Li Zhen greatly praised the "loyalty" embodied in "The Water Margin," but some people expressed doubts about this, believing that "The Water Margin" was, after all, a story about a group of mountain bandits gathering to rebel and being disloyal, and that the leader Song Jiang led the brothers to accept the court's recruitment, and finally ended up in tragedy, which was unjust, so how could it be called "loyalty"? Therefore, understanding and knowing the "loyalty" in "The Water Margin" is the key to understanding this book.
1
Anti-corruption officials do not oppose the loyalty of the emperor
It should be noted that the "Loyalty Theory" of "Water Margin" did not originate with Li Zhen, although Li Zhen's comments made readers begin to realize the existence of "loyalty". In fact, since the beginning of the Water Margin story, "loyalty" is the core of the story. Gong Kai said in the preface to "Thirty-six Praises of Song Jiang":
So there are thirty-six people, and the people are praised, and the body is in the place. Cover its original appropriation, will make a return to the right, righteousness and courage do not fight each other, this poet's loyal heart also. Yu taste to Jiang Zhi's doing, although not self-deprecating, but its intellectual excellence is outstanding, the name is not extravagant, the name is like, still following the track, although the record can also. In ancient times, the willow thief was called the saint of thieves, and he kept one to the extreme. Those who can excel and excel like a river are almost ruined. Although, the other foot and the river, with the stealing of the name without resignation, bowed to the stealing traces and did not hide the traces. If the chaos of the world is a thief, he walks away in fear of the shadow, and what he does is close to him, and his misfortune is not lost to the four seas. Woohoo, instead of meeting the disciples of the Holy Father, who is the foot and the river?
In the preface, Gong Kai pointed out the difference between Song Jiang and the thieves in troubled times. First of all, although Song Jiang is an anti-thief, he is called "not arrogant", and he is not against the emperor but against corrupt officials. Secondly, Gong Kai compared Song Jiang with the "saint of thieves" thief, thinking that he was righteous as a thief. Although Gong Kai did not directly say "loyalty", Song Jiang and his party can fully afford these two words, no wonder Qian Zhongshu thinks that Gong Kai "opened the way for the later Li Zhen and others to view the "Loyalty and Righteousness Water Margin" ("Selected Notes on Song Poems").
In "The Remains of Xuanhe of the Great Song Dynasty", the theme of "loyalty" was officially determined. When Song Jiang spied on the Book of Heaven in the Temple of the Nine Heavens Xuannu, it was written on it, "The Book of Heaven paid the thirty-six fierce generals of the Tiangang Academy, so that Song Jiang was the commander of the 'Hu Baoyi', and he was loyal and righteous, and he destroyed the treacherous and evil." It is particularly emphasized here that what Song Jiang and others did was in line with the principle of "loyalty and righteousness", and their opposite was treacherous and evil, so that Song Jiang and others became the embodiment of justice, and their rebellion and rebellion were only to eliminate treacherous evil. Song Jiang returned to Liangshan to find Chao Gai after receiving the will of the Book of Heaven, but Chao Gai was dead at this time, Wu Yong conveyed Chao Gai's last words to Song Jiang: "He burned incense in Dongyue during his political and political years, and he had a dream, and he saw that the village would get thirty-six numbers." If it does, it must be to help the people to be loyal and defend the country. When King Chao was dying, he still instructed Wu Yong to "help with loyalty and protect the country", which shows that the goal of the two leaders on Liangshan is the same, that is, loyalty.
Chao Gai was hit by an arrow
Selected from Chen Yuandu's "Water Margin" comic book "Daimyo's Mansion". Chao Gai was originally Baozheng of Dongxi Village, nicknamed "Tota Heavenly King". His death by an arrow was a major change of power for Liang Shan, and Song Jiang took the throne after that.
Although "The Remains of Xuanhe of the Great Song Dynasty" points out the theme of loyalty and righteousness through the mouths of Song Jiang and Chao Gai, there are still many contradictions in the specific plot design. For example, at the beginning of the book, Song Huizong was criticized, accusing Song Huizong of "singing and having fun every day", indulging in drinking and having fun, "the Son of Heaven is all worry-free to ask, and the ministers Cai Jing, Tong Guan, Yang Jian, Gao Yu, Zhu Mian, Wang Hao, Liang Shicheng, Li Yan, etc., have fun and pursue pleasure, and ignore the court", favor the traitorous ministers, and corrupt the discipline. If the rebellion of Chao Gai, Song Jiang and others began with Cai Jing's birthday, then the rebellion of Yang Zhi and others due to the loss of the "Huashi Gang" was entirely due to Song Huizong's personal immorality. Song Huizong is known as the "Emperor of Taoism", because Taoism advocates mountains and stones, Song Huizong thought that being in the strange stones could help him to ascend to heaven, so he sent "Huashi Gang" (a fleet that transported strange flowers and stones to meet the emperor's preferences) to collect strange stones throughout the country, and even "poisoned the county for 20 years". Song Jiang spied on the book of heaven to "widely practice loyalty and righteousness, and destroy treacherous evil", "treacherous and evil" are not only corrupt officials and corrupt officials, but Song Huizong should also be among the "annihilation". Later, Chao Gaituo Wu Yong conveyed his last words -- "defend the country," but what did Song Jiang and the others do? "The Remains of Xuanhe of the Great Song Dynasty" says that they "led strong men to rob counties in Luozhou, set fire to and kill people, and captured more than 80 counties in 24 prefectures on the three roads of Huaiyang, Jingxi, and Hebei; plundered their children's jade silks, and plundered many people." It's still a robber.
