Shi Naian

Shi Naian

Shi Naian (1296-1370), also known as ear, also known as Zhaorui, Yanduan, zi'an, No. Naian, or "Qiantang Shi Naian". Born in baijuchang, Xinghua County, Jiangsu Province (now in shijiaqiao, Xinduo Town, Xinghua City, and Baiju Town, Dafeng District, Yancheng City), he is the author of Water Margin, one of the four famous works in China. Water Margin is the first full-length vernacular novel praising the peasant uprising in China, which is of great significance in the history of Chinese and world literature, and Shi Naian also wrote it Known as "the father of Chinese Novels".

Life of the characters

According to the records in the preface to Shi's genealogy, Shi moved from Suzhou to Xinghua, and then from Xinghua to Baiju farm.

Shi Naian lived in seclusion in Xinghua to avoid war and wrote "outlaws of the marsh". According to the folk reputation, Zhang Shicheng fought against the Yuan Dynasty and called the king of Wu in Pingjiang (Suzhou). He hired Shi Naian as a military adviser. After Zhang Shicheng's surrender to the Yuan Dynasty, Shi Naian repeatedly refused to obey, so he abandoned his official post and went to Zhutang Donglin nunnery in Jiangyin. Zhu Yuanzhang besieged Pingjiang and the war spread to Jiangyin. Shi Naian remembered that Gu Ti, a good friend of Songjiang Tongzhi and Jiaxing Road Tongzhi, was from Xinghua. It's a remote place, surrounded by water and inconvenient transportation. It has always been said that Zhaoyang (also known as Xinghua) is a good place to avoid soldiers. So I sent someone to send a letter to Gu Ti with a poem: go around the world and find a good home in Yangshan. I would like to plant more trees than plums. (the folk song at that time: "Li Sheng cucumber, people have no home.")

After seeing the letter, Gu Ti immediately wrote back to Shi Naian and welcomed him to seek refuge in Xinghua. The letter also answers a poem: you come from the south of the Yangtze River to inquire about Tianjin and send a smile to your old colleagues. This is not a peach land. Where can we avoid Qin?

After receiving the letter, Shi Naian left his eldest brother Yanming in Suzhou, married his wife Shen, his second brother Yancai, and his family member Luo Guanzhong, and braved the flames of war to cross the river north. First, he stayed at Gu ti's home in Xinghua, and then with Gu ti's help, he bought a real estate at Baiju farm on the seashore, which is sparsely populated to the east of Xinghua, Many of the stories in their lives became the material of his creation. After re creation, Liang Shan 108, led by Song Jiang, was vividly portrayed by his amazing artistic talent.

During the Hongwu Period of the early Ming Dynasty, Xu Qi, the ninth generation of the Xu family in Wucheng (the ancestor of Xu Xiake), was sent to Sichuan Province in his cloth. He resigned his official post and returned to his hometown. Xu Qi invited Shi Naian, a hermit from Suzhou (known as Qiantang or Hangzhou), to be a private school teacher at home. Shi Naian lived in the beautiful mansion in Zhutang town. He wrote "outlaws of the marsh" while teaching. Local people all respected him as "Naian Gong".

Materials left in the world: there are few materials about Shi Naian's life story, and some records collected are quite contradictory. He said that he was originally from Suzhou and later moved to Huai'an. He was an official in Qiantang for two years. He abandoned his official position and wrote in private because he was not in line with the authority. Shi Zhichang's descendant is gifted and righteous since childhood. Since the 1920s, some materials about Shi Naian have been found in Xinghua, Dafeng, Yandu and other places in Jiangsu Province, such as Shi's genealogy, Shi's changmen genealogy, etc. in addition, there is one biography of Shi Naian in the supplement to Volume 13 of Xinghua county annals, and one epitaph of Shi Naian written by Wang Daosheng in the early Ming Dynasty in the supplement to Volume 14 of Xinghua county annals.

According to the analysis of these materials:

Shi Naian is a descendant of Shi Zhichang, one of the 72 disciples of Confucius. His father's name was Yuande, and he was engaged in boating. His mother, Bian's family (whose descendants also moved to Dafeng City, Jiangsu Province), was buried 150 meters northeast of shijiaqiao, Xinduo Town, Xinghua City, Taizhou City, Jiangsu Province.

He was a scholar at the age of 19, a winner at the age of 28, and a Jinshi in the same list with Liu Bowen at the age of 36.

He had been an official in Qiantang (now Hangzhou City, Zhejiang Province) for three years. Because he was dissatisfied with the dark officialdom, he was unwilling to flatter the powerful and returned home. When Zhang Shicheng revolted against Yuan Dynasty, Shi Naian took part in his military activities. After Zhang took charge of Su, Shi Naian took part in the plot under his curtain, and had a close relationship with Bian Yuanheng, his ministry. Later, Shi Naian, Lu Yuan, Liu Liang and Chen Jing wrote poems and songs, but they were rarely spread. There are few historical records. Even though some materials are clearly recorded, the authenticity and credibility of the materials themselves have not been recognized. We think he is probably from Hangzhou. At least he has lived in Hangzhou for a long time. Some people speculate that he may be a Book Fair talent who specializes in writing storybooks for storytellers, or he may be a rough and skillful storyteller himself. He lived at the end of Yuan Dynasty and the beginning of Ming Dynasty. Some people say that he had a good friendship with Bian Xiang, the leader of the peasant uprising in the late Yuan Dynasty, Zhang Shicheng. In Shaoshi Shanfang bicong, Bian Xiang Zhang Tui pointed out: "the outlaws of the marsh compiled by Shi in Wulin are very popular." Nowadays, people agree that Shi Naian is the author of outlaws of the marsh. Some people think it's co authored with his apprentice Luo Guanzhong or continued by Luo Guanzhong.

