Chapter 18 The fourth quarter Li Yu and Li Yu

Tang Xianzu and Shen Jing are in the heyday of legend creation and performance.At the end of the Ming Dynasty, many legendary writers only cared about writing on the desk paper, focusing on rhythm and rhetoric, and the scripts they wrote were not suitable for performances.There are also some legendary writers who don't start from life and make up random things, just want to be lively and surprising, regardless of the rationale.The plays they wrote are full of absurd plots such as women disguised as men, playing monsters, pretending to be gods and ghosts, etc., and have no aesthetic value at all.

In this situation, a group of legendary writers emerged in the Suzhou theater circle.They are a bit like the "talented scholars" of the Song and Yuan dynasties. Most of them were poor Confucians who made a living by writing operas for theatrical troupes.Due to the depression of the lower classes, familiarity with social life, understanding of the hardships of the people, and later experienced the turmoil of the Ming and Qing Dynasties, they have a wealth of material in their stomachs, and the content of their dramas is very substantial and rich.They like to select major current events, historical stories and folklore in the Suzhou area to create legendary works with reality and local color.They advocate the use of opera to expose the disadvantages of the times, criticize the dark reality, and engage in opera creation with a serious attitude of "Gongshangpu is not a game" (Li Yu's "Wanliyuan" comes out at the end), so as to "eliminate traitors and Lu Zuoyangqiu" (Li Yu Yu "Qing Zhong Pu Pu Gai" [Man Jianghong]), "The sharp edge of the pen and the axe" (at the end of Li Yu's "Human Beast Pass").They oppose random fabrications, disdain for "talking about nonsense and romance" (the end of Li Yu's "Yong Tuan Yuan"), and emphasize "laugh with sound, cry with tears, and the article is sincere and moving". (Zhu (Bai Yu)'s "Fifteen Strings" ends at the end) Because they are close to life, respect the aesthetic habits of ordinary audiences, and most of them are familiar with troupes and stages, so the scripts they write are easy to perform, appealing to both refined and popular tastes, and have a long-lasting appeal. The vitality of the stage.

Later generations called this group of playwrights "Suzhou Group" or "Suzhou School", including more than 20 playwrights, including Li Yu, Zhu (Bai Yu) [he He] (Zhu Suchen), Zhu Zuozhao, Ye Shizhang, Bi Wei, Zhang Dafu, Qiu Yuan, etc. bit.They are like-minded and have many contacts with each other. They often "edit" and "read together" and form a relatively consistent artistic style.They created a large number of legendary works, but due to their low status, they were rarely published, and most of them were lost, leaving only some manuscripts of Liyuan.

Among the "Suzhou Group" playwrights, Li Yu's works are the richest and most influential.Li Yu, whose name is Xuanyu, was named Yuanyu, was named Sumen Xiaolu, and was also named the master of Yili'an.The year of birth and death is unknown, but it is only known that he was once a family member in the residence of Shen Shixing, the prime minister of the Wanli Dynasty of the Ming Dynasty, and got the opportunity to study and watch theatre.Because of his hard work and diligence, he "go up to be poor and elegant, and go down to fish and barnyard [worship] to ride".At first, Li Yu wanted to take the road of studying and becoming an official, but he was suppressed by Mr. Shen, and it was not until the end of Ming Dynasty that he was selected as a deputy candidate.Li Yu strictly abides by the orthodox moral concept, and has a strong sense of adherence to the people. After entering the Qing Dynasty, he "resolutely refused to become an official", devoted himself to the creation of legends, and expressed his anger through dramas.Because of his deep thinking and eagerness to learn, he has learned from the past and the present, and has created more than 30 legends (more than 40 in one theory, and more than 60 in another) in his life, and 19 kinds of legends have survived in their entirety.Li Yu is also proficient in music studies. He once assisted Zhang Dafu in compiling "Hanshantang Nanqu Pu", participated in the compiling of Shen Zijin's "Nanci Xinpu", and personally compiled "Northern Ci Guangzheng Pu" (18 volumes). "The textual research is detailed and detailed, and the discussion is refined and reviewed", which is regarded as a treasure by later generations of composers.

