Song Jiang, who is known for his loyalty and righteousness, is actually not so perfect

Mondo Culture Updated on 2024-02-16

The story of "Water Margin" is set under the feudal imperial rule of Huizong of the Northern Song Dynasty. In this era, the system of feudal dynasties has decayed, leading to the increasingly intensified social class contradictions. In order to survive, peasant uprisings surged everywhere. Song Jiang, a man from the landlord class, although his family was well-off, he still belonged to the middle and lower classes in the context of that era.

Song Jiang, who was in troubled times, although he worked hard to live for the court and his own responsibilities at the beginning, but for various reasons, he was finally forced to embark on the road of uprising. Despite this, his idea of loyalty to the monarch has always existed. When he became the leader of Liangshan, he immediately changed the "Juyi Hall" to the "Zhongyi Hall", showing his loyalty to the imperial court. However, this loyalty has also led him to always have the idea of recruiting peace, even though he has become the leader of the uprising.

In "Water Margin", Song Jiang's image of loyalty and righteousness has been shown many times. For example, after the incident of intercepting the Shengchengang, Chao Gai and others occupied Liangshanbo and began an uprising. They had sent someone to Song Jiang to express their gratitude, but Song Jiang did not accept all of them, leaving only a small part, and asked Liu Tang to bring back a letter of thanks to Chao Gai. This shows that Song Jiang was a very loyal and righteous man, and his actions won the respect and trust of the heroes of the rivers and lakes, and also helped him later become the leader of Liangshan.

In addition, Song Jiang's scheming image has also been well displayed in **. For example, he used events such as the "Jingshi Nursery Rhyme" to guide the superstitious thoughts of the common people to facilitate the uprising. He used feudal superstition to achieve his goals, which not only prepared him for the uprising, but also made the heroes of Liangshan more convinced of him. During the celebration of righteousness, Song Jiang deliberately promoted this information to deepen his position and surpass the Heavenly King Chao Gai. With the help of factors such as "Nine Heavenly Xuannu" and "Three Heavenly Books", he successfully deified himself as a "Star Lord", laid the theoretical foundation of "Divine Authority of the Monarch", and thus successfully became the leader of Liangshan.

Song Jiang embodies a kind of thick black thinking in his life, and he is even more ruthless in the face of major events. For the heroes of Liangshan, most of them embarked on the road of uprising because they admired Song Jiang's affection or because of various helpless reasons.

However, some people did not revolt out of their own volition. For example, Thunderbolt Qin Ming was framed by Song Jiang and forced to join Liangshan. In order to ensure that Qin Ming could completely join Liangshan, Song Jiang first pretended to give up persuasion, drunk Qin Ming, and then sent people to burn and loot after Qin Ming sobered up, and deliberately exposed his identity to frame Qin Ming, resulting in Qin Ming's family being beheaded. This behavior shows Song Jiang's ruthlessness and scheming in handling things.

After this incident, Song Jiang once again showed his deep city government and scheming. In order to keep himself above board, he even revealed the entire incident to Qin Ming. At the same time, in order to ensure that Qin Ming would not rebel, he married Hua Rong's sister Xu to Qin Ming, so that Qin Ming eventually joined Liangshan as well.

Although Song Jiang has a certain negative image, some of his positive qualities cannot be ignored. For example, his image of loyalty and filial piety. After Song Jiang ascended Liangshan, he feared that his father would be implicated in his uprising, so he decided to take his father to Liangshan. In the process, he was hunted down by the government and nearly died, but he eventually succeeded in bringing his father back to Yangsan. This behavior can be said to be the embodiment of his "filial piety".

As for the idea of "loyalty", Song Jiang was particularly obvious when he accepted Zhao'an. It can be seen that Song Jiang's idea of loyalty and filial piety had a practical impact on his behavior.

Related Pages