Mao Dun once made some profound comments on the characters in Water Margin. What is the content?

Jianghu is the Jianghu of Jianghu people. But Jianghu people are different. The Jianghu system in the new martial arts novels is very strict and mature, and both the chivalrous and the devil are professional. The rivers and lakes in the water margin are much more simple and natural, and closer to the rivers and lakes in the real sense. Men are not all professionals, and both Lu Da and Yang Zhi are part-time officers. Of course, after they become an outlaw, they have no choice but to concentrate on being China people. What are the rivers and lakes in the Water Margin like? Jianghu is a secret society, and Shuihu's description of Jianghu didn't come clean from the beginning. Commenting on the description of the characters in Water Margin, Mao Dun said: "It's like a person coming from afar. At first, we only saw whether he was wearing a long coat or a short coat, and then we saw whether he was fat or thin, and then we saw whether he had a square face or a round face. Finally, we clearly saw his eyebrows, even his voice and smile: at this time, we saw all of him. " That's what the Jianghu in the Water Margin generally writes. From far to near, readers gradually understand the general appearance of rivers and lakes from ignorance. However, rivers and lakes are only the background for the survival and development of characters. Perhaps the author did not deliberately describe them, but in the process of describing the characters, the images of rivers and lakes naturally emerged in the readers' minds.

Gao Qiu was the first person in the Water Margin who mentioned that he was related to the Jianghu. The book said that he was "ruined" and "had to stab a gun to make a stick", which was in line with the characteristics of Jianghu people. However, Gao Qiu was promoted to a higher position soon. After he was promoted to the position of a temple commander, he became an official figure and left the Jianghu life. In addition, even if Gao Qiu has been in the Jianghu for a long time, I'm afraid he won't get along very well. He plays well, and his martial arts seem to be ostentatious, and his endurance is small. These are obvious shortcomings. So I have to help. Wang Jin, who came out next, had high martial arts skills and made a wide range of friends. He acted like a gentleman, but he disappeared soon after he appeared, so he could skip it. But Wang Jin didn't enter the Jianghu, which is really the loss of Jianghu. Shi Jin, headed by Wang Jin, can be regarded as a relatively pure Jianghu figure. Although Shi Jin didn't have much experience in Jianghu at that time, he studied with several masters and learned a lot of Jianghu etiquette, which also laid the foundation for him to travel in Jianghu in the future. Several leaders of Shaohua Mountain wanted to borrow food, and when they passed by Jin Shi Village, the two sides started to make trouble. Shaohuashan strongman is of course an out-and-out Jianghu figure. The struggle between Shi Jin and several leaders of Shaohua Mountain has just begun, which can be said to be the prelude to the Jianghu story. We can already see some unique behaviors in the Jianghu. For example, to be a good China person, we must live and die together and be especially loyal. If you are the king, you have to eat. You are not engaged in agriculture, so you must make a living by robbing. However, it is much more euphemistic to say that you went to the government to rob food under the guise. Later, Lu Da punched the town of Kansai, and Lin Chong went to Liangshan on a snowy night. The Seven Chivalrous Men couldn't fight the birth class, and Song Wu got drunk with Jiang Menshen. These people are real Jianghu elites. With them, the water margin becomes a water margin, and the rivers and lakes shine. Heroes appear one after another, just like a picture scroll slowly unfolding, and the Jianghu story gradually reaches its climax, and readers realize that all kinds of ups and downs in the Jianghu are hard to distinguish between true and false.

The word Jianghu is mentioned many times in the book, some of which are narrated by the author, and some are from the mouth of the characters in the book, which is also a clue in the book. A hero is a pearl tied to it. "When you drag it, the whole body moves" makes it look like pearls of all sizes pour into a plate of jade. From this, we can learn more about many knowledge and anecdotes in the Jianghu.

The Jianghu in the water margin is a loose structure, and the Jianghu people "sweep the snow in front of their own doors" without a special leader's unified command. In fact, in a peaceful society, the influence of rivers and lakes is negligible and the living space is narrow. The so-called "four seas, is it the land of kings?" When the people gathered to revolt, such a character and behavior pattern stood out in front of the people and the court. In this way, many times, the rivers and lakes seem as if nothing has happened and it is difficult to trace. Compared with the mainstream society, rivers and lakes always seem out of place, or often simply mix together, regardless of you and me. Rivers and lakes do not refer to a certain geographical area, but to a social space, which depends on people and is loose and intangible. It can be said that where there are Jianghu people, there are Jianghu people.

Jianghu people have no leaders, only elites. Song Jiang, Chai Jin and Classical all belong to the elite in the Jianghu. When such numbers appear, they are often introduced in a similar style. Dedicated to wealth, Love to meet heroes in the world, Love to stab a gun and make a stick. Generally, Jianghu heroes are not engaged in production, have no fixed place to live, are scattered everywhere and have no stable source of income. Therefore, it is indispensable to establish a reputation in the rivers and lakes. From the perspective of "fighting righteousness" and "sparing money", one emphasizes spirit and the other refers to material things. If you want to be the leader of the Jianghu, you must be tough with both hands. The two are also closely related, both external and internal. The brave defected, in addition to care, a lot of gold and silver can not be stingy. Song and others are very famous in the Jianghu for their special loyalty and willingness to give money.

Jianghu people are very mobile, so it is difficult to survive without mutual help. Loyalty is actually a protective mechanism spontaneously formed by groups. So they like to say "all men are brothers within the four seas". Jianghu people meet and talk to each other about their status in the Jianghu. "There are famous surnames in the rivers and lakes", which invisibly brought them closer. Sometimes they can turn their enemies into friends and turn them into friends. Famous Jianghu heroes are more like a duck to water in Jianghu. When Song Jiang was in danger, he immediately saved a day at the mention of his name. On the other hand, if you violate this rule and get angry because of selfish interests, you will have to eat "jokes of Jianghu heroes".

