Chapter 14 Section 7 Ming and Qing Zaju

In the late Yuan Dynasty, the rulers gradually strengthened their control over ideology and culture.The composition, situation, and mentality of the drama writers have changed a lot.The old theater veterans of the year are getting old.The literati who are new to zaju have neither the tenacity, sophistication, unrestrained and uninhibitedness of their predecessors, nor the sense of depression and urgency of "the bones are in the throat, and they can't express their displeasure".They often do not start from real life, but go to historical stories to find themes.It is not to promote the spirit of patriotism, national consciousness and rebellious sentiment through history; it is to use history to commend and praise filial husbands, loyal ministers and righteous men, and saintly and virtuous ministers.There are also quite a few love and marriage dramas, but most of them describe the romantic affairs of talented men and beautiful women, and the theme of anti-feudal ethics has been greatly weakened.At the same time, there has been an increase in the number of hermits in the mountains and forests and fairy tales that have begun to emerge in the early stage.The emptiness and withering of the inner vitality leads to the rigidity and stagnation of the outer form.Zaju after the end of Yuan Dynasty inevitably suffered from the disease of imitation and embellishment.

In the Ming Dynasty, the rulers vigorously promoted literary inquisition, vigorously advocated Cheng Zhu Neo Confucianism, and stipulated the "Four Books" ("University", "The Doctrine of the Mean", "Mencius"), "Five Classics" (, "Shangshu", "Book of Rites", "Spring and Autumn Period") ") is a must-read textbook for scholars, and strengthens the imperial examination system of stereotyped candidates.The "Taige Style" that extols merits and whitewashes peace appears in the poetry circle.Zaju creation was further courtized and aristocratic.The Zaju writers team in the early Ming Dynasty mainly consisted of feudal lords Zhu Quan (King Ning Xian), Zhu Youdun (King Zhou Xian) and surrounding imperial literati.The works are mainly about immortals celebrating their birthdays, beauties appreciating flowers, golden boys and jade girls, moon orders and so on.A small number of Water Margin dramas and prostitute dramas were also castrated, weakening the positive social content.The masterpiece of Zaju in this issue is Zhu Youdun's "Chengzhai Yuefu", which is quite popular.

In the middle of Ming Dynasty, the appearance of Wang Jiusi, Kang Hai and Xu Wei injected fresh blood into the declining Zaju art.Wang Jiusi's "Du Zimeigu Wine Outing in Spring" uses the ancients' wine cup to pour his heart, and uses Du Fu's mouth to scold Shixiang.Kang Hai's drama "The Wolf of Zhongshan" is based on Ma Zhongxi's fable novel "The Legend of the Wolf of Zhongshan".It is rumored that there are allusions, but the objective effect has far exceeded the author's creative motivation.The significance of this allegory is not to express one's anger, or to flog an ungrateful person, but to summarize the experience and lessons of fighting against evil forces.Explain that there can be no mercy and compassion for evil, and evil must be eliminated.The play has a complete structure, a compact plot, and vivid melodies. It looks very fresh and gratifying in the zaju drama circle shrouded in the elegant parallel couple style.

Xu Wei (AD 1521-1593), courtesy name Wenchang, nicknamed Qingteng Taoist, also known as Tianchisheng, was born in Shanyin (now Shaoxing), Zhejiang, from the "Tian Shuiyue" of the Permanent Department of Calligraphy and Painting.He is intelligent and early-wisdom, talented, uninhibited, contemptuous of the powerful, contemptuous of vulgar literati, and has a rough life. He is known as "a strange man of the age".He "walks strangely, encounters strangely, writes strangely, writes strangely, writes strangely, and writes strangely, but his lyrics and music are especially strange" (Lei Yongju's "Four Voices of the Ape Postscript").His Zaju "Four Sounds of Apes" is "a kind of strange writing between heaven and earth". (Wang Jide's "Melody")

"Four Voices of the Ape" includes four short plays.Among them, "The Drummer" plays that after Ni Heng died, he was invited by the judge in the underworld to arrest the soul of Cao Cao, and reenacted the situation of beating drums and cursing Cao before his death.Mi Heng proudly beat the drums in the hall, listing Cao Cao's crimes one by one, scolding the viciousness, hypocrisy, cunning, insidiousness, indulging in sensuality, disregarding human life, and killing people with knives. "His words are like the words of an angry dragon, leaping between the sky and the Han Dynasty" (Chen Lian's "Beijing Caotang Qulun"), which entrusts the writer's deep sorrow and boundless resentment.

