Wang Jiang Hu

Author: Sun Wenjiang
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-10-01
Features: A person from the martial world, who likes to boast that "All under heaven are brothers." The classic combination of red, white, and black left behind the classic line, which is: "I do not seek to be born on the same day and month, but I wish to die on the same day and month." Song Jiang is the "superstar" chosen from the martial world in Shanghai. Even the wise old Confucius sighed, "Only women and petty men are hard to raise; getting close to them leads to disrespect, while keeping them at a distance leads to resentment." This shows that one of the great troubles for ancient men was not knowing how to deal with women, even though society was already male-dominated. The book is divided into eleven chapters. The author chooses different perspectives and selects different groups from the novel, such as brothers, farmers, and women, while also picking typical characters like Song Jiang, Wu Song, Li Kui, Shi Xiu, and Lu Zhishen as subjects for analysis and interpretation. He aims to explore cultural issues by contrasting the behavioral norms of the martial world, especially those of the underworld, with the rules of the official world. In the author's portrayal, the martial world is a space where the black and white worlds intersect and overlap. From this comparative perspective, one can see that historically, the underworld and the official world shared many similar behavioral patterns, rules, ways of doing things, and perspectives on thinking. More importantly, this reveals the truth of Chinese history and the characteristics of traditional culture.