Chapter 65 The fourth quarter of the new play "The Story of the Pipa"

In order to turn the people into customs, Zhu Yuanzhang also personally guided the opera work.He started from the folk, and he knows that this kind of popular literature and art has a huge influence on the common people. From the point of view of a simple farmer, watching operas all day long is not something serious people do, so the work of folk operas during the Hongwu period focused on prohibition.The first is to restrict people from watching operas. "The Taizu said Zhan Tong said that the sound and color are the ax that kills the sex, and it is easy to drown people. Once there is drowning, disaster will follow. Therefore, it is more harmful than poison."Watching a play can easily make people indulge in pleasure and feel uneasy about work, so he doesn't advocate that ordinary people put too much energy on having fun.He is very disgusted with those who are obsessed with learning opera. "In March of the 23rd year of Hongwu, according to the imperial decree, there were officers and soldiers in Beijing who learned to sing and cut off their tongues." Li Guangdi's "Rong Village Quotations" contains: "Ming Taizu erected a tall building in the middle street, and ordered the soldiers to look at it. Those who heard string songs and drank bo were bound upside down upstairs, drank water for three days and died.”

He opposed the ordinary people's meeting to welcome the gods. The "Law of the Ming Dynasty" revised in the 30th year of Hongwu stipulated: "If the soldiers and civilians dress up as gods, beat gongs and drums, and meet the gods, the person who meets the gods will have a hundred sticks and the person who is the leader will be punished. Those who are not the first will be whipped forty times each." (Xue Yongsheng et al. "Tang Minglu Co-edited") The second is to limit the content of the drama.Zhu Yuanzhang has a clear ideological direction for drama creation and performance, that is, to promote dramas that are beneficial to educate the people, and to ban those dramas with unhealthy content, especially those that challenge the autocratic order.The content of Zaju in the Yuan Dynasty was heterogeneous, and some dramas blindly pursued nonsensical and funny, and the image of the immortal emperor was not so solemn, which made Zhu Yuanzhang feel very uncomfortable.

In the sixth year of Hongwu, Zhu Yuanzhang issued an edict prohibiting the performance of ancient emperors and sages on the stage: "The Ministry of Rites prohibits the priests of the church and the world's musicians. Do not use the ancient sages, emperors, loyal ministers and righteous men as the best plays. Those who violate it will be punished. First, Hu Yuanzhi It is customary to use the clothes and hats of the sages and sages as decorations for laughing and insulting actors, and it is very sacrilegious to use Yanyan music, so it is forbidden." This order was later recorded in the "Law of the Ming Dynasty":

Fanle people are not allowed to dress up as emperors, empresses, loyal ministers, martyrs, sages, sages, and idols in the past.Violators, one hundred sticks.It is the same crime as the government and the people to ask the family to dress up.Immortals, Taoists, righteous husbands, chaste wives, filial sons, obedient grandchildren, and those who persuade others to do good are not restricted. Of course, the role of restriction is limited, and a smarter approach is to give full play to the positive role of opera.Therefore, another focus of Zhu Yuanzhang's opera work is to establish a model of popular literature and art and guide the new style of opera creation.Once, Zhu Yuanzhang saw a new play called "Pipa Ji", which said that the married Cai Bojie won the first prize and was selected by the prime minister as his son-in-law.In this play, Cai Bochi is constantly struggling with various contradictions: because his parents are old, he doesn't want to take the exam.But in order to contribute to the country, he still went to the test in the end.In order to serve the monarch, he has to be an official, and as an official, he has to listen to the prime minister, but he doesn't want to abandon his first wife.In his inner struggle and struggle, he showed his noble qualities of loyalty, filial piety, integrity and righteousness.

This play is a work with a standard theme first. In the first play "The Opening at the End of the Deputy", the author pointed out the creative intention in this way: "From the past to the present, there are so many stories. There are few very good talents, but there are also some. Immortals and ghosts are trivial and unsightly. It’s nothing to do with weathered bodies.” Therefore, the purpose of his creation of this play is not to “make jokes” and make people laugh like other plays, but to promote "The son is filial and the wife is virtuous". After Zhu Yuanzhang watched this play, he appreciated it greatly, and commented on the spot: "The Five Classics and Four Books are cloth and silk planted with millet, and every family has them. Gaoming's "Pipa Ji" is like a delicacy from mountains and seas, and it is indispensable for rich and wealthy families."