Li Yu's famous works are the early "one, human, eternal, and accounting", that is, "A Handful of Snow", "Human and Beast Pass", "Forever Reunion", "Zhan Huakui", and once used "Four Kinds of Yili Temple". " was published during the reign of Chongzhen in the late Ming Dynasty and became popular all over the world. "A Handful of Snow" is especially famous.This play is based on the legend of "Fake Paintings Cause Disaster". It tells that Mo Huaigu wanted to join Yan Shifan as a supplementary official, and Yan Shifan asked for his family treasure "a handful of snow" jade cup.Mo Huaigu was reluctant to give it up, so he used a fake cup to answer his orders.Yan Shifan didn't find any flaws. On the contrary, Tang Qin, a framer who was rescued by Mo Huaigu from starvation and cold, reported the secret, which led to a catastrophic disaster of ransacking the house, searching for cups, chasing and beheading.He paid the price for the death of his loyal servant Mo Chengdai and the death of his beloved concubine Xue Yanniang.The script criticizes the traitorous Yan Shifan's crimes of using officialdom as a market, trading national laws, selling officials and nobles, engaging in malpractice for personal gain, greedily amassing wealth, and unscrupulously hunting and killing innocent people.He condemned the Zhongshan wolf-style villain Tang Qin.In order to climb high branches, Tang Qin rewarded virtue with resentment, was ungrateful, and even put his benefactor Mo Huaigu to death.It is his nature to harm others and benefit himself, turning clouds and rains is his habit, and having milk is his mother is his principle.Through a series of typical details, the script vividly depicts Tang Qin's ugly face, reveals his despicable and dirty [wochuo wochuo] soul, and completes his "meanness, snobbery, viciousness, and conspiracy" typical character building.

This play praises Xue Yanniang, who is beautiful, virtuous, reasonable, unyielding, and chivalrous. Although there is not much ink, it is quite glorious.The author is full of sympathy for Mo Cheng.Mo Cheng is a lowly man, but he is very alert and capable.From the very beginning, he saw that Tang Qin's words were flattering, his behavior was treacherous, he was not a kind person, so he reminded Mo Huaigu to be careful.When searching for the cup in the house, he took the jade cup and hid it vigilantly, so as to save the owner from a temporary disaster.On the way to escape, he escaped early again and sneaked into the commander's mansion in the dark night, begging Qi Jiguang to rescue his master.When everyone was helpless, he resolutely proposed to replace the master with his own body.This kind of self-sacrifice contains very complex and subtle motives and thoughts: it is not only out of the sense of justice of protesting against rape and helping the weak; it is also mixed with the consciousness of hierarchy and slave morality;In his opinion, instead of being a slave and never having a bright future, it would be better to die for the master, to be famous in history and to be famous forever.In short, Mo Cheng is a complex tragic figure with profound cognitive significance.

"Occupying the Oiran" is Li Yu's proud work, which is based on "The Oil Seller Occupying the Oiran" in the novel.Different from the novel, the play intentionally highlights the background of the invasion of the Jin soldiers, the fall of Bianliang, and the exile of the common people, and delicately describes the process of Qin Zhong (Chong) and Xin Yaoqin (Oiran lady) getting acquainted and falling in love in adversity .Qin Zhong (zhong) is an oil seller, kind-hearted, loyal and sincere, and has infinite yearning for beautiful and happy love.His love for Shen Yaoqin is not "a toad wants to eat swan meat", nor is it the perverted "Qin Lou's love".He felt very sorry that Xin Yaoqin fell into the house of a prostitute and was teased and ruined by the princes and grandchildren.In order to protect Xin Yaoqin from the attack of wild bees, waves and butterflies, he willingly became the "Flower God".In order to protect the flowers, he spared no expense.He respects Xin Yaoqin's personality, and has a heart of pity and sympathy, without the slightest frivolous attitude.He is a sincere lover.

Xin Yaoqin was originally a woman from a good family, smart, beautiful and pure.Because of being abducted by gangsters, he occasionally fell into prostitution.Although he was very popular for a while, his heart was extremely painful, and he was ready to be good at any time.At the beginning, she didn't love Qin Zhong (kind), but after reading all the wind and dust, it's all unlucky, but only Qin Zhong (kind) has true love.Qin Zhong visited Fang three times, waited in the middle of the night, served her overnight, and truly treated her as a human being, and later rescued himself from the ice and snow.Therefore, Xin Yaoqin resolutely fell into Qin Zhong's embrace.Obviously, the basis of the combination of the two is not money and fame, but true love.This kind of love itself is a criticism of the reality of ruthlessness and lack of righteousness in the end of the Ming Dynasty, and it reflects the progressive ideal of love.

Suzhou, where Li Yu lives, is economically prosperous, and class and ethnic conflicts are extremely intense.In the late Ming Dynasty, there were many outbreaks of anti-tax supervision and anti-tyranny civil movements.Several large-scale "slave change movements" in the south of the Yangtze River, as well as the uprising wave led by Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong, have also affected here.When the Qing soldiers went south, the people of Suzhou put up a tenacious resistance and were brutally massacred.Li Yu witnessed all this, and used his numerous plays to outline a picture of life in the southeastern region in this particular era.Among them, the most distinctive is his current affairs drama "Qing Zhong Pu".

