Thanks to book friend "nqm" for voting again, please continue to ask for votes ^_^
Perhaps because "Water Margin" is the only novel in ancient China with a rebel as the protagonist, Taizu has always been very fond of it, but when he was young, he basically only read the 70-chapter version, and he could never read the 100-chapter version.
Maybe it was because he was dissatisfied with the ending (I personally think this point is relatively minor, because when he was young, Taizu even wrote "Dang"
"Kou Zhi" can also be read with gusto), or it may be because the last thirty chapters are not well connected with the previous chapters, and the writing is far less exciting than the seventy chapters. It was not until his later years that Taizu began to try to look at the seventy chapters from a critical perspective
I took a closer look at the following parts for the first time, and some of his comments caused a big stir in China.
Therefore, Hu Weidong was certain that Taizu had never read "Water Margin" in history. When he got the three trial printing samples from the People's Education Publishing House, he always wanted to give them to the great man for reading. It happened that Taizu suddenly visited
, Hu Weidong simply pulled out the third book (the last fifty chapters) from the bookshelf and turned it upside down on the table. Sure enough, it immediately attracted Taizu's attention. The great man casually
After flipping through a few pages, I was quickly attracted by the plot in the book which was completely different from the one hundred chapters, but well connected with the previous text. For a while, I almost forgot about the serious matter of visiting Hu Weidong. However, Taizu was born with "nature"
He was open-minded and felt no embarrassment after reflecting on it. He just smiled and asked Hu Weidong to borrow the book. Hu Weidong had this intention and naturally agreed immediately.
However, Hu Weidong soon understood why Taizu's friends in history were afraid of him borrowing books. Firstly, he would read books he liked repeatedly. Therefore, he would often return the books very late. Secondly, when he read books, he would
The habit of casually annotating between the lines, even if the book is borrowed
As a result, after the three copies of "Ancient Water Margin" were returned, Hu Weidong looked at the pages that looked like they had been scribbled by children at first glance. He couldn't help but feel depressed. Although he also likes to write reading notes after reading, he has always been
In addition, those who find paper to write on will always keep the book itself clean, but obviously, the great man is much more casual than him in this regard.
But soon Hu Weidong couldn't help but become a little curious, and wanted to see what Taizu made annotations on "Water Margin". After reading it, he immediately felt that the reason why great men are great people is that there are indeed things that are difficult for ordinary people to achieve, but it is just
Reading a novel can connect it with real-life wars and country governance. By drawing inferences from one example to another, you will get greater gains.
At least his understanding of "Ancient Water Margin". Taizu is far more profound than Hu Weidong, a reader who has read it countless times. Especially some seemingly unreasonable places in the last fifty chapters of "Ancient Water Margin", in Taizu
It seems
On the contrary, it is very realistic. For example, in the first seventy chapters, Yang Zhi easily defeated the famous general Zhou Jin in the school field. However, in the next fifty chapters, when Zhou Jin appeared again, he was almost defeated with a big hammer.
Liang Shanbo's place
There are brave generals, and only Hua Monk Lu Zhishen, who is also astonishingly powerful, can match him. This plot may seem very unreasonable at first glance, but the great man believes that this plot reflects the author's skill. Daming Mansion Performs a Martial Arts Competition
It's all about skills. Yang Zhi, a general who is skilled in bow and horse, will naturally take advantage of him later. But in actual combat, as the saying goes, "one force can defeat ten wisdoms", Zhou Jin, who switched to using heavy weapons, was able to overwhelm many brave generals in Liangshanbo with just brute force.
The great man believes that the reason why there is such a huge contrast between Zhou Jin's performance before and after is mainly because Liang Zhongshu of Daming Palace did not know how to employ people. Only by employing people based on their strengths can the true value of talents be brought out. In "The Ancient Book of Water Margin"
In the next fifty chapters, Da Dao Wenda, who was denounced by Liang Zhongshu, also performed brilliantly, while the equally famous Heavenly King Li Cheng has been mediocre because he was still under Liang Zhongshu, which is also an example of Liang Zhongshu's poor use of people.[
Later, at a certain party meeting, Taizu specifically used this as an example to teach leading cadres within the party to employ people based on their strengths, which further corrected the Red Party's previous treatment of talents as "screws" and went wherever they were needed.
The old mistake of putting it anywhere but not paying much attention to the pros and cons of each person.
As Hu Weidong had predicted, due to Taizu's love and admiration, the "Ancient Water Margin" revised from the "Ancient Water Margin" was published faster, and the number of prints was much larger than originally planned, but there were still
Many Water Margin experts denounced that it was not Shi Naian's original version, and even regarded the earlier version of the Hundred Chapters as the original version of Water Margin. This sparked a great discussion about various versions of Water Margin earlier than in history.
Since "Water Margin" was originally rewritten by Mei Jihe based on his memory, and even the original version kept by the Mei family cannot be verified as to whether it was written by Shi Naian, so if you are confused about whether "Water Margin" was written by Shi Naian,
If this point of Naian's original work is
Will fall into the trap set by those experts. Although Hu Weidong lacks experience in fighting with literati, he grasped the key to this discussion, "The "Ancient Edition" does not necessarily need to be Shi Naian's original work, it only needs to be compared with hundreds of times.
This book is more like Shi Naian’s original version.”
Under the guidance of this idea, those who supported "Water Margin" focused their energy on finding faults with the 100-chapter version. As a result, they quickly found a lot of problems. For example, the plots in the first 70 chapters
It mainly focuses on attacking the "treacherous" ministers, strongly expressing its hatred for the "treacherous" ministers, and at the same time never forgets to recruit them. However, in the last thirty chapters of the hundred chapters, it suddenly turns into conditional capitulationism.
Then it became extremely vulgar: as long as he gained the false reputation of being a "loyal" king, the "treacherous" party would also worship him, and the sycophantic ministers would beg for him, and he would even poison his brother and "suicide" to death, but there would be no trace of the private release of Chao Gai and the robbery of the execution ground.
Destroy the city and kill
The heroic images shown in the plots such as the Gao Qiu brothers, these plots are obviously incompatible with the conception of the first seventy chapters, but they are in the same vein as the foolish loyalty that Luo Guanzhong has always advocated in "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms" and other works
In addition, Luo Guanzhong likes to add a large number of poems to his novels, but there are very few poems in the 70-chapter edition, which is recognized to be written by Shi Naian. This is also strong evidence that Luo Guanzhong is the author of the thirty chapters after the 100-chapter edition, although the 100-chapter edition
Book
In order to be consistent, many poems were added to the first seventy chapters that were not found in the seventy-chapter version. However, because they did not fit well, instead of adding "color" to the hundred-chapter version, it actually affected the overall flow of the book.
readability".
Since the last thirty chapters of the hundred-chapter version are clearly written by Luo Guanzhong and are not the same author as the first seventy chapters, what reason does the hundred-chapter version have for being at least slightly more likely to be written by Shi Naian than the last fifty chapters?
Is the ancient version of Water Margin more qualified to be recognized as the original?