In ancient Chinese novels, before the main text begins, there is usually a wedge, first tell a small story.
At the beginning, most of the story content of the wedge has little to do with the main text of the novel, after all, the ancient Chinese small talk originates from "talking", or "acting", the performer wants to let the people in the liquor store tea house quiet down first, always can not simply shout: "Everyone is quiet, the performance is about to start", after all, the audience sitting at the bottom is the parents of the performers.
Then it is better to talk about something first, and you can also warm up the field first, which is the earliest role of the wedge.
Gradually, the existence of the wedge has a greater meaning, and the performer can use this small story to point out and supplement the text that follows. Later, the authors simply brought the structure of the wedge to their novels.
At the beginning of the novel "Dream of the Red Chamber", the author wrote two mythological stories to hint at the roots of the tragic fate of the later characters. At the beginning of "Water Margin", the author also uses a wedge, indicating the subtlety of the future story. Jin Sheng sighed and said, "He who is a wedge is also said to produce something by things." ”
In the novel "The History of Ru lin wai", there is also a wedge, which tells the story of the painter Wang Guan in the late Yuan and early Ming dynasties. The author uses some Spring and Autumn brushwork here, and regards the real characters in this history as the highest example of many characters in his novels.
However, after all, "The History of Rulin" is a classical novel known for its satire, and the main purpose of the novel is not to praise anything, but to satirize something. Therefore, the main characters of the wedge in the History of Ru lin are not so much the crown of the king as the other three characters: fat man, thin man and beard.
These three characters do not have names in the novel, the author only distinguishes them by their physical characteristics, and later in the novel, the author does not arrange any story for them, but a simple dialogue between them represents the faces of most of the characters described later in the novel.
When Wang Guan was herding cattle, he was thinking of self-taught and painting the lotus flowers after the rain, when suddenly three people came to the river for a picnic, namely fat, thin and bearded. Their dress, all dressed in straight clothes, wearing square scarves, and shaking white paper fans in their hands, can be seen that they are some "cultural people".
The fat man uses the big man Wei Su to serve everyone wine
Although it was a picnic, we could also see from the seats of these three people that their different identities. The fat man who wore the royal blue straight jacket let the beard wearing the yuan color straight jacket sit on the top, that is, sat in the direction of the north and the south, in ancient times, this was the most honorable position, and the beard was a guest.
The thin man sat opposite the beard, that was the lower position, sitting on the north and south, this is the most humble position, then he must be the owner of this picnic, so it is he who pours wine for everyone.
Needless to say, the fat man can only sit in the middle of the horizontal position, that is, the identity of the accompanying guest. Since he was a guest, the fat man had to not only be able to drink, but also have to be able to chat, so he came up and brought out a series of big people:
After eating it once, the fat man said, "The old man is back." The newly bought house, which is larger than the house in Jingli Bell Tower Street, is worth two thousand taels of silver. Because the old man wanted to buy, the owner of the house let dozens of silver sell, trying to make a decent reputation. At the beginning of the tenth month of the previous month, Taizun and county parents personally came to the door to congratulate and kept to eat and drink until the second or third day. People on the street, that one is disrespectful! ”
The old gentleman of danger in this fat man's mouth refers to Wei Su, who, like Wang Tian, is also a real figure in history. He was originally an official of the Yuan Dynasty, and later defected to Zhu Yuanzhang, that is, he defected. In the third year of Hongwu, after Wei Su was degraded, Zhu Yuanzhang sent him to guard the tomb of Yu Que, a loyal vassal of the Yuan Dynasty, which was undoubtedly a humiliation to his apostasy.
In the "History of Ming", the evaluation of Wei Su is still quite good, but in the pen of the novel author Wu Jingzi, Wei Su has completely become a negative image.
According to the fat man, after Wei Su returned to his hometown, he bought a large mansion, which was actually larger than the house on Zhonglou Street in the capital, which showed that he was not a Qing official. Later in the novel, Wei Su sees that Wang Tian's painting is well drawn, and thinks that Wang Mian "will not be below you and me in the future" and wants to get acquainted with Wang Mian . This is not necessarily wei Su's love for talents, he is just trying to win over talents and cultivate his future cronies.
The "Tai Zun" who personally went to congratulate Wei Su referred to the prefect, "county parents", referring to Zhi County, from the Beijing official, to the prefect, and then to the Zhi County, the fat man in the light of the understatement, invisibly in front of everyone also raised his own value.
Tianmu Shanqiao's comment on this is that "the opening is a great god Buddha." Qi Comment here sarcastically said: "The non-elder does not open his mouth, it is this school of books." ”
Of course, the thin man who is the master is not far behind:
The thin man said, "The county lord is a nongwu person, a protégé of the old man of danger, and this is what should be congratulated." ”
The thin man's implication is that the county's parent official Shi Zhixian is the protégé of the big man Wei Su, and I know the details of this matter.
Fat people are well versed in the tricks of bragging: "Avoid the real and be virtual, and bring the real with the virtual"
The fat man said, "Our relatives are also the protégés of Mr. Wei, and now they are in Zhi County, Henan; the day before yesterday, the son-in-law came to his home and brought two pounds of dried venison to give, and this plate is it." ”
Shizhi County is a protégé of WeiSu, and the fat man's relatives are also The protégés of Weisu, and it is also a Zhixian county in Henan, this fat man is very good at picking up the stubble, so he shows his posture in a roundabout way, which is equivalent to having a very close relationship with Weisu. I don't know if the fat man has stood up for his waist while saying this.
