The word "jianghu" comes from "Zhuangzi. The Great Master Chapter": The spring dries up, and the two fishes are on the ground. They hug each other to wet each other, and soak each other with foam. It is better to forget each other in the rivers and lakes

What are rivers and lakes? ? People are the world. What is Jianghu? Grudges are the world. Jianghu is beautiful, waving the sword with his name engraved on it alone on the street late at night, as cool as the wind, Jianghu is helpless, watching his beloved master and friend bleed into the sand, and he can only face the wall for ten years for revenge. This is Jianghu. In the arena, you can combine swords with your lover and sing the song "Swordsman". You can also rely on your own extreme intelligence to find legendary secrets and practice peerless martial arts. Or start a mountain to recruit disciples and become a respected master. You can also make your own sword, kill one person in ten steps, leave no trace behind for thousands of miles, and become the legendary lone swordsman. After completing some almost harsh conditions, you can worship legendary figures such as Feng Qingyang, Zhang Sanfeng, Bodhidharma, Wang Chongyang, and Yang Guo, and learn enviable martial arts.

The term "jianghu" was first proposed by Zhuangzi. It comes from "Zhuangzi's Great Master Chapter". The original sentence is "The spring has dried up, and the fish and I are on the land. It is better to forget each other in the rivers and lakes."

The original meaning is: After the spring water dried up, the two fishes did not leave in time and were trapped in a small depression on the land. The two fishes could not move. They moistened each other with mouth foam to keep each other moist. At this time, the two fishes remembered their past lives of freedom in rivers and lakes, not knowing each other.

Then Gu Long said in a martial arts book through the mouth of the killer Yan Shisan: People in the Jianghu can't help themselves, which became a shocking statement. So far, the title of Jianghu has been accepted by more people. , also has a deeper and broader connotation. In the end, it was Mr. Gu Long who summarized the name of Jianghu: Wherever there are people, it is Jianghu. As I said, I remember Tsui Hark's version of "The Swordsman II", that unforgettable ink landscape and innocent work, because "as long as there are people, there will be grudges" became heavy.

Looking back to Zhuangzi, he has always used the form of fables to explain mysterious truths, which can be said to be precious. Rivers and lakes, not streams and seas, precisely because streams cannot hold more, give people the feeling of gurgling water, crystal clear, and we can't bear to see the turbidity; the sea is so huge, violent and terrifying, and there is only one thing in our hearts Awe-inspiring, feeling daunting. Only rivers and lakes can truly express artistic conception. Rivers have the meaning and length of streams, and have the potential to rush to the Bohai Sea. The complex water environment is mixed with mud and sand; lakes have the depth of the sea, and contain infinite life. Human sorrow lies in the world.

The etymology of "jianghu"

——From Chen Pingyuan's "Eternal Dreams of Literati and Knights" to "Zhuangzi", the first classic of Jianghu culture

Zhang Yuanshan

I can’t read the works of contemporary mainland scholars unless I turn two pages, or else I will mark them with many negative comments, just in case I need to write an article to criticize, so that I can easily find evidence. However, Mr. Chen Pingyuan's "Eternal Dreams of Literati and Knights", I not only read it in one sitting, but also made a lot of positive comments. This book has many great meanings, such as why chivalrous men must wear swords and why chivalrous bones are fragrant. There are also many witty sentences, such as "'Mountain Forest' has less smoke and fire smell, while 'Jianghu' has more blood smell"; - "'Mountain Forest' mainly belongs to hermits, and 'Green Forest' mainly belongs to bandits. What really belongs to knights - can only be' Jianghu'"; "The ideal life realm of Chinese literati can be expressed by the following formula - young wanderer - middle-aged wanderer - old wanderer." It's a pity that this book has one big and small embarrassment: it must be called "jianghu", but the real etymology of "jianghu" cannot be found.

一

The seventh chapter of this book, "Swordsman and Proud Jianghu", begins: "When talking about martial arts novels, we cannot avoid 'Jianghu'...'Jianghu' belongs to 'Xia Ke'" '; Or on the other hand, "Xia Ke" can only live in "Jianghu". This almost common sense judgment actually has profound meaning, but people rarely delve into why "Xia Ke" is not connected with "Jiang Hu". We cannot be together." Then the etymology of the word "jianghu" was explored.

Chen Pingyuan's interpretation of the word "jianghu" is: "'jianghu' originally refers to the Yangtze River and Dongting Lake, and can also refer to the three rivers and five lakes in general." The crux of this superficial interpretation is that he found The earliest source of "Historical Records" after the Qin Dynasty: ""Historical Records·Huozhi Biography" states that Fan Li 'floated in the rivers and lakes in a flat boat.'" He obviously knew that this could not be the etymology of "江湖", so he added He denied it himself: "The 'jianghu' in it refers to the five lakes. Therefore, "Guoyu·Yueyuxia" is also called Fan Li'-so he took a light boat to float on the five lakes, not knowing where he will end up.'"

