How should we evaluate Song Jiang's life? Everyone has different opinions on how to evaluate Song Jiang, and there is no unified opinion until today. Jin Shengtan was probably the first person who seriously belittled Song Jiang. Jin Shengtan said that Song Jiang was a down and out man. That is, "taking the exam" and feeling inferior, which is the lowest evaluation. He is very derogatory. Today, on the whole, we say that Song Jiang, from the outside, seems to be mediocre and has limited talent. Song Jiang himself said, back to the sixty-eighth, he compared himself with Lu Junyi, and he said that I was inferior to you in three aspects. First of all, I am clumsy and talented. I am not beautiful, and my talent is limited. This is the first place where I am inferior to you. Second, I'm not as good as you. I was born a small official. I am a small official. Third, not as good as you, writing can't protect the country, martial arts can't be attached to the people, strength can't tie chickens, and merit can't stand. Perhaps Sung River has some self-knowledge, that is, he looks like Kursaburo, not tall and magnificent, not noble, and his martial arts and talents are not as good as Lu Junyi's. This is what he said.

Then I think we should mainly evaluate the characters in the novel from the reality of the work. Personal likes and dislikes cannot replace the description of works, which is what we often say. To evaluate the characters in the novel, we should proceed from rationality, not from our own subjective feelings. I think when we look at Song Jiang, we should first pay attention to his family background, his cultural upbringing and his occupation. This has a great influence on his later life path and the formation of his ideological character. He farmed for generations, farmed for generations, and kept some fields to live. There are some areas to make a living. In our past words, he probably belongs to small and medium-sized landlords, not big landlords, but small and medium-sized landlords. Another one, he himself said, studied Confucian classics from childhood, read some Confucian books from childhood and was educated by traditional culture. More importantly, I think when we studied Song Jiang in the past, we didn't pay enough attention to it, that is, we talked about his career. What is his occupation? He is the escort in the county government. Look 18. He is an escort. The escort is an official who handles files and documents in the county government. He is not an official, but a small official. So 18 has eight words in it. Please pay attention, that is, proficient in knife and pencil, proficient in official road. Just write some cases. He is a good writer, proficient in knives and pens, and proficient in officials. So what kind of influence does his family background, education and occupation have on his character? I think there are several points worth noting. On the one hand, because he is not a big official, but a small official, he may have some experience of some people's sufferings. These are all his so-called generosity and wealth, and he has a certain sense of justice. I think we can't help but see that he has a certain sense of justice. The second one, because he is in charge of documents and archives, has cultivated his prudence and improvisation, and also cultivated his interest in playing politics. This is the second one. Third, because he is in charge of documents in the yamen, he has also developed the habit of abiding by national laws and regulations. I think Song Jiang's last two points deserve our attention, which is related to his occupation. So after Song Jiang arrived in Liangshan, he was considerate and cautious in handling some things, which was probably related to his career. Of course, some people say that he is too hypocritical and likes to play politics. In fact, I think the word "politics" is just a means to deal with problems. If you like to play politics, you may not be a bad person. It is not the embodiment of his character, but the way he handles problems.

As is known to all, Han Fei and Shen Buhai, two legalists, advocate ruling the world with "art" and politics. In such a complex society, it is difficult for a person to survive without any political skills. Of course, this one, I think, stands out from Song Jiang. For example, if you watch episode 34, he will take Qin Ming, the Thunderbolt Tiger, and he and Hua Rongdao have planned to catch Qin Ming. Send someone to ride Qin Ming's horse, put on his clothes, put on his helmet, pretend to be Qin Ming, and go to Qin Ming's superiors to kill and set fire. In Water Margin, there were corpses everywhere. Finally, he released Qin Ming. As a result, when Qin Ming came back, Mr. Murong magistrate said that you had surrendered to the robbers, so I killed your wife and children. So Qin Ming was helpless, and then he listened to Song Jiang's persuasion and went to Liangshan. This is a kind of politics. Just to win over Qin Ming, many lives have been sacrificed, which is a kind of politics. You can criticize him, but in the past, Legalists advocated politics, which is a manifestation of his playing politics.

