In literary works, in order to make the characters in the book leave a deep impression in the hearts of readers, the author often gives those characters distinctive characteristics, especially in the group drama "Water Margin", there are as many as one hundred and eight leaders on Liangshan alone, and there are more than 500 characters with names and surnames in the book, so how to make these characters leave a deep impression on readers?
For example, if a character has a broken arm, one eye, or is deaf and mute, it will definitely be particularly eye-catching, and although these settings are a little cruel, they do make the character more distinct.
(Water Margin stills)
But Shi Nai'an didn't write like this, and it wasn't until the end of the story that he let Wu Song have his arm cut off, making Wu Song the only person with a disability in the book, why did he give Wu Song such a tragic ending?
First, Wu Song's broken arm
Why is Wu Song so out of the circle, and even people who have not read "Water Margin" have mostly heard about his heroic deeds?
It's very simple, it is precisely because the author Shi Nai'an spent the most pen and ink on this role, that "Wu Shihui" is really narrated with Wu Song as the core, you must know that there are only one hundred and twenty chapters in the whole book of "Water Margin", but Wu Song monopolizes ten of them, which shows the author's preference for him.
Even Wu Song was in a very depressed state when he first appeared on the stage, he was injured and took refuge outside, hiding in Chai Jinfu, looking sick, but there was a kind of light in Song Jiang's eyes that was difficult to hide.
Said yes: "The body is dignified and the appearance is dignified." A pair of eyes shot cold stars, and the two curved eyebrows were like paint. The chest is broad, and there is the majesty of ten thousand invincibles; The words are high-spirited, and the ambition of Lingyun is spitting out thousands of feet. The heart is bold and bold, like a lion descending from the clouds; The bones are strong and the muscles are strong, such as shaking the ground and Pixiu coming to the seat. is like a demon lord in the sky, he is really a god of Tai Sui in the world. ”
(Wu Song's broken arm stills)
This praise has never been possessed by a second person in the book, who is like the protagonist.
In this case, why did Shi Nai'an give him a crippled ending?
is different from the TV series, Wu Song's arm was not cut off by a small soldier, nor was he cut off by the other party when he captured Fang La, in fact, the person who captured Fang La in the original book was not Wu Song at all, and there was no bridge section of "Wu Song captured Fang La with one arm", and the credit for capturing Xia La belonged to Lu Zhishen.
Wu Song's arm was cut off by the "Lingying Heavenly Master" Bao Daoyi, don't look at this person's nickname, in fact, he is just a trick, he doesn't have many scenes in the book, and later he was killed by Ling Zhen, which shows that he is not an important role.
In this way, it is a little strange for the author to let such a dragon trick cut off Wu Song's arm, and even this plot takes place at the end of the story, which basically has no impact on the ending of "Zheng Fangla", the author can give Wu Song a full ending, but why do you have to cut off his arm?
2. One hundred and eight demon lords
Some people may want to say that the heroes of Liangshan are not good people, and there are many guilty people, or from another point of view, there are few people who can be regarded as good people.
And the author has already mentioned from the perspective of Taiwei Hong at the beginning of the story that the one hundred and eight demon lords he let go are corresponding to the one hundred and eight generals of Liangshan later.
It was only said: "It is said that at that time, the abbot Zhenren said to Taiwei Hong: 'Taiwei doesn't know, in this hall, it was the ancestor Tianshi Dongxuan Zhenren who passed down the magic talisman, and instructed: 'There are thirty-six Tiangang stars and seventy-two earth-shattering stars locked in this hall, and a total of one hundred and eight demon lords are inside. The stone tablet is erected, and the dragon chapter and phoenix seal are chiseled, and the town lives here. If you let him be born, you will be troubled by the creatures below. ’”
turned out to be a demon lord who harmed living beings, so naturally he didn't deserve a good ending.
(Sun Erniang stills)
Therefore, even if the heroes of Liangshan are unscrupulous at the beginning of the story, even if they are in a desperate situation, they can turn evil into good fortune, and at the end of the story, the author still has to make the theme of the story conform to the law of "good is rewarded with good and evil is rewarded with evil", otherwise it will not conform to the reader's desire.
But it's still the same sentence, since it is all about to end up in a tragic end, why is Wu Song the only one with a broken arm?
Since this is a literary work with magical colors, let's analyze it from a magical point of view, combined with Wu Song's experience of meeting Zhang Qing and Sun Erniang on the cross slope, you can understand why the author wrote this.
3. Sun Erniang offers treasures
That Zhang Qing and Sun Erniang are typical villains, they opened a black shop on the cross slope, and I don't know how many passers-by they killed, but this is not the most excessive, what is even more shameful is that after they killed, even the corpses of those people were not spared, and they wanted to cut their flesh and make it into bun filling, if it wasn't for the femme fatale, how could they do such a thing?
So when Wu Song arrived at this cross slope, what the author thought in his heart was "This thief couple is going to suffer".
In fact, it was indeed Sun Erniang who plotted to kill Wu Song, but was captured by Wu Song, but the subsequent plot development was different from what the author imagined, Wu Song did not kill them, but married them after they were entertained with wine and food.
(Sun Erniang, Wu Song stills)
Joining the same stream with the wicked and calling him a brother is equivalent to doing evil, but later Wu Song also got a filthy thing from Sun Erniang, which is the reason why he is destined to break his arm.
The thing I'm referring to is the pair of iron-cut snowflake knives.
How did it become a filthy thing?
Very simply, Zhang Qing once mentioned that the original owner of the treasure knife was a head who had killed countless people, and that head was later killed by Sun Erniang, and even the soul of the injustice was not dispersed.
The book only said: "Sun Erniang said: 'Two years ago, there was a head Tuo who passed from here, and I put it over and made it into steamed bun stuffing for a few days. But he left him an iron hoop, a suit of clothes, a collar of soap cloth, a variegated short ribbon, a degree of mussels, a string of one hundred and eight human parietal bones and beads, and a sand fish skin sheath with two sorcerers made of snowflake iron. The knife whistled as usual in the middle of the night. Uncle wants to flee, only unless he cuts his hair, to be a walker, he must cover his forehead with a gold seal, and he has to use this book as a talisman, and he looks like his uncle and so on, but he is not a previous life? Uncle answered his name, who dared to interrogate him on the way forward. Is this thing good? ’”
(Wu Song holding a knife stills)
That head was cut off by Sun Erniang, and even his knife was buzzing in the night, which shows how deep his resentment is.
Wu Song got the knife and killed a lot of people, and in the end, he would encounter a backlash and be cut off an arm, which can be regarded as karma.
This is also one of the reasons why "Water Margin" is called a masterpiece, although there are idle pens in the book, but most of the details are meaningful, and if you taste it carefully, you can relate the causes and consequences of various events, and after reading it, you can only feel wonderful.