The phenomenon of ignoring women's lives in Water Margin and its deep-seated reasons
There are many controversial female images in Water Margin, which have special social and cultural significance and are also important materials to reflect the author's view on women. The heroic female images and the tragic female images portrayed in Water Margin are both beautiful and ugly. By thinking and evaluating a series of female images and exploring the reasons for their shaping, we find that the concept of women in Water Margin is so decadent and backward.
China's traditional view of women, represented by Confucianism, maintains the feudal patriarchal clan system centered on men, and its core cultural concept has always been linked with male ideals and masculinity. According to scholars' statistics, 76 women were written 120 times in Water Margin, of which 29 were slightly mentioned but not described in detail, and 47 were described in detail. These female images have special social and cultural significance. They are an indispensable part of the study of Water Margin, and they are also important materials to spy out the author's view on women and reflect the social history and culture at that time.
First, disregard for women's lives.
The women in Water Margin lived in the Song Dynasty, a feudal society in China-an era when the feudal ruling class had a set of decadent and reactionary views on women. The four ropes of imperial power, divine power, clan power and husband power are tightly tied around the necks of women in China. The fate of women has dropped to an unprecedented low level. Society can't give them a way out, and neither can the author. The author is extremely indifferent to women and their lives, treating them like dirt and ants.
Back to the 42nd time of the Water Margin, Li Kui jy went down the mountain to meet his mother and went to Liangshan for "carefree". But on the way, his mother was eaten by a tiger. Li Kui jy was very angry. He went deep into the den and killed four tigers. After returning to the shanzhai, he "told the story of the fake Li Kui jy's diameter reduction, and everyone laughed and told the story of killing the tiger, in order to take his mother to Yiling to be eaten by the tiger, so he shed tears". At this time, they not only failed to accompany Li Kui JY in tears, but also failed to comfort him. On the contrary, "many heroes are overjoyed", especially Song Jiang, who is famous for his filial piety, "laughed it off". In their view, Li Kui jy's mother's life is not much different from that of a tiger. Tigers hurt people, people kill tigers, and the two are even, so the tragic story of big worms eating people is filtered into jokes and talks. This reflects the indifference to human life that almost loses human relations and humanity.
At the same time, the author's indifference to human life is also reflected in the appreciation attitude adopted by heroes when killing women. Song Wu killed his sister-in-law, and Yang Xiong killed his wife. They all cut their chests and dug their bellies, which was ugly. Yan Shunzhi's killing of Mrs. Gao Liu was a "clean break". Lu Junyi's killing of Jia's whole family is "cutting off the abdomen and gouging out the heart, executing during the year and abandoning the body", which is creepy. Shi Jin killed a prostitute and wanted to sleep in Lan's house. He even "beat the old, young, women and children to pieces." If the above-mentioned women were killed for a reason, then Song Wu killed people in Yuanyang upstairs, killing innocent people, treating handmaids, maids, young ladies and singers equally, which was a naked robbery. At this time, Song Wu was almost a demon. Even Song Jiang, who everyone praised and followed, showed great disrespect for women. In order to force Qin Ming to join the Party and become an outlaw, Sung River made a pawn pretend to be Qin Ming, attracting people to attack the city. He not only killed many good people, burned down many houses, but also destroyed Qin Ming's wife and children. Asked about this matter, he replied: "How can my brother be willing to die?" If there is no sister-in-law, Huazhizhai claims to have a sister who is very virtuous and willing to pay for the outfit. "Here, Sung River doesn't take Qin Ming's wife and children seriously, but also lets Huarong Dao's sister be his pawn. Song Jiang, who is famous for his benevolence and righteousness, can do this, which shows the status of women.
What is particularly frightening is that when the author narrates the scene of women being killed, he almost enjoys it with a cheerful bystander. Song Wu killed her sister-in-law. "When she saw the bad momentum, she wanted to scream, but she was pulled down by Song Wu's brain. She put her foot on his arm and pulled the clothes off his chest. Just then, she put a sharp knife to her chest, with a knife in her mouth, and dug out her chest with both hands, dug out her heart and five internal organs, and offered them to the spirit. I cut off the woman's head with a knife and bled all over the floor. "Here, Song Wu moves smoothly and skillfully, and his posture is natural and natural. The author did not let Pan Jinlian die happily, but let her body separate, not only because of her hatred of dissolute women, but also because of her indifference to women's lives. Write Wang Po is "sit up and carry it down"; Break drums and gongs; Offenders are led from the front, mixed with sticks, and urged from the back. Raise two sharp knives and shake a paper flower. "From the orderly change of sentence patterns, we can see the same obvious appreciation. Therefore, when the couple heard the story of killing sister-in-law, "both husband and wife are happy", and Lu Junyi killed Jia "all the leaders congratulated and praised him". The reason why they are "happy" and "summoned" is not only because of the punishment of "adulteress", but also because they are grateful for all the sufferings they suffered before their death. As Li Da said in On Women's Liberation, "A large part of the history of women in the world was conquered by men. During this period, all kinds of things, morally, habitually, customarily, legally, politically and economically, all women's status was lower than that of men. Men are like gods and masters. " ①
Second, explore the reasons for the author's attitude towards women.
"There are two kinds of female images in the author's works. One is a few heroines who are not fettered by their husbands. In their rough character, they have actually lost their own characteristics, and the other is the image of an adulteress, which is regarded as a' curse'. Although these two female images are also true, they lack beauty. " ② Why did the author create and arrange these female images in Water Margin?
First of all, the patriarchal culture in traditional culture and the "women's disaster theory" have an instinctive discrimination against women. When Pan Jinlian did not show any deviant behavior, the author described it in a contemptuous tone. The book says, "I am kind to my wife, and I love stealing men's heads." It also writes a poem, "I was deeply impressed when I saw more golden lotus, and my smile wrinkled my green hills." If a romantic child is not from a big family, it is contradictory with her personality. Later, Pan Jinlian showed his love to Song Wu, and the author wrote a poem calling him "worried about being rude, greedy and shameless, and even having sex during the dinner, he was scolded by him." It can be said that the author subjectively defined Pan Jinlian and regarded her as the embodiment of lewdness. No matter whether she did anything against the "three obedience and four virtues" at first, we can see that the author was deeply influenced by Song Confucianism's view of women and smelled of stale and moldy feudal secrets.
Secondly, the wrong concept of "health preservation" is at work. Song Jiang once said: "It is ironic that Han wants to live a good life of' sliding bone marrow'. The so-called "latent marrow", that is, "lust", seems to people in the Jianghu that a hero can disobey the king's law, kill and steal goods, take the mountain as the king, change positions, be surrendered and climb higher, but there are two rules that cannot be crossed. One is not to betray his friends, and the other is not to be greedy for women. " For example, Chao Gai is a rich man.
In addition, the collective creative nature of Water Margin determines that the book has a strong traditional secular view of women. Shi Naian's creation of Water Margin is based on the legacy of Xuanhe and the water margin stories in folk oral legends, plays and zaju, so the secular ideas, traditional ideas and feudal ideas of the masses, playwrights and storytellers are bound to permeate it.
Throughout the full text of Water Margin, the female image is only a foil to the male world. Even if there are female images describing heroes in the book, the actual images or objective effects they give readers are ugly and the endings are mostly tragic. What these women did in their works and their life tragedies. This is extremely contrary to the truth of life and extremely unfair. As Lu Xun said, "Women have always been blamed for the failure of national subjugation in history. They have borne all the sins for more than 3,000 years."