The other is that as we all know, his thought of statutes is quite obvious. For example, he released Classical, because Classical committed heinous crimes, and he sympathized with Classical, because he was his bosom friend and brother. However, he has a saying, you can't bypass the statutes, he has violated the law. The thirty-sixth time, he was sent to Jiangzhou, but he was stopped by Liangshan heroes on the way and advised him to join the partnership. He didn't agree. Because he committed a crime and had a cangue, he wanted to give it to him, but he didn't agree. He said that this is a national law, how can you move it without authorization? So let's pay attention. Song Jiang sometimes looks at some problems, often from the perspective of statutes. So I think these two points are a bit like playing politics, which shows that we are hypocritical. Another is that when he looks at problems, he often starts from the perspective of statutes, which has a certain relationship with his career. This is what we are talking about. His family background, cultural upbringing and occupation have an influence on his ideological character.

So from the perspective of Song Jiang, how should we treat his life? I think we can divide him into four stages, one is before going to Liangshan, the other is after going to Liangshan, and the last is his ending. His life can be divided into four stages. See him before you go to Liangshan. I think if we want to give him a basic qualitative description before going to Liangshan, we can say that he is a hero. Because before he went to Liangshan, he mainly did two things, one was 18, when he released classical works privately, which was his first battle for righteousness. Everyone is familiar with the plot of Water Margin. That is, after outwitting the birth outline, things will come out. After the revelation, Song Jiang knew it first, so after Song Jiang knew it, according to common sense, he could have several choices, one of which was to report to the above. It is an option to catch Chao Gai after he stole the birthday program. There is another option, he can let go. I don't report to the top, and I don't take other actions myself. I just heard it anyway. Forget it. Then the third option is to tip off the wind and let the classics go. Then he took the third action. This is also the reason why we released Super King privately at 18. "Water Margin" wrote that after he knew the news, he quickly got on the horse, left the county government in a hurry, went out of the east gate, whipped twice, and ran away like a gallop to tell Chao Gai, which was very vivid. He clearly knew that after Chao Gai stole the birthday program, he committed a heinous crime, because Chao Gai was his confidant brother, and although it was impossible to forgive him, he still let him go. So I think, in this place, Song Jiang is more righteous than law. He knows the law and breaks the law. He has. So we say that the law is deeply rooted in his ideas. Once there is a contradiction with righteousness, he can save his friend and his brother regardless of the laws of the country. From this contrast, we think that Song Jiang is really a brave hero, which is the first thing he did before going up the mountain.

The second one is 2 1, which killed Yan Poxi. Yan Poxi is a singer. He saved Yan Poxi. He married Yan Poxi as his outer room, just like his concubine. You may know this by watching Water Margin. So this incident, and the fact that he killed him for a friend in Liangshan, also showed his integrity. So the two events before going to Liangshan show that he is a hero, and this is his first stage.

