Introduction to "Water Margin"
"Water Margin" tells the story of Song Jiang and others who gathered for an uprising during the Xuanhe period of the Northern Song Dynasty (around 1119---1121). The story is in "History of the Song Dynasty" There are many records in the notebooks of Song Dynasty people. Although they are inconsistent, they all talk about being powerful, threatening the court, and having a profound influence among the people. Gong Shengyu, a person from the Southern Song Dynasty, said: "The events of Song Jiang can be seen in street talks." Song Jiang and others are also mentioned in the storybooks. People's stories. In the Song and Yuan Dynasties, storybooks and dramas were widely spoken, and some of them have survived to the present, such as the storybook "The Legacy of Xuanhe of the Song Dynasty" and the Zajus of the Yuan Dynasty. Shi Naian compiled the history books, legends, and dramas since the Song and Yuan Dynasties. The "Water Margin" stories were collected, selected, processed and created together with Zaju and other "Water Margin" stories. It narrates the occurrence, development and failure of the peasants' anti-feudal struggle through the Liangbo uprising. It uses profound thoughts and extensive The content and outstanding art compose the heroic epic and revolutionary tragedy of the peasant uprising in feudal society, reflecting the profound exploitation and cruel oppression of the declining feudal society that intensified class contradictions, and the dark decay of reactionary rule caused the resistance struggle of the broad masses of the people. < /p>
The uprising occurred because "chaos started from above." The rulers started from the emperor and ministers, down to the local corrupt officials, local tyrants and bullies and even the officials and jailers, forming a ruling network throughout the country, inside and outside the court, and openly used Evil. For example, Liang Zhongshu collected hundreds of thousands of dollars in two years to celebrate the birthday of his father-in-law Cai Jing and bribed the public; Gao Qiu persecuted Wang Jin for personal revenge, and killed Lin Chong for Gao Yanei's wife, forcing people who didn't want to rebel to do so. , revealing that the real cause of the uprising was "officials forcing the people to rebel". The novel truly narrates the development process of the uprising struggle: from individual resistance to collective resistance, from scattered struggle to organized struggle, from small to large scale. Lu Zhishen, Lin Chong, Wu Song, etc. all fought individually at first, just to avoid being arrested by the government and find a place to live. Although there are many mountains such as Liangshan, Erlong Mountain, and Taohua Mountain, they are isolated from each other and cannot resist the gradually escalating government "invasion"; Chao Cover,