"Zen Master Yu" combines the two stories of monk Yutong's private red lotus and monk Yueming's Du Liucui. To a certain extent, it exposes the intrigue between officialdom and Buddhism, and implies a challenge and criticism of religious thought.The prose is humorous and amazing. "Female Mulan" plays the story of Hua Mulan who disguises herself as a man, joins the army in place of her father, returns to her hometown after making meritorious deeds, and marries Goro.The story of Chang'e turning into King Kong and King Kong turning into Chang'e is very legendary.

"Female Number One Scholar" played the role of Huang Chonggu (gu Gu) of the Five Dynasties disguised as a man's makeup, and won the number one scholar in the exam.She leads Wenyuan, does not give way to men, and shows amazing talent in trial.The script enthusiastically praises the intelligence and wisdom of ancient women and challenges the traditional thinking of patriarchy. Xu Wei also wrote the Zaju "Song Dai Xiao" (one said he was named Xu Wei), in which he played Monk Li who stole Monk Zhang's hat, but asked Monk Zhang to replace the crime of adultery.The grandma of the state official set fire in the back hall because she was jealous.The common people were punished for lighting lamps to fight the fire.This is a funny farce with serious ideological content. Through the absurd plot and cartoon characters, it exposes the absurd reality of black and white reversal.Visualize the proverb "Only state officials are allowed to set fires, but the common people are not allowed to light lamps".His playful, cursing, cynical style of writing is more sharp than that of "Four Voices of the Apes".

Xu Wei's zaju is not limited by the northern zaju system. The songs are not divided into north and south, and can be more or less. They are unique and unique.Its writing force is vigorous, its diction is smooth, and it has a strong romanticism.Tang Xianzu called him "the flying general of Ci". In addition to the dramas of the above three people, Liang Chenyu's "Red Thread Girl", Chen Yujiao's "Zhaojun's Exodus", Wang Heng's "Yulun Robe" and "True Puppet", Xu Fuzuo's "One Money", Meng Chengshun's "Peach Blossom Face" by Zhuo Renyue and "Flower Boat Fate" by Zhuo Renyue are also relatively excellent dramas.

In the Qing Dynasty, Zaju further declined, but it was still endless.In the early Qing Dynasty, a group of literati from the Ming Dynasty to the Qing Dynasty used Zaju to express their feelings of rise and fall and express their thoughts about their homeland.Such as Wang Fuzhi's "Dragon Boat Club", Wu Weiye's "Linchun Pavilion", "Tongtiantai", You Tong's "Xitang Yuefu" (including "Reading Lisao", "Diao Pipa", "Black and White Guard", "Peach Blossom Spring", "Qing Ping Diao" five kinds of dramas) are all works of this kind of lyricism.

During the Qianlong period, the most important playwright was Yang Chaoguan (AD 1712-1791), courtesy name Hongdu, nickname Lihu, a native of Jiangsu Jinkui (now Wuxi).When he lived in Qiongzhou, Sichuan Province, he found the former site of Zhuo Wenjun's dressing table and built Yinfeng Pavilion. He recruited literati to chant during it, and asked excellent people to perform self-written dramas in it. As a commemoration, he compiled four volumes of "Yinfeng Pavilion Zaju" , including 32 short and concise single-fold dramas, most of which are based on history, mythology or contemporary stories.Some of them praise honest and honest people, or praise honest and frugal behavior, or explain the way of being an official, or expose the hypocrisy, greed, and domineering of the rulers, or condemn unjust wars.He also specially imitated the practice of Bai Juyi's "New Yuefu", attaching a small preface to each drama to explain the motivation of creation.His zaju has a rigorous structure and refined writing, which is convenient for both on the desk and on the stage. Among the 32 single-fold dramas, Facang, Erlang God, Banyan, Stealing Peach, Xun Guanniang, etc. are often popular, which can be called the top works of Qing Zaju.

