"Water Margin" is a well-known classical masterpiece, with many different forms of adaptations, and some classic chapters have been included in textbooks.
It writes about the nakedness and viciousness of a group of poor people seeking self-preservation in a chaotic world, and the characters in it cannot be judged by good or bad.
For this classic work, today, we would like to recommend a special reading method - "Water Margin Commentary", which may give you a new perspective on reading.
"'Water Margin' tells the story of a group of robbers, but what we see is that although robbers are robbers, there are reasons why they become robbers; there are both greatly pleasing plots and tragedies that cannot be seen; there are unbearable tragedies that cannot bear to be seen every day, and the great happiness of people's hearts is often just imagination."
Tell the | Duan Zhiqiang
Source | Happy Book List: Infinite Life Book List Season 3
01.
When you are at the end of your rope and seek self-preservation,
Also talk about what good guys and bad guys
Among the four famous works, "Water Margin" is the most "real" and the closest to real life.
Mr. Ma Youyuan, a researcher at the Water Margin, said: "'Water Margin' tells the story of the end of the road, striving for survival, and seeking self-protection (not a peasant uprising)." Therefore, the heroes of Liangshan, you deceive yourself, unscrupulous means, the weak eat the strong, the self-interest of others, the only interests of profit, the use of strong words, the advocating of power, the attribution of the weak, the party is the same, the grass camp of human life, and so on, all of which are numerous, and so on.
The success of "Water Margin" is not to glorify these, but to faithfully deal with such human issues. Therefore, the question of whether the protagonist of "Water Margin" is a good person or a bad person does not need to be asked at all, when "desperate and seeking self-protection", what good people and bad people are still talking about?
I like to listen to the commentaries, and I have heard almost all the versions of the Water Margin that can be found, and these commentaries seem to feel an obligation, that is, the heroes of the Water Margin must be described as moral heroes, at most there can be some character shortcomings, but the big section must be flawless.
Among them, the most prominent are two plots, one is that Li Kui kills Xiao Yannei and forces Zhu Tong to go up the mountain, and the other is that Wang Ying marries the third lady. How to deal with it specifically, each artist has his own tricks.
I understand and respect this adaptation, but at the same time I think that it is turning realism into romanticism, serious literature into popular literature, solemn writing that exposes bloody social reality, and storytelling that satisfies people's heroic fantasies.
So it may be said that there are actually two "Water Margins" in the world. One robbed the rich and helped the poor, for the Heavenly Path, and the other was at the end of the road, forcing Liangshan.
I'm not saying that the "original meaning" of Water Margin is to write about the end of the road and fight for survival, or that we should award the Author of Water Margin (no matter who he or she is) the Nobel Prize in Literature. I mean, in the process of the Water Margin story, at least until the advent of modern literary concepts, it preserved a lot of the naked truth of that society.
Today, both our society and our literature have been disguised in layers, to what extent are these disguises hypocritical? At the end of the day, we can't look at the ancient truth, so much so that the literary works that have become classics hundreds of years ago cannot appear in today's mass cultural space in their original form. Don't believe you see how the TV series "Water Margin" (no matter which version is new or old) filmed Li Kui killing Xiao Ya Nei.
Then again. Not everyone loves to see the truth. I didn't mean to offend the romance, and that's fine too. The characters must be divided into good and bad, the protagonist must be a good person, the storyteller does not have to avoid, the person who listens to the story does not have to be entangled, and everyone is at ease.
It's just that those repression, unwillingness, and even anger that lurk in the depths of the heart, evil to the side of the guts, sometimes want to have an exit, but also want to find resonance.
Is it possible that anyone can connect these two "Water Margin" and point out cruelty in romance, and point out romance in cruelty? Of course, there is, and what we are going to talk about today is it, the "Water Margin Commentary", focusing on Jin Shengsi's comments.
Fiction criticism is an important tradition in Chinese literature. Originally, classical poetry had the idea of commenting on it, and the commentary of the Eight Strands of Literature was even more sweaty. By the late Ming Dynasty, a relatively mature novel commentary was developed: there were comments on the whole book, each time there was a comment on this time, and there was also a comment at the end of the time, and in the main text, there were some written between the lines, some written at the top of each page, and some written on the side, each with its own function.
In short, we can understand these comments as bullet screens and comments at that time, and there are both short comments and long reviews, as well as various forms of comments that have become extinct, such as eyebrow criticism.
Everyone agrees, right? Watching a bullet screen is one of the pleasures of watching a video, sometimes even more than the video itself. Novel critics, like the people who send the bullet screen, are certainly readers and viewers, but they are also creators, and may even change the face of the entire work through comments and bullet screens.
