The Romance of the West Chamber in Four Love Plays of Yuan Zaju

Listening to Qin Zaju at the Second Night

The third Zhang Junrui's Acacia Zaju

The fourth Caoqiaodian Dream Yingying Zaju

The fifth book, Zhang Junrui's reunion drama Qinyuan Scenic Area, is in the northeast corner. Here used to be Princess Qinshui's cigarette powder workshop. There was a bamboo forest in front of it, and the locals called it bamboo forest. It is said that in the late Tang Dynasty, a great poet Yuan Zhen was born in Zhaohou Village, Qinghua Town, Hanoi County. The neighboring village of Zhaohou Village is Cuizhuang Village, where there is a daughter Cui Xiaoying. They played together since childhood, and they were childhood friends. Yuan Zhen's father died when he was eight years old, and Xiao Ying's family regarded him as a relative. When Xiaoying was ten years old, his father went to work in a cigarette powder workshop and moved his family. So I went with Xiaoying's father. They often play in bamboo forests, play house and worship heaven and earth. They are called my fair lady, and have met many literati passers-by in Qinyuan, such as famous writers Ling Huchu, Han Yu, Bai Juyi and Jiang Li. Influenced by it, he studied poetry. At the age of 15, he was awarded the Second Classics of Ming Dynasty. Xiaoying also looks like a hibiscus flower, beautiful and outstanding, and their private lives are disorderly.

In the spring of the seventeenth year of Yuan Zhen, Yuan Zhen went to take an examination of politics, which won the appreciation of the then Shaobao Prince Wei and married Wei Cong, the daughter of Wei. I haven't seen Xiaoying since then. After his wife died young, she went home many times to look for it, but there was no news. Xiaoying's intelligence and beauty, pure and simple voice and smile have entangled the dream soul of his life, so he wrote Hui Zhen Ji to express his true feelings. In this paper, he turned himself into Zhang Sheng and Xiaoying into Yingying. "Once the sea was difficult for water, it was amber forever", which was Yuan Zhen's sublimation of his feelings for Xiaoying to the highest point.

Hui Zhen Ji spread to Yuan Dynasty, and Wang Shifu, a famous zaju writer, adapted the story into a drama The West Chamber. The love between Zhang Sheng and Ying Ying has been sung ever since. In order to commemorate the love story between Yuan Zhen and Xiaoying, the local people named this bamboo forest bamboo forest, which means childhood friends, and also reserved a prototype for the West Chamber. Note: (1) Qinyuan: the garden built by Liu Zhuang, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, for his fifth daughter, Liu Zhi, is now Taihang Zhu Bo Garden in Aibo County, Henan Province. After Cui's death, his wife Zheng He's youngest daughter transported her husband's coffin back to Anping, Hebei Province for burial. However, for some reason, this road was blocked, and he lived in Pujiu Temple in He Zhong. This Cui Yingying is nineteen years old and is knitting a needle. She can do anything with poems and books. When her father was alive, she was betrothed to Zheng's nephew, the eldest son of Zheng Shangshu.

The young lady and the matchmaker went to play outside the temple and happened to meet Zhang Sheng, a scholar. Zhang was born in Xiluo, the son of Shangshu. His parents died and his family was poor. He went to Beijing alone to catch the exam, and when he passed by, he suddenly remembered that Du was really in his friend Pu Guan, and he stayed. Listen to the second brother of the champion shop, there is a Purdue Temple, which is the fragrant courtyard after the emperor. The scenery is so beautiful that people who have been there all admire it.

Seeing Yingying's handsome appearance, the student praised: "I didn't know the king's face for ten years before I believed that Chanjuan solved the mistake." In order to see more, he stayed with the abbot of the temple for one night, and he moved into the west wing. One day, Mrs Cui made a Dojo for her late husband. Mrs Cui is very strict with her family, and there are no men in and out of the Dojo. Zhang Sheng crustily skin of head slipped in. At this time, the fast sacrifice Dojo is complete, and the wife and young lady will make incense to repay their father's kindness. Zhang Sheng thought: "Miss Zhang is a woman who still has the heart to repay her parents; Xiao Sheng Lake has been drifting for several years. Since his parents died, there has never been a paper money. "

Zhang Sheng learned from the monk that Miss Yingying went to the garden to burn incense every night. In the dead of night, the moon is clear and the monks are asleep. Zhang Sheng came to the back garden and watched the young lady burn incense. Then he recited a poem: "The moonlight melts into the night, and the shadows in spring are silent; How can I face the noise and not see the people in the moon? " Yingying also immediately sang a song: "Gui Lan has been lonely for a long time, which has nothing to do with her spring;" Those who are expected to sing deserve sympathy. " Zhang Sheng studies hard every night, which touched Miss Cui Yingying, who was born with admiration for Zhang Sheng.

