Overall summary: At the end of the Northern Song Dynasty, the government was corrupt, officials forced the people to rebel, and the people had to rebel. From court officials to ordinary people and even thieves, they were slightly disillusioned with the government, and their survival was difficult to maintain, and they were finally caught up with Liangshan. However, when the heroic deeds of the peasant uprising made the morale of the heroes rise day by day, Song Jiang accepted Wu and changed everything ... The hero disappeared into the world like this, and the peasant uprising that had been raging was so calm.
The Water Margin shows the whole process of the occurrence, development and failure of the peasant uprising historically, and profoundly reveals that class oppression is the social root of this peasant uprising war. Treacherous court officials and corrupt officials, such as Gao Qiu, oppressed and persecuted the people, aroused the fire of revenge of the people, and gradually developed into a prairie fire. The novel enthusiastically eulogizes the Liangshan heroes such as Song Jiang, Lin Chong, Lu, and jy who emerged in this process, and the peasant revolutionary ideal of "one family with different surnames", vividly showing the internal historical reasons why this peasant uprising turned into a tragedy. Except for a few people, such as Lin Chong, Lu, Ruan Xiaowu and so on, the vast majority of people, led by Song Jiang, have a strong idea of loyalty to the monarch. What they hate and oppose is only treacherous court officials and corrupt officials such as Gao Qiu. Therefore, although their rebellion turned the feudal dynasty upside down, it was not to create a new social system. The tragedy of Liangshan Uprising just illustrates the insurmountable historical limitation of peasant uprising in feudal society. Shi Naian faithfully reflected the insurmountable shortcomings of the peasant uprising itself, thus vividly describing the whole process of Liangshan uprising from small to large, from weak to strong, and then to failure, and profoundly revealing the regularity of the peasant uprising. The Water Margin is the first great work in the history of China literature that truly reflects the peasant uprising. The works closely follow the themes of "officials forcing the people to rebel" and "forcing Liangshan" and depict Liangshan heroes. For example, Lin Chong, as the commander of the 800,000 imperial army, has a rich economic income, a beautiful young wife and a warm family life. Such social status and living environment determine his character of being content with the status quo and not daring to resist. Gao Yanei, who molested his beloved wife, was furious, but because the other party was the son of his boss Gao Taiwei, he had to submit to humiliation. Later, Gao Qiu instructed Lu Qian to design a scam on his beloved wife and tricked him into the White Tiger Festival Hall, but he still swallowed it. He was tortured on the way to the army and assassinated in the wild pig forest. He still feels humiliated and fantasizes about going home to his beloved wife. It was not until Gao Qiu appointed Lu Qian and others to burn him to death in the forage field that he could not bear to kill Lu Qian and others and went to Liangshan on a snowy night. "Water Margin has 180 personalities, which is really 180" (Jin Shengtan). A series of artistic models with distinctive personalities have been created in the works. For example, Lin Chong, Lu and Yang Zhi are all military commanders and heroes with high martial arts skills, but their personalities are different. Lin chong is as above. Lu's generosity and frankness, his hatred of evil, and his courage are all concentrated on his courage and his struggle between love and injustice. In order to save Jin's father and daughter, he was killed by three punches, committed a bloody case, and reluctantly hid in a temple and became a monk. In order to save Lin Chong who was persecuted by Gao Qiu, even the monk couldn't do it, so he had to become an outlaw and go to Liangshan. Yang Zhi, Lin Chong and Lu have different personalities. He is "the grandson after three generations of Yang". His purpose in life is to "get a wife and son with one shot and one knife, and also fight with his ancestors." When he fell into the flower stone class and lost his official position, he still didn't give up the idea of climbing up. He actively took bribes in an attempt to restore his post. When I was appreciated and promoted by Liang Zhongshu, I was very grateful, and I will become an officer under him. It was not until the birth class fell and his life was threatened that he fled to the rivers and lakes and drove him to Liangshan. When portraying a character, it is often the first time to express the unique personality characteristics of the character through portrait description, which is the characteristic of portraying the character in Water Margin. For example, when Ruda appeared for the first time for the third time, he looked like an officer through Shi Jin's eyes. "He has a round face, big ears, a straight nose, bearded cheeks, eight feet long and a wide waist." Only a few strokes reveal Ruda's heroic character of generosity and integrity. For the monkey Song Wu, write that he "has a pair of eyes shooting at the cold star, and his eyebrows are as muddy as paint". The eyes are the windows of the soul, which reveal the character of Song Wu Jing Ming and the hero. The winding and moving plot and sharp and fierce contradictions and conflicts in Water Margin are often pushed to the climax step by step through the unfolding of the scene and the description of details. This is the story of Song Wu Jingyanggang's 23rd tiger fight. In the first scene, he wrote that he drank more than a dozen bowls