"Water Margin" should be the pinnacle of the spirit of resistance in the four famous novels in the mainland, from the overall plot structure of the novel, these four books have more or less elements of resistance, but most of them are displayed in a single image, such as the rebellious Monkey King in Journey to the West, Liu Bei who is unwilling to fall into fate in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, and Wang Xifeng who fights for women's rights in the Dream of Red Mansions.
The appearance of these very rebellious characters is actually a reflection of the author's accusation of reality, and the Water Margin is no exception, but the rebellious image it describes is more than 100, under the mediocre politics of the late Northern Song Dynasty, many heroes and heroes have embarked on the road of rebellion against the imperial court for various reasons, some because of dissatisfaction with the bureaucracy, and some because of their own economy.
After the Liangshan heroes gathered together, these heroes were actually a group of mountain grass bandits, whose main source of income was "looting", so their lives were not rich, but for some people, such as the poverty of the three Ruan brothers, which can be seen from the amount of beef.
The economic situation and the status of beef in the Northern Song Dynasty
From the perspective of the history of the entire feudal society, there was a parallel of political power in the two Song dynasties, and even a number of ethnic minorities eyed the Central Plains, when the so-called orthodox Great Song Dynasty was at a relative disadvantage, not only did not take advantage of several conflicts, but also made many compensations, which made most people think that the Song Dynasty was the trough of feudal society.
In fact, it is not, because of the weakness of the rulers themselves at that time, they may be the object of political oppression, but from an economic point of view, the two Song Dynasty periods were the peak of the feudal society in the mainland, and regardless of others, the appearance of the "Jiaozi" banknote is enough to prove the rapid development of the economy of the two Song Dynasty, which is also an important manifestation of the influence of the rich merchants in the south of the Yangtze River on the national economy at that time.
During this period, all walks of life developed rapidly, among which the metal smelting, handicraft industry and shipbuilding industry were unmatched in the whole world at that time, and more importantly, the closest modern service industry appeared in the Song and Song dynasties, in which catering and entertainment were the main functions, which were important factors to promote the progress of commerce.
When it comes to catering, we have to talk about the "beef" mentioned in the Water Margin, Wu Song once asked for beef by name when he passed Jingyanggang, he was actually just the head of the imperial court at that time, what kind of existence was beef at that time?
For a developed society like the Song Dynasty, cattle were a very precious species, such as the cultivated cattle that could replace human labor and greatly improve efficiency when working, but in fact they were protected by law, and slaughtering them at will would be directly sentenced.
At that time, there was an old farmer, because of the unfavorable care, the family ploughing cattle were cut off by the enemy's tongue and then died, and then the old farmer himself was punished by the law, which shows the punishment of the imperial court at that time, so the mainstream meat at that time was actually pork and chicken and other categories, and the relatively noble and elegant people would choose more expensive mutton.
As for beef, it is not unavailable, such as beef for the sake of the royal family, or cattle that cannot continue to be cultivated due to some accidents, etc., in short, it is very rare and very expensive.
The Water Margin is different, its era background is the end of the Northern Song Dynasty, and there is a group of bandits on Liangshan who are not managed by the imperial court, so it is not strange to eat anything, human meat buns still exist, not to mention beef and the like, it is nothing more than a question of whether the price is acceptable or not.
The image of the three Nguyen brothers
In the Water Margin, we could have seen a group of people with lofty ideals who resisted the improper rule of the imperial court, but the direction of the matter was an inevitable tragedy, which is very closely related to the compromise of the leader Song Jiang himself, although he is the head of Liangshan, but he is full of foolish loyalty to the imperial court, and has always fantasized about one day returning to the imperial court as an official.
At the time of the final recruitment, Liang Shan will be divided into three categories of people, the first group is the same as Song Jiang who completely agrees with Zhao'an, the second group is like Yan Qing who does not agree with Zhao'an and leaves by himself before or after the expedition to Fang La, and the third group is like the three Ruan brothers who are subject to their own vision and have to become Song Jiang's victims.
The three Nguyen brothers were destined to devote themselves to the pursuit of wealth by birth, and the three of them did not have a deep background, nor did they have any money-making business, just a few poor fishermen, which was a thankless job at the time, not only to haunt the rivers all day long, but also very hard and tiring.
Despite this, the three of them were still not well clothed and fed, because in the social environment at that time, peasants like the three brothers were not only the lowest level of society, but also the objects of oppression at that time, not only from the oppression of the corrupt bureaucrats at that time, but also from the exploitation of the local rich squire, which made the life of the three brothers more difficult.
