Ximen Qing's Story and Character Analysis in Water Margin

When Pan Jinlian saw that Song Wu was handsome, he expressed his affection. One day, Song Wu will go to Beijing on business and go home to say goodbye to his brother. Pan Jinlian flirted with Song Wu, who was aboveboard. When he saw this, he sternly reprimanded him. Pan Jinlian became angry from embarrassment and drove Song Wu out of the door. After a while, Wu Da came back. Song Wu told his younger brother that after he left, he should stay at home more and go out less. My sister-in-law said to wait patiently for him to come back. One day, Pan Jinlian accidentally opened the curtain and hit Ximen Qing on the head with a bamboo pole. Ximen Qing is a bully in yanggu county. Seeing Pan Jinlian's charm, he planned to hook up with Wang Po, the west neighbor. Soon, the peddler learned about it, and he informed Wu Da that Wu Da rushed to the Wangs, but Ximen Qing kicked Wu Da and poisoned him, and ordered Uncle He Jiu, who buried the body, to cremate Wu Da's body. When Song Wu came back from a business trip, he saw the flaw, specially prepared water wine and invited all relatives and neighbors to inquire, chased out the truth and complained to the authorities. But the magistrate was bribed by Ximen Qing and hit forty times. Song Wuda was furious and rushed to Lion Building to kill Ximen Qing, then went home to kill Pan Jinlian and avenge his brother.

As a businessman, Ximen Qing became a well-known "nouveau riche" from the age of 27 when he debuted to the age of 33 when he died, and accumulated a huge wealth of nearly 102,000 silver in just six or seven years. These are just real estates counted from his will. Ximen Qing's wealth, except for expanding reproduction, is mainly used for three purposes: treating guests and giving gifts to make friends with gang forces, bribing powerful people to obtain political capital, and chasing women to indulge in pleasure, thus making bullies, bureaucrats and sluts in A Qing, Ximen Qing, without exception accelerate the demise of capital and merchant characteristics. While criticizing Ximen Qing, the author of Jin Ping Mei reflects on the social atmosphere and the historical fate of emerging businessmen in the late Ming Dynasty, vividly explains the tragic ending of emerging businessmen in feudal society in China from the perspective of literature and art, and objectively reveals the reasons why capitalist relations of production sprouted in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, but failed to embark on the capitalist road in the end.

As a slut, Ximen Qing was not satisfied with having eight wives and concubines, but also carried many maids and maids, molested prostitutes and committed adultery with maids. In addition, he is extremely fucked, and he is infatuated with Huang, the wife of He Qianhu and Wang Sanguan. Regardless of beauty and ugliness, eclectic. Its promiscuous people, bad means and ugly mentality can be said to be unparalleled in literary works before the advent of Jin Ping Mei.

The result of crazy pursuit of sexual pleasure makes sex a weapon to kill life. According to the author, Ximen Qing is a wicked man, but he is not so evil as to be useless. In all fairness, Ximen Qing is not a villain. He is also generous, and he is more open-minded in dealing with friends: he never set up a written evidence to lend money to Chang Zhijie, but he just gave Pan Jinlian (derailed Qin Tong) and Li Pinger a whip. The works reveal new traders's tragic fate by depicting all aspects of his society in which man and material desires cross-flow. It can be said that Ximen Qing's tragedy is not only a tragedy of businessmen, a tragedy of society, but also a tragedy of human nature. This is the tragedy of how human desire moves from expansion to ultimate destruction.

Ximen Qing's original capital is not abundant. He was born in "a well-off family in Qinghe County", and his father Simon Da opened a drugstore. However, after operating in Ximen Qing for a period of time, the capital soared and the economic strength expanded rapidly, which not only had a great impact in the business community, but also had a great response in the political arena. He once told Wu Yueniang that even if he kidnapped Xu Feiqiong and robbed the Queen Mother, it would not reduce his luxury.

How did Ximen Qing get rich? First of all, look at the accumulation of his original capital. "Jin Ping Mei" said for the first time that he was "deeply involved in his work and borrowed official debts" ... He was in charge of some official business in the county and talked with others about money. Here, he "borrowed official debts", that is, he took out state property and lent usury; "Talking about things is more than money" means going to court for others, interceding for others or doing things, and charging others a thank-you fee. It is not difficult to see that Ximen Qing's social activity ability is considerable, and "borrowing official debts" is also quite risky. However, because of his "in-depth work", it has been very smooth.