"Qing Zhong Pu" is based on the "Five People's Righteousness" incident in the sixth year of Mingqi (1626 AD), which reflects the struggle between the Donglin Party and the Eunuch Party from one aspect.Wei Zhongxian was the most severe disaster of eunuchs in Ming Dynasty.Wei Zhongxian took advantage of Xi Zong's stupidity, colluded with Xi Zong's nurse Hakka, controlled the government, and brought disaster to the country and the people.He spread his wings, set up eagles and dogs everywhere, strengthened factory guards, implemented a bloody and terrifying secret agent rule, and persecuted honest and upright Donglin Party members who dared to fight against him. .When Tiqi [tiji Ti Ji] went to Suzhou to arrest Zhou Shunchang, the citizens of Suzhou couldn't bear it anymore, and led by the five righteous men, they gathered thousands of citizens to the government office to petition for Zhou Shunchang's release.Facing the arrogant and unreasonable Tiqi, the petitioners were filled with righteous indignation and beat the two Tiqi to death on the spot.Governor Mao Yilu hid in the toilet.Afterwards, the eunuch party was furious and attempted to massacre the city. After mediation [wowo], it ended by killing five righteous men.This tragic and generous scene was timely and wonderfully performed on stage by Li Yu.

Zhou Shunchang is the main character in Qing Zhong Pu.He is honest and upright, not afraid of power, and has been in office for many years, but he is still penniless.In the cold weather and heavy snow, the huts are desolate, there is no fire or charcoal, and the children "have no heavy clothes, and eat only vegetable soup".When the student Chen Zhixian came to visit, he could only entertain with a pot of water and wine and a side of raw curd (tofu).The script vividly describes the scenes of him being scolded at the statue in the shrine, attacking thieves with chou chou in the court, spraying rape with broken teeth, meeting his son in prison, and generously sacrificing justice, etc., praising his fearless spirit of seeing death as home.The image of Zhou Shunchang's iron bones summarizes the deeds of many decent officials who fought against the eunuchs in the Ming Dynasty. He is an ideal figure for Li Yuqin to respect.Because of this, even Li Yu admired his foolish loyalty concept very much, and did not criticize it as it should. For the first time in the history of Chinese opera, "Qing Zhong Pu" brought the booming civil struggle to the stage of opera for the first time, and created a positive image of the public class. Righteousness" is the name of the play and its performance is not bad. Li Yu has created many historical dramas, among which "The Killing of a Thousand Loyalties" is the most famous.This legend reflects the "Battle of Jingnan" in the early Ming Dynasty - the struggle for the throne between Emperor Jianwen Zhu Yunwen (wen Wen) and his uncle Yan Wang Zhu Di (di Di).The author obviously stood on the side of Emperor Jianwen, and affectionately praised Fang Xiaoru, Cheng Ji, Wu Chengxue, Niu Jingxian and other "loyal ministers of death" around Emperor Jianwen.At the same time, it condemned Zhu Di's ambition to seize the throne under the pretext of "the Qing emperor's side" and "Jing Nan", exposed his cruel attack and killing of dissident forces, and mocked the traitor Chen Ying, who forgot his favor in a blink of an eye and turned against the enemy.However, historical dramas are not equal to history, and the artistic images in dramas cannot be equated with real people in history. The theme of "A Thousand Loyalty" is complex, not only includes the author's reflection on history, but also contains the author's observation, evaluation and feeling of real life.The description in the play reminds people of the reality in the early Qing Dynasty.Emperor Jianwen is not only the image of the lost monarch, but also the symbol of the fallen country.The exile, pain and sorrow of Emperor Jianwen cannot be simply understood as the misfortune of the exiled emperor, but implicitly and euphemistically expressing a deep and strong hatred for the subjugation of the country, which is in tune with the thoughts and feelings of a large number of survivors after the demise of Nanming.The "Eight Suns" sung by Emperor Jianwen in the play (the eight lyrics all end with the word "Yang", followed by "Xiangyang", "Chaoyang", "Xieyang", "Yunyang", "Yuyang", " Suiyang", "Nanyang", and "Jingyang", commonly known as "Eight Yang", the first sentence is "Pack up a load of mountains and rivers from the earth"), with blood in every word and tears in their voices, which aroused strong repercussions and enthusiasm at that time. resonance. In addition to Li Yu, Zhu (Bai Yu)'s "Fifteen Strings", Zhu Zuochao's "Fisherman's Joy", Ye Shizhang's "Amber Spoon", Zhang Dafu's "World Joy" and "Such View", Qiu Yuan's "Tiger Bag Bullet" etc. are also very popular. During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the