This practice of Song Jiang and others is obviously not "loyal," so why does this kind of "inconsistent words and deeds" setting appear in "The Remains of Xuanhe of the Great Song Dynasty"? The main reason is still its author. Qian Zhongshu said in "Selected Notes on Song Poems":
On the issue of national contradictions, they can take a patriotic stand, and on the issue of class contradictions, they can oppose harsh government, show mercy to the poor, and hope to improve their lives. However, if the people can't stand the oppression of the rulers and fight against each other with real swords, the literati and scholars feel that the general situation is not good, and they are busy standing on the side of the court and the government.
Therefore, the contradiction we read in "The Remains of Xuanhe of the Great Song Dynasty" is actually the contradiction in the hearts of ordinary literati represented by the author of the novel. As Qian Zhongshu said, whether it is the author of "The Remains of Xuanhe of the Great Song Dynasty" or Gong Kai, these literati and scholars can personally understand the real problems faced by the masses at the bottom, and also understand the crux of the court under the rule of the Southern Song Dynasty, so they can point the finger at "treacherous evil" in the book. However, the limitation of their status determined that they had to change their ideological tendency to "loyalty" on the issue of Song Jiang's rebellion, so the guiding ideology of Song Jiang and his party became anti-corrupt officials and not anti-emperor. In the end, this ideological tendency makes the "loyalty" of "Water Margin" still controversial, but the advantage is that "Water Margin" has not completely become a book of rebellion, but has made the common people and the scholar class very satisfied, and has become a classic to this day.
"Xuanhe Posthumous Notes"
2
Resolve the contradiction between the theme of "loyalty" and the theme of rebellion
In the process of writing "Water Margin", many settings of "The Legacy of Xuanhe of the Great Song Dynasty" were modified, and more emphasis was placed on the words and deeds of Song Jiang and others who were "loyal". For example, the title of "Zhongyi Water Margin" contains the word "Zhongyi", or it is simply named after "Zhongyi Biography". Judging from the existing materials, many editions such as "The Biography of Jingben Zhongyi", "Li Zhuowu's Commentary on the Zhongyi Water Margin", "The New Jingben Hologram Insertion Masuda Tiger Wang Qing Zhongyi Water Margin", and "Wen Xingtang Criticizes the Zhongyi Water Margin" and other editions emphasize the word "loyalty" in the title. The word "loyalty" also appears frequently in "Water Margin", whether it is in the text or in the poem, you can see the shadow of "loyalty". In particular, "Song Gongming God gathered in Lierwa, Emperor Huizong sleepwalked in Liangshanbo", and "loyalty" appeared as many as 12 times. In addition, "Water Margin" also deleted a large number of texts that directly criticized Song Huizong, and improved the key plot. For example, in the section of Song Jiang's book from heaven, "Water Margin" combines Song Jiang's reading of the book of heaven and Chao Gai's dream in "The Remains of Xuanhe of the Great Song Dynasty", and designs the plot of Song Jiang's dream of getting the book of heaven and the Nine Heavens Xuannu preaching the decree, requiring Song Jiang to "do the way for heaven, be loyal to the Lord, and serve the ministers and assist the country and the people", and "go to evil and return to righteousness", get rid of the evil thoughts in his heart, and return to the right path. These changes can be said to have strengthened the "loyalty" idea of "Water Margin".
The hundredth volume of Rong and Tangben's "Water Margin" is at the end
Li Zhen (Zhuowu) finally commented: "Shi and Luo Ergong are really wonderful, and they end up in a dream, which is very meaningful. I can see that in the past, all kinds of dreams were all dreams, otherwise, there are robbers in the world who live and seal the marquis and die in the temple to eat? If the reader is serious, it is a fool's dream. It can be seen that he thinks that "Water Margin" is just the author's work to vent his anger.
