Chapter 25 The world is empty

It is a peculiar martial arts novel, or it can be said to be an anomaly among martial arts novels. Its protagonist does not know martial arts at all, and is not a chivalrous hero, just a naughty boy who is both good and evil. In the playful plot deduction, what is Jin Yong going to tell the readers? According to the title of the book, the theme of this novel is actually related to the rise and fall of the family and the country. "Deer" is the "deer" of the Central Plains, and "Ding" is the "ding" of the Central Plains. There is also the Luding Mountain in the northeast, where the dragon veins about the Qing Dynasty's national fortune are buried.

In fact, this is exactly the case. Except for the protagonist Wei Xiaobao, almost all the characters are fighting desperately, or for the imperial power, or for the revival of the Ming Dynasty, or for the treasure of the dragon vein, or for revenge, etc., etc., etc. However, Chen Jinnan, the chief helmsman of the Tiandihui, ended up being plotted to death by a traitor. He was famous all his life and was skilled in martial arts.Hong Antong, the leader of the Dragon Sect, finally betrayed his relatives and died in madness.Kangxi is very talented and bold, and seems to have realized his ideal, but it seems that his life is not very happy.There are also the encounters of Nine Difficulties, the heroes of Mu Wangfu, Li Zicheng, Zheng Chenggong's descendants, etc., all of which are more sad than happy.

Whether it succeeds or fails, in the end it’s just a mockery.” The "Forty-Two Chapters" that everyone racked their brains to obtain was inexplicably obtained by the unknown Wei Xiaobao. As the saying goes, if you plant flowers deliberately, they will not bloom, but if you plant willows and willows unintentionally, they will make shade.This is the absurdity of history and the absurdity of life. The sacred luster of history and the solemn appearance of the world have been completely deconstructed in the book. What is written is basically historical facts, except that Wei Xiaobao is added, such as Kangxi's murder of Obai, and the signing of the "Nerchinsk Treaty" between China and Russia.

The fictional Wei Xiaobao's participation in real history reflects a unique perspective of Jin Yong's observation of history.Thanks to Wei Xiaobao's participation, the "truths" accumulated under historical records are revealed one by one.In fact, history is just a series of farces, and what supports the development of the plot may be only a momentary psychological fluctuation or a person's impulse. Wei Xiaobao had an affair with Princess Sophia and helped her successfully usurp power and throne, which made people laugh and thought-provoking.Isn't it Wei Xiaobao's trick to play all power struggles?As the novel says:

Come from the novel.Back then, Emperor Taizong of the Qing Dynasty tricked Emperor Chongzhen into destroying the Great Wall and killed the general Yuan Chonghuan. This is the story of copying Zhongzhou Yu's trick and making Cao Cao behead his captain of the navy. And Wei Xiaobao's strategy of inciting the Russian soldiers to rebel was actually too simple, that is: to burst the river of desire of the masses. Next, Sophia's speech on the square and the reaction of the masses below are the epitome of many "revolutions" in human history.Under the high-sounding banner, the driving force is money and beautiful women, and people become slaves and thugs of desire.

It was just these few plain words, but they incited the crowd into a frenzy.Why?Because it captures people's inner desire, that strong suppressed desire.If you study all mass movements carefully, you will find that the leaders of the movement always arouse this kind of subconscious desire, so that the masses can "rise up." Because of desire, there is revolution, there is war, there is endless struggle between people, and there is historical progress.But in the end, everyone has become a victim of desire. Even Wei Xiaobao, a "treasure" who has been wandering around in the world, felt tired of it, and finally shouted from his heart: "I quit!"

The world of desire is a three-dimensional world. Good and bad, righteous and evil, right and wrong, loyal and treacherous, cannot be clearly judged.In multiple perspectives, the boundaries between them are looming, sometimes even disappearing. In a big way, Kangxi was the emperor of the Qing Dynasty and the sworn enemy of all Han people, but he was a "good emperor".He said to Wei Xiaobao: "No emperor in the Ming Dynasty could be as diligent in government and love the people as himself. Assuming that the people's hope is to live and work in peace and contentment, then under his rule, the people have achieved their wish. Drive out of the Central Plains? It's just a battle for fame."