The second stage was after he went to Liangshan. I think what kind of person is he after he went to Liangshan? If we give him a new definition, he is the rebel leader, Liangshan rebel leader. What we said at the beginning was that his talent was limited and his appearance was mediocre, so he could not be a Liangshan hero. This is a contradictory place. He has both civil and military skills and limited talents, but why can he be the boss of Liangshan? Can we consider these three points? One is his generous personality, which has given him a good mass base and great appeal to heroes in the rivers and lakes. Everyone knows from the water margin that no matter how big the problem is in Liangshan, as long as he says it in a few words, everyone is willing to work hard and no matter how big the difficulty is, it can be solved. There are about three times about Juyi written in the Water Margin. One time was Juyi in Chaojiazhuang in 15, just to drag out an ignoble existence. This Song Jiang did not participate. The second gathering was in Qingfeng village, that is, 34 times. Sung River mobilized Huarong and Qin Ming to go to Liangshan, which was the second gathering of righteousness. The third time was 40 times, and the Bailong Temple got together. This time, he encouraged a dozen heroes to go to Liangshan. Among them were Zhang Shun, Zhang Heng and Li Junhe Li Li, all of whom were good at water and later became generals of Liangshan Water Army. There are Dai Zhong and Li Kui jy, both of whom went to Liangshan during the party in Bailong Temple. He has great attraction to these people and heroes in the Jianghu. The second is that he cares about his brother. Some people say that this is the caring comrade we are talking about today. He believes in people's magnanimity and also believes in people. You see, there are several big battles in the Water Margin, most of which are to save his brother. Every time he hit a city, it was because his brother, Liangshan's brother, was caught, and he fought to save these brothers. This is the second one. Third, from Song Jiang's point of view, as a leader, he has certain organizational ability and military command ability. There was a battle that had a profound impact on Sanda Zhujiazhuang. Two of them, sung river command is not very clever, defeat will not be shot down, but he learned a lesson and listened to the opinions of Wu Yong. The third battle typically reflected his organizational ability. So I think from Song Jiang's point of view, it should be said that he has certain organizational ability. We can imagine that if he is the leader of a rebel army, it is untenable for him to have no organizational ability and military ability at all. Especially after the death of Chao Gai, it is the sixtieth time. After the death of Chao Gai, he became the top leader, that is, the highest person in charge. So 60 years later, he personally commanded and led many battles. And this period we know is the heyday of Liangshan. Until 7 1 time, the hero ranked first, and Liangshan's power reached its peak, with two defeats against Tong Guan and three defeats against Gao Qiu. So we said that after he went to Liangshan, we said that he was the leader of Liangshan rebels, which was his second period.

What about the third period, after receiving the harness? After accepting the woo, I think Song Jiang should be a loyal minister of the imperial court at this time. Because everyone knows in the Water Margin that what Song Jiang often says verbally is to contribute to the country and defend the country. So when Chao Gai died for the sixtieth time and became the real leader of Liangshan, he took some measures. These measures were taken by loyal ministers of a country. One is that he changed the name of Liangshan. As we all know, it was originally called Juyitang, and later it was changed to Zhongyitang. Changing the name of the hall is a very important thing in the Water Margin. Therefore, Li Zhuowu has a comment on writing that changing Juyitang into Loyalty Hall is the first key of Water Margin, so readers should not read it hastily. Its slogan has changed. It used to be Juyi, but now it is loyalty. This is the 60th time.

Then it was officially accepted for 82 times, that is, the tiger in the water margin was wooed. At this time, he changed his flag. We know that there is a flag in the water margin that says "Justice for Heaven". Then, after accepting peace, "doing justice for heaven" was changed to "obeying God's will" and "doing justice for the chivalrous" was changed to "defending the country". Therefore, after accepting the enlistment, he changed from the original rebel leader to a loyal minister of the court, and he wanted to defend his country according to the day, not the original one. Two big chess, one is written by Shuntian and the other is written by protecting the country. After receiving the wire harness for the 82nd time, I mainly did four major things. One is from Liao Ping, Liao and the North. Ping tian hu, Ping Wangqing. Another is to recruit Fang La. Fang La, as we all know, is the most tragic one written in the Water Margin, and Song Jiang is not only a loyal minister of the imperial court, but also the executioner of the uprising of all brothers. Can you say that? So let's take a look at when he plays Fang La, which is different from when he went to Liangshan. As we all know, after he captured the generals of the imperial court, he always said that Xiao Ke Sung River was forced to stay in Shui Bo temporarily, waiting for the court to harness and contribute to the country. He always does. Let's have a look. When he recruited Fang La, he captured the generals of Fang La, not to say that he was pushed out and beheaded, but to dig his heart to pay homage to the dead Liangshan brothers. Some places are very tragic, and his whole life has changed.

