Appreciation of Qi people having wives and concubines

This is a wonderful satirical sketch. Mencius outlined for us an image of being extremely despicable in heart but arrogant in appearance. In order to show off in front of his wife and concubine, he boasted that he was invited to eat and drink by dignitaries every day, but in fact he begged in the graveyard every day. It was painful for his secret to be discovered by his wives and concubines, but he didn't know it had been exposed, and he was still proud in front of his wives and concubines. It makes people feel funny and disgusting.

The hero "Qi Ren" is obviously the epitome of a shameless typical figure who pursued "wealth" by hook or by crook in the society at that time. He deceived himself, did some shameful things, and even his wives and concubines were deceived and concealed, but he pretended to be arrogant. Although there are only a few strokes, his ugly face has been exposed.

But before analyzing this article in detail, I want to ask a question. That is, in the seven chapters of Mencius, each chapter has the words "Mencius said", indicating that the whole book was memorized by Mencius' disciples and their descendants. It's just that there is no word "Mencius said" in this chapter. Therefore, Gao Mai, a close friend, thinks in Mencius Grammar Reader that this chapter should be connected with its previous chapter and should not be split in two. I agree with Mr. Gao for the following reasons. Now copy its previous chapter below:

Zi Chu said, "Is Ji An, a spy, really different from others?" Mencius said, "Why is it different from others? Yao Shun has the same ear as others. "

It is precisely because Qi Xuanwang sent people to spy on Mencius that Mencius told the story of "Qi people have wives and concubines". If these two chapters are linked together, there is no doubt that there is no word "Mencius said" in this chapter. In addition, it can also be seen from the perspective of rhetoric. There are only two places where the word ""is used in Mencius, and these two paragraphs are only connected with each other; It would be a coincidence if Mencius did not echo the "Wang makes people master" and the "lover's place" of Qi's wife, but divided it into two completely unrelated chapters. But the above two points are not the most powerful proof that the two chapters are combined into one, and we will do further exploration in all aspects.

There is nothing deliberately prominent in the narrative part of the story, and the author's calm and objective attitude is a bit like Chekhov's writing short stories. But the article is from shallow to deep, from the first result to the first reason (that is, writing the phenomenon first to point out the background of this phenomenon), exposing the dirty soul of "strange man" layer by layer and peeling off his hypocritical coat. The verbal boasting of Qi people ("what to eat and drink" and "how rich") aroused the suspicion of their wives, and pointed out the crux of the doubt with "people who never showed up". Then, from the wife's point of view, pen feng revealed from the side to the deep: "there is no one to talk in the whole country", that is to say, this boaster doesn't even talk to ordinary people, so it can be seen that words like "how rich and expensive" are pure bragging; But surprisingly, he wrote "Dongguo _ Dead Room" and went to the cemetery, which made readers eager to see the following; The biggest mystery has been solved. It turned out that he was just a beggar and a shameless rogue. "If you ask for the rest, you should care about him." This method of cocoon peeling is not enough. At the end of the following paragraph, a sentence was added: "Giving is from outside, and we are proud of our wives.". The impudence of writing "Strange Man" is not only confined to words, but also manifested in expression and mental state. It's called "add a millie to your cheek". This kind of image portrayal is really on the paper.

After reading this article, I think we should pay attention to the following four points. First, we should pay attention to the complexity and simplicity of his articles. For example, I wrote the paragraph from "My beloved came out" to "Try my best to become rich", but I repeated it tirelessly. This is mainly to highlight this phenomenon. Especially when I wrote it for the second time, I added "I have never seen anyone" and pointed out the suspicious key, which paved the way for the following "". At the same time, this repetition is to form a contrast with the text, which is opposite and complementary. "This is the way to be content" is just the opposite of "wealth", while "eating wine and eating meat" is complementary to "giving to others and being proud of wives and concubines". The previous repetition is only to make the subsequent decline more powerful. But when his wife told his aunt, she didn't repeat the whole process of what she said, but only used the words "if so", as if she swallowed it back halfway. The word "this" actually contains 44 words from "flea", which is really simple. This is because the pen and ink in front have been written incisively and vividly, and it is boring to see the wonderful scenes again; What's more, the complexity of his wife's inner feelings is not enough to repeat all the ugly phenomena she saw. It is better not to say anything than to say half a sentence. Even below, just one word "mountain" and one word "cry" is enough. As for what the "mountain" is and why it "cries", there is no need to elaborate. It can be seen that the author really moved some thoughts on the complexity and simplicity of the article.