"Fat Cang" played by Ji An, an official of the Huangmen, went to Hedong to comfort the victims. Passing through Henan, he found that the local area had been suffering from drought and drought for years, and the people were starving.Jia Wangxiang, the daughter of Yi Cheng, persuaded Ji An to obey the power and correct the imperial edict, and to save hundreds of starving people by keeping the festival.This play truly describes the suffering of the people in the disaster area and the cruelty of the officials, and advocates that officials should be the masters of the people, not only follow the superior, but act according to expediency. "Erlang God" tells the story of Li Bing and his son's capture of dragons and towns to save water and eliminate harm for the people. "Banquet" describes Kou Zhun in Song Dynasty who lost his father when he was young. His family was poor. He was raised by his mother hard.In order to celebrate the deceased mother's birthday, there was a grand banquet, singing and dancing all night long, and rare treasures were piled up all over the corridor.After the old servant Liu Po ​​heard the letter, she deliberately wept in the corridor.Kou Zhun asked why, and Liu Po ​​replied: "Because I slipped and fell because of candle tears when I passed the corridor."Kou Zhun's nose was sore and his ears were hot, and he regretted it deeply, and decided to stop the banquet immediately.Jiao Xun's "Ju Shuo" says: "In "Yinfengge Zaju", there is Kou Laigong who broke the banquet, dripping with generosity, and the sound can be touching. Ruan Dazhongcheng, the governor of Zhejiang, occasionally performed this play, and Zhongcheng cried bitterly. The banquet was over. Gai Zhongcheng was young and poor, and his wife taught him. Ruan Gui, Mrs. Tai has passed away, so it made me sad." This play is very popular and has been performed to this day. "Stealing the Peach" plays Dongfang Shuo who steals a few fairy peaches because of hunger, but is caught by the Queen Mother and wants to whip him to death.Dongfang Shuo, however, had no scruples, and argued back logically, pointing out that the ones who are used to stealing are gods, and what they steal are not ordinary things, but the essence of the sun and the moon, and the mysteries of the universe.He suggested that the Queen Mother should give all the fairy peaches in the garden to the world, so that people in the world can live forever. Wouldn't it be a great compassion and convenience? !It hits the nail on the head and drips with joy, expressing a sigh of relief for the oppressed and exploited people. "Xun Guanniang" was played in the Eastern Jin Dynasty when Xiangyang was besieged, food and aid were cut off, and the prefect Xun Song had nothing to do. In order to save the country and save his father, Xun Guanniang, who was only 13 years old, broke out of the siege and went to Liangzhou to rescue soldiers.Zhou Fang, the guard general of Liangzhou, refused to send troops in the name of being too busy to take care of himself. Xun Guanniang defended the town with a tongue-in-cheek battle, and blamed Zhou Fang.The play portrays a brave, witty, and shrewd heroine. Her heroic spirit of being brave and fearless in the face of danger is praised by others, shining with the brilliance of ideals. Most Zaju writers in the Qing Dynasty focused on writing legends, and also took care of Zaju creation.The achievement of Zaju by the same author is often lower than his legendary achievement, such as Hong Sheng's "Four Chanjuan", which takes ancient talented women and boudoir affairs as the theme, although there are occasional ironic pens, after all, it does not have much social significance and cannot be compared with the other. Compare. Zhang Dafu, an important member of the "Suzhou Group", also wrote some dramas, which are also difficult to compare with his legend.Later, there were four kinds of zaju written by Tang Ying "Idle Love in the Lantern Moon", Gui Fu imitated Xu Wei's "The Last Four Sounds of the Ape", Shu Wei's "Pingsheng Pavilion Xiuxiaopu" and so on. The general situation of decline. In the late Qing Dynasty, there was a small climax in the creation of Zaju.A Ying's "Late Qing Opera Novel Catalog" included 40 kinds of dramas, some of which praised national heroes, some exposed the crimes of imperialist aggression against China, and some advocated women's liberation. It is a great work, and it is also a monument of political drama!" (Zheng Zhenduo's "Late Qing Opera Record Preface")