Then the last paragraph of his life is the fourth paragraph, and I think his final ending is a tragic ending. As we all know, none of the heroes of 108 died when they recruited Liao, Ping and Ping Wangqing. When he returned after enlisting in Fang La, some of his 108 brothers died, some left, some became monks, and finally there were 27 left. 8 1 either died, or became a monk, or died, only 27 came back. Everyone read the book, and the people who wrote about Tokyo saw that Liangshan left at 108 and returned at 27. The people in Beijing also lamented and felt very sad. After 27 imperial courts were sealed, some were abolished as Shu Ren, some were killed, some died laughing, and Dai Zong died laughing. Some were forced to return to the camp, some to the mountains, and dozens of people were gone. So in the end, Song Jiang was killed by medicinal liquor. Wu Yong and Hua Rongdao had a good relationship with him and hanged themselves in his cemetery. And Song Jiang, he was afraid that Li Kui jy knew that he had been killed, and he was afraid that he would rebel. So when he died, he called Li Kui jy back and tricked Li Kui jy into drinking medicinal liquor. Li Kui jy finally died. So his whole ending was a tragedy.

Let's talk about Lin Chong again.

The Water Margin describes the peasant uprising. The leading members are not only peasants, but also rebels in all aspects, including the rebels of the ruling class. Lin Chong is a figure who split from the ruling class and defected to the peasant uprising team. He is the head coach of the 800,000 imperial army. The most important characteristics of his character are patience, obedience, humiliation and no resistance. The identity and manners reflected in his appearance show that he is a very important figure. Then he introduced that he had a beautiful young wife who lived happily. This is very different from Lu without family and property.

As soon as Lin Chong appeared, the author put him in a sharp and fierce conflict to show his ideological character. He took his wife to the Yue Temple to burn incense, watched Lu get lost in thought, and was molested by Gao Qiu's adopted son. An officer's wife was molested in broad daylight, which is a great shame and absolutely intolerable. But when he learned that he was going to hit that person, he saw that it was not someone else. It turned out to be Gao Yanei, who relied on powerful people in Tokyo and deeply loved his wife and daughter. At this moment, the book said: "At that time, Lin Chong pulled the general over, but he realized that he was in charge of Gao Yanei, so he relented first." The so-called "this tube" is the direct superior. The words "be soft first, then be firm" are not a simple description of the characters' demeanor, but dig out Lin Chong's inner world. When he brought twenty or thirty people to help him tear it, Lin Chonghe said two simple words. Lin Chong said, "It turned out to be the official's son of Gao Taiwei. I don't know Jingfu. There has been such a saying since ancient times: if you are not afraid of officials, you are afraid of management. Lin Chong doesn't like his invitation, so let him eat it once. " But he said, "You're afraid of being in charge, and the whole world is afraid of it! If I meet that bird, I will teach him to eat 300 sticks. " Please see: one is ashamed of things, and the other is jealous of evil; A person can tolerate persecution of himself, but can't tolerate persecution of others. What a sharp contrast between the two personalities.

The dark social forces that Lin Chong felt very dissatisfied kept pressing on him, which made him want to be safe but not peaceful, and he could not bear it. There is no way to go, and this finally embarked on the road of resistance. Lin Chong's wife was humiliated and swallowed up. Bribery, cheating Lin's wife upstairs, trying to insult her. After Lin Chong heard the news, he also put up with it. Here is a description worth noting: "Lin Chong took a sharp knife to untie his wrist and went straight to Liu". I couldn't find it, so I went home to Lu Qian and waited for him all night. Lin Chong began to resist. He went to Lu Qian instead of Gao Yanei because he was afraid of Gao Yanei. Second, because Lu Qian is his good friend, and friends should be loyal, he is very angry at the bad behavior of treachery and can't tolerate it. Loyalty is the good side of Lin Chong's character. There are several spots in the novel, which were later sent to Cangzhou for re-dyeing. When it merged with Wang Lun, it broke out and shined brilliantly.