creation of legends entered the stage of adjustment and summary. Li Yu, a contemporary of Li Yu, made a comprehensive, systematic and scientific summary of the creation of legends and the art of Kunqu Opera.Li Yu (1610-1680 A.D.), whose style name was Banfan and Lihong, was nicknamed Liweng, Xinting Woodcutter, owner of Suian, was born in Lanxi, Zhejiang.He lived in Rugao, Jiangsu Province as a child. He failed many trials in the late Ming Dynasty. He moved to Hangzhou from Lanxi in the early Qing Dynasty, and later moved to Jinling (now Nanjing), where he died in the end.Li Yu spent most of his life with his family troupe wandering around the rivers and lakes, traveling around the world, running among wealthy gentry, and living on "beating money", which was despised by scholars.But he is versatile, proficient in opera, and has written many books. In addition to poems, essays, and novels, he also has a monograph on opera theory "Xian Qing Ou Ji" and the legendary "Ten Kinds of Li Weng Songs". "Idle Love Occasionally Send" ("Li Liweng's Quhua") includes "Words and Music Department" and "Exercise Department". The "Ciqu Department" discusses the special laws and techniques of opera literature from six aspects: structure, ci, melody, binbai, Kehu (hun mix), pattern, etc. Important structural principles such as "needle and thread" and "off the beaten path" [kejiu Kejiu], and precautions such as "abstinence from irony", "abstinence from absurdity" and "examination of reality".In terms of language use, he advocated "expensive and superficial", "seeking similarity", "seeking sharpness and novelty", "emphasizing wit and fun", "abstaining from superficiality" and "avoiding stuffing"; Xie Xie], "avoid bad fun", "emphasize relationships", and "value nature".In the exercise department, the opera performance, directing art and audience studies are discussed from five aspects: drama selection, tone shifting, music teaching, teaching, and undressing.Especially for the loose and lengthy problems of many legendary works, it is proposed to shorten the length to shorten and change the old to new.Li Yu believes: "Legends are designed for the stage." His theory of opera is not a castle in the air, but a three-dimensional and comprehensive summary of the art of opera, raising it to the height of opera aesthetics. had a huge impact. Compared with the achievements of opera theory, Li Yu's legend is far inferior. "Ten Songs of Li Weng" includes: "Lianxiang Companion", "Kite Mistake", "Yinzhongyuan", "Mirage in the Tower", "Phoenix Seeking Phoenix", "Naihetian", "Jade Scratching the Head", " With the exception of "Smart Reunion" and "Shen Luan Jiao", they are all comedies.Li Yu prefers comedies. He believes: "Legends were originally designed to relieve sorrow, and it took a lot of effort to sing a song. When money is bought for crying, it turns joy into sorrow. Only I write lyrics without selling sorrow, and I don't laugh." I am worried. The whole world can become Maitreya Buddha, and the bald pen can only be used to save people." (The last poem of "Resolving Doubts" at the end of "Kite Mistakes") Li Yu has mature skills, and is good at setting up comic closures through misunderstandings, coincidences, etc. Organize comedic scenes and create a comedic atmosphere.Many of his comedies have lively plots, ingenious scenes, fascinating gags, harmonious rhythms, easy-to-understand language, and the charm of exorcising sleep demons. , I didn't intend to tell jokes, but who knew that the jokes would force people to come" (Li Yu's "Idle Love Ouji" "The Department of Lyrics and Music: Your Nature").His masterpiece "Kite Mistake" can quite reflect his comedy style. In this play, Han Shixun, a talented scholar in Maoling, accidentally learns from a poem written on a kite that Zhan Shujuan is not only beautiful but also talented, and he suddenly falls in love with him.But her half-sister Aijuan asks Hansheng to meet her under the guise of her name.Because of his vulgar language and ugly appearance, Han Sheng was scared away.Aijuan marries Qi Youxian, but Qi mistakenly regards Aijuan as Shujuan, only to realize the mistake after marriage.Later, Han Sheng won the first prize, and after several twists and turns, Fang and Shujuan got married.The plot of this play is novel, the eyes are unique, and the language is humorous. It has always been popular on the stage and has been performed for a long time. In order to flaunt the so-called "romantic Taoism", Li Yu wrote more about his children's personal affairs and romantic affairs, using the so-called "embracing double beauty" and polygamy as good stories. and behavior.And the deliberate pursuit of novelty and ingenuity will inevitably bring about artificial problems.Li Yu's legends often "appear on the stage at night when they are out of script", and there is often too little time to scrutinize them, so they appear rough.