Wei Xiaobao relayed this meaning to a learned person like Gu Tinglin, but the latter was at a loss for words for a while and didn't know how to answer.This doomed the inevitability of the failure of the heroic anti-Qing and Fuming movement. In terms of small aspects, it is also against the Qing Dynasty and the Ming Dynasty. Tiandihui, Muwangfu, and Jiunan have their own masters, while Li Zicheng is completely a "rebel", and Wu Sangui is a capricious "treacherous hero".They blamed each other and were self righteous. In the eyes of others, they were noisy, but they were absurd inside.A dynasty in decline is still arguing endlessly over "orthodoxy" and "name".

In Zheng Chenggong's small regime, it was like a shrunken imperial palace, where brothers and sisters fought each other, and powerful and powerful people fought each other.The swaying figure in the historical turmoil and the posture of falling and crawling are also embarrassing. Except for the obvious villains like Wu Zhirong, or the obvious positive characters like Chen Jinnan and Wu Liuqi in the book, most people are just real "people" in life, and it doesn't matter whether they are good or bad.In such an environment, he can do good things, and in that environment, he can do bad things.For example, some minions under Wei Xiaobao, or people like Zheng Keshuang and Hai Laogong, it all depends on how you judge them.

As for the protagonist of this book, Wei Xiaobao, he is even more difficult to describe. Some people praised Wei Xiaobao, saying that he was clever and smart, and handled things properly;It can be almost divided into two factions, each has its own reasons and refuses to give in to each other. In reality, it is impossible for a character like Wei Xiaobao to exist: a small child can survive dangers and turn dangers into fortunes in the battles of the imperial palace, officials, alien races, and secret gangs.Every famous person has been subdued by him and obeyed.How could there be such a child?But when you read it, you feel that he is standing beside him, winking, eccentric little urchin waiting for an opportunity to play tricks on you.

Compared with Liang Yusheng's works about the same historical period, Jin Yong's description is obviously much deeper.Consciously or unintentionally, he presents all the complexities of history, including the complexity of human nature, in front of readers. He does not draw any conclusions, but makes people ponder for a long time. Not only that, in this novel, Jin Yong has a unique understanding of the moral dilemma, and fully reveals the hypocrisy of the world. Wei Xiaobao used his indiscriminate kung fu to deal with Mao Shiba's enemies and saved Mao Shiba.And Mao Shiba warned him: "This kind of indiscriminate behavior is the most despised in the Jianghu. Compared with Mongolian medicine and burning incense, it is inferior in character. I would rather be killed by Shi Song, the black dragon whip. And I don’t want you to save your life with such despicable and shameless means.” But Wei Xiaobao said: "Killing with a knife is killing, and killing with lime is also killing, so what's the matter? If I, a brat, didn't save you with dirty means, you old devil would have become a high-class ghost long ago. Your thighs Didn’t you get hurt? Someone chops your thigh with a knife, and I chop someone’s foot with a knife. Both thigh and foot are part of the lower body, so what’s the difference?” This may be a bit unreasonable, but it also touches on key issues.Thinking deeply, morality is uncertain, and many "beautiful" pretenses are just tricks for human beings to deceive themselves and others. No wonder at the end of the novel, Wei Xiaobao, who has riches, wealth, money and beauties, sighs like this: Walking in the world is difficult, difficult, difficult!No matter what you do or how you do it, it is impossible to be perfect and perfect.Then, it is best not to do it, because only by not doing it can one achieve perfection. It is full of irony, insights and doubts about history and the world, and it seems to be a world-weary book.Or, in other words, it is a book that sees through life.Therefore, in the future, Jin Yong will never write novels again. What else is there to say?