According to the historical materials, there are some Shi Naian, but there are few historical records about his life. At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang also issued an imperial edict to ask him to recommend Shi Naian as his staff. However, Shi did not apply for the post after many times of invitation. It is said that Zhang Shicheng visited him personally and saw that he was writing a book named "the legend of the marshes" in his study. Later, after Zhang Shicheng was defeated, Shi Naian moved his family to Huai'an to avoid disaster and continued to write farewell on the autumn river. Besides, Gu ti's poems and Liu Liang's poems were handed down to the world. In order to avoid the Ming Dynasty's conscription, Shi Naian's family road was flourishing, and his ancestor Naian's bone was buried in the West Lake of Baiju (now shijiaqiao village, Xinduo Town, Xinghua City, Jiangsu Province), and Wang Daosheng was invited to write the epitaph of Shi Naian.

When Zhang Shicheng revolted against Yuan Dynasty, Shi Naian took part in his military activities. After Zhang took charge of Su, Shi took part in the planning under his screen and had a close relationship with Bian Yuanheng, his ministry. Later, Shi Naian, Lu Yuan, Liu Liang and Chen Ji were disappointed and left one after another because Zhang was greedy for pleasure and didn't accept honest advice. When Shi left Lu and Liu, he composed a divertimento "new water makes autumn river farewell" to express his generous grief. Before long, Zhang Shicheng died and his country was destroyed. Shi wandered all over the world, roaming in Shandong, Henan and other places. He was friendly with Liu Shanben, the educator of Yuncheng County, Shandong Province. Later, he lived in the beginning of Xu's family in Jiangyin and became his teacher. Later, he returned to the old Baiju and lived in seclusion. Feeling the decline of current politics, he wrote Shuihu Zhuan to express his mind. He also wrote romance of the Three Kingdoms and Sansui Pingyao Zhuan with his apprentice Luo Guanzhong. He is also good at poetry and music, but it is rarely spread. In addition to the divertimento farewell on the Qiujiang River, there are poems such as Gu ti's and Liu Liang's. Shi Naian lived in Huai'an to avoid the Ming Dynasty's conscription. He died of illness and was buried at the age of 75. Several decades after Naian's death, sun Wenyu's family road flourished. "Zhongyi Shuihu Zhuan" has 100 volumes. This is the origin of Shi Naian in Qiantang. Luo Guanzhong wrote the second time In the forty fifth year of Jiajing reign, Lang Ying said in his seven revisions: "this book is the book of Shi Naian in Qiantang.". Shi Naian died of illness in a few years after he wrote the outlaws of the marsh. "Outlaws of the marsh" is still handed down from generation to generation!

Anecdotes and allusions

There are many stories about Shi Naian. It is said that many of the place names in Shizhu nunnery are taken from nearby. For example, "three dozen ZHUJIAZHUANG" is the most important play in the book. In fact, ZHUJIAZHUANG is Zhutang town. In the novel, Wu Song's fighting tiger in Jingyanggang is vivid. It is said that Shi Naian was just walking in houyanggang after dazhaili village. When he saw a yellow dog sleeping under a pine tree, a Zhuang Dingwu Er beat the yellow dog away. When Shi Naian came back home, he used this as the prototype to create. He changed houyanggang into Jingyanggang. The yellow dog became a tiger, and Wu a'er became Wu Song.

It is said that when Shi Naian was teaching in the mansion, he often taught students to draw. He was strict, teaching only one figure painting at a time, and then teaching another one after the students finished. He taught students 108 paintings. There are different faces in these paintings, different actions, different expressions and different personalities. His 108 characters are said to be 108 generals in Outlaws of the marsh.

Boxing bullies

One day in the early Ming Dynasty, Shi Naian was playing on a tea mountain when he met a bully who was robbing the farmer's tea garden. He was very angry and rushed forward to stop it. When the bully saw that he was upright, he had to sneak away. But afterwards, after the bully inquired about the people's residence, he hired a gang of thugs to surround Shi Naian's residence. Seeing this, Shi Naian just sneered and walked out of the door calmly. When the beaters saw that he was unarmed, they rushed on. One of them, a black faced man, holding an iron bar in his hand, came to Shi Naian's head with the wind. Shi Naian swung his head, pulled the flag with the wind, passed the front of the stick, grabbed the iron stick with both hands, and at the same time, he flew up his right foot and kicked the big man's belly, and the guy rolled a foot away. Shi Naian danced to grab the iron bar, a whirlwind like sweep, scared the gang to flee everywhere.

Beat a rascal with a stick

One year on the Lantern Festival, Shi Naian went to the street to watch lanterns. Suddenly I saw a villain insulting a woman at the end of the street. He got angry, lifted the guy up with his right hand and threw him to the ground like a dead dog. The evil boy was so scared that he kowtowed and begged for mercy. Shi Naian spared him. Who knows the next day, the guy gathered seven or eight rogues to revenge. Shi Naian took no time to find a thick rope, let the rascals use the rope to tie his legs, and then told them to pull hard. However, although they were so tired that their faces were red and their necks were thick, Shi Naian's feet seemed rooted and motionless. Then he took out the iron bar and wrote "Oolong wagging his tail",

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