Sun Feihu, a rebel, heard that Cui Yingying had the ability of "being really beautiful, but his handwriting was too real". He led 5,000 troops to surround Pujiu Temple, giving the old lady three days to hand over Yingying as his "Zhazhai Lady". Everyone is helpless. This Cui Yingying is a strong-willed woman. She would rather die than be taken away by thieves. In a crisis, the lady announced: "Whoever can kill the thief army and sweep away the evil spirit will be betrothed to him." Du Que, the top scholar in Dongwu, was appointed Grand Marshal of Xiliang, commanding 100,000 troops and guarding Pu Guan. Zhang Shengxian steadied Sun Feihu with delaying tactics, and then wrote a letter to Du Que, asking him to send troops to beat back Sun Feihu. Monk Huiming sent a letter down the mountain. Three days later, Du Zhen's reinforcements arrived and beat back Sun Feihu.

On the grounds that Yingying has been betrothed, Mrs. Cui asked to be sworn brothers and sisters, and gave Yingying and another wife a generous gift of gold and silk, which made them both very miserable. The maid matchmaker saw this and arranged for them to meet. In the evening, Zhang Sheng played the piano and told Yingying about her lovesickness. Yingying also poured out her love for Zhang Sheng.

I haven't seen Yingying for many days after listening to the piano that day. Zhang sheng is lovesick. Take advantage of the matchmaker's visit and ask her to send a message to Yingying. Yingying wrote back and asked Zhang Sheng to meet under the moon. In the evening, Miss Yingying plays the piano in the back garden. Zhang Sheng heard the piano and climbed up the wall to see Yingying playing the piano. Yingying is in a hurry. Go over the wall and get in. When Yingying saw him climb over the wall and enter, she blamed him for his indecent behavior and vowed never to see him again, which made Zhang Sheng's illness worse. Yingying went to see Zhang Sheng in his room on the pretext of visiting the sick.

The old lady saw Yingying in a trance these days, unable to speak clearly and acting strangely, and suspected that he and Zhang Sheng had deviant behavior. So I called the matchmaker and forced her to ask. The matchmaker had no choice but to tell the truth. The matchmaker pleaded for Miss Zhang and the old lady, saying that it was not Miss Zhang's fault, but the old lady's fault. The old lady should not go back on her word, and let her be commensurate with Miss Zhang's brother and sister.

The old woman was helpless and told Zhang Sheng that if she wanted to marry Miss Yingying, she had to go to Beijing to take the exam and gain fame. Miss Yingying gave a banquet to see Zhang Sheng off at Shili Pavilion. She repeatedly urged Zhang Sheng not to "stop his wife from remarrying" and not to "have no news of fish and geese all spring". After bidding farewell to Changting, Zhang Sheng went to Caoqiao Store and met Yingying in his dream. When he woke up, he was very disappointed.

Zhang Sheng won the first prize in the exam and wrote to Yingying to report the good news. At this time, Zheng Heng once again came to Pujiu Temple and fabricated a lie that Zhang Sheng had been recruited by Wei Shangshu as the son-in-law of Dong Chuang. So Cui Furen promised Miss Zheng Heng again and decided to get married another day. When it happened in wedding date, Zhang Sheng returned as the Prefecture Governor of Hezhou, and Marshal Du Que of the Western Expedition also came to congratulate him. After the truth came out, Zheng Heng was ashamed and swallowed it, and Zhang Sheng and Ying Ying finally got married. After the Tang Dynasty, the ending of this love story made many people feel sorry and dissatisfied, accusing Zhang Sheng of being a "fickle fly". It gradually spread among the people and changed the ending. After the Song Dynasty, due to the constant invasion of nomadic people in the north and the assimilation of Han nationality, the concept of feudal etiquette gradually faded among ordinary people. The Jin Dynasty (Dong Lang) wrote the poem The West Chamber, which was a kind of rap art at that time, similar to the modern pingtan, with pipa and Zheng, and said while singing. This "Romance of the West Chamber" has greatly increased the content and added many characters and scenes. In the end, Zhang Sheng and Yingying ignored the old lady's orders and both went to General White Horse and got married in their own hands.

In the Yuan Dynasty, Wang Shifu basically adapted The Romance of the West Chamber into a multi-person drama script based on the tunes of various palaces, which made the story more compact, integrated classical poetry and greatly improved the literariness, but changed the ending to a compromise of an old lady, promised to get married and had a happy ending. The author of this play has different views. Some people say it was written by Guan Hanqing, while others say it was written by Wang Xu or Wang Zuo, but Wang Shifu's opinion is generally accepted.

In Qing Dynasty, Jin Shengtan rated Wang Shifu's The Romance of the West Chamber as the sixth gifted scholar's book, and China's riddles were often based on the sentences in Wang's The Romance of the West Chamber, so the riddles were called six talents.

Wang Jisi, a professor at Sun Yat-sen University, has a deep research on The West Chamber. The lyrics of The West Chamber are gorgeous and beautiful, full of poetic artistic conception. It can be said that every song is a wonderful lyric poem. In A Dream of Red Mansions, Cao Xueqin praised it through the mouth of Lin Daiyu, saying that "words warn people and smell fragrant all over the world".

