China's four famous works, in addition to "Dream of the Red Chamber", the other three are written in the Ming Dynasty, mainly because the Ming Dynasty commodity economy developed, the rise of the citizen class, there is a large demand for novels and other reading materials.
These novels enriched people's life after tea and dinner, and became an important means of leisure and entertainment at that time, the Three Kingdoms talked about history, water margin talked about low-level characters, and the journey to the west talked about gods and demons.
From the state to the individual, from the real to the imaginary, these three novels cover a super wide range, satisfying all the imaginations of many people about the world, and in the ancient era of inconvenient transportation and underdeveloped communication, these books are still very helpful for expanding insights.
But no matter what kind of novel, it is essentially from life experience, and it reflects the group it is targeting, their real-world experience.
For example, even if you write about the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, this kind of big history, the war between countries, is also writing with the mentality of a small person, such as the famous Zhuge Liang scolding Wang Lang.
It is conceivable that when the storyteller says it, how cheerful he is, and the scolding is so painful, even in modern society, it has become a famous ghost animal expression.
But obviously, the adults of the Shu and Wei kingdoms certainly did not engage in diplomacy in this way, such as the passage in journey to the West where Bodhi Grandmaster taught Sun Wukong to learn the art.
Grandmaster Bodhi asked him, "There are three hundred and sixty of them in the Daozi Gate, which one do you want to learn?" Then one by one, Sun Wukong introduced the doors, and Sun Wukong replied: Master, I am an honest person, and I don't know how to play the city language. Playing the city language means that bodhicitta ancestors introduced each door, using the hidden language of the rivers and lakes.
Many stories of the journey to the west, in essence, are all kinds of dangers encountered when walking the rivers and lakes, merchants face various risks of actual robbery, it can be said that in the underlying logic, whether you are the bottom of the people, or the Jade Emperor, essentially a refraction of life experience.
In the face of life, everyone's choices are very different, but in this difference, there are great commonalities, such as Song Jiang and Sun Wukong, they actually have great commonalities, but the ultimate path and personality are completely different.
Sun Wukong and Song Jiang, both actively want to integrate into the mainstream society, when Song Jiang was young, actively participated in the recruitment of the imperial court, at home is also a filial piety, although only to do a small official, but after all, also became a person of the imperial court, counted as a good person in a small place.
Sun Wukong is the same, although born in the grassroots, there is no background, but until positive, especially the learning ability to cross the ocean, this generation is like a modern society, the students who go out to study, after thousands of hardships, finally learned the skill, and finally also found a position in the heavenly court, although the position is not high, but after all, there are immortals, compared to other monsters, it is already the star of the demon world.
But people at the bottom are often impulsive and make mistakes, because there is no higher level of people to help you understand the world, help you to stabilize your position, once there is any wind and grass, it may completely overturn.
Song Jiang inadvertently killed Yan Boxi, while Sun Wukong completely turned his face with the Heavenly Court because Pan Taohui did not invite him, and from then on they all embarked on a life of rebellion against the mainstream.
When resisting, how wonderful, when the final bowed head, how much to punch the face, Juyi Hall, Song Jiang was passionate, on the Huaguo Mountain, Qi Tian Dasheng angrily rebuked 100,000 Heavenly Soldiers.
But in the end, they were all defeated, more precisely, by their own hearts, Song Jiang chose Zhao'an, and Sun Wukong chose to obey Guanyin's arrangement to protect a slug-like monk and go to the Western Heavens to learn the scriptures.
They all bowed their heads to reality, all accepted the so-called mainstream values, but their evaluation is completely different, Sun Wukong is a heroic figure, Song Jiang can do without scolding him, objective evaluation, is already very good.
It is also a compromise, why is there such a huge difference between Sun Wukong and Song Jiang?
Mainly because Sun Wukong realized his great mission, from the demon monkey to the immortal monkey, and then to the Sun Xing, who protected the Tang monks and learned the scriptures, in this change, Sun Wukong realized his great mission.
The so-called hero is the person who is aware of the great mission he shoulders and strives to achieve him, which is called a hero, and Song Jiang has never had a great mission.
All his last resorts, all the changes in his life, the fundamental starting point, there is only one, that is, his own interests, he went to Liangshan for himself, Zhao'an, and the same for himself.
Such a character who is completely for himself cannot become a hero at all, and Sun Wukong is called a hero because he is aware of his great task and is willing to take on this mission.