Chapter 19 Section 5 "Southern Hong" and "Northern Kong"

Li Yu and Li Yu were two masters in the theater world during the Ming and Qing Dynasties, and they made great achievements in creation and theory respectively.In the Kangxi period of the Qing Dynasty, two more superstars rose up in the Chinese theater circle, which are the famous "Nanhong" and "North Kong". "Nanhong" is Hongsheng (1645-1704 A.D.), with the word Fangsi and the name barnyard, from Qiantang, Zhejiang.Since childhood, he has been extremely intelligent and talented. At the age of 24, he went to Beijing to study at Guozijian, intending to seek fame.However, due to the occurrence of "family difficulties" and constant ups and downs, Hong Sheng fell into poverty.In addition, he is proud of his talents and arrogant, and has always been hopeless for fame.He refused to sing meritorious deeds for the ruler, but accumulated more than 10 years of hard work and wrote a legend expressing his sense of rise and fall.In the twenty-eighth year of Kangxi (AD 1689), he was impeached by the censor because he sang the play during the funeral of Empress Tong, which caused an uproar and was expelled from the Imperial Academy.Hong Sheng returned to Hangzhou with his family, and from then on he devoted himself to the mountains and rivers and remained as mad as before.Soon after returning from watching a drama in other places, he accidentally fell into the water and died in a boat.When Hong Sheng was young, he "sung Chang'an with poems". There were many poems, words and Sanqu, and 12 plays, two of which are preserved today, "Si Chan Juan".

It is Hong Sheng's masterpiece. It took 15 years of hard work and was finally completed in the 27th year of Kangxi (AD 1688).This play is perfunctory about Li, Yang's love and Tianbao's legacy.This is an old story well-known to every household. Since the mid-Tang Dynasty, many poets, novelists, and dramatists have created various forms of works based on this theme.Some purify and beautify Li Longji (Tang Minghuang) and Yang Yuhuan (Yang Guifei) from the historical figures of emperors and concubines into beloved legendary figures, and rewrite their unswerving "love in a hairpin box"; As a lustful and stupid emperor, he regards Concubine Yang as a stunner who perverts the country and ranks, and writes about their promiscuous private life without avoiding obscenities from historians.Hong Sheng did not repeat his predecessors, but forged a new path.The first half of the script mainly describes how Concubine Yang Gui got favor and "fixed favor".Relying on Yang Yuhuan's beautiful appearance and outstanding martial arts skills, she won the favor of Tang Minghuang and was canonized as a noble concubine.But Tang Minghuang's flirtatious and affectionate often made her "sigh with white hair".It wasn't until "Secret Vow" came out that the two made a vow of eternal love under the double stars, and they really fell in love with each other.Li and Yang find love, but with serious consequences.After Yang Yuhuan became favored, the Yang family went to heaven.Yang Guozhong "relyed on the respect of the right minister outside, and the favor of the imperial concubine on the inside", he was arrogant and did whatever he wanted.The Yang brothers and sisters "compete for extravagance and boast about civil engineering", squandering the people's fat and anointing.In order to win the concubine a smile, he did not hesitate to send an envoy from Lingnan thousands of miles away to present fresh lychees.The stage horse galloped in the starry night, trampled on many seedlings and killed many people along the way!Because Tang Minghuang "occupied the love scene and relaxed the court", it finally led to the "Anshi Rebellion" and "Mawei Change".Not only did it bring huge disasters to the country and the nation, but even this pair of "enemies" who really loved each other could not escape the tragic ending.

The second half of the script draws on folk myths and legends, and adopts romantic techniques, allowing Li and Yang to continue to love each other sincerely and deeply, and regret and blame themselves for the past. "One regret can teach ten thousand evils to be cleansed", finally touched Tiansun Zhinv, let them reunite in the moon palace, and turned a scene of human tragedy into a strange, beautiful and unconventional happy ending. He has a clear understanding of the love between Li and Yang.As the life-and-death love between emperors and concubines, the love between Li and Yang is not only different from Zhong Cui and Zhang's "lover will eventually get married", but also different from Zhong Du and Liu's "life and death are love". It is different from Zhongbao and Dai's "marriage of wood and stone".Li and Yang's love "extravagant heart and poor people's desire" is based on the misfortune of "three thousand beauties in the harem" and the pain of the common people.One is for "eternal tenderness" and the other is for "a family of honor". It is difficult to be pure and dedicated, to grow old together forever.It is inevitable to "occupy the love scene and relax the court", and the fate of "extreme joy and sorrow" is inevitable.Li and Yang are not only the victims of the "Anshi Rebellion", but also the main culprits of the Li and Tang Dynasty's turn from prosperity to decline, and the people's suffering from the war.However, after "Buried Jade", Concubine Yang Gui turned into a "Sacred Mountain Fairy", and Tang Minghuang also became an infatuated figure addicted to "love in a hairpin box".The script mobilizes all artistic means to purify and beautify Li and Yang, making people forget their crimes and pour deep sympathy for him (her).In this way, neither simply extolling the unswerving love between Li and Yang, nor blindly denying the love "rare in the emperor's family", but truly describing the special relationship between Li and Yang, to a certain extent Get rid of historical stereotypes.He did not try his best to beautify Tang Minghuang, nor did he follow the "feminine subjugation theory", regard Yang Guifei as a monster in troubled times, and push the blame for "Anshi Rebellion" on her.

