Song Jiang and his brothers were in a "circle" of Liangshan, a personal interest group with great driving force.
Some scholars have interpreted it: they just blindly gather together to eat, drink and enjoy themselves, and when money and food are scarce, they go down the mountain and rob them. Although the targets of their robberies are often those "ill-gotten gains", it seems that this is also justified. But if you think about it, the robbery was not a bloody act of violence, no matter how much they hated it to the bone, but life was so worthless? They see the lives of others as a child's play, and such a heart looks terrible!
The personality traits of Song Jiang and his brothers fully demonstrate their value orientation of individualism, the pursuit of personal interests and the disregard of moral conscience. An important factor in their personality traits is "righteousness."
The so-called "righteousness" is a jianghu culture that has obviously grown and developed among the nomads of the jianghu. It contains many meanings in "Water Margin": the side of justice, the side of unity and cooperation, the righteousness of the jianghu and so on. In this article, "Water Margin" is more inclined to the third kind - "righteousness". They follow unwritten rules such as "righteous brothers and righteous brothers", "lecture qi", and so on. An important example in the "Water Margin" is that in the 59th time, "Chao Tianwang Zengtou City Arrow" Chao Gai led the brothers to attack Zengtou City, and in the fierce battle, Chao Gai was "shot in the cheek" by an arrow. Eventually dying, Song Jiang, in order to avenge the Chao Heavenly King, promised whoever captured Shi Wengong would be the lord of the cottage. Then vow to take Zengtou City. In the process, in order to win the war, Song Jiang sent Wu Yong and Li Kui to earn Lu Junyi, the "first-class elder of the Daiming Province". Borrow Lu Junyi's prestige to show Liangshan's strength. When Lu Junyi was trapped in injustice, he attacked the DaimyoFu. The result is "corpses everywhere". For this reason, Song Jiang sacrificed his brother's life for Lu Junyi alone, and of course he was enshrined as "great righteousness" in jianghu culture. Because for the righteousness of the jianghu, they pay more attention to friendship, do not pay attention to the right and wrong issues, regardless of society and others. But look back, how many of these lives have innocently disappeared.... People like Song Jiang, as well as Chai Jin and others, are known for "fighting righteousness and neglecting wealth". As a result, a large number of good people gathered around Song Jiang, Chai Jin and others. It can be seen how much driving force such monetary benefits are!
The portrayal of the character of Li Kui in "Water Margin" is very successful, fully showing the behavior and personality characteristics of a reckless person. Li Kui could not be said to be brave in battle, and he showed great bravery when charging into the battlefield, and it can be said that he made great contributions to the development and growth of Liangshan's cause. However, we must also see that Li Kui's approach is different from others, he often uses the plate axe to cut all the way without distinction between the enemy and us, and although this move is not small to the enemy, it also adds many innocent souls under the aimless axe. This is particularly evident in the section on the Jiangzhou Robbery Field. Fortunately, Song Jiang was able to restrain him as much as possible so as not to let this bloodthirsty disposition of reckless people be unleashed at will. However, in any case, we cannot describe its rogue habits and bloodthirsty disposition as naïve and lovely, after all, this is too far away from good human nature. The little cockroach thief Li Ghost is certainly hateful, but when Li Kui cut off the flesh on his leg and burned it to eat, it is difficult to make people feel a sense of satisfaction in punishing evil and promoting good. It is a primitive society of "man eating man".
Of course, Li Kui's behavior is mainly due to his personality: spontaneous and reckless. However, we cannot but see the reality that the pain and arrogance of Li Kui when he "killed innocents indiscriminately" is also an outlet for the dissatisfaction in the hearts of the people around him. Although Li Kui's behavior was sometimes stopped by Song Jiang and others, this was by no means a manifestation of benevolence and kindness, but out of the interests of their small clique and the expression of the individualistic thinking of Song Jiang and others. What is even more shameful is that in order to earn Qin Ming, Song Jiang and others went up the mountain and set fire to hundreds of households outside Qingzhou City, and how many people died innocently. Here, Song Jiang gave up the lives of ordinary people for personal gain.
And the fifteenth time of "Wu uses wisdom to take the birth anniversary", chao gai their property is not "killing the rich to help the poor"? The answer is no, although they claim that these things are "ill-gotten gains", but what the consequences are, Wu Yong said what happened: "(Wu Yong)..., now I want you to consult, gather a few good men to go to the secluded place of the mountain to get this ill-gotten wealth, and everyone wants to have a happy life...." "It turned out that these treasures of gold and silver had become their possessions for them to eat, drink and have fun. It can be seen that they are essentially a selfish group of people, and for their own survival, they have robbed gold and silver, which can really be described as no evil.