Due to the failure to find the origin of the word "江湖", Chen Pingyuan's following explanation misses the point -: "Because of Fan Li's aloofness, when future generations talk about 'jianghu', it is likely that it will no longer be just - In the geographical sense, there are three rivers and five lakes. Gao Shi's poem "Heaven and Earth Zhuang gives birth to horses, rivers and lakes Fan Lizhou", Du Fu's poem "Want to send friends from rivers and lakes to support the sun and the moon", Du Mu's poem "Down and out rivers and lakes carry wine shops, Chu Yao" "Slender and light in the palm", the "jianghu" in it has the implicit meaning of the opposite of the imperial court, that is, the "human world" where hermits and common people live. This cultural meaning of "jianghu" is expressed in the following famous sentence of Fan Zhongyan. It is most clear: if you live high in a temple, you will worry about its people; if you live far away from the rivers and lakes, you will worry about your ruler.

"[1]

From the "Historical Records" of the Western Han Dynasty, which is not the origin of the word "jianghu" (although it is about Fan Li in the late Spring and Autumn Period), we jump to the Tang Dynasty poet Gao Gao eight hundred years later. Shi, Du Fu, and Du Mu's poems with the word "jiang-hu", and then jump to Fan Zhongyan's famous saying about "jiang and lake" in the Northern Song Dynasty three hundred years later, - the time span is more than a thousand years, Chen Pingyuan still has not been able to find the true meaning of "jiang and lake" Etymology, because he was looking in the wrong direction. He should look for it before "Historical Records", not after "Historical Records". All elemental cultural concepts must find their source in pre-Qin classics. This should become basic common sense in academic circles. The reason why the pre-Qin period is called the Axial Age is that it provided all the cultural elements of the post-Axial Age.

Because we have found the wrong direction and there is really nothing we can do. Chen Pingyuan had no choice but to quietly put aside the question of the etymology of "江湖" and return to the original title of "Swordsman Jianghu": ""Historical Records" is a biography of knights, but did not use the word '江湖'... The Tang Dynasty people once again regarded knights as knights. Placed in the world of martial arts, this is remarkable, and it basically laid the foundation for the development of martial arts novels. ...In the heroic novels of the Tang Dynasty, the word "jianghu" has appeared, and "jianghu" has been used as the background of the knight's activities. "〔2-" From here, we go all the way down to the new martial arts novels of the 20th century and Jin Yong's novel - "Swordsman". Since the etymology of "Jianghu" is unclear, Chen Pingyuan gave the reader - There is an illusion that the word "江湖" did not officially appear until the heroic novels of the Tang Dynasty.

二

When the words "江" and "湖" are used separately, they become independent. As a proper name, the word "jianghu" refers specifically to the Yangtze River and Dongting Lake, and as a *** name it refers to the three rivers and five lakes in general. However, the word "jianghu" is neither "jiang" nor "lake" after the two proper names are interpreted separately. The simple addition of "Jianghu" has nothing to do with the names of "Three Rivers" and "Five Lakes". In Chinese culture, "Jianghu" is a special name, and the words "Jiang" and "Hu" are just two words. It is a morpheme and cannot be used as a word alone, nor can it be interpreted separately. More importantly, the special meaning of the proper name "江湖" is by no means an afterthought of the word from the heroic novels of the Tang Dynasty to the contemporary martial arts novels. It is something that existed long ago in the pre-Qin era before the Tang Dynasty: the Jianghu culture of civil society was opposed to the temple politics of the autocratic court. Therefore, it was not that the "Xia Ke" came first and then the "jianghu", but the "jianghu" with special meaning came first. ", followed by the arrogant "Xia Ke". This is because the real etymology of this word comes from the first classic of Chinese culture, "Zhuangzi", which has never been recognized by Confucian China as an official classic. In the "Thirteen Classics" "" and all pre-Qin classics, the word "江湖" does not appear - but it is easy to say, not difficult to say. If the learned at home and abroad have any objections, we are eager to correct them.

