Sun Erniang was one of the three female generals of Liangshan, nicknamed the Mother Night Fork, shangying the earth strong star, ranking second (line order) of the liangshan female generals, and the 103rd of the 100 single and eight generals.
The ranking of the mother night fork Sun Erniang in Liangshan is not high, and since joining Erlongshan, there are not many wonderful stories. However, this female general is famous in the jianghu, she is the female demon head of the Mengzhou Road Dashu Cross Slope Hotel who kills people and sells human meat and steamed buns.
Many readers do not understand the character of Sun Erniang, thinking that why such a female night fork on the underworld can still be called a good man of Liangshan. In fact, Shi Nai'an's writing of this character and the underworld story of this character is very meaningful. The moral of this is the "Buddha's Path on the Nai River Bridge" mentioned in the title of this article.
Interpreting Sun Erniang in this way is not to promote the so-called superstition, "the Buddha's Way on the Nai River Bridge" is actually an expression of the theme of "Water Margin". What's going on?
The night fork in "Water Margin" comes from the Buddhist "Dafang Guangfo Huayan Sutra", in which the female night fork moves quickly and has great strength. Therefore, Sun Erniang should be "the star of the earth". The male night fork is ugly, and the female night fork is beautiful.
There are many legends of the Night Fork, one of which is that King Cili (Shakyamuni Buddha) used his own blood to relieve the hunger of the Night Fork, and the Night Fork was grateful and expressed his willingness to serve the King. After King Cili became a Buddha, he transformed the Night Fork.
The mother night fork in "Water Margin" probably evolved from this Buddhist legend.
However, it is said that Wu Song was sent from Yanggu County to Mengzhou to charge the army, passing through a mountain ridge on the way and seeing a hotel in the distance. Following the guidance of the local woodcutter, Wu Song and his party came to the Cross Slope Hotel. The book reads:
At the sill of the front door sat a woman, revealing a green gauze shirt, with a yellow hammer on her head and some wildflowers on her sideburns.
This woman is the second lady of the mother's night fork. As soon as Sun Erniang saw Wu Song's three people coming, she immediately stood up to greet them. At this time, the book also describes the image of Sun Erniang standing: --underneath is a bright red raw silk skirt, a face of rouge lead powder, open breasts, revealing the main waist of pink yarn, and a gold button on it.
Shi Nai'an did not describe how Sun Erniang looked in a positive way, but told the reader through her dress that this female night fork, which should have been beautiful, was not beautiful. Because he is not pretty, he dresses up very wildly, and he is also very charming. Sun Erniang's appearance and dress like this are only worthy of opening a wild shop in such a remote place as Cross Slope, attracting those hungry and thirsty people who have been supported by the army and monks in the past -- who is the night fork?
Interestingly, Sun Erniang's husband, Zhang Qing, laid down three rules for Sun Erniang, and yunyou monks, prostitutes in the courtyard, and past military personnel could not be harmed. These three kinds of people cannot be harmed, so isn't Sun Erniang going to lose her job?
What is more interesting is that Sun Erniang took the monk's knife and killed a mysterious head, almost dismembering the flower monk Lu Zhishen. Upon seeing Wu Song's arrival, the Mother Night Fork also ignored Zhang Qing's set and couldn't wait to put on the MengHan medicinal liquor.
Why did Sun Erniang kill monks? In fact, the dress of the mother night fork has already made an answer, such a look, who can still be lost? However, Wu Song was not a monk, but why was he brought into the shop by Sun Erniang and risked being poisoned?
In "Water Margin", many good Han fa and charging troops were written, so several prison cities were also written. For example, Lin Chong and Zhu Tongfa with Cangzhou, Song Jiangfa with Jiangzhou, Lu Junyi with Shamen Island... Wu Song has had two distribution experiences, the first time is Mengzhou, and the second time is Enzhou. Under close reading, these distribution places have metaphors, because this article only talks about the mother night fork related to Wu Song, so it is only about why Wu Song issued Mengzhou.
The Thirty-Six Heavenly Gangs of Liangshan all have a blueprint prototype, and Wu Song's image in the "Thirty-Six Paintings of Song Jiang" is such an image: Ru You Po Sai, the five precepts in the body. Wine is rich, and he will kill people.