With the support of Gao Qiu, Gao Yanei lured Lin Chong into Baihutang and sent him to Cangzhou, forcing his wife to run away from home. At this time, Lin Chong still endured and wrote a divorce certificate to his wife, which not only showed Lin Chong's kindness and loyalty, but also showed his innocence. In the wild pig forest, when Lu tried to kill two murderers who wanted to kill him, Lin Chong pleaded with Lu for them. His forbearing character really makes readers unbearable. It was not until later that Liu Cai set fire to the forage field. When he heard with his own ears that he was going to pick up a bone from him and go back to give it to Gao Taiwei as a reward, he really couldn't bear it. His anger finally broke out, killing traitors and rulers, and finally breaking up and resolutely rebelling. The reason why Lin Chong's personality characteristics and changes are so well-founded, reasonable, true and natural is that this ideological character is rooted in the soil of reality. Character comes into being in real life and develops and changes in the contradictions and struggles in real life. This is the genius of the character description in Water Margin, and it is also an outstanding artistic achievement of realism.

Let's talk about the detailed description of the Water Margin.

The tenth time Lin Chong's thought and personality changed, after Lin Chong arrived at the forage field, the novel had a series of delicate descriptions: "It was snowing heavily outside, and he made a fire in the ground stove with firewood. ..... I thought that the passing ancient temple could be settled, so I locked the door of the fallen hut and moved the broken quilt to the temple. " Jin Shengtan has a wonderful comment here, "Just take a broken quilt to the temple, which indicates that he will come back the next day after a night." When Lin Chong saw the fire, his first thought was to put it out, not to get involved himself. This love is painstaking, very meticulous and wonderful. Through this series of actions and psychological descriptions, Lin Chong's inner world is profoundly revealed: an 800,000 imperial coach was persecuted for no reason, and his wife was torn away and left home, which made him fall into a very miserable and difficult situation, but he still wanted to strive for a peaceful and stable life. This humiliation and his good character are shown. More importantly, such people were finally cornered and had to fight back. At the same time, through the plot description in the novel, the evil of the feudal ruling class is effectively exposed, which arouses readers' sympathy for Lin Chong and resentment against Gao Qiu, Gao Yanei and Lu Qian.

Shi Naian writes well. Lin Chong was forced to kill. He opened the stone first, opened the temple gate, shouted, and the three of them left. He "raised his hand to check the lens, poked it first and dialed the wrong number." At this time, Lu Qian shouted "mercy" and fled, but the author wrote that Lin Chong didn't kill him first, but chased Fuan, who had escaped more than ten steps, and was also shot down. At this time, Lin Chong concentrated on dealing with his main enemy, Lu Qian. Lin Chong shouted, "Good thief! You stay there! " Just pick up the box and throw it in the snow. He put the gun on the ground, put his feet on his chest, took out his knife from his side, walked up to Lu Qian and sat on it. "thief!" He shouted. I didn't have anything against you when I came. How could you do this to me? Murder is excusable, but murder is unreasonable. After Lu Qian excused himself, Lin Chong scolded, "Traitor, I have been with you since childhood, and today you have come to harm me. "。 Why don't you do it? Eat my knife! " He ripped off Lu Qian's clothes. "Just spit a sharp knife into his heart, 7 bursts with blood, holding his heart in his hand. "Why did the author write this so carefully, and he also issued a declaration before killing people, in order to express the revolutionary and justice of Lin Chong's murder. First, prioritize, kill two followers first, and then concentrate on killing the principal offender; Second, we should not kill people in ignorance, first seek guilty condemnation, and kill them aboveboard and rightfully; Third, the three-person killing method is different and the details are different. If Li Kui jy killed someone, it would never be repeated. Different heroes kill different people, and the same hero kills different people.

Lin Chong used different weapons to kill people, and his wrist eased the sharp knife, which appeared several times in the novel and was finally used to kill Lu Qian, the main enemy. And the walking stick in Song Wu's hand when he killed the tiger. The author also started from Song Wu's hotel and continued to nudge all the way. Jin Shengtan commented on this; Pointed stick 1, pointed stick 2, pointed stick 3, etc. have been approved to "clean up the pointed stick" and the author wrote that Song Wu's posture of holding the stick is different, both delicate and rich.