To become an elite, you need to know some martial arts, not too high, but know the doorway. Song Jiang, Wu Yong, etc. Although they are not famous in the Jianghu, they all have some kung fu. Jianghu is dangerous, and martial arts is also a way for heroes to become famous for their self-defense, and they must rely on it at any time. Heroes are generally obsessed with martial arts. When we meet in the Jianghu, one of the core topics to talk about is "Say something about marksmanship and make some moves". Lin Chong got a treasure knife. "I saw it once that night" and "I went to see the knife before dawn". The feeling of learning martial arts is exciting.

Jianghu people are complicated, mostly refugees, and their identities cover almost all kinds of occupations. Jong Li, a tiger slayer hero, is a "Jianghu peddler". When Liu Tang went to Chao Gai, he said, "Little people have been wandering in rivers and lakes since childhood ... I have seen private businessmen in Shandong and Hebei, and many of them have gone to my brother." Zhang Qing told Song Wu that there are three kinds of people who won't hurt others. "The second one is a prostitute in the Jianghu ...".

People who sell drugs with guns and sticks, prostitutes and private businessmen are very mobile, and those who engage in these businesses can all be called Jianghu people. Of course, this is just the above quotation. Jianghu people in the Water Margin involve a wide range of classes and industries. Typical Jianghu people's business also includes various mobile vendors and craftsmen. There are thirteen heroes from vendors and six from craftsmen in Water Margin, which is not a small number. Many other relatively stable classes are also hidden dragons and crouching tigers, and they also belong to Jianghu people. For example, Ruan Jinyong is a fisherman, Chai Jin is a bureaucratic aristocrat, Mars, Lu Junyi and Ximen Qing are wealthy businessmen, Song Jiang is a small official, Lu Da and Lin Chong are officers, and Gongsun Sheng is a Taoist. Most of these characters like to make friends with Jianghu heroes and are inextricably linked with Jianghu. Bureaucrats, wealthy businessmen and landlords also have a relatively high status in the mainstream society, and this social background is also very helpful to their reputation in the rivers and lakes. The rivers and lakes in the water margin are only vassals of the mainstream society and are not recognized by the ruling class. They are just shadows behind the halls of mainstream society and have a natural inferiority complex. If the average person is reduced from a stable social status to a refugee, it is reluctant and regarded as innocent shame.

As the existence opposite to the mainstream society, rivers and lakes have a strong anti-social color. Among the incorruptible third category mentioned by Zhang Qing, the third category is a mixture of crimes everywhere. "There are many heroes in the middle. Don't spoil him." . Zhang Qing and Song Wu talked about heroic deeds in Jianghu, and both of them were "killing and setting fire". It can be seen that many heroes in the Jianghu disturb society and commit crimes. Several main figures in Liangshan, such as Song Jiang, Lu Da, Song Wu and Lin Chong, all have murders in hand. Killing and setting fire can be described as a specialty, and finally you have to "force" Liangshan. Only in the water margin, the heroes of the water margin are positive images, and most of them are bullies, corrupt officials and prostitutes who are killed. Of course, there is a reason for killing people. Occasionally, innocent people are injured and a few strokes are taken, which is not harmful to the overall situation of "doing justice for heaven". Of course, for the mainstream society, rivers and lakes are a great social instability factor and should be strictly controlled.

Therefore, mainstream society and rivers and lakes have completely different evaluation systems. Song Jiang, for example, is just a petty official, but he has a high reputation in the Jianghu. So most Jianghu people have two faces, one from mainstream society and the other from Jianghu. Their behavior language is different on different occasions. Even some powerful people in the mainstream society may have two feet on the same boat and deliberately cultivate Jianghu capital. Once it changes, it can be used by me.

The rivers and lakes in the new martial arts novels are magnificent and self-contained, with more elements processed and imagined by literati. Just like a beauty in makeup, although charming, it lacks a natural state. There are more original ecological contents in Water Margin. More like Xiangshan girl, simple and natural, "a folk song is worth thousands of dollars." Martial arts novels can only be regarded as stories or fables, and Water Margin shows a folk custom picture in Song and Yuan Dynasties through rivers and lakes, which can be used as an auxiliary material for social history research.

On the other hand, the rivers and lakes in the water margin are probably idealized and cannot be equated with the real rivers and lakes. Lian Kuoru wrote a book, A Series of Talks on Jianghu, which described the Jianghu situation in the Republic of China. Compared with the Water Margin, the time is far away, of course, but some contents of the nature of rivers and lakes will not change much, so we should take the present as an example. The Jianghu series is more secular. Jianghu people don't have to know martial arts, but they are all kinds of people. What Jianghu people think is mainly limited to money, rice, oil, salt and daily calculations. Jianghu people should be loyal, but they don't exaggerate as much as Water Margin. As a matter of fact, Song Like Jiang Chao's "helping the needy" is 1200 taels of silver, which should be extremely rare in real life. The real Jianghu should be daily, secular and full of market spirit. Water Margin is the Jianghu of heroic bandits, whose main business is murder and arson.

As you can imagine, "Water Margin" is a book processed from the scripts of Song and Yuan Dynasties. In order to portray the heroes of the Water Margin, Jianghu has inevitably done a lot of artistic processing, which is virtual. From this point of view, Water Margin can also be regarded as the beginning of heroic chivalrous novels. As far as Water Margin is concerned, gangs prevailed in Qing Dynasty, so it is common to imitate heroes of Water Margin. The development of the real Jianghu's own deduction in turn affected the novel creation, and the Jianghu mode of the new martial arts novel reached its peak. The interaction between novels and the world, virtual and reality, makes people feel unreal and dreamy.