Of course, the three brothers can be shaped by Shi Nai'an in the Water Margin, their image is destined to be extraordinary, under such a huge oppression, they are not willing to accept the bitterness of fate, it is the family wealth is scattered, nothing to worry about.
In the thinking of the three brothers, they are not afraid of heaven and earth, nor are they afraid of lawsuits, so they have long decided that they will no longer be restricted by fishing, and if they want to get rid of the bullying of the squire, they must completely rebel, and the reason why the three finally decided to join the Liangshan rebel army is not mainly because of the luxury of drinking and eating meat, but also because of the luxury of weighing gold and silver, and wearing silk and cotton in a different way.
At this time, the three brothers no longer need to mobilize, they only need a leader to guide, so they have been waiting for this opportunity, and soon, Wu Yong found the three brothers because of the matter of outwitting the birth gang, which is actually a hit and it off in the real sense, and it can be seen from the enthusiastic reaction of the three when discussing this matter.
Ruan Xiaoqi even jumped up excitedly, saying that he was willing to "go in the water and go in the fire", Ruan Xiaowu also said that this is the hope of his life, and now it happens to be the time to repay the wish, and immediately asked Wu Yong, "When will we start".
From the eagerness of the three of them, it can be seen that they are eager to change the status quo, and they themselves know that this is a good opportunity to enter Liangshan, so they will be so happy, it is worth mentioning that this is actually a two-way choice, because Liangshan, represented by Wu Yong, also needs these three people.
From the point of view of Wu Yong and others, the so-called outwitting the birth gang, in fact, is to rob the imperial court of the New Year's gift, from here, it is already a kind of rebellion against the feudal system and the oppressive status quo, in his eyes, the Ruan brothers are undoubtedly the most resistant to the spirit of existence, and chivalrous and courageous, love and righteousness, is exactly the talent they need.
The embarrassment of the silver and the three of them is highlighted
In the eyes of most people, silver taels may be the main currency in feudal society, but they don't know that this unit is actually only for the rich, similar to the three Ruan brothers and other poor people, basically can only be used for general consumption through copper coins, from the three of them met Wu Yong, Shi Nai'an has portrayed the poor nature of their lives.
First of all, Ruan Xiaoer said that he was barefoot when he saw Wu Yong, not because he was in a hurry to walk and didn't have time to put on shoes, but because the embarrassing family living conditions made him have no shoes to wear, and this poverty in life was exaggerated from the beginning.
In addition, from Ruan Xiaojiu's tattered clothes and Ruan Xiaowu's bad habit of indulging in gambling, they are all descriptions of the three brothers' living difficulties.
At that time, when the three of them finalized the gang and Wu Yong to rob the Birthday Gang together, Wu Yong gave Ruan Xiaoqi a tael of silver in order to celebrate, although it was only one tael at that time, but if it is converted according to the current purchasing power of goods, this is definitely not a small amount.
Because Ruan Xiaoer used these two pieces of silver, he not only bought twenty catties of beef, but also a large amount of wine, plus two chickens, and finally settled the money he owed to the restaurant, although so, there was still a surplus.
It can be seen that one tael of silver at that time was almost equivalent to the purchasing power of more than 300 yuan now, and it was only a lot more, that is, a luxurious meal for four people, of course, not only for Wu Yong, many people in the Water Margin used silver taels to calculate money directly, for example, in the twenty-sixth round, Wu Song gave Brother Yun five taels of silver, just let him go to the yamen to testify.
In the twenty-eighth round of Shi En's Happy Lin Restaurant, he was occupied, and according to his own words, he had about two or three hundred taels of silver per month, which was also a very considerable amount of money, but this did not represent the majority.
For Wu Song, even if the official position is low, there is also a lot of money, so it is okay to take out some money, for Shi En, as the operator of the restaurant, he is actually a businessman, this is the richest group in the two Song Dynasty, so silver and two are not a problem, but for the three Ruan brothers, money is a hard injury.
According to the rules of the rivers and lakes, Wu Yong once invited the three of them to drink wine and eat meat, they should invite each other back, and the three of them are also people who pay attention to the morality of the rivers and lakes, but they want to invite guests to dinner, so there is only one word, "make up", the three of them rummaged all over their bodies, and they only made up ten catties of beef, that is, less than half a tael of silver.
Compared with the one or two taels of silver that Wu Yong took out at random at that time, the Ruan brothers did not make up ordinary money after they exhausted their family funds, which shows the poverty and embarrassment of their lives.
On the whole, many heroes in the Water Margin were forced to go to Liangshan in a helpless situation, just like the three Ruan brothers, according to the current state of life, even the money for drinking has to be credited, and even the three of them can't make up a tael of silver, which shows their own poverty.
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