It is a lively movie, which not only praised the "children's love" of "sincerity never ends" and "sincerity to the end", but also commended the "loyal ministers and righteous men" who "feel gold and stone, return to heaven and earth, show the day, and cherish history", and put the love of children Love expanded to the love of family, country and community.Jiedu envoy Guo Ziyi, with loyalty and righteousness in the face of national crisis, turned the tide, wiped out the thieves and restored the country, and completed the great cause of "rebuilding the Tang family and seeing the majesty of the Han officials again".Lei Haiqing and Li Guinian are just musicians in the opera garden, but they have a strong patriotic heart.Anlu Mountain occupied Luoyang, and the Manchu civil and military were greedy for life and feared death, so they struggled to surrender. Lei Haiqing rushed to the Taiping Banquet in Anlu Mountain with his pipa in his arms, and threw the thief's head with his pipa. He died heroically, showing the noble nation Integrity and heroism.Li Guinian was living in the south of the Yangtze River, playing and singing along the street, facing the desolate rivers and mountains, pouring out his infinite emotions about the ruin of the country and family.

It not only contains profound implication, but also has superb artistic attainments. "With excellent titles and great articles" (Liang Tingnan's "Qu Hua"), he dominated the theater circles of the Qing Dynasty.Hong Sheng rationally selects and tailors the miscellaneous materials with his grand artistic generalization ability, and then adds artistic imagination and fiction, which conforms to the historical reality and is not limited by historical materials.The whole play takes Li and Yang's love as the main line, interspersed with "Anshi Rebellion", the love line and the political line are intertwined, and the use of imaginary brushes, flat brushes, side brushes, and idle brushes is used to outline and describe, forming a grand scale, ups and downs, and sharp contrasts. structure and layout. "Sorrows and joys, parting and reuniting, intertwined. The repertoire has no worries about uneven work and rest, and the audience feels endlessly wonderful. There is no such thing as the victory of a legendary show." (Wang Jilie "螾 [yin Yin] Lu Qu Tan")

The lyrics are clear and smooth, full of poetic beauty and rhythm.Thesis words, every article is a good article.In terms of tunes, Que Que Zhi Zhi is a good tune.The hundreds of tunes used in the whole play have their own characteristics, are endlessly varied, and are in line with the characters' personalities and the atmosphere of the situation.Because of its audition and harmony, it is easy to sing. "For a time, there are beautiful banquets in Zhumen, singing houses in wine clubs, but this song will not be played, and the price will be increased for it." ("Eternal Life Palace · Xu Lingtai Preface") Especially when the "Tanci" came out, it was sad and generous, every word Like pouring pearls and falling jade, even a man of iron and stone cannot but be heartbroken and cry for it. "Tanci" and "Eight Suns" in Li Yu's "Thousands of Loyalty" are said together, there is "every family 'clean up', every household 'don't beware'" (the first sentence of "Tanci" is "don't beware of chaos in the rest of the year" ) story.

"North Kong" refers to Kong Shangren (1648-1718 A.D.), with the word Pinzhi, the name Dongtang, and the self-named Yunting Mountain Man and the owner of Antang.A native of Qufu, Shandong, the 64th generation grandson of Confucius.He is a precocious genius, skilled in poetry and fu, erudite classics, and collected miscellaneous knowledge. He lives in seclusion in Shimen Mountain in the north of Qufu City, living a life of "supporting relatives but not being an official" and living in forests.When he was 37 years old, Kangxi toured the south and passed by Qufu to worship Confucius. Kong Shangren, who lived in seclusion, was recommended to give lectures in front of the imperial court.Soon after, he was sent to Huai'an and Yangzhou to control the waters of the Huai River. He got to know the elders of the Nanming Dynasty and traveled to the old places of the Nanming Dynasty.What he saw and heard deepened his national consciousness and patriotism, and made full preparations for writing.After returning to Beijing at the end of the four-year period, he cooperated with Gu Cai in the legend of "Little Hulei" and carried out an art practice.Then, after 13 cold and heat, the manuscript was changed three times, and it was written in the thirty-eighth year of Kangxi (AD 1699), which immediately caused a sensation in the capital.Kangxi Emperor Suoju review.In the spring of the following year, Kong Shangren was dismissed as a "suspicious case" and returned to Qufu to live in seclusion. He died in depression.