Watching videos to see bullet screens, reading novels to see reviews, these are all golden and jade good words, Yu Youzheng.
02.
"The article of the world,
There is no one who is out of the water margin."
There are several people who have commented on "Water Margin". The so-called "commentary" is to bring together these different reviews. It's also like the barrage, you see comments from different people, and it's particularly interesting to put together.
The Commentary on the Water Margin contains six editions of the commentary, including Jin Shengsi, a great talent in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, Li Yan, a famous heretical thinker in the late Ming Dynasty (of course, whether all the comments under his name were really written by himself, that is another question), Yu Xiangdou, the most famous publisher of the Ming Dynasty, and Wang Wangru, a literati of the late Ming and early Qing dynasties.
Commentary on the Water Margin, Chen Xizhong / Peking University Press
Because Jin Shengsi's relationship with "Water Margin" is too close - everyone has heard of his "waist chopping Water Margin", right? The problem with "Dream of the Red Chamber" is that the second half of the book was renewed; the problem with "Water Margin" is that the second half of the book was deleted, and this person is Jin Shengsi.
He only admitted the first seventy times, deleted all the books after liangshan row, and claimed to preserve a kind of "ancient book" of the Water Margin, not only seventy times, but also many specific differences with the text of the popular version, of course, the so-called ancient book is also the version he changed himself.
In addition, the influence of Jin Sheng's sighing criticism is also too great, so the "Water Margin" that will be reviewed takes Jin Shengsi's version of the Water Margin as the main text, and records the comments of the above people. After seventy times, only the original text of the comment and the sentence referred to in the comment was recorded, and the full text was not recorded, so this version cannot represent the whole picture of "Water Margin". This is the first thing to be explained.
Jin Shengsi himself introduced his reading history. He said that he only entered a private school when he was ten years old, and at that time, like other children, he also read "Zhongyong" and "University", but his reading was dizzy, and he secretly told his classmates: "I don't know what xi will be?" "What the hell are you going to do when you're learning this?"
The next year, at the age of eleven, Jin Sheng sighed that he was sick every day, and when he was sick, he took leave, and he did not like to play, so he could only read at home. What books do you read? The first part, the Lotus Sutra of the Myofa; the second part, the Departure from sorrow; the third part, the Chronicle of History; the fourth part, "Water Margin".
These four books later had a great influence on him, but at that time, only "Water Margin" was easy to understand, and XiaoJin Shengsi loved to read it the most. Therefore, Jin Shengsi's preface to his childhood reading experience was originally written for his ten-year-old son: Your father and I read "Water Margin" when I was ten years old, and now let you read it, and tell you how to read it.
Why should the Son inherit the father's inheritance like this? Jin Shengsi said that since he finished reading Water Margin, he "has the tendency to peep at everything in books", opened his eyes, and since then he has loved to read any book. So he said, "There is no article under the heavens that comes out of the water margin."
03.
Comments are also re-creations
What is so good about the Water Margin article?
There are one hundred and eight people in the Water Margin, and there is only one author- note that this is Jin Shengsi's view, not the view of modern scholarship- with the strength of one person, one hundred and eight people are described, and everyone has his temperament, his temperament, his shape, and his voice, which is unique. What's more, "Water Margin" also deliberately challenges the writing problem, and has to write the problem twice. Jin Sheng sighed and said:
Jiangzhou City robbed the law field, which was amazing; later there was another article on the robbery law field of the Daimyo Mansion; Pan Jinlian stole one article from Han, which was amazing; later, pan Qiaoyun stole a Piece of Han, which was strange. Jingyang Gang beat the tiger, which was amazing; later, there was a tiger killing in Yishui County, which was a strange one. The real talent is like the sea. Robbing the law field, stealing the man, and fighting the tiger are all extremely difficult problems, but there is no place to write, he is not afraid, and he is bound to write two articles.
Remind everyone again: The formation process of the text of "Water Margin" is very complicated, and today's scholars will not repeat these themes as the writing performance of genius writers, but academic research is objective observation, and the novel evaluation is subjective participation, which is not the same thing - to use an inappropriate analogy, the novel evaluation point is a bit like "CP", the reader strives to find the so-called "clues" that even the author can't think of, and the evaluation point is almost the same.
Jin Shengsi used the word "jingyan" to describe the writing of "Water Margin", the so-called "chapter has a chapter, sentence has syntax, and words have a word", the so-called "jingyan" here, some are really strict, and some are only refined after he changed the original text. So on the one hand, reading the commentaries can help us understand the original text, and on the other hand, we also understand that the commentaries are also literary creation and re-creation.