The prominence of "loyalty" in "Water Margin" is mainly related to the theme of its green forest heroes. In ancient society, the subject matter of "Water Margin" was sensitive and dangerous. Imagine a work of popular literature, the content is to write about how a group of heroes in the green forest violated the ban of the imperial court, how to escape punishment, and how to confront the imperial court, which is very likely to become a "textbook" for the ruler to encourage the people to rebel. This view is certainly not unfamiliar to today's readers, as we can still see many people today debating whether the violence and resistance of Water Margin should be taught to students. In this regard, Wang Daokun (Tiandu Foreign Minister) said in the preface he wrote for "Water Margin":
Or say: Zishu this book, close to stealing. Yu said: Xi'an layman's narrative of "Yan Yi Bian", is it obscene? "Zhuangzi and Thief" is a vulgar feeling; Zhong Ni deleted "Poems" and left "Zheng" and "Wei" in favor. Those who have the world to think about it are solid in the right training, but also in the right to teach.
In Wang Daokun's view, "Water Margin" itself is not promoting those controversial contents such as violence and rebellion, but just like Confucius deleted "Poems" but left "Zheng Wei's voice" to warn future generations. Therefore, "Water Margin" is not instigating rebellion and advocating violence, but while promoting loyalty, it also makes sense to establish some negative cases.
3
Jin Shengsi's criticism of the "loyalty" of "Water Margin".
The biggest challenge encountered after the "Theory of Loyalty" of "Water Margin" was proposed, which was Jin Shengsi's criticism. In the preface to "Water Margin", "The Fifth Genius Book Shi Nai'an Water Margin: Preface II", Jin Shengxian made a key criticism of Li Zhuowu and others for naming "Water Margin" with "loyalty", believing that its "name and reality" are not worthy of it. There are two reasons given by Jin Shengsi: one is that the name of "Water Margin" cannot be called loyalty. "There is water on the shore of the king's land, and outside the water, it is called a margin, and it is far away. Those who are far away are the evil things of the world, and the evil things of the world are abandoned by all the world. If loyalty and righteousness are in "Water Margin", loyalty and righteousness are the evil things in the world?" "Song Jiang and others are entrenched on Liangshan Mountain, and they are "fierce things" and "evil things" far away from the royal land, how can they be called "loyalty"? Second, the words and deeds of Song Jiang and his party cannot be called loyalty. "Its young are all jackals, tigers and leopards, and its strong are all murderous and stealing goods. If these people are called loyal and righteous, then it will lead to "no evil will not return to the court, and no beauty will not return to the green forest." Those who have been thieves are proud to read it, and those who have not been thieves are proud to read it." It is equivalent to encouraging people to commit crimes in disguise. Therefore, Jin Shengxi sighed from the bottom of his heart: "If you give it with loyalty and righteousness, you will be the one who has taken the precept and will be persuaded instead!"
Jin Shengsi's denial of the "loyalty" name of "Water Margin" does not mean that "Water Margin" is a work of "thief", on the contrary, Jin Shengsian strongly denies the theory of "thief", and proposes that "Water Margin" aims to "expose". In Jin Shengsi's view, the writing of "Water Margin" for Song Jiang and others should be "to punish the predecessors who are dead, so to prevent future generations from happening". That is, let the predecessors understand the consequences of becoming a "thief", and then cut off the mind of becoming a "thief". Therefore, from the perspective of education, Jin Shengxian also fully affirmed "Water Margin", but unlike the entry point of others, he paid more attention to the artistic creation value of the work itself.
"Water Margin" (four famous novels, famous reviews), Shi Nai'an, Luo Guanzhong, Jin Shengsi, Li Zhuowu commented
In fact, the connotation of "loyalty" itself is very complex, it is based on Confucian ethics and morality, but it also integrates the wishes and will of the general public, including city dwellers and nomads. It is not a protective color of moral justice that is hidden outside "Water Margin", but the basic spirit that can make the novel generally accepted by all levels of society at that time. The novel celebrates heroes, celebrates wisdom, and celebrates sincerity. This kind of loyalty and righteousness, if not only for the feudal emperor and the hierarchy, is also a virtue of human beings in essence, and any society expects people to be loyal to the country, the nation, and the cause, to the common people, to the homeland, and to family and friends. This is an important reason why "Water Margin" can be welcomed by the people.
Is "Water Margin" a celebration of a kind of "loyalty" that will not regret until death, or is it a metaphor for "unfaithful" to the autocratic court? This is precisely the topic that "Water Margin" leaves readers to ponder. Therefore, Li Zhuowu of the Ming Dynasty specifically mentioned that Song Jiang "lives in the Water Margin, and his heart is above the imperial court", and he is "the martyr of loyalty and righteousness"! Jin Shengxian also listed "Water Margin" as "the first of the six talented books", saying that "if you don't read "Water Margin", you don't know the wonders of the world"!
(Excerpted from Chapter 2 of "Water Margin" General Knowledge" by Wu Zhaolu and Gao Honghao, "Why is 'Water Margin' also called 'Zhongyi Water Margin'", Zhonghua Book Company, April 2024 edition)
(Co-ordinator: Yibei; Editor: Siqi)