What are the four great classics about?

"Water Margin" is also known as "Water Margin of Loyalty and Righteousness" and "The Legend of Jianghu Heroes". The story of the Song Jiang Uprising during the Song, Jin and Yuan Dynasties was processed and compiled into a storybook. More than 200 years later, Shi Naian wrote China's first vernacular novel "Water Margin" based on the storybook, folk tales, and operas. In the history of the development of vernacular literature in my country, Landmark significance. "Water Margin" touches on almost everything in feudal society, such as medical divination, horoscopes, fences and houses, playing, playing and singing, etc. It provides us with a picture of customs in all aspects of social life in the Northern Song Dynasty.

In "Water Margin", Shi Naian created the unique characters of a group of green forest heroes who gathered in the rivers and lakes and acted chivalrously, and the growth path of each of them who was forced to go uphill. There are 108 heroes, each with his own language. Through these languages, the characters' different personalities are vividly and lifelikely portrayed. Li Kui's bravery, straightforwardness and loyalty, Lu Da's roughness but subtlety, justice and uprightness, Wu Song's bravery and meticulous thinking, Lin Chong's tolerance, Song Jiang's humility, and Wu Yong's resourcefulness, through their words, all make people laugh. It's like seeing his person and hearing his voice.

The whole book contains big stories and small stories, with short stories included in the novel. It still influences many literary and artistic works to this day. The novel has lively language, climaxes one after another, and is highly readable. It is the originator of Chinese chivalrous novels. The influence of "Water Margin" can be seen in the chivalrous novels of the Ming and Qing dynasties, as well as contemporary martial arts novels. In addition to its influence on literature, the stories and characters of "Water Margin" have been involved in many artistic fields. Over the past 500 years, artists of all categories have recreated "Water Margin" again and again, including related folk arts, dramas, movies, television, Painting and sculpture have become a huge part of our cultural life.

"Water Margin" is a novel written in the late Yuan Dynasty and early Ming Dynasty. It vividly and profoundly describes and reflects the tragic deeds of a peasant uprising team led by Song Jiang and participated by many heroes in the late Northern Song Dynasty.

Most of the participants in this team have suffered various persecutions to varying degrees from the feudal ruling class. In order to raise the banner of resistance, they came together and were united by the same goal. They opened up base areas and built armies. They have strict organization and strict discipline. They were engaged in an armed struggle, not a peaceful, "legal" struggle. Their targets are landlords, bullies, corrupt officials, and the feudal government, not a specific individual. "Water Margin" focuses on analyzing the causes of the peasant uprising. It arranges the story of Wang Jin and Gao Qiu at the beginning of the text, and then narrates that Zhu Wu, Yang Chun, and Chen Da were forced by the lawsuit to go up the mountains and fall into the grass. Shi Jin abandoned his home and fled. The story of Lu Zhishen and Zheng Tu in Guanxi, and the story of Lin Chong and Gao Yanei and Gao Qi are not accidental. One side is the oppressor, the other side is the oppressed, and the camps are clearly divided. From the beginning, the author uses artistic means to trigger the readers' love and hate, and leads the readers to the conclusion: the feudal ruling class is decadent and cruel; chaos is caused by the superiors, and the government forces the people to rebel. In the title of the earlier "Water Margin", there was the word "loyalty", which highlighted the important ideas the author wanted to express. "Righteousness" is the means by which the rebels unite. A sentence advocated by the author, "We are all brothers within the four seas" has long become a deeply rooted motto in life. "Loyalty" is another larger goal pursued by the Liangshan Uprising Army. In the minds of the decision-makers of the rebel army (such as Song Jiang, Wu Yong, etc.), they only opposed treacherous ministers and corrupt officials in the court and local bureaucracies at all levels, but not the emperor. What they dream of is to serve the country with all their loyalty, to build a successful career, to have a wife and a son, and to honor their ancestors. In other words, internally punish corrupt officials and eradicate traitors, and externally make contributions to the borders. This is the reason why they were recruited by the imperial court.

When writing about the peasant uprising, the author is not satisfied with writing one or two fragments or episodes of the peasant uprising. Instead, he writes about the entire process of the peasant uprising, from its occurrence and development to its decline and collapse. The author's creative intention is to vividly express and reflect the entire process of a peasant uprising in history from beginning to end, summarize experiences and lessons, and make people think deeply.

The whole book contains more than 400 people, among whom the main characters are all artistic models with distinctive personalities and vivid images. Various characters have their own characteristics; similar characters have their own personalities. When describing characters, the author is good at grasping the basic characteristics, highlighting a certain aspect, exaggerating it, and using contrast and foil methods to make the character's personality vivid and vivid. This is a basic principle for the author to create characters. The best illustration of the application of this principle in novels is what people have always called the "three virtues", that is, Cao Cao's "treacherousness" - being extremely cunning; Guan Yu's "righteousness" - "righteousness is as heavy as a mountain"; Kong Ming's "righteousness is as heavy as a mountain"; "Zhijue" - Extraordinary wit. The main method of depicting characters in novels is to place them in thrilling military and political struggles, and in sharp and complex conflicts. For the main characters, their complex personalities are often expressed through a series of storylines and character language. 2. It is good at describing war. The book covers more than forty wars, major and minor, showing scenes of thrilling war scenes. Among them, the Battle of Guandu, the Battle of Chibi, and the Battle of Yiling are the most outstanding. The author always focuses on the description of several key battles that determined the rise and fall of the Three Kingdoms, and takes the characters as the center to write out all aspects of the war, such as the strategies and tactics of both sides, the balance of forces, the transformation of status, etc., and the writing is rich and colorful. , ever-changing, each with its own characteristics, fully embodies the complexity and diversity of war; it not only depicts the fierceness, tension, and thrills of war without appearing miserable, but generally has a high-spirited style, and some even appear calm and dynamic. There is stillness, tension and relaxation. 3. Its structure is both magnificent and precise. The time lasts for hundreds of years, there are hundreds of characters, the events are complicated, and there are many clues. The description must not only conform to the basic facts, but also pay attention to the coherence of the artistic plot. Therefore, it is very difficult to arrange the structure. However, the author is able to write in an orderly manner, with clear context, each chapter can become an independent chapter, and the whole book is a complete artistic whole. This is mainly due to the author's grand and rigorous conception. He took Shu Han as the center and the contradictions and struggles of the Three Kingdoms as the main line to organize the storyline of the book. It is both tortuous and coherent, with masters and slaves, and masters and slaves working closely together.