Jin Shengsi's re-creation of "Water Margin" is not only literary, but also value-oriented. As a collection of historical stories, folk rap and literati creation, the values of "Water Margin" are very ambiguous and vague, and it can also be said to be quite multi-layered and multi-dimensional. Jin Sheng sighed like a huge pen, without covering the coffin, and pointed out, or rather gave the Water Margin clear values.
He said, "'Water Margin' has a large section of seriousness, but it only makes Song Jiang deeply resentful, so that people can see it, and there is really a hatred of dogs that do not eat." But no one ever knows. He also said, "The Water Margin alone evils Song Jiang, and it is also the meaning of annihilating Qu Kui, and the rest is forgiven." ”
Why is Song Jiang the worst? In addition to Song Jiang's hypocrisy and treachery, of course, mainly because "Water Margin" is a book of rebellion, someone must bear the responsibility, and only the leader Song Jiang will bear it. As for the other people who were forced to go to Liangshan, the author adhered to the heart of loyalty and forgiveness, and he also forgave.
For example, Jin Shengsi said that the most wonderful thing written in "Water Margin" is Li Kui, called "a piece of innocence and innocence to the end", which fully meets the standard of "rich and noble cannot be obscene, poor and lowly cannot be moved, and mighty cannot be bent", "paragraphs are wonderful words". Why did Li Kui write so carefully? That's because Li Kui's stories all follow Song Jiang, and in order to set off Song Jiang's treachery, li Kui should be written so simple and honest.
For example, he said that Wu Yong, like Song Jiang, was also very treacherous, but Wu was carefully correct, which was different from Song Jiang. Wu used clearly and plainly said that he was a "wise multi-star", but Song Jiang wanted to show his sincerity and simplicity everywhere; Wu used clear and clear tactics to drive the crowd, and Song Jiang also used strategy to attract people, but it was the name of Xiaoyi Heisaburo and Timely Rain.
Also, "Song Jiang only said that his own family shrouded Wu Yong, but Wu Yong actually shrouded Song Jiang." The two people know each other in their hearts, and each of them does not know on the outside, and the writing is really beautiful and annoying. "It is said that the Three Kingdoms are old and treacherous, and in Jin Shengsi's view, the Water Margin is not to mention more."
By the way, Li Kui's position in the Story of the Water Margin is very special. Before the appearance of this "Water Margin", there are many Water Margin stories in the meta-drama, of which Li Kui is the protagonist of the majority, the second is Yan Qing, like Song Jiang, most of them exist as background characters, so Li Kui's image can especially reflect the characteristics of the Water Margin story, and later critics also pay special attention to Li Kui.
Li Yan even said, "Li Kui, the first living Buddha of Liangshan Po", why? Because he "does evil for good, and has no intention of doing good", he does good deeds, helps the poor and the poor, but also does bad things, kills people and sets fires. But whether it is a good thing or a bad thing, it is out of nature, no thinking, no entanglement, no intention, no attachment.
In our words today, it may be said that Li Kui's actions are all instinctive, a direct manifestation of basic human nature without embellishment, he is a good person and a bad person, he is oppressed by others and oppresses others, he sympathizes with the weak and hurts the weak, he rebels against authority and obeys authority, he is Li Kui of utopianism and anarchism. All of this has long been seen through by critics hundreds of years ago.
04.
Can't bear to see it happening every day,
Big pleasures are often just imagination
There are countless famous scenes in "Water Margin". Lu Ti ruled the fist to beat the town of Guanxi, Wu Xuezhi took the birthday gang, Song Jiang Xunyang Lou inscription anti-poetry and so on. Today we pick a well-known, Lin Jiaotou Fengxue Mountain Temple, to see how the evaluation points are evaluated.
Lin Chong is a near-perfect character in the Water Margin, and can be said to be the best interpreter of the concept of "forcing Liangshan". Jin Sheng sighed that he was "naturally a superior character, and he was just too fiercely written." Seeing that he can calculate, survive, hold firm, and do it thoroughly makes people afraid", this is of course one thing, but his victimization and his heroic end are also written most vividly and truly.
The Temple of Fengxue Mountain is the climax of Lin Chong's story, and it is also the key plot of Lin Chong's force on Liangshan. This time, the look back is called "Lin Jiaotou Fengxue Mountain Temple, Lu Yu waiting for the fire forage field".
Returning to the previous general comment, Jin Shengsi said that some people said that in the past, a painter painted a "North Wind Map", and when it was hung up in the summer, everyone felt cool and almost had to add clothes; some people painted "Yun Han Tu", and in winter, the result was sweating.