Second, some people will ask, how can this "Qi people" have wives and concubines when they are poor enough to beg? I think the appearance of the character "concubine" is to highlight the needs of theme and plot arrangement. For example, if the wife finds any doubts, she will talk to the concubine. When I came back from tracking, I told my concubine the result of what I had done. The crying of wives and concubines is obviously more prominent than the self-pity of women. Without the concubine, the words and deeds of the wife will be greatly restricted, and the satirical power of the story will be greatly weakened. For example, it is far better to say "arrogance to wives" than to say "arrogance to wives".

Third, is the sentence "This is the way to be satisfied" the explanation of the storyteller or the speech of the wife of a "strange man"? This is somewhat similar to a passage in Lu Xun's Kong Yiji:

Kong Yiji is so cheerful, but without him, others will live like this.

These words have been debated in the past. Some people say that the author stood up and spoke, while others think that it should be said by the hotel waiter. In fact, this is the author's monologue expressing his inner feelings about the protagonist in the work. The "this is the way to get satisfaction" here is also an inner monologue of the wife of "Qi Ren" when she suddenly realized, which was expressed by the storyteller on her behalf.

Fourth, we should pay attention to the usage of the word "er" in this article. There are two uses of "er" in this article. A connecting "er", that is, the first two parts of the word "er" are juxtaposed. For example, "His wives and concubines are shameless, and those who don't cry are very happy", and the two juxtaposed components of "shame" and "don't cry" are connected together, meaning that they are both ashamed and crying, and it is rare to be ashamed and not crying. The other is a turning point, which makes the article appear penetrating and powerful. For example, without the word "and", the article is weak to no wave. The usage of these two words "er" must be distinguished, and one of them can also provide reference for us to write articles in modern Chinese.

The last paragraph is the author's summary judgment on the story. It only criticized the "Qi people", but did not take into account what was said earlier. This is why people mistakenly divide a chapter into two chapters. It is for this reason that some comrades disagree with Mr. Gao mai's point of view. In fact, this is the author's conscious way of writing and does not require returning to the original topic. Because as long as we take care of the above, it will become an abuse of the king of Qi and a compliment to ourselves, greatly weakening the whole meaning of irony. Readers please analyze: ""itself is not a aboveboard action, "people are even more outrageous. The reason why a person wants to be ""must be that he has done something shameful, either with ulterior motives in his heart or hypocrisy in his appearance. Qi Xuanwang, as the king, sent someone to see Mencius. Mencius was disgusted and refuted it with "Why is it different from others?". However, from the perspective of cultivation, knowledge, knowledge and experience, Monk, as a scholar, is of course "different". But this "different" place is not afraid of being "angry". The problem is that people should not be sent at all. Therefore, Mencius put forward "Yao Shun" to compare with himself, which means that Yao Shun is just like ordinary people, not to mention I am a monk! Yao Shun is an ancient sage and an ideal figure of Confucianism, so we can see that Mencius is tall with the image of self-imitation. But here is a very obscene story. It means that it is necessary to be "; On the other hand, only when a person is suspected to be a hypocrite will others think of looking for him. On the one hand, the story of "Qi people" mercilessly satirizes the dirty villain who pursues "wealth", on the other hand, it is precisely for Mencius' self-confession: I don't seek wealth, so naturally I won't do ugly things that deceive myself, and of course I don't have to pretend to be a hypocrite. This just proves that Monk is aboveboard from the opposite side. Therefore, there is no need to look back at what I said before.