Upasai is a practitioner who brings his hair to practice from an early age. If written according to the blueprint story, Wu Song should be a walker as soon as he appears. Moreover, he is an evil actor who "drinks and is rich, and he will kill people". However, if Wu Song is written in this way, then he cannot go to Liangshan.
The one hundred and eight generals of Liangshan are all Taoist stars, and the practitioners are the disciples of Buddhism. Therefore, Wu Song must first have a Taoist identity, so that there is a good Han Wu Erlang on the rivers and lakes.
Even if Wu Song was first a good man in the jianghu, Shi Nai'an still did not break away from the blueprint, and Wu Song was a good man in the jianghu who "drank wine and wealth, and wanted to kill people". And that real walker, Wu Song, is the mysterious head who was killed by Sun Erniang.
The mysterious head was fascinated by Sun Erniang, and drank the Menghan medicinal liquor, and the pair of snowflake iron ring knives roared every night because of the excessive killing. From the objects left by the mysterious head, it is shown that the monk is still very rich- and is also a practitioner who "drinks wine and wealth, and wants to kill people".
In addition to these objects, the mysterious head also left a string of one hundred single eight human parietal bone rosary beads. This is the identity relic shared between Wu Song and the mysterious head, and the two images combined are the "Heavenly Wound Star Walker Wu Song" in the Liangshan One Hundred Single Eight Generals.
The sequel "Zheng Si Kou" did not understand the "Water Margin" at all, blindly saying that the "Heavenly Wound Star" was Wu Song who made a waste on his left arm. In fact, the walker Wu Song had already been "injured" by Sun Erniang once, but Wu Song on the rivers and lakes and Wu Song on the Liangshan Mountain were injuring others.
Shi Nai'an wrote a Wu Song on the jianghu in the form of a doppelganger, and then secretly wrote a walker Wu Song with the identity of a "past life". The two Wusong eventually merge at the Cross Slope Hotel, and Takematsu returns to the Buddha-figure, which is the big theme of "The Unity of the Buddha's Path" hidden by Shi Nai'an in "Water Margin", the Buddha's Tao joining hands to exorcise demons, and the heavenly path.
The reason why the mysterious head was killed was because he had to forget his identity and let a Taoist Xingxu merge with the Buddhist disciples. Therefore, the mysterious head drank a bowl of Meng Po soup. Wu Song spilled the bowl of Meng Po soup, and he did not forget his identity in his previous life and returned to the Buddha-figure.
Sun Erniang said a sentence after Wu Song pretended to drink and fell down: "You are like a ghost and eat the old woman's foot washing water", and the foot washing water is "soup" in "Water Margin". Therefore, what the mother-in-law on the Mengzhou Road gave the monks to drink was Meng Po soup.
This is the reason why Wu Song fa matched Meng Zhou, and the mysterious head Tuo, the flower monk Lu Zhishen was turned over by Meng Po Tang Ma.
The book says that Zhang Qing burned down the temple because he killed all the monks of the Guangming Temple. After escaping the lawsuit, he came to cross slope to rob him. One day, Zhang Qing encountered an old robber who was knocked over by a flat burden. The old man saw that Zhang Qing's hands and feet were flexible, so he recruited him as a son-in-law. This old man is Sun Erniang's father, and some versions call him Sun Yuan. Probably, this is the origin of Sun Erniang's nickname.
This is the reason why Sun Erniang married Zhang Qing as stated in the text, and in the depths of the text, there is another meaning. Shi Nai'an, with Sun Erniang and Zhang Qing, are actually two characters designed specifically for the theme of "the unity of the Buddhist Path", which is what is said in the title of this article, and they are dedicated to introducing the Buddhist Tao on the "Nai Ho Bridge".
Zhang Qing is nicknamed Caiyuanzi, which is the reason why he was able to save Lu Zhishen. Because, Lu Zhishen is in charge of the vegetable garden. Zhang Qing opened a hotel in Mengzhou Cross Slope in order to lead his "superior" to The Baozhu Temple in Erlongshan to be the abbot of this royal temple.
Lu Zhishen was originally also a monk in the blueprint, but Shi Nai'an did not arrange a figure for him, so he drank Sun Erniang's Meng Po soup and forgot his past life identity. Lu Zhishen's Buddha's edge was even deeper than Wu Song's, so Wu Song became a walker and always fought at Lu Zhishen's side.