Best of all, he also brought a plate of dried venison as evidence.
Bragging is a major hobby of many characters in the novel "The History of Rulin", but their technical level of bragging is high and low, and if the level is low, it is very dangerous to blow the cowhide.
In the second episode of the novel, Xia Zongjia bragged to the common people of Xue Jiaji, saying that he would go to Huang Laopa's house in Yamen to eat wine in a while, but he was pointed out by his relative Shen Xiangfu, saying that Huang Zongjia had been on a business trip a few years ago and had not returned so far, so why would he invite Xia Zongjia to eat wine?
Therefore, bragging should try to blow some more vain things, such as Yan Gongsheng when he saw Fan Jin and Zhang Jingzhai, it was like this to describe how Tangzhi County valued him: When Tangzhi County first arrived at his post, when he first arrived at the palanquin, he only looked at Yan Gongsheng in the crowd, and when Yan Gongsheng went to visit Tangzhi County, Tangzhi County hurriedly put down the hustle and bustle in his hands, and received Yan Gongsheng attentively and thoughtfully, "Changing tea twice, just like friends who have known each other for decades."
Yan Gongsheng's bragging level is much higher than Xia Zongjia's, and what he says is some things that no one can prove to be true, which is the truth of "avoiding the real and making the false". However, Yan Gongsheng's bragging level is much worse than this fat man, because the fat man also knows the truth of "taking the virtual with the real".
The fat man was not the master, but he brought you a plate of dried venison, just to prove to everyone that what I said during the banquet was true.
This story takes place in Zhuji, Zhejiang, so far away from Henan, who knows whether the fat man's relatives are a Zhixian or not, then his relatives are weisu's protégés, it has become more difficult to distinguish between true and false, but if you don't believe it, this plate of dried venison on the table is the evidence of a boss.
Although there is no inevitable correlation between dried venison and Zhixian and protégés, there is evidence better than no evidence, not to mention that you have all eaten, after all, it is a short mouth that eats people.
However, the fat man's pattern is too small, and he immediately said that he wanted his relatives to write a letter of introduction to meet Wei Su, and if Wei Su could go to the countryside to worship himself, he could use this matter to scare the villagers in the countryside, "Lest these township families let donkeys and pigs eat grain in your and my fields." ”
"Pulling the big banner, making tiger skins" is the most common thing that people who like to brag about it do, the author here not only satirizes the fat man, but also satirizes the danger from the side, and the Second Review of The Day wrote here: "The dangerous old man is the general manager of the donkey and pig of the township household." ”
Although the thin man has few words, he speaks sarcastically
Compared with the talkative fat man, as the thin man of the master, the words are still relatively small, there are two sentences in total, in addition to the relationship between Zhixian and Weisu in the introduction just now, the other sentence is also very brief, but it is very subtle:
The thin man said, "Old Mr. Danger is going to be a scholar." ”
The ancients paid attention to "learning and excellence", can become a superior official, that is not to learn the rich five cars, through the examination step by step to be selected, Wei Su should naturally have two brushes in learning, but one of the thin words of "to count", it exposes the flashiness of Wei Su learning.
The author did not add the word in vain, and it was not long before the author footnoted it with a storyline. Wei Su got the painting of the crown and liked it very much, so he asked Shi Zhixian, "Or did it belong to the ancients, or did it paint it now?" ”
Let's not talk about the old and new of the paper, just from the painting style of the ancients and the painters at that time, as a well-informed cultural person, you should also distinguish the difference between the paintings of the ancients and the paintings of the time, not to mention that Wang Tian's paintings are self-taught, without any teacher, and Wei Su should also be able to see it, however, he does not have this vision.
No wonder this scholar of Mr. Danger is "counting."
The words of the main guest beard are the funniest
The bearded man said, "When I heard that the sun had risen in Beijing before, the emperor personally sent him out of the city and walked a dozen steps with his hands, and the old man in danger repeatedly resigned before he got on the car and went back." Looking at this situation, don't you want to become an official? ”
The emperor was not only able to easily go out of the city, but even took Wei Su's hand to send him, if this beard knew a little more about sensationalism, I am afraid that he would add the bridge section of the two "holding hands and looking at each other with tears in their eyes, and they were speechless and choking".
When the people of Wuhe County talked about Peng Laosi in Hanlin, they said that Peng Laosi was in the imperial court one day, because there was a sentence that was not answered appropriately, and as a result, he was slapped by the emperor, and they did not know at all, the emperor sitting on the dragon chair, his hand said that he could not reach the body of the official below.
Beard has an amazing imagination, but it is just "the countrymen talk about the tone of the capital".
In the novel "Dream of the Red Chamber", there was also a similar joke, saying that a countryman came back after entering Beijing, and people asked him if he had seen the emperor, and he said that he had seen it, and the emperor had a gold yuanbao in his left hand and a silver dollar treasure in his right hand, riding on a high-headed horse, and a pocket of ginseng behind the horse, and he came to take a bite at every turn.
When I first started watching "The History of Ru Lin", I felt that this "unknown three people" in the wedge was just a small fragment, but when you read the whole novel and revisited this fragment when you returned, you will have more experience.
This fat man, the thin man and the beard are simply "the shadows of all the people in the book", and their dialogue is "the program of words in all the books", which is an important plot that we must not let go when we read books.