Ximen Qing's desire to collect money can't be satisfied by these small taps. Getting a large sum of money through marriage is the main means for Ximen Qing to accumulate capital. For example, he cheated the rich widow Meng Yulou and the eunuch's niece Li Pinger, and the arrival of two concubines brought him great wealth. Only the dowry brought by Meng Yulou is: ... four seasons clothes, dressing robes, four or five boxes; Needless to say, beads and hoops, Hu Zhuquan, Gemstone face, gold and silver holes; With money in his hand, he also has thousands of two hundred; Ok, three badminton, three or two hundred barrels.

As for the wealth that Li Pinger has brought him, it is even more impressive. That when Li Pinger died, Ximen Qing, who had always been unmoved, burst into tears! Domestic slave Diane hit the nail on the head:

I, six niang, married my dad ... How many leaders should I bring? Others don't know, I know: don't say silver, just play with gold beads, jade belts, sash rings, combs and precious stones, but I don't know how many. Why does father have a pain in his heart? Don't hurt people, hurt money! ..... This family, who all don't lend him a silver envoy, only lent out, also didn't lend in.

In addition, Ximen Qing knew that "a horse has no foreign grass and no fat, and a man has no foreign wealth and no wealth", and he paid special attention to the plunder of foreign wealth in the process of accumulating capital. For example, son-in-law Chen Jingji, because his father Chen Hong caught the incident, transferred his property to his father-in-law Ximen Qing's house for preservation, and was finally taken by Ximen Qing.

It should be admitted that the accumulation of any kind of primitive capital is predatory, such as the "enclosure movement" in the west. For Ximen Qing, all his methods of collecting money have the characteristics of the embryonic period of capitalism in the late Ming Dynasty. In the late Ming Dynasty, because of advocating individualism, it became a fashion trend to win wealth by personal struggle and hard work. However, compared with the large-scale operation mode of "enclosure movement", the commodity economy in the late Ming Dynasty showed a personalized color. No matter whether Ximen Qing takes all the lawsuits, seeks wealth from abroad, or cheats on marriage capital, he has brought his personal skills and skills, that is, the so-called "cunning", which still belongs to the traditional category of "strangeness".

In today's socialist market economy, the "Ximen Qing-style" way of collecting money still exists, especially for small private enterprises. There are still many phenomena of using one's power or contacts to borrow official debts or take all lawsuits for others, and there are also many people who use looks to defraud marriage capital. In a word, the development of market economy will inevitably bring negative behaviors such as opportunism, which is particularly prominent when the market system is not completely perfect.

Second, the magic weapon of success: personal shrewdness and unfair competition

Ximen Qing is a shrewd businessman, but what makes him far ahead among his peers lies entirely in his unfair competition!

It is his usual practice to collude with the government to obtain favorable business conditions. For example, Cai Yiquan, the champion of New China, passed by Qinghe County when visiting relatives in his hometown. He should be invited to Simon's house for a windfall. He not only served with good wine and food, but also borrowed one hundred and twenty pieces of silver to leave. Later, Cai Yiquan was appointed as the history inspector of salt in Ximen Qing, introducing Song Qiaonian, a Shandong inspector, to, giving Ximen Qing more ways to collude with the imperial court. Later, Ximen Qing sold salt and managed to transport salt, and Cai Zhuangyuan exercised the right to transport salt by Huai River, making Ximen Qing choose salt one month earlier than other salt merchants, and Ximen Qing easily made a huge profit of twenty-two thousand silver in just one month! Other salt merchants can only stare blankly and watch all the money be given to others. Because Ximen Qing bribed Shandong Governor Song Qiaonian from time to time, he was able to take over the sale of 22,000 pieces of silver antiques sent by the court by himself, which contained what profits! Collusion with the government for commercial privileges is the main means of profiteering in Ximen Qing.

