathering righteousness and seeking peace; the third is that Song Jiang and others are social garbage, such as the worms of the swamp; fourth, Jin Shengsi said that in the name of the place where the story takes place, there is no other objection. Since it is a big talk water margin, it is not to do the work of carving words and sentences, but only to be a little careless, to be voyeuristic, to say that there is no heart, and those who are interested in looking at the officials will get one or two in the middle and three ambiguities, and Wan'er is just that.
Water Margin, what exactly is it? It's a jianghu. What is jianghu? Jianghu is a vague social concept as opposed to temples. The temple is the government, the white society; the rivers and lakes are the non-white society, and since the non-white society is the underworld, not the underworld, and the white cannot go there. That is to say, the people here are rejected by society or do not abide by the laws recognized by society. What is his rule? Morality. "Water Margin" is a systematic exposition of this morality. To clarify this morality, it is necessary to understand the survival principles that the Heroes of the Water Margin follow.
The survival of the Water Margin characters follows two laws: one is the law of the jungle, and the other is the law of the jianghu. The law of the jungle is the fundamental law of human beings as animals, in order to survive by any means, the successful people enjoy more survival resources, and the losers pay the price of blood, the reason why it is called the law of the jungle is because it conforms to the law of blood compensation. The Liangshan people waited, further sealed hou baixiang, and took a step back to lose their heads, so they first found a place to settle down. What's the best place? Eight hundred miles of water. It's actually a swamp! Facts have proved that this place was well chosen, and the thousand men he observed were beaten by several broken fishing boats of the Ruan brothers, and their ears were cut off; the heavily armored cavalry sent by the imperial court to Hu Yanzhuo could not enter the water berth, and they were cut off in the grass, and they fled alone; the thunderous thunder and thunder represented the most advanced means of warfare in the world at that time, the artillery, but unfortunately could not hit Wanzi City, and a heavy rain soaked the gunpowder and was also caught; the high ball brought in the Great Song Water Division, but unfortunately the big battleship could not enter the swamp at all. Destroyed by a group of small fishing boats. So the rebels of a group of governments did not have to pay for their crimes, and could sit idly in the Zhongyi Hall and eat a large bowl of meat and drink wine. But the premise is that you can't ask for more than staying in the water. People's desires are upgraded with the changes in the environment, after eating meat and drinking, but also want to get social recognition, in the blue-faced beast Yang Zhi's ideal is to "beat him a wife and shadow son". The world is a big river, the water margin is a small river, the final result is that the big river and lake eat the small river and lake, and end up in a white expanse that is really clean, and the blood debt is finally paid with blood. In fact, life is a transaction, the premise of the transaction is that both sides of the transaction must have investment (input), Liangshan this group of people, either from the family of the family, or the fugitives who are in the murder case, or the gangs and factions of the underworld, or the guilty petty officers who damage the three armed forces, what do these people have? A rotten life! Then his investment can only be this rotten life, after the transaction is folded, it is the time of death. Typical blood compensation, because he has nothing to lose. In fact, the peasant uprisings of successive dynasties have taken this road, and those who have not succeeded have paid a blood price.
The law of jianghu has two meanings, one is the Tao, and the other is righteousness. The righteousness of the jianghu is different from the great righteousness of the Confucians, but stems from the Mojia narrow sense of "love and love", that is, a primitive spirit of mutual assistance when the lowest level of society is not cared for by the upper class. Therefore, the righteousness of the jianghu is inherently in conflict with the laws of the upper class, and he is talking about happiness and revenge, about repaying wrongs, about hoeing the strong and helping the weak, about repaying the peach with peach, and about justice in the narrow sense. And the so-called Tao, in turn, is connected with the Confucian family of taking care of everyone, the justice of heaven and earth, and the great righteousness of the nation, and as a result, the morality of the jianghu has produced a freak - you can use your brothers in a bright and upright way, and you can betray your brothers in a dignified manner. Song Jiang wanted to be the boss, Li Kui didn't necessarily want to be the boss; Song Jiang wanted to seal his wife and shadow, and Lin Chong was afraid that after the death of the mother, he didn't even want to be a woman, let alone fight for the imperial court, but unfortunately, under the operation of Song Jiang and a cadre of scum officials, they all went to the battlefield and dyed the boss red with blood. In fact, since ancient times, it is always the horse boy who wields a knife on the street, and the boss who holds a beautiful woman in the restaurant and counts money. People in the rivers and lakes are always on the edge of society and at the bottom of life.
What is the Law of the Water Margin? It is the constant relationship between ospreys and snakes, snakes and frogs, frogs and mosquitoes in the swamp.