In the splendid and glorious history of the mainland, literary works are as vast as the sea, from the Book of Poetry to the Analects, from the "History" to the "History of the Qing Dynasty" can be described as innumerable. The novel is even more unique, the most famous of which is the four famous works, which are known as the treasures of Chinese culture.
Among the four famous works, the group portrait of "Water Margin" is the best described, and the famous literary critic Jin Shengsi once said: "One hundred and eight people have one hundred and eight personalities." And "Water Margin" has many well-known stories.
"Yang Zhi selling knives" is one of the classics in these small stories, and the author vividly depicts Yang Zhi's downfall. The reluctance to give up the family heirloom sword, the struggle to justify when humiliated, and the coldness of killing people are all portrayed.
So do you know what the real blue-faced beast Yang Zhi looks like? In 2014, The tomb of Yang Zhizhi was discovered in Jiyuan, Henan, and the epitaph in it restored the real blue-faced beast for us.
The collision of fiction and reality
As we all know, most of the novels in ancient times were adapted from realistic stories, and "Journey to the West" was inspired by the story of Master Xuanzang's travel to India during the Tang Dynasty. And "Water Margin" is set in the Song Dynasty, with 36 good men led by Song Jiang as the background.
Among them, the blue-faced beast Yang Zhi has become a mystery, and at the beginning of the novel, the blue-faced beast Yang Zhi is surrounded by many storylines. Including Yang Zhi selling knives, military camp merit and so on. However, in the later stages of the novel, Yang Zhi's plot slowly decreases.
Even Yang Zhi's life has been brushed over by the author, and there is no other word for him just by saying: "Descendants of the Yang family". This made many people think that Yang Zhi may have been just a character invented in the novel until 2014.
In the tombstone unearthed in Jiyuan, Henan in 2014, the identity of the owner of the tomb caused an uproar, because the owner of the tomb was surnamed Yang. Originally, this was not to blame, the surname Yang went a lot, until the expert translated the inscription, the expert concluded that this is Yang Zhi.
On the inscription, the life experience of the owner of the tomb is well known, this is a military general surnamed Yang who lived at the end of the Northern Song Dynasty. He once participated in the battles of the Jin Dynasty and made great achievements, but eventually died because of the villain's frame-up, which coincided with Yang Zhi in the novel.
Similarities
In the novel, Yang Zhi's birth and death years are not written by the author, and Yang Zhi's first appearance is lost in the street. In the novel, Yang Zhiben was born after the Yang family general, who was born into a famous nobleman.
Later, Yang Zhi's family fell, and he had no choice but to sell his family heirloom sword. And this is also one of the classic stories in "Water Margin" - Yang Zhi sells knives, and on the way to sell knives, Yang Zhi kills people because of the humiliation of the unbearable goon.
After the killing, Yang Zhi did not run, but quietly stood in the market waiting for the officers and soldiers to arrest him. In the end, he was charged with the army because of his killing, and in the military camp, he was valued for his martial arts, and gradually became a military general.
According to the description of the inscription, the experience of this warrior surnamed Yang coincided with Yang Zhi, and he followed the local township warriors to learn martial arts as a teenager and practiced a good means. When he came to the city, he wanted to make a name for himself by relying on a martial art, but he broke through a catastrophe.
When he came to the city, he clashed with the locals, and the young and ignorant him was furious and fought with him. However, because of his young Fang Gang, who did not know the depth, he actually beat people to death, and the laws of the Song Dynasty at that time were very strict for killing people.
Therefore, he was also charged with the army, and after coming to the military camp, he slowly became familiar with the life of the military camp, and he had planned to join the military camp to break through the prestige. So he did as he wished, and he mixed well in the barracks.
Because he was a pioneer in the war and worked very the battlefield, he was loved by the soldiers around him and accepted by the commanders. In the end, he also proved his strength with his military feats and became an officer.
However, the similarities between the two people here came to an abrupt end, and the way of life of the two people also changed dramatically.
The difference
In the novel, Yang Zhi became famous after becoming a military general, when the imperial court sent him to the Daming Mansion as a guard, and in the Daming Mansion, Yang Zhi met a nobleman, he was Liang Zhongshu. Liang Zhongshu admired Yang Zhi's martial arts very much and had the intention of promoting him to a military vice card.
And Yang Zhi did not disappoint Liang Zhongshu, he defeated the then deputy soldier Zhou Jin when performing martial arts in the school field, and Liang Zhongshu also had a reason to promote Yang Zhi as a vice card. Now Yang Zhi can be said to be in the military camp mixed smoothly.
Yang Zhi also met the famous pioneer Suo Chao, and the two could be said to be sympathetic to each other, until the emergence of one thing, which made Yang Zhi's life change dramatically.
At this time, it was the birthday of The Prime Minister Cai Jing, and Liang Zhongshu, as Cai Jing's son-in-law, naturally wanted to pat him on the back. Therefore, he snatched nearly 100,000 gold and silver jewelry worth of precious gifts, called the Birthday Gang, and sent Yang Zhi to escort the gifts into Beijing.
He Cheng wanted to have just walked to Huangnigang, and the soldiers under him had to rest because they were too tired to die or live, and Yang Zhi couldn't help these soldiers, so he had to rest. This entered the trap of Chao Gai, who, as the leading big brother of Liangshan, led the people of Liangshan to rob the Birthday Gang.
Under Wu Yong's schemes, Chao Gai and others disguised themselves as merchants selling dates and exchanged dates for birthdays. And Yang Zhi also went to Erlong Mountain to fall into the grass because of the theft of the birthday class.
Later stories are known to everyone, Yang Zhi eventually went to Liangshan, fought with the people of Liangshan in the south and the north, and finally died of illness in Dantu County during the conquest of Fangla.
Although Yang Zhi in the novel has been upside down and displaced all his life, he has not been framed by adulterers and slandered by villains. It can be said that it is a good ending to eventually die at the hands of a sick person instead of at the hands of one's own people.
This is not the case with Yang Zhi in reality, and after Yang Zhi became a military general in reality, he has never met a nobleman like Liang Zhongshu. Instead, he climbed up step by step, in which he was seriously injured many times, but fortunately he escaped death by fate.
After struggling like this to the age of 55, Yang Zhi finally became a prestigious general, and at this time some villains could not sit still. They framed Yang Zhi and the Jin people for colluding to betray the country, and eventually Yang Zhi left this war-torn world in the summer when he was 55 years old.
epilogue
In ancient mainland china, the main purpose of the novel was not to serve as a pastime as it is now, but to serve as an educational and political function. As Liang Qichao said: "If you want to revitalize the people of a country, first revitalize a country's novel." ”
During the Northern Song Dynasty, the era of wars and chaos can no longer be seen again. But whether it is from the history books or from the novels of "Water Margin", we can see such people, such people who have fought for the country.
He is Yue Fei, Han Shizhong, one big man after another, a small person. They interspersed like beaded curtains, dedicating their precious lives to the Chinese nation at that time.