Kong Shangren has many poems and essays, but he has won an immortal reputation for it.This play is based on the "Things at the beginning of the Ming Dynasty" that people still remember at that time.It takes the love story of Hou Fangyu, a literati from Fushe, and Li Xiangjun, a famous Qinhuai prostitute, as clues, and takes the rise and fall of the Southern Ming Dynasty as the central event. life picture.The meaning of praise and condemnation is implied in the singing sandalwood, so that "knowing the foundation of the three hundred years, who did the hui play? What happened? What year did it disappear? Where did it rest?" For the purpose of saving in the last days" (Kong Shangren's "Peach Blossom Fan Xiaoyin").

Like the same, it contains a deep and strong sense of rise and fall, and it is expressed through the "feeling of separation and separation".The script puts the love between Hou Fangyu and Li Xiangjun in a fierce and complicated political vortex.Although Li Xiangjun lives in a brothel, he has a different insight and character from ordinary singing girls.She loves her motherland, hates power and traitors, and respects Donglin and Fushe literati.On the wedding night, when she learned that the dowry [Lianlian] came from the eunuch Ruan Dacheng, she resolutely pulled out the hairpin, took off her clothes, threw it to the ground, and reprimanded Hou Fangyu for being weak.The eunuchs forced her to marry the upstart Tian Yang, but she refused straight away, hitting her head on Cuilou, splashing blood on her poetry fan, defending her innocence with blood and life.She compared herself to Mi Heng, the woman who beat the drums and scolded Cao. At the banquet, she justly exposed the crimes of Ma Shiying and Ruan Dacheng, with an aggressive spirit.Being knocked down on the snow, still swearing endlessly, what a chivalrous man!Although Hou Fangyu was a little weak, vacillating, and confused, under the encouragement of Li Xiangjun, he actively participated in the struggle against the Qing Dynasty and restored the Ming Dynasty.After he was released from prison, he immediately went to Nanjing to look for Li Xiangjun.When they went through hardships and met again on Qixia Mountain, under the guidance of Taoist Zhang, they resolutely cut off the roots of love between their children and both became monks and monks. "The end of the song is far away, and the peaks are green on the river, leaving an inexhaustible meaning in the misty mist, breaking away from the cliché of reunion" (Liang Tingnan's "Qu Hua"), which has a desolate and tragic atmosphere.

"Using the feelings of separation and reunion to express the sense of rise and fall", it shows the life-and-death struggle between good and evil, good and evil, turbidity, beauty and ugliness, and comprehensively evaluates the history of the rise and fall of Nanming.As in the same way, the play is full of remorse for denying one's own class, the disillusionment of Confucian ideals, and sentimental feelings about the emptiness and desolation of history and life.They inherited Tang Xianzu's romantic spirit and eagerly called for the true love in the world, but they were far less optimistic, hearty and dripping than Tang Xianzu.The hostile attitude towards Li Zicheng's peasant army shows the limitations of the author's age and class.

It is a large, rigorous and grand historical drama.Such diverse, complex, and changeable characters and events are organized together skillfully and naturally by the author with ease.The context is clear and integrated, and "the overall layout is impeccable" (Wu Mei's "Introduction to Chinese Opera"), which is worthy of being a masterpiece.In particular, the peach blossom fan is not only entangled with the fate of Hou and Li, but also connected with the situation of the times. With a huge system of character images, dozens of characters are all lifelike: Li Xiangjun's steadfastness, Shi Kefa's loyalty, Liu Jingting's heroism, Hou Fangyu's weakness and kindness, Ma Shiying's vulgarity and greed, Ruan Dacheng's quick-witted thief, Yang Longyou's exquisite appearance... All come alive on paper. He is the twin jade of our country's historical drama.They are like two monuments, finally showing the strength of the legends of Ming and Qing Dynasties, and becoming the turning point of the legends from prosperity to decline. After the "South Hong Kong and North Kong", the brilliance of the legends of the Ming and Qing Dynasties gradually faded.