Have you ever wondered: Is it illegal for the hero Yang to carry a knife? Are the beggars poor? Where does the Jianghu sect get its income? Can Wei Xiaobao have so many wives? …… What social history details are still hidden in Jin Yong's world of rivers and lakes?
In Jin Yong's writing, the lives of knights are far more than grievances in the rivers and lakes, as well as little-known daily trivialities. Recently, Wu Gou, the winner of "China's Good Books" and the best-selling author, published a new book "Reading Jin Yong: A Serious Ancient Social History" by Guangxi Normal University Press. Wu Gou carefully read Jin Yong and started a serious journey of social history exploration in the book.
Wu Gou is a researcher of Song history and a well-known historical writer. Over the years, he has devoted himself to the study of Song Dynasty civilization, advocating "rediscovering the Song Dynasty" and "reinterpreting traditions", and is the author of works such as "Fengya Song: Visible Great Song Civilization", "Knowing Song: A History of the Great Song Dynasty Written to My Daughter", and "Song: The Dawn of Modern Times". Among them, the book "Feng Ya Song", which focuses on the social life of the Song Dynasty, received rave reviews after its publication, and won many awards including CCTV's "2018 China Good Book".
Wu Gou said that he loved martial arts novels when he was a teenager, Jin Yong's "Flying Snow Shoots White Deer in the Sky, and the Laughing Book Hero Leans on the Blue Mandarin", Gu Long's Lu Xiaofeng series, Chu Liuxiang series, and Xiao Li Flying Knife series have basically read more than once, and he is a loyal fan of martial arts novels. Like all people who love martial arts, Wu Gou also had a time when he dreamed of practicing peerless martial arts by himself. Now I write this little book to interpret Jin Yong, just because of the martial arts complex when I was a teenager.
Many of Jin Yong's novels have clear historical backgrounds and historical scenes, and many characters are real, but novels are fiction after all, and the characters in the books are still very far away from our lives. From the perspective of historical knowledge, Wu Gou interprets Jin Yong's novels, enriches our imagination of the characters, and presents a more realistic and down-to-earth martial arts world.
The book is rich in content, and the book will greatly broaden the reader's knowledge. For example, Guo Jing had dinner with Huang Rong for the first time and spent 1927 yuan and 4 cents. Is this money a lot in the Song Dynasty, and what is the concept today? Wu Gou objectively analyzed the currency and trade system of the Song Dynasty, and told us that the silver of "1927 coins and 4 cents" was converted into copper coins to 50 or 60 yuan, which was equivalent to the food subsidy of the prime minister of the Song Dynasty for one month, the food subsidy for the Tai students for five years, and the two or three palace banquets in the early years of the Southern Song Dynasty were also equivalent to an old horse, a merchant ship, and a house. In today's purchasing power, it is almost 20,000 yuan.
Author: Wu Hook
【Wonderful Digest】
What kind of society can make the rivers and lakes?
Where there are people, there are rivers and lakes?
This is actually a misconception.
In martial arts dramas, the protagonists wander the rivers and lakes at every turn, going to the rivers and lakes to experience, as if we have today's "the world is so big, I want to see it".
But the rivers and lakes in martial arts novels are not available in every era.
Many dynasties in history, such as the Han, Tang, and Ming dynasties, failed to create a vibrant world of rivers and lakes.
The biggest feature of rivers and lakes is mobility, that is, allowing the free flow of population, otherwise how to go through the rivers and lakes?
From the Qin and Han dynasties to the Sui and Tang dynasties, there was a social system that restricted mobility and prohibited the free movement of population. To put it simply, people can't go out without permission. If you really want to go far away, you must first apply for a "pass" with the relevant departments, and explain clearly what you are doing when you are going out, how long you will go, when you will come back, who will give you service when you are not there, and so on. Grass-roots units report level by level, sign and approve, and only then can they get their hands on the "transfer office".
The name, identity, age, identity and number of attachés carried by the holder, the number of belongings carried, and the place of travel will be indicated on the "transit center". The government will inspect various checkpoints, and those who do not carry the "passer" out of the customs will be questioned.
Let's imagine: In the Tang Dynasty, there was a young man who wanted to go out to be a ranger and roam the rivers and lakes, and he didn't want to just go through the ban of a certain state, and he encountered the government to inspect the "pass", where did the people of Ren Xia have any "pass", so he was immediately arrested. What are you still wandering the rivers and lakes? Even if you have escaped the checkpoint check, after nightfall, you want to find a hotel to drink wine and eat meat, but you find that the hotels in the whole city are closed, and there is no night market at all, so you can only stay in the inn and wash and sleep. If you want to sneak out into the streets, you are likely to be caught by the soldiers who patrol the night and beat the twenty boards.
But this kind of pass was almost impossible to see in the Song Dynasty. In the Song Dynasty, there were only things like ID cards, and it was free to go through the state and county.
Moreover, the fang market system of the Song Dynasty was completely dissolved, and people set up markets along the river, opened shops on the streets, and there were prosperous and chaotic commercial streets everywhere. The curfew is gone.
Thus, the rivers and lakes were formed. The Song Dynasty created a space for the people in the rivers and lakes to survive, whether it was "the moon is dark and the wind is high and the night kills people", or "the lights are on the Fan Tower in the middle of the night", the things that are suitable for happening at night in the rivers and lakes can be realized in the Song Dynasty.
And Jin Yong is clearly based on the Ming Dynasty, and there is only one "Blue Blood Sword". The era of the Ming Dynasty, which was full of brocade clothes and guards and father-in-law of the West Factory and Dongchang, was simply terrible, and it was not suitable for the survival of the heroes of the rivers and lakes and the heroes of the green forest.
Zhu Yuanzhang personally promulgated a decree, requiring the four people of Shinong, industry and commerce to stick to their own business, and the peasants to stay honestly on the farmland and not to detach themselves from agricultural production. Want to abandon farming and start a business? That must be forbidden, and it is only allowed to sell some local products during the agricultural gap; Moreover, the peasants are not allowed to leave their places of origin, and on weekdays, the range of activities should be controlled within one mile every day, and the neighbors should know each other's work and rest arrangements; Even if they flee the famine in the event of a famine, it is the responsibility of the government to send them back to their places of origin; Nor shall those who are engaged in medicine and divination travel far away, and their neighbors shall know their comings and goings.
If you really need to go out, just like the Han and Tang Dynasties, run a "road guide". If you go out without authorization, the consequences will be very serious, and you will be beaten to the plate at the least, and you will be confiscated into the army and executed at the worst.
How do you deal with those who are idle? Zhu Yuanzhang built a "Xiaoyao Tower" in Nanjing, and ordered all officers and soldiers who saw those who played chess, raised birds, and played food in the market to arrest and put them in the Xiaoyao Tower, so that they could be at ease and starve to death. Officers and soldiers in Beijing, if there are those who learn to sing, cut off their tongues, and those who play chess, cut off their hands; Whoever kicks the ball cuts off his foot; Those who do business are assigned to the border evil places to fill the army.
It's scary! In such an orderly medieval society, who else would dare to go out and explore the rivers and lakes?
Reporter: Qian Huanqing Editor: Xu Min Proofreader: Liu Tian