In "Water Margin", the stories of those heroes in the green forest who roam the rivers and lakes are happy and revenge naturally make people applaud, but there are also some scenes in the book that make people feel very aggrieved.
For example, Hu Sanniang's marriage to Wang Ying will inevitably make people wonder, how did such a beautiful girl with ice and jade cleanness become the plaything in the palm of the shameless villain Wang Ying?
So when Shi Nai'an wrote this plot, what was the logic?
1. Toads eat swan meat
In fact, the scene of "toads eating swan meat" is not uncommon in "Water Margin", for example, Pan Jinlian and Wu Dalang belong to this relationship.
(Wu Dalang, Pan Jinlian stills)
Everyone in the world knows that Pan Jinlian is hateful, she was instigated by Wang Po to make a move to murder Wu Dalang, and then was killed by Wu Song, the whole process seems to be very happy, it seems that most people think so, but if you read it along the original plot and read it carefully, you will find that Wu Dalang is actually not innocent.
For example, when the couple first appeared, there was such a paragraph mentioned in the book: "There is a big family in Qinghe County, there is a maid girl, whose nickname is Pan Jinlian, who is more than 20 years old and has some color. Because the big man wanted to pester him, the envoy just went to sue the master's wife, and refused to obey. The big man hated it in his heart, but he paid some money for the house, and he didn't want a penny from Wuda to marry him for nothing. Since Wu Da married that woman, there were a few treacherous prodigal children in Qinghe County, but they came to his house to be troubled. It turned out that this woman saw that Wu Da was short and short, the characters were obscene, and she would not be romantic, but this woman was so good, and she loved to steal men for the head. ”
This passage clearly writes how Pan Jinlian changed from a woman who guarded herself like a jade to the romantic appearance she later on, she was not born debauched, but was given to Wu Dalang by the big family in revenge, and then she was willing to fall.
(Pan Jinlian stills)
Even later Pan Jinlian took the initiative to provoke Wu Song, a little bit of deliberately angry with Wu Dalang, so that he could make the decision to divorce his wife, after all, Pan Jinlian made such a request afterwards, but Wu Dalang would rather die than divorce his wife, which forced Pan Jinlian to a dead end, and could only do such evil things, it can be said that Wu Dalang and Pan Jinlian are not good things.
It is precisely because of the foreshadowing of this plot that the plot of Hu Sanniang and Wang Ying coming together later inevitably makes people feel that Shi Nai'an is going to repeat the old trick, after all, compared to Pan Jinlian's mere boredom with Wu Dalang, Hu Sanniang has a deep hatred against Wang Ying and Liangshan Qunxiong.
Second, the sea of blood feud
Hu Sanniang appeared as the eldest lady of Hujiazhuang, and this woman gave people a sense of "heroine" when she first appeared.
said yes: "Yuxue skin, hibiscus appearance, with natural standards." The golden armor is brilliant, and the scales are moving, and the silver seeps red and wipes the forehead. The jade hand is slender and the blade is double-wielded. The hero Xuan He, his eyes slip through the autumn waves, and ten thousand kinds of enchanting can be picked. At present, the frost blade is like the wind, and the officers and soldiers must be beheaded. The dust is flying, the robe is sweaty, and the chest and armpits are murderous. The warrior dies the soul, the enemy loses fear, and the female general is peculiar in the middle. Returning victorious, with a faint smile on his cheeks. ”
People like her, where does she need to fall into the grass? Not to mention the inexhaustible glory and wealth, at least she doesn't worry about eating and drinking, and can live the life of the eldest lady, but because of the attack of the heroes of Liangshan, her original life has become a pool of stagnant water, and her family was killed by the black whirlwind Li Kui, and she became a prisoner of Song Jiang.
It's just that she never imagined that Song Jiang didn't marry her personally, but gave her to Wang Xiaohu, who looked very obscene.
(Hu Sanniang stills)
Don't forget, this Wang Dwarf Tiger is even her subordinate defeated, when the two fought, she couldn't hide her disdain for this rough man, saying: "That Yizhang Qing is a well-behaved person, and said in his heart: 'This guy is unreasonable! Then he took two double knives, straight up and straight down, and slashed them in. How can this king dwarf tiger be able to defeat it, but he will return his horse and wait to leave. was caught up by a green horse, hung up the knife in his right hand, lightly stretched the ape arm, lifted the king dwarf tiger from the carved saddle, and captured him alive. All the Zhuang guests went up and dragged Wang Xiaohu down and arrested him. ”
How could she look at such a piece of wastewood?
Therefore, when the vast majority of readers read this paragraph, they believe that they all have the same idea as the author, that is, "Hu Sanniang is most likely lying on the salary to taste the guts, and when the time is ripe, she will take Wang Ying's head."
But it turns out that we thought too much, she seemed to be very satisfied with such a day, and even when Wang Ying died in battle, she also died with her husband.
There is only one sentence left in the book: "In the black air, there is a golden-armored god, holding a demon subduing treasure pestle, and he will come down from mid-air." When Wang Xiaohu saw it, he was taken aback, and he was in a hurry and lost his marksmanship. was poked off the horse by Zheng Mojun. When Yizhang Qing saw that his husband had fallen off the horse, and hurriedly danced with two knives to save him, Zheng Biao came to fight. After a little fighting, Zheng Biao returned to the horse and left. Yizhang Qing wants to avenge her husband and hurry to the future. Zheng Mojun rested the iron gun, went to the brocade bag beside him, took out a gold-plated copper brick, turned around and looked at the only brick on the blue-faced door, knocked off the horse and died. ”
(Hu Sanniang, Wang Ying stills)
It's really incomprehensible, it's obviously an enemy, but just because of a period of getting along, they really become relatives?
If this is the case, Hu Sanniang is inevitably too brainless.
In fact, most people may forget that "Water Margin" is not a purely original work, its story is born from "Praise of the Thirty-six People of Song Jiang", and there are many characters in the book, in fact, they all have historical prototypes.
3. Historical archetypes
For example, in Guan Hanqing's "Dream of Scarlet Clothes", it was mentioned: "Compared with taking the king dwarf tiger, first entangle a zhang qing." ”
Another example is in "Wang Dwarf Tiger Havoc in Dongping Mansion", there is also the setting of "A certain Wang Dwarf Tiger is also, this is the Hun family".
Obviously, long before the advent of "Water Margin", the setting of "Wang Xiaohu and Yizhangqing are a couple" had already appeared, and Shi Nai'an just followed the prototype of the character to set their scenes.
Of course, in addition to the point of "following the historical prototype", it can also be explained purely by the plot logic of "Water Margin".
(Qin Ming stills)
For example, when Qin Ming went up the mountain in the "Thunderbolt Fire", he was also ruined by Song Jiang's pit, but he didn't have a seizure, at this time he had an inner activity, saying that it was: "Qin Ming saw that he was angry. I want to be with Song Jiang and others, but I think about it from my stomach. One is the conjunctions of the stars in the upper realm; the second is to be besieged by them, and to treat them with courtesy; The three were afraid of fighting them, so they had to accept this breath. ”
Even if there is hatred, but because the stars fit, I admit it, in the original book, the heroes of Liangshan really correspond to the thirty-six Tiangang and the seventy-two earths, which also makes sense.
All seemingly unreasonable settings can actually find reasonable explanations and stand up to scrutiny, which is one of the reasons why "Water Margin" has become a classic.