Gao Ya Nei is the infamous first evil boy in "Water Margin". Relying on the power of The Grand Lieutenant of the Imperial Palace, he ran rampant in the streets and committed misdeeds.
Gao Yanei appeared in the 7th appearance of the original water margin, when Lin Chong's wife was burning incense at the Yue Temple, Gao Yunei fell in love with her at first sight, and openly flirted, Lin Chong rushed to the scene, "Just when the next punch was made, he recognized Gao Yanei, the son of the mantis of the chief steward Gao Taiwei", and the fist first softened itself.
In this description, for the relationship between Gao Yannei and Gao Qi, Shui Hu used a word to express it - "son of the moth". This word is a bit strange and difficult to understand, so what is the "son of a borer"? What kind of special relationship is Gao Yanei and Gao Li?
I. What is the "Son of a Borer"
The term "son of a borer" appears not only in Water Margin, but also in other literary works.
In another classical masterpiece, The Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Liu Feng is Liu Bei's "son of a borer". In the 76th episode of the novel, Guan Yu jingzhou is defeated and trapped in Maicheng, and asks for help from Liu Feng and Meng Da. Liu Feng wanted to save him, but Meng Da said: "Guan Gong is the son of a borer and a moth, and he must not stand arbitrarily, and persuades the king of Hanzhong (Liu Bei) to place the general in the land of Shangyong Mountain City." Liu Feng, the "son of the borer" despised by Guan Yu, finally accepted Meng Da's suggestion and did not move, resulting in Guan Yu's capture and beheading. Liu Feng, the "son of a borer", was thus infamous for a thousand years.
In the "Complete Biography of Yue Yue", the national hero Yue Fei is also the "son of a borer" of the legendary Zhou Tong. In the 4th episode of "Speaking of Yue", Zhou Dong once introduced himself to Elder Zhiming: "This Yue Fei is the son of the younger brother, the borer. Zhou Dong attached great importance to Yue Fei, the "son of the borer", and poured out his own skills, even a patriotic blood, to create a generation of heroes Yue Fei.
From the above paragraphs, we can roughly conclude that "the son of the borer" means the righteous son and the dry son.
"The Son of the Borer" is from the verse in the Book of Poetry, Xiaoya Xiaoyuan: "The borer has a son, and the borer bears the burden." "People in ancient times believed that the small wasps of the earthworm, only males, no females, could not mate and produce offspring, so they had to secretly bring the young of the small insects back to the nest and raise them as their own offspring. Over time, the adopted borer pups will grow up slowly and eventually become the shape of a grasshopper.
According to this allusion in the Book of Poetry, later generations called adopted, unrelated righteous sons and dry sons "sons of borers.".
With the "son of the borer", then naturally there is also the "daughter of the borer". In "Water Margin", Hujiazhuang was destroyed by Li Kui, and Song Jiang's father, Song Taigong, recognized Hu Sanniang as his daughter. Hu Sanniang became the "daughter of the moth" of The Prince of Song.
Second, the "son of the borer" error
Regarding the "son of the borer", one of the most direct questions is, why did the little borer eventually become the shape of a worm?
The relationship between the borer and the moth has long been conclusive in the Book of Poetry, and Confucius also agreed with this statement when he re-compiled the Book of Poetry, and the "son of the borer" has been used by posterity for thousands of years. For example, the Han Chinese Yang Xiong wrote in the "Fa Yan Xue xing": "The son of the moth dies and the worm meets the worm." There are also records of these two creatures in the Book of Search for God: "Earth bees, known as grasshoppers,...... It is male and female, does not have intercourse, does not produce, and often takes mulberry insects or cockroaches to breed, and then it becomes its own son. It can be seen that the idea that the borer has become a worm has been deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, but this change is not in line with science at all. Obviously, it is the larvae of a borer, how can it become a grasshopper?
As early as the Southern and Northern Dynasties period more than a thousand years ago, Tao Hongjing, a famous Taoist, literary scholar, naturalist, and medical scientist who wrote the Commentary on the Materia Medica, raised such a question.
Tao Hongjing believes that the phenomenon of "son of a borer" mentioned by the ancients is obviously contrary to the laws of nature, and it is likely that there is a misunderstanding, so he decided to go to the nest of the grasshopper to find out.
He found a hive in the mountains, and after a long period of squatting and observation, he found that the "son of the borer" was really a mistake. Cockroaches are not what people call infertility, they are not only male and female, but also lay eggs and hatch, and have offspring. So why do fertile grasshoppers bring their borer larvae back to their nests? It turns out that the cockroaches are not loving animals that claim their righteous sons at all, and they bring back the larvae of the borers, but only cruelly use them as an early food and nutrient source for their own pups. People only see the natural appearance of "the borer has a son, and the grasshopper bears the burden", but ignores the cruel law of the weak and the strong that is being staged in the hive.
Although Tao Hongjing finally solved the mystery of the relationship between the borer and the grasshopper, the "son of the borer" has still become a conventional saying and is still used today.
Third, the true relationship between Gao Li and Gao Ya
Finally, we will return to the "father and son" of Gao Li and Gao Yanei. Regarding the true relationship between the two, the original work of the Water Margin wrote: "The son of this uncle Takasaburo who crossed the room was a son in the room. Ben was an uncle and brother, but he was a dry son with him (Gao Li). ”
In fact, Gao Li and Gao Yan nei were originally cousins. The villain Gao Li, because of his recent flying yellow Tengda, did not marry and have children, and was lonely and helpless in Tokyo City, which was the only reason why he adopted his contemporary Takahata as the "son of the borer".
The relationship between Gao Li and Gao Yunei is also a brother and a father. This kind of adoption is unethical and hurtful, but it vividly shows the character characteristics of Gao Li's misdeeds and the ugly face of Gao Yu's internal inflammatory attachment.
In addition, some readers believe that Gao Li adopted Gao Yanei not for the sake of having one more son, but for the good of child prostitution. Of course, this statement cannot be directly proved in the "Water Margin". Just as the so-called benevolent people see the benevolent, Xiaobian will not comment much on this statement.