Zhang Qing was nicknamed the Earth Punishment Star, and this star was specifically responsible for "opening the knife". Sun Erniang was responsible for the medicine of Menghan, Zhang Qing was responsible for the operation, if the husband and wife performed their duties, the mysterious head would not die. The mysterious head does not die, so how does Wu Song return to the Buddha-figure? Therefore, Zhang Qing introduced Lu Zhishen, and Sun Erniang specialized in Hua Wusong.
Since it is to attain enlightenment and lead Buddhist disciples, it is to do good deeds. But why did the couple kill people in Cross Slope and sell human flesh as beef?
This is actually hiding the historical truth, where is the real sale of human flesh as beef?
There is a detail in the book that says that Wu Song subdued Sun Erniang, but Sun Erniang let out a scream like a slaughtered pig. At this time, Zhang Qing came in carrying a load of firewood. As soon as he saw that the Hun family had suffered a loss, Zhang Qing begged Wu Song for forgiveness.
This dan chai is talking about chai entering the house, otherwise, what is the point of Shi Nai'an writing such a detail? In the pushback figure, when it comes to the next week, it is painted with a bundle of firewood (the fourteenth elephant). Moreover, this bundle of firewood in the "Water Margin" also refers specifically to the Chai Zongxun of the Later Zhou.
Chai Zongxun belongs to cattle, so in "Water Margin", killing cattle and eating beef, as well as drunkenly beating Tang Niu'er, selling knives to kill cattle two, all talk about this "cow". And Sun Erniang's scream of killing a pig is said to be the brothers Zhao Kuangyin and Zhao Guangyi who usurped the throne of Chai Zongxun, and both brothers belonged to pigs.
The zodiac signs in "Water Margin" have profound metaphors, cross slope killing people and selling human flesh steamed buns, metaphorically before the Jing Kang Disaster, the tragedy of eating human flesh occurred in the capital city besieged by Jin soldiers. Shi Nai'an said that even if the Zhao family seized the chai family's world, they could not escape the fate of destruction. Because the usurpers have violated the "Heavenly Dao Cycle" ritual law, they will get "results".
At the same time, killing cattle and eating beef, especially killing niu er, is a metaphor for the good han of Liangshan to attack Youzhou and resist the Jin soldiers. Because, Niu Er also metaphorically killed Yang Zhizu's Golden Sword Linggong and concluded the alliance of Liaoyuan Empress Xiao.
Zhang Qing was originally a lay family member who grew vegetables at the Guangming Temple, so he was nicknamed Vegetable Garden. For a small matter, Zhang Qing killed the monks of the temple, burned down the Temple of Light, and owed a big blood debt to the Buddhists. Married to Sun Erniang and came to Cross Slope to open a black shop, Zhang Qing became a person who "cherished the monk the most for the head".
Why did Zhang Qing have such a change? Zhang Qing's transformation turned out to be Sun Erniang's big role. King Cili (Shakyamuni Buddha) gave the Night Fork with blood, and later transformed the Night Fork, how could the Mother Night Fork not return the Buddha??
Zhang Qing killed the monk and burned the temple, Lu Zhishen made a big fuss about Mount Wutai and burned the Clay Pot Temple, and both of them eventually went to the heavenly stars. In particular, Wu Song in the jianghu forgot his "past life" of Youbosai, killed fifteen people in Zhang Dujian's mansion, and made up the number of "consummations", and Sun Erniang dressed him up as a walker - "but it is not destined in the previous life" - Wu Song returned to the Buddha-figure.
From this point of view, the Mother Night Fork Sun Erniang did the work of a good man in the cross slope of Mengzhou Road, and moreover, she was also the initiator of the occupation of Erlong Mountain by the good han of Liangshan. Similarly, Liangshan's "Buddha's Tao unity", the Buddha's Tao joining hands to "serve the Heavenly Path and protect the people of the realm", also has a great contribution to the Mother Night Fork.
Lu Zhishen and Wu Song both went up the mountain to rebel because of Sun Erniang, and eventually became heroes and good men who fought against foreign enemies.
Mengzhou Cross Slope is not simple, and the mother night fork Sun Erniang is really a "good man". After the seventy books, the mother night fork Sun Erniang will work with Lu Zhishen and Wu Song to kill the enemy in the side court and make meritorious contributions, and will also become a hero who "protects the land and the people for the heavenly path".