The word "江湖" is used seven times in the whole book of "Zhuangzi", which is the earliest "江湖-" in Chinese. The order is as follows:

Now you have a five-stone gourd, why not consider it Do you think that the big bottle floats in the rivers and lakes, but are you worried that the gourd will not be able to contain it? - ("Internal Chapter·Xiaoyaoyou No. 1")

When the spring dries up, the fish is on the land, and the water is wet. It is better to forget each other in the rivers and lakes than to forget each other in the rivers and lakes. Forget about Taoism. ("Internal Chapter: The Sixth Grand Master")

Those who raise birds should live in deep forests, swim on the altar and land, and float in rivers and lakes. "Zhi-Le No. 18", the restatement can be found in "Wai Pian·Da Sheng No. 19")

Fu Fenghu Wenbao lives in the mountains and forests, crouching in caves, and is quiet; Traveling at night and living in the daytime is a warning; although hunger and thirst are vague, it is still necessary to wander around the rivers and lakes in search of food; however, it is not immune to the dangers of being unreasonable ("Outer Chapter: Mountain Trees, Chapter 20"). 》)

Which of the above five items (two abbreviations) is the original source of "Jianghu"? Let me be lazy and copy a paragraph - an old article in my book:

Zhuangzi and Han Fei They were two pre-Qin thinkers who were tit-for-tat and irreverent. Although Han Fei was born a few years after Zhuangzi's death, the great genius of the two of them created the two greatest forces in China's two thousand years of history: Zhuangzi dominated the world. Culture, Han Fei dominated temple politics. --- By the way, the word "jianghu", which is opposite to temple, also comes from the fable of the big gourd in "Zhuangzi Neipian·Xiao-Yaoyou No. 1". The word "Jianghu" is regarded as the origin of "It is better to forget each other in the Jianghu", but it comes from "Zhuangzi Neipian·Grand Master Sixth". -Although the two "江湖" have similar meanings, after all, they are the first "江湖" that is more in line with later generations. 〔3〕 The reason why I quote only two quotes in my "Code of Fables" is because the inner chapters of "Zhuangzi" were written by Zhuangzi himself, the outer chapters were compiled and compiled by his disciples based on Zhuangzi's manuscripts and hearings, and the miscellaneous chapters were re-transmitted by his disciples. Play with Zhuangmen's postgraduate students. Moreover, only the first one directly talks about people (benefiting and giving), while the last four (plus two repeated ones) use objects (fish, birds, foxes, leopards) to describe people. So I think the first one appears earliest and is the true etymology of the word "江湖". Zhuangzi, the Tongtian leader of Jianghu China, indisputably owns the intellectual property rights of the word "jianghu".

Three

Chen Pingyuan said: "The cultural significance of 'jianghu' is most clearly expressed in Fan Zhongyan's famous saying: If you live high in the temple, you will worry about the people; If you are far away from the rivers and lakes, you will worry about your king. "In fact, he regards the apocryphal scriptures as the true scriptures.

Although Fan Zhongyan’s words from "The Story of Yueyang Tower" are the most famous sayings about "temples" and "jiangs and lakes", not only can it not be the etymology of "jiangs and lakes", but Fan Zhongyan's Confucian stance - makes it even more impossible for him to explain the cultural meaning of "江湖" clearly, but will definitely distort and tamper with the true cultural meaning of "江湖-".

The political personality promoted by Confucian temples is the "gentleman" who is loyal to the emperor and herdsmen, while the cultural personality promoted by the Taoist world is the "real man" who looks down upon the princes. The cultural significance of "jianghu" is simply incompatible with Fan Zhongyan's Confucianism, so Fan Zhongyan's explanation of "jianghu" is completely unsubstantiated. The "jiangs and lakes" described by Fan Zhongyan are not the real rivers and lakes of cultural China, but the pseudo-jiangs and lakes of political China. What this pseudo-jiangs and lakes of political China intends to eliminate is the real rivers and lakes of cultural China. "When you are far away from the world, you worry about your king." It only reveals the humble political personality of the true Confucians who are temporarily in the world due to frustration, but it is far from revealing those true Taoists who live in the world, are happy in the world, and stand proudly in the world. A great cultural personality.

Those Confucians who "never forget the kindness of the emperor every meal", even if they are temporarily living in the world because they are not accepted by the emperor or fall out of favor with the emperor, are not true Taoists. They are pseudo-Taoists at best, so they are always thinking about making a profit. Wei Yuan - Entering the temple. The true Taoist cannot "worry about his king when he is far away from the rivers and lakes", but "the Son of Heaven cannot have ministers, and the princes cannot have friends" ("Zhuangzi·Miscellaneous Chapter·Rang Wang 28"), "The Lord alone and The spirit of heaven and earth communicates with each other, but it is not arrogant to all things" ("Zhuangzi·Miscellaneous Chapter·Tianxia No. 33-").

New interpretation of Jianghu: In the modern era, the word Jianghu is far from expressing a narrow sense. When modern people talk about Jianghu, they often mean the underworld order.

Being a part of the underworld means bleeding in the world. The underworld heroes portrayed in novels and movies do not exist in reality.

It is recommended to watch "Underworld" and "Underworld 2" to better understand the meaning of Jianghu.