After reading "Water Margin" for so many years, do you know what the word "Water Margin" means?
The titles of the four famous works "Journey to the West" and "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" are well understood, and they complement each other with the content.
"Dream of the Red Chamber" is a little confusing, if you know that Cao Xueqin's original name is "Stone Record", it is easy to understand.
How should the title of "Water Margin" be understood?
"Water Margin" tells the story of 108 good men, for various reasons, fell into the grass and Liangshan, and became mountain thieves.
If you look directly at the essence of "Water Margin", it is actually sad, 108 good men of Liangshan, none of them are proud of their lives.
If you follow the routine of "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", the name of the book should be "Liangshan Yanyi".
If you follow the routine of "Dream of the Red Chamber", the name of the book should be "Heaven and Earth Dream".
Why is this book called "Water Margin"? Except for a book title, the whole book does not mention the word "Water Margin".
First, let's look at the literal meaning of the word "Water Margin".
Don't look at "Water Margin" is very famous, but the meaning of the word "Water Margin" is not easy to understand.
The meaning of "water" is easy to understand, how should "margin" be understood?
"Margin" means: "Water's edge, referring to the flat land on the shore slightly farther away from the water." ”
The meaning of the three words "Water Margin" should be "the story that happened on the flat ground by the water's edge".
In this way, the title of "Water Margin" does complement the content.
But is this understanding a bit plain? One of the four great masterpieces is the story that happened on the flat ground by the water's edge?
Let's study further, which is to talk about the usual means of writing articles by the ancients: "using codex".
"Using the canon" is to quote the scriptures and quote stories from ancient books to implicitly express their content and ideas.
To put it bluntly, there is something not direct, quoting classical stories to express their own meaning.
The two words "Water Margin" are the use of codex.
The word "Water Margin" first appeared in the Book of Poetry.
The original text reads: "Father Gu Gong, come to the horse, lead the Western Water Margin, as for Qixia.".
What kind of story does this verse of the Book of Poetry tell?
During the Shang Dynasty, there was a tribe called "Zhou", and they lived in the northwest border of Sai.
The northwestern frontier is barren and surrounded by barbarians.
In the land of four wars, and there was not much food harvest, so the "Zhou" tribe lived very hard.
The surrounding barbarians continued to attack, the Zhou tribe suffered heavy losses, and many livestock were taken away.
Finally, the Zhou clan produced an outstanding leader, the Zhou Tai King Gu GongFu.
He was the 16th grandson of the Yellow Emperor of Xuanyuan and the 12th grandson of Zhou Zuhouji.
Father Qi led the clan out of the northwest and migrated to Zhouyuan under the Qishan Mountains.
The land here is fertile, the products are abundant, and there is no invasion of the surrounding barbarians, and the people of the Zhou tribe can finally live and work in peace and contentment.
After nearly a hundred years of development, Zhou Buzu became the "Zhou Dynasty".
The term "Water Margin" refers to the Zhou Yuan, which was later provided for the residence and development of the Zhou tribes.
Therefore, the word "Water Margin" is extended to mean "the way out" and "the place to live".
Seeing this, you can look at the content of "Water Margin" and deeply understand the title.
Lin Chong, Wu Song, Lu Zhishen, Song Jiang and other people in Liangshan's good men chose to fall into Liangshan because they could not settle down in the normal world.
For Wu Song, Lin Chong, and Lu Zhishen, the way out of life was cut off, and they had to choose to go to Liangshan to find a safe place to live.
Lin Chong's story perfectly interprets the profound meaning of the two words "Water Margin".
Lin Chong originally had a very good life, a stable job, a virtuous wife, and he also had a house in Bieliang.
Unfortunately, Lin Chong met Gao Yanei, and Lin Niangzi was targeted.
Lin Chong was framed one after another, step by step, and finally Gao Li arranged a crime for him to assassinate Cangzhou.
Lin Chong has not chosen to resist fate, he chooses to accept, choose to endure.
Gao Li still refused to let him go, and not only arranged for Dong Chao Xue Ba to secretly calculate Lin Chong in the wild boar forest, but also let Lu Qian bear Lin Chong in the forage field.
Finally, Lin Chong couldn't bear it anymore and broke out, he killed Lu Qian, and he also killed his own life.
What about Lin Chong? Looking at the world, Shuipo Liangshan has become Lin Chong's only place to stay.
If he wants to survive, Lin Chong can only choose to join Liangshan and become a mountain thief.
In the first half of "Water Margin", most of them are stories like Lin Chong, and a group of heroes and good men have no way out and are forced to gather in Liangshan.
In the second half of "Water Margin", the word "Water Margin" is further deepened.
In the second half, "Water Margin" is no longer about the way out of a hero and a good man, but the way out for 108 good men in Liangshan.
After the 108 good men gathered in Liangshan, where should they go?
Shi Nai'an gave this task to Elder Brother Song.
In Brother Song's world view, outlook on life, and values, hiding in Liangshan as a mountain thief is not a good way out.
Elder Brother Song believes that the real good way out is to recruit security and gain fame.
Of course, there are also many good people in Liangshan who think that this is not a good way out.
When Elder Brother Song first proposed this idea, Wu Song stood up against it, and Lu Zhishen also expressed his support for Wu Song.
Even the iron bull Li Kui did not approve of Brother Song's thinking, and Li Kui roared:
"It is better to take the bird throne and let Brother Gongming be the emperor, Wu use his brother as the prime minister, and we will all be the great generals."
Li Kui's idea should be the idea of most of the good people in Liangshan.
Song Jiang had also had such an idea before.
He drank too much in the Xunyang Building and wrote a poem: "If he follows Ling Yunzhi every day, he dares to laugh at Huang Chao's husband!" ”
In Brother Song's heart, why didn't he want to do what Li Kui did? But Liangshan didn't have that strength!
In the history of the good men of Liangshan, there were only thirty-six people, which was not enough for Han Shizhong to plug his teeth.
The good man of Liangshan in "Water Margin" occupies eight hundred miles of water, with dozens of fierce generals and about 300,000 small minions.
But Liangshan has a particularly big shortcoming, that is, there is no source of income and grain and grass.
How strong is Fang La's strength? Fang La occupied twenty-eight counties in the four prefectures of Jiangnan, and there were many fierce generals under his command.
Fang La couldn't do anything, let alone Liangshan?
The good man of Liangshan did not find a real way out until his death, and after conquering Fang La, he lost seven or eight out of ten, and there was no good end for those who survived.