The Romance of the West Chamber is a realistic masterpiece of China's classical drama, which has a great influence on later novels and dramas with the theme of love. The Peony Pavilion and A Dream of Red Mansions both absorbed the anti-feudal democratic spirit from it to varying degrees.

The West Chamber is a famous classical drama of China. It tells the love story of scholar Zhang Junrui and Miss Guo Xiang Cui Yingying who fell in love at first sight. With the help of the matchmaker, they combined privately, fought for the autonomy of marriage, dared to break through the shackles of feudal ethics, expressed their dissatisfaction and resistance to the feudal marriage system, and yearned for and pursued the ideal of beautiful love. For hundreds of years, it has deeply inspired the hearts of countless young men and women. Even today, the theme and artistic image in the works can still help us to deepen our understanding of the evil nature of feudal ethics.

When it comes to The West Chamber, people usually think of The West Chamber written by Wang Shifu in Yuan Dynasty. As everyone knows, before Wang Shifu, Dong Jieyuan of Jin Dynasty also wrote The West Chamber, which are generally called "Wang Xixiang" and "Dong Xixiang". If we want to talk about Wang Xixiang's achievements, we can't help but mention Dong Xixiang.

Cui Zhang's story has a long history, which was first seen in the legendary novel Yingying Biography (also known as Hui Zhenji) by Yuan Zhen, a famous poet in the Tang Dynasty. Yingying Biography is about Yuan Zhen's love life before marriage. As a result, Zhang Sheng abandoned Yingying, which was a tragic ending. This novel is only a few thousand words, but the plot is tortuous, the narrative is euphemistic and the words are gorgeous. It is one of the representative novels of the Tang Dynasty. It wrote about the yearning and pursuit of girls' love in feudal times, and also reflected the life tragedy that the ideal of love was ruthlessly destroyed by society, and publicized the feudal dross that men were superior to women. Since then, this story has been widely circulated, resulting in many poems praising it. In the Song Dynasty, some literati directly re-created the Biography of Yingying, and now we can see the banter and trampling drums of Qin Guan and Mao Gu, as well as Zhao Lingqi's Hua Lian on the Ferret. These poems sympathize with Yingying's fate and criticize Zhang Sheng's fickle behavior, but there is no new development in the story.

When the story of Yingying Biography spread for about 400 years, Dong Jieyuan's The West Chamber in Jin Dynasty came out, which was called Dong Xixiang in history. Dong Jieyuan, a writer of various palace tunes in the Jin Dynasty, is unknown. "Affinity" was a respectful title for literati in the Jin and Yuan Dynasties. He was wild and uninhibited, despised ethics, had profound cultural accomplishment, was very familiar with the folk literature forms at that time, such as Zhu Gong tune, and liked to write poems and compose music. His masterpiece The West Chamber is the only complete work in Gongdiao. Dong Xixiang is a third-person narrative rap literature based on Yingying Biography. Whether it is ideological or artistic, it far exceeds the predecessors. It fundamentally transformed the stories and characters in Yingying Biography, and the nature of contradictions and conflicts evolved into the struggle between young men and women fighting for love and free marriage and feudal parents. Zhang Sheng became an affectionate wit, but Ying Ying was rebellious. The story ends with Yingying eloping with Zhang Sheng, which gives this old story a new look. With the increase of the plot, Dong Xixiang's characters' feelings are more complicated and delicate, and their personalities are fuller. In the use of words, the author writes both landscapes and feelings, and is good at writing songs in spoken language, which makes the works more vivid and full of life, greatly improving the artistry and laying a solid foundation for the appearance of Wang Xixiang.

However, Dong Xixiang is still too rough in art, and its description of love is not pure enough to meet people's aesthetic requirements. In the Yuan Dynasty, with the prosperity of urban economy, drama was more developed. At this time, Wang Shifu, a great dramatist, changed Cui Zhang's story into a zaju on the basis of East-West Chamber, which is what we generally see today.

"Wang Xixiang" directly inherited "Dong Xixiang" and made great contributions on this basis. In shaping the image of the hero, Wang Shifu not only wrote about Zhang Sheng's infatuation and demeanor, but also wrote about Zhang Sheng's talent and weakness, which made him a representative of affectionate and weak gifted scholars in feudal society. The clever, clever, enthusiastic and upright maid matchmaker in the play left a deep impression on people, and appeared again and again in later plays, and achieved a far more important position than Yingying. At the same time, The Romance of the West Chamber successfully depicts the love psychology for the first time in the history of China's drama, and it is a work that directly describes the love psychology in the history of drama. Its design of contradictions and conflicts is also enough to demonstrate future generations. The whole play takes the contradiction between Yingying, Zhang Sheng, the matchmaker and the old lady as the basic contradiction, which shows the contradiction between Cui Zhang and his parents. Take the contradiction between Yingying, Zhang Sheng and the matchmaker as the secondary contradiction, and promote the plot and portray the characters with personality conflict. This kind of conflict organization is very valuable in China's ancient operas.

The plots of Wang Xixiang and Dong Xixiang are almost the same, but the theme is more concentrated, and the anti-feudal ideological tendency is more distinct