"The big black man went down to the crossroads, didn't ask the officials, soldiers and people, and killed all the blood, and the corpses were all over the field. Chao Gai shouted: 'Don't do the people's business, don't just hurt people!' The big black man could hear it, only one axe, and the head of the row was about to be chopped off. ”
This is a scene of the robbery of the law field in Jiangzhou in "Water Margin", and its protagonist is Li Kui, nicknamed "Black Whirlwind", the "Sky Killing Star".
In the whole book, there are many other passages about Li Kui's indiscriminate killing, and we seem to be sure that this person is a demon who kills indiscriminately.
But in fact, there are not a few people who have always admired Li Kui, and some people call him a "superior figure" and "living Buddha", obviously, Li Kui may be the most controversial and polarized character in the whole book.
Li Kui's "Water Margin" is impossible to study in detail, but roughly between the end of the Song Dynasty and the middle of the Ming Dynasty, the feudal social classes were torn, the contradictions were sharp, and the moral outlook was quite different from the present world, but no matter what perspective he looked at, Li Kui could definitely be regarded as a butcher who regarded human life as a mustard.
If you only talk about the image of film and television, Li Kui can indeed be regarded as upright and resolute, jealous and hateful, but it may not be in the original book, not to mention the extremely dark episode of Li Kui killing Xiao Yanei for the time being, just talking about Li Kui's various actions in Zhujiazhuang, Yishui County and other places, it is difficult for us to regard it as a positive image.
Yishui County is Li Kui's hometown, after Li Kui killed the tiger in order to avenge his mother, Cao Taigong and others recognized Li Kui, and arrested him after turning it over, and Li Kui was rescued by Zhu Gui and Zhu Fu on the way to escort, but Li Kui did not have the intention of retreating, and there is the following paragraph:Li Kui snatched the Pu knife and first strangled Cao Taigong to death, then Lizheng and Orion were also strangled to death, and the thirty or so soldiers were also strangled to death. ”
If Li Kui hadn't been blocked by Zhu Fu, his ** Li Yun would have been killed by him. After capturing Zhujiazhuang, Hu Sanniang was captured, and his family was poisoned by Li Kui.
As for Li Kui's ghost hunting, it is also quite cruel and bloody. Li Kui passed through Siliu Village and met the local owner, whose daughter colluded with the adulterer to deliberately pretend to be a ghost in order to prevent the incident, so the owner asked Li Kui to "catch ghosts".
And after Li Kui found out about the adultery between the two, he cut them all off, and then slashed at the two dead bodies one by one, which was so cruel that it was really outrageous.
Obviously, no matter how you look at it, just because of Li Kui's evil deeds, we can say that Li Kui is really a demon with no humanity, but why is Li Kui's reputation so polarized?
Li Kui's Ming Dynasty ** critic Jin Shengxi spoke highly of Li Kui, he called Li Kui a "superior figure", the Taoist author "wrote really innocently", and also affectionately called Li Kui "my Li Kui"; The Ming Dynasty writer Li Zhen also said, "My family Ah Kui is only straight, and there is no turning brain and heart";
Another anonymous person said that Li Kui was "really the first living Buddha in Liangshan", ......
Obviously, from the perspective of many people, Li Kui is a "true character", he is straightforward and simple-minded, so he has also won the love of many literati, which is due to the difference between ancient and modern values and morals, but there are indeed some shining points in Li Kui.
When Song Jiang, Li Kui and others went up the mountain to meet Gongsun Sheng's ** Luo Zhenren, the conversation of several people took Li Kui's image as a general comment, in which Dai Song once said"Although this Li Kui is stupid and doesn't know etiquette, he is upright; second, he will not be sycophant, although he will not change his loyalty; Third, there is no ** evil heart. ”
Li Kui's positive image of Li Kui is very well grasped: upright, not flattering, loyal, innocent, distracting, and full of sense of justice, and these positive labels are also reflected many times in the original work.
For example, in the quite classic "Li Kui meets Li Ghost", in the face of Li Ghost who pretended to be himself to rob his house and ruined the reputation of Liangshan's heroes, Li Kui, a character who kills people without blinking, empathizes with Li Ghost, because he thought that he was going to pick up his mother on this trip, not only did he not kill Li Ghost, but also used a lot of entanglement with Li Ghost.
Li Kui's deeds as a county magistrate in Shouzhang County are also very representative, and although many of Li Kui's judgments seem too hasty, his original intention was to seek justice, which shows his dissatisfaction with injustice.
The killing of the owner's daughter and the adulterer in Siliu Village can be seen to be cruel, but its original intention is indeed "to see that the road is uneven, draw a knife to help".
Li Kui even Song Jiang, who was regarded as a spiritual idol by Li Kui, almost ate Li Kui's axe because he was pretended to be a forced abduction of a people's girl, which shows that Li Kui's values and morals are quite simple, and even idols can't do anything wrong.
From this point of view, although Li Kui is unbearable, he also has a decent and chivalrous side, and if you carefully study the praise of Li Kui by several critics, you can find that in their eyes, Li Kui is just a child, so he is called "my Ah Kui".
And if Li Kui is regarded as a child with simple morals, then many of his behaviors can indeed be explained, that is, within the scope of his narrow and simple cognition, whether to kill or not to kill depends entirely on his personal judgment and preferences, rather than social discipline or morality and its impact on the future.
Therefore, Jin Shengxian thinks that Li Kui is a "real person", and the so-called real person is not necessarily a person who has seen through the world, or a child who does everything according to his personal preferences.
Li KuiIf you interpret Li Kui's ** behavior from the perspective of the original work, you can also get a relatively reasonable explanation.
Li Kui's image has been preliminarily laid in "Praise of the Thirty-six People of Song River" and "The Legacy of Xuanhe of the Great Song Dynasty", one of the reference blueprints of "Water Margin", and shines in Yuan miscellaneous dramas, but in "Water Margin", Li Kui's image has become more "idealized".
He is almost completely opposite to the character image of the protagonist Song Jiang, Song Jiang is worried, loyal and patriotic, but Li Kui is free and easy, without a king and a father, to some extent, Li Kui is a projection of the other side.
Combined with the era in which the author lived, it was between the change of dynasties in which the people were not living and the etiquette collapsed, combined with the frustration of his life, perhaps to create such a particularly pure character, and even the "emperor Lao'er" had to be cut, maybe he was a kind of resistance to the tragic reality.
Li Kui's interpretation of Li Kui's image, there is also a more reliable statement that combines the asterisk and the background of the story, the story world of "Water Margin" is a low-demon world, with a small number of gods and monsters and supernatural elements, and the setting of Liangshan's one hundred and eight generals is "the devil in the sky", who came down to the earth to atone for his sins.
And Li Kui is a "heavenly killing star", Luo Zhenren, who peeked into the heavens, once commented on him:"Poor Dao knew that this person was the number of celestial killers, and the work was too heavy, so he was punished to kill. ”
This has become the main reason to excuse Li Kui's evil deeds in many cases, but if you look at it from the perspective of the original book alone, Li Kui's duty is to kill.
Li Kui Throughout the full text of "Water Margin", Li Kui is definitely the most important and complex character, it is undeniable that he has many evil deeds, but it must also be admitted that it is inappropriate to evaluate him with modern morality.