What does the word "hero" mean? Most people's understanding is "a fierce man who acts chivalrous and righteous", but this is not the case; in fact, whenever the word "hero" is mentioned in "Water Margin", it is often accompanied by the word "spare life"; to put it bluntly, the so-called heroes are a group of ruthless people who can decide the life and death of others by relying on their own martial arts, and because of this, there is no shortage of wicked people above the heroes of Liangshan.
In fact, the description of Lin Chong when he first went to Liangshan is enough to prove that Liangshan is by no means a paradise for heroes, but a "beast's den" like a lion camel.
After all, it is written in the book: "The mountains are lined with huge waves, and the water is far away from the sky." Thousands of swords and guns were gathered in chaos, and thousands of layers of swords and halberds were lined up in strange trees. The antlers on the side of the river are all gathered into bones, and the bowls and scoops in the village are made of skeletons. Peel off the human skin and cover the war drum, and cut off the hair to make the reins. Blocking the official army, there are infinite severed heads, and blocking thieves is a lot of desperate forests. The pebbles are stacked like mountains, and the bitter bamboo guns are like rain. Warships come and go, and there are reed flowers in ambush around the week; the deep harbor is hidden, and there are many plants and trees under the four walls. The clouds of sorrow rose on the broken gold pavilion, and the murderous atmosphere was born in front of the Juyi Hall. ”
(Song Jiang stills)
And when Chao Gai and Song Jiang went up the mountain, this atmosphere has not changed, and there are still many wicked people on Liangshan, and there are even treacherous people who forget their righteousness.
1. The wicked man on Liangshan
In fact, if you have read the original book, you will not ask this question, because it is actually more difficult to answer the question of "which good man is a good man on Liangshan" than "who are the evil people on Liangshan", because strictly speaking, there are not many good people on Liangshan at all.
For example, Li Kui is a typical scum, except for his good brother Song Jiang, other people's lives don't seem to be worth mentioning in his eyes, for example, when Jiangzhou robbed the law field, he mentioned his indiscriminate killing of innocents: "Then the soldiers and civilians of Jiangzhou, who dares to approach." This big black man came straight to the river, his body was covered with blood, and he killed people by the river. Whoever the people bumped into was cut down into the river by him somersaulting. Chao Gai raised his sword and shouted: 'Don't do the people's business, don't just hurt people!' The man came to listen to the call, one axe at a time, and the leader of the row cut down. ”
Of course, most people know that Li Kui is a villain, but Wu Song and Lu Zhishen, who have more positive images, have also done evil, have you ever known?
For example, Wu Song killed an innocent Taoist boy, but it was just for the sake of sacrificing the knife: "I saw that the first door on the side of the ground opened, and a Taoist boy came out, and shouted: 'Who are you, how dare you make a fuss in the middle of the night, what are you doing by knocking on the door?'' The martial artist opened his eyes and shouted: 'First take this bird boy sacrificial knife!' Before he could say anything, there was a bang on the ground where his hand started, and the head of the Taoist boy fell to the side and fell to the ground. ”
(Li Kui, Song Jiang stills)
As for Lu Zhishen, he robbed the monk's gruel, ate overlord wine, and even had a confession before he died: "I don't cultivate good fruits in my life, I only love to kill people and set fires." Suddenly, the golden flail was opened, and the jade lock was torn off here. Hey, the tide on the Qiantang River came to me, and today I know that I am me. ”
People boast that they "only love to kill people and set fires", aren't those who say that Lu Zhishen is "the only good person in Liangshan" a cloud reader?
The one who can really be regarded as a good person may be an "iron-faced" Pei Xuan, who has never done evil from beginning to end.
However, whether it is Li Kui, Wu Song or Lu Zhishen, they are not the most treacherous people, after all, in the green forest, loyal and righteous people still work, and there is a good man who forgets his righteousness and makes people despicable, that person is the "Bantam Tiger" Wang Ying.
Second, the people who forget their righteousness
How bad is Wang Ying? In fact, it can be seen from the hymns given to him by the author.
"The camel brown jacket is splendid and mended, and the appearance is rugged. The strongest beam who is greedy for money and lustful, set fire to kill the king dwarf tiger. ”
This man is not only ugly and short, but also greedy for money and lustful, and often kills people and arsons, and none of his works is personnel.
However, this hymn only mentions that he is lustful, but does not mention that he forgets his righteousness, and later when he fought with Yan Shun, that face was really disgusting.
(Stills of Liu Gao's wife)
The situation at that time was that Wang Ying fell in love with Liu Gao, the wife of Qingfeng Village, but Yan Shun was worried that this brother would do something bad because of an irrelevant woman, and he was even more afraid that Wang Ying would fall in love with this woman and be harmed by this woman, so he took it upon himself to kill the woman.
Yan Shun is kind-hearted, but Wang Ying is already obsessed with lust, where can he comprehend his brother's hard work? Then the two staged a scene of fratricidal brotherhood.
The book only says: "Yan Shun jumped up and said: '...... Ask him what is the matter!' Draw your sword and swing it in two. When Wang Xiaohu saw that he had cut this woman, he was furious in his heart, and he snatched a simple knife and wanted to merge with Yan Shun. Song Jiang and the others got up and persuaded him. ”
Fortunately, thanks to Song Jiang's mediation, the two sides shook hands and made peace.
In fact, in the author's opinion, Wang Ying did not get lost, and Yan Shun will most likely see through Wang Ying's personality because of this, it is really ridiculous that such a thief can continue to stay in Liangshan.
(Yan Shun, Wang Ying stills)
What's even more ridiculous is that Song Jiang later gave the "Yizhang Qing" Hu Sanniang to Wang Ying.
The book only says: "Song Jiang personally talked to him and said: 'My brother Wang Ying, although he has martial arts, is not as good as his virtuous sister. It was I who promised him a family affair, but I never got it. Today, my sister has recognized my father. All the leaders are matchmakers, and today is an auspicious day, and Xianmei and Wang Ying are married. Yizhang Qing saw that Song Jiang was deeply righteous and couldn't push it. The two of them had to thank them. ”
It's ridiculous, just because you Song Jiang owe Wang Ying a favor, you have to repay the gift with Hu Sanniang's lifelong happiness, which is extremely ridiculous.
However, thieves like Wang Ying naturally can't get a good ending.
3. The final ending
In the first battle of Weizhou, Wang Ying and Hu Sanniang both died in battle, but strictly speaking, the ending given to him by the author actually does not relieve the reader's anger at all.
Not to mention that Hu Sanniang seems to be really in love with him and chooses to die with him, and the setting of him becoming an immortal after his death is even more outrageous.
(Wang Ying stills)
In the last meeting of the original work, Song Jiang mentioned this matter: "The Emperor of Heaven mourns the loyalty of his ministers and others, and Emperor Mengyu has issued an edict and is the land of Liangshan Bodu." Because he went to the village as a god, the generals would already meet here. ”
The "ministers" are mentioned here, that is to say, those heroes who died in Liangshanbo have become the land lords of Liangshan, and they are worshiped by the world with incense, you say that Song Jiang and others are loyal and righteous, how can Wang Ying be such a forgetful villain, how can he be worthy of being in the immortal class?
can only say that the sentence "don't read the water margin" is indeed reasonable, because when we were teenagers, we really may not be able to understand the sinister hearts of the people in the book, and when people read it again in middle age, they only feel that the book is full of demons, and those so-called "heroes" are also unrecognizable.