It is believed that this play is even more effective in educating the people than Confucian scriptures.It is the first time in history that opera has been so praised by the supreme ruler. Zhu Yuanzhang's instructions made "The Story of the Pipa" a glorious banner in educational operas, which played a huge guiding role and promoted the emergence of a "Taoist style" in the creation of operas in the early Ming Dynasty.Under the guidance of Zhu Yuanzhang’s thoughts, dramatist Qiu Jun created a book called “The Complete Records of the Five Ethics” which specially educates the public. Be filial, and those who serve as ministers will be loyal after seeing it." Everyone in this play is a master, and everyone is a model of human relations.The image is shriveled, the language is sour, and it is unreadable.This kind of creative thinking naturally led to the lack of considerable content in Zaju in the early Ming Dynasty.

Zhu Youdun, a descendant of Zhu Yuanzhang, is himself an important playwright. His life's works are included in "Chengzhai Yuefu", and there are 31 kinds of dramas in total.Apart from the "celebration dramas" embellishing peace and praising virtue, the absurd superstition, negative and decadent "Dutuo dramas", or the "Jieyi dramas" teaching loyalty and filial piety, none of these dramas are worth watching. In order to educate the common people, Zhu Yuanzhang also redefines the order of ghosts and gods. Zhu Yuanzhang is bold and ambitious. Although he has been a monk, he does not believe in superstition.In the first year of Hongwu, he heard that some upstarts were bewitched by the "immortal technique" and practiced Qigong all day long, eating elixir and thinking about becoming an immortal, so he asked them to chat, saying that immortals are all deceitful: The technique is believed to be able to live forever, so why is there no one in the world who has acquired this technique for thousands of years and has passed it down for a long time?" That is to say, if practicing that thing can really make you live forever, why can't you see an immortal person today? People live in this world?

In the fifth year of Hongwu, an official went on a business trip and reported to Zhu Yuanzhang after returning that there was auspiciousness in Jianchang. In the Six Dynasties, at the end of eight hundred years, the king's spirit was restored, and Chonghua succeeded Tang Yao from then on."The sound is like a bell, very loud.After singing, the man in yellow disappeared.It is said that many people have seen this with their own eyes. Zhu Yuanzhang didn't believe it after hearing the report.He said: "Those who are sensible are not to be confused by gods and monsters, and those who are upright are not to be deceived by prophecies. How can it be believed that something involving demons and delusions?" So he has always disliked auspicious things.One year, Huai'an and other places presented "Rui Mai", and the officials congratulated them. Zhu Yuanzhang reprimanded him: "It is the auspiciousness of the country, not the auspiciousness of things."

However, in order to rule the country, Zhu Yuanzhang turned his attention to the world of ghosts and gods.He knows very well that ghosts and gods are of great significance to ordinary people.He said: "The world is made of people and gods." If "there are no ghosts and gods in the world, people are fearless."The fear of ghosts and gods can be used to his advantage. After the founding of the country, he began to manage the ghosts and gods.In the third year of Hongwu, Zhu Yuanzhang felt that the various titles given to the gods by the dynasties of the past dynasties were too many and too chaotic. , "Taiyi", "Six Heavens", "Five Emperors" and other gods that were not recorded in the ancient ceremonies drove out the immortal team, and removed the titles of the city gods and gods from all over the country, and only called them city gods of a certain prefecture and county. God.

Zhu Yuanzhang's other major move to rectify the ranks of ghosts and gods is to officially include the city god and all the little ghosts under his command in the national ceremonies for the first time in history.City God was originally a kind of folk belief, and it has not been included in the national statutory rituals in the past dynasties.But Zhu Yuanzhang, who was born at the bottom, knew the power of the City God.In folk stories, the city god often does good and repays evil, which is closely related to the lives of ordinary people.Therefore, in the second year of Hongwu (the year of AD), Zhu Yuanzhang "enshrined the capital and the world's city gods", and also ordered the world's prefectures and counties to establish city god temples, so that the city gods could enter the national sacrificial system.

He ordered local officials to lead the people to sacrifice to the city god every year. The sacrificial text he stipulated said: All the people in our prefecture, if there are those who are disobedient and unfilial, and those who do not respect the six relatives; For this stubborn, treacherous and evil person, the gods will report to the city god, reveal his deeds, and make him suffer from the government.If it is light, the stick will be broken, and you will not be called a good citizen; if it is serious, you will be strangled and chopped, and you will not be able to return to your hometown.If the matter is not revealed, it will be condemned.If the whole family is infected with the plague, the six livestock and silkworms will be unfavorable.If there is a person who is filial to his father's order, harmonious with his relatives, fears the government, abides by etiquette and law, does not do wrong, is kind and upright, the city god who will reach the gods, protects his family from the yin and protects him, so that his family is peaceful, the order of farming is orderly, and his parents and wives guard the village. Therefore, the process of offering sacrifices to the City God is also a process of fooling the people.He himself once said frankly to Song Lian that the purpose of revering the city god was nothing more than intimidating the people: "I set up a city god to make people fearful. If people are afraid, they dare not act recklessly."