However, painting winter is just cold, painting summer is just hot, this is not a skill, the Wind and Snow Mountain Temple this time, both cold and hot, "write snow on its cold to the bone, write fire on its hot side", "cold when cold kills readers, hot when hot kills readers, really a roll of malaria text, for the art forest of the wonder also." ”
Regarding fire, Jin Shengsi also has a comment:
The whole text is written with fire characters, but before the fire, many fire words were written, and after the fire, many fire words were written. I read it, because the enlightenment is the same as the fire, and before Lu Qian, there were old soldiers who borrowed pots, and the grace was simple; after Lu Qian, there were zhuangke who borrowed baking, and then restored the grace and simplicity; and the fire in the middle became a great injustice and deep disaster, which was a terrible lament. How can the fire be gracious, how can the fire be resentful, and how can the personnel be added to the personnel, and the enmity and resentment are gone! However, in the world, the tentacles obstruct the eyes, all of which are disasters, and what a joy!
The plot is familiar to everyone, and we will not repeat it. It is said that one night when it was snowing heavily, Lin Rush went out to buy wine and meat, and saw a mountain temple on the road. Come back to the hay field.
Original text: Lin Chong stepped on na Ruixue, facing the north wind, and flew as if running to the door of the grassland, opening the lock, and when he entered the house to see, he only cried bitterly. It turned out that heaven was clear, blessed and righteous, because of this heavy snow, saved Lin Chong's life.
Comments: The writer suddenly idled four sentences outside the matter, and the pen was like a strong iron.
Original text: Those two grass halls have been overwhelmed by snow. Lin Chong pondered, "How good?" "Put down the flower gun and the gourd in the snow; I am afraid that there is charcoal in the brazier that will burn up, and when I move the broken wall and touch it, the fire in the brazier will be soaked with snow water."
Comments: Try to write fine, see the break is not a fire. He also said: Where there are four fire words in a line, but none of them are sparks, they are amazing.
Original text: When Lin Chong touched the bed, he only pulled a quilt.
Comments: For one night, but this is urgent.
Text: Lin Chong drill will come out, see the sky is dark,
Comments: Lu Qian, almost dialed the point came.
Text: Pondering: "And there is no place to light,
Comments: Another fire word was calculated, and it was written on the paper with light.
Text: How to arrange? "—remembering that there is an ancient temple half a mile away from this road where you can settle down,
Comments: The text is so, I am amazed.
Classical novels that have been added to the review are meshed, and even if you read a book, your eyes have to look at various positions on the page. So we can only reluctantly show the appearance of the review, its real charm depends on you to read the book in person, what interpretation, video, audio book can not be replaced.
Back to Jin Sheng sigh. After reading the previous paragraph of the original text and criticism, there is a strong feeling, that is, the appeal of Jin Shengsi is indeed very strong, after reading his criticism, I am indeed inclined to believe that such a good text should be carefully compiled by a person with extremely high literary skills, and cannot be regarded as the spontaneous circulation of folk rap.
Jin Shengsi said in the "Preface to the Water Margin" that Shi Nai'an wrote about the Water Margin, "He will be exhausted in his heart, and his face will be like a dead person, and then he will be surrounded by back and forth, and he will be able to write a book." "Desperate in heart, dead in the face", people who have really invested in creation can probably understand this sentence!
If you pay close attention, Jin Shengsi's comments are actually full of Jin Shengsi. For example, in the sixty-second time, Ma Xuanzan of the Ugly County was ordered to ask Guan Sheng to come out of the horse and attack Liangshan, the original text said "Guan Sheng listened to the great joy", Jin Sheng sighed and criticized: "What is the great joy? Only four words to write the hero poor".
Why is it that as soon as people invite you, they are immediately "overjoyed"? It can be seen that no one usually pays attention to it and has no chance, so the hero is pitiful. Jin Sheng sighed in the name of a talented son, a life of bad fate, and finally died of the butcher's knife of the Qing Dynasty government, his fate will not only make the saint sigh, but also we, the nameless readers, will also deeply sympathize.
As for "Water Margin", it tells the story of a group of robbers, but what we see is that although robbers are robbers, there are reasons why they become robbers; there are both happy plots and tragedies that cannot bear to be seen; there are unbearable things that happen every day, and the big pleasures are often just imagination.
The group of authors of "Water Margin" is estimated to never be clear, and we can only contact the cruel, proud, and hopeful and desperate world through model readers and prospective authors like Jin Shengsi.
*This article is compiled from the 9th lecture of "Happy Book List: Infinite Life Book List Season 3", the main speaker Duan Zhiqiang, slightly deleted. For the original content, please move to the ideal App to listen.