of wine in a row in the hotel under Jingyanggang. Then in the second scene, he walked out of the hotel and was stopped by the shopkeeper, saying, there is a big bug that hurts people. Three bowls are not enough. Song Wu suspected that the shop had ulterior motives and was determined to cross the border. In the third scene, he wrote a few lines and saw two lines written on the peeled trunk, such as a blade hurting people. Song Wu continued to go to Shanghai with records. In the fourth scene, he came to Jingyanggang and saw the seal in front of the mountain temple, convinced that there was a tiger. Then in the fifth scene, he wrote that he met and killed a tiger on the mountain. In the tiger-fighting scene, Song Wu evaded the tiger's jumping, lifting and chopping one by one. Song Wu's sentry was broken when he hit a tree, so he held down the tiger and punched and kicked, and the tiger dug a hole with its claws. All these are details. These details, while describing Song Wu's bravery, pushed the plot to a climax. Similar events write different plots, which is also the remarkable feature of Water Margin. For example, Lin Chong bought a knife and Yang Zhi sold it. Song Wu killed a tiger, Li Kui jy killed a tiger, Song Wu killed a sister-in-law, Shi Xiu killed a sister-in-law, Jiangzhou robbed a court, and Daming House robbed a court. Lin Chong's explanation is similar to Lu Junyi's, but it is a completely different plot, showing a colorful life and colorful characters. The structure of Water Margin is a crisscross compound structure. The whole process of the occurrence, development and failure of Liangshan Uprising runs through the whole article, including the story of the main characters being relatively independent and self-contained. These stories are not only open and closed in structure, but also have their own characteristics, which are an organic part of the whole water margin story. The unique structure of Water Margin is the concrete embodiment of the "speaking" characteristics of folk artists. Associated with it is the water margin language, which is refined on the basis of the spoken language of the masses and retains the advantages of spoken language of the masses. It has the characteristics of washability, vividness, strong color and strong modeling.
Writing characteristics
Deeply reflect the broad social life.
The Water Margin was written by Shi Naian. The first seventy chapters show the brewing, formation and development process of Liangshan Lake peasant uprising headed by Song Jiang at the end of the Northern Song Dynasty, and profoundly reflect the broad social life. In the novel, Gao Qiu's "prosperity" and Hui Zong's love for him are written at the beginning of the story, which embodies the idea that "chaos is from top to bottom" and "officials force the people to rebel". The Water Margin not only exposes the brutality and corruption of corrupt officials, but also praises the heroism of Liangshan heroes.
Be good at describing characters
"Water Margin" is good at putting characters in real environment, closely linking their identities, experiences and encounters, and successfully shaping many heroic images with distinctive personalities, such as jy, Lu, Lin Chong and so on. On the other hand, in the shaping of heroes, we always put the characters at the critical moment of life and death, and express their personality characteristics with actions and words. For example, Shi Xiu jumped off a building during a robbery, and Shi Xiu's decisive and fearless character was vividly shown through several sketches of extremely agile movements.
The combination of realism and romanticism
When portraying characters, the author not only rooted in reality, but also projected his love and hate on the characters, such as Wu Yong's wit, jy's loyalty, and the exaggerated description of beating tigers and beating willows, which integrated realism with romanticism.
The plot is fascinating
The plot of Water Margin is vivid and tortuous, and all the events are dramatic and fascinating. There are some paragraphs, which focus on many characters and wonderful scenes, such as "Intelligence of Birth" and "Sanda Zhujiazhuang". The plots of each group are often the development history of the characters' personalities, such as "Jingyang Gang Beats Tiger", "Beating Ximen Qing", "Drunk Beating Jiang Menshen", "Flying Clouds" and "Blood House", which makes people think of Song Wu unexpectedly.
Character comparison/multi-purpose comparison technique
When portraying characters, the author also uses comparative methods. For example, in the attack on Ximen Qing, Uncle He and Brother Yun formed a sharp contrast. Uncle He Jiu holds the attitude that it is better to do more than one thing, and keeps retrogression everywhere, which shows his timid character. Brother Yun, on the other hand, is nosy, reflecting his young, competitive, childish and unfair mentality.
The language is clear, concise/vivid and accurate
The language of Water Margin is based on the northern spoken language and has been processed, so its language features are vivid and refined. For example, the book says that Lu Da killed Zheng Tu, the "important town of Kansai", with three punches. The first punch "hit the nose, blood gushed out, and the nose was crooked by half, but it seemed that a sauce shop was opened, and all the salty, sour and spicy ones rolled out." It is both popular and vivid. The language of Water Margin is vivid, accurate and vivid. For example, when Lu hit the bartender, "Lu da was furious, opened his five fingers and hit the bartender in the face with only one hand." ...... "It is not enough to express Lu Da's anger with' great anger' and' one palm', but it shows its charm with the word' open'.
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