《水浒传》与元末红巾军

On Outlaws of the Marsh and the Red-scarf Army of Late Yuan Dynasty

《水浒传》文本叙述中颇多关于"红头子"、"红巾"、"红衣"等的描述和叙事,这些细节表明《水浒传》与红巾军有着内在的关联。而《太守江公蠲免两卫屯粮碑记》则证明了"红头军"就是元末之红巾军,亦即小说叙事中的"红头子"。通过对红巾军起义历史的梳理,可知《水浒传》所反映的是元末红巾军。元末起义军以红巾为其标志的缘由主要有二:一、红色是汉人民族身份的象征,二、领导和组织起义的白莲教使然。

There are a lot of descriptions and narrations concerning people with red hats, scarves and garments in Out- laws of the Marsh. These details show that the work is related to the red-scarf army. And The Epigraph concerning the Ex- emption of Rice as Tax by Prefecture Chief Jiang proves that the red-head army was the red-scarf army of the end of Yuan Dynasty, namely the red heads in the novel. Through the sorting of the rebellion of the red-scarf army, we can find that the novel has reflected some stories concerning the red-scarf army of the end of Yuan Dynasty. There are two reasons why the ar- my took the red scarves as their symbols： the red color as the identity of Han people, and the distinction from the White-lotus religion.