Fighting for monopoly and cracking down on peers is also a successful experience of Ximen Qing's business. Monopoly means huge profits, and Ximen Qing knows it well. It turns out that there is only one drugstore in Ximen Qing in Qinghe County. Later, with the help of Li Pinger, doctor Jiang Zhushan also opened a Chinese medicine shop. Theoretically speaking, Jiang Zhushan is both a doctor and a drugstore, and he is amiable, which will undoubtedly attract many customers and prosper his business. There are two pharmacies in a county, just like two suns in the sky, which is absolutely not allowed in Ximen Qing's view. So he repeatedly instigated local ruffians and hooligans to make trouble in Jiang Zhushan pharmacy, forged bills, forced him to pay his debts and sued the government, beat Jiang Zhushan half to death and forced him to tear down the pharmacy. In this way, the pharmacy business in Ximen Qing is still booming.

This unfair competition is also reflected in other aspects. For example, he is good at getting through joints, buying off money and evading taxes in large quantities; For another example, as far as Ximen Qing's business mode is concerned, his business activities are mainly manipulated behind the scenes by his family, slaves or partners with others, or under the guise of others' names, so it is difficult for others to grasp his illegal business.

There is no denying that Ximen Qing has a way of doing business. When analyzing the money corresponding to the count, he said, "That thing is active and restless. How can it be buried in one place? It is also natural for people to use. " Marx once said that "capital, as the value of proliferation, ... is in motion" and "cannot be understood as a static thing" (Capital II). Their understanding of capital is strikingly similar. In other words, Ximen Qing knows the truth about Qian Shengqian. He is good at expanding reproduction. For example, the first investment in the silk shop opened by him and the big family of the Qiao family is only 1200 yuan. Later, he used the money earned from selling salt to buy more than 10 thousand pieces of silver goods from Hangzhou and Nanjing. Before long, the satin was spread out and he made a net profit of 6200 yuan. The net profit is used to purchase goods from Huzhou and Songjiang respectively. In this way, the principal and interest are increasing. By the time Ximen Qing died, the silk shop was already "the capital of fifty-two thousand pieces of silver".

He not only expanded reproduction, but also grasped the opportunity and dared to seize the unsold goods of foreign guests in order to make profits in the future. He is also good at diversified businesses, such as usury, pawnshop and various silk and satin shops. At the same time, walking in the rivers and lakes, combining the operation of opening a shop with long-distance selling, the business scale is getting bigger and bigger.

Ximen Qing's business has many similarities with many modern people. Such as television, telecommunications and other departments, if it were not for monopolizing the market, there would be no higher profits; Another example is the celebrity business that is popular now. If the celebrity effect is not used to get through the joints, I am afraid it will be difficult. Just think, if we stand on the same starting line, Liu Xiaoqing may not be more successful in business than all of us. If we leave unfair competition and tax evasion, many enterprises will probably close down, and Lai Changxing in Xiamen will not be so arrogant. If we look closely, nine out of ten celebrities have violated the law in business, which has been confirmed by the media in the past.

Third, planting: money is important, and beauty is more important.

Ximen Qing is a shrewd businessman, but he is a businessman with China characteristics. He lacks the "capitalist spirit" advocated by the rise of western capitalism. Later, Franklin, Weber and others attributed it to virtues such as "diligence, thrift, honesty and credibility". Among them, it is particularly important that the life of businessmen must be aimed at making money, and making money should become the "bounden duty" of businessmen's activities But Ximen Qing's making money is only a means, and the ultimate goal is to complete the possession of beauty.

Illegal business makes Ximen Qing unable to find a sense of accomplishment and realize a sense of self-worth. While he was playing with Li Pinger, Diane, a domestic slave, reported that a guest from Sichuan and Guangzhou was waiting for him to talk business. He actually put it off again and again, saying, "My store is big and has a lot of deliveries, so I'm not afraid that I won't come to me when I ask him" (16). Until Li Pinger advised him to concentrate on his career and not to miss it. In other words, Ximen Qing's ultimate goal is not to make money, but to complete his crazy possession of women. Finally, the candle of his life finally went out on Pan Jinlian's navel, and his carefully gathered assets were gone!

Needless to say, under the impact of the market economy, how many promising young people or young entrepreneurs are trapped in a decadent life instead of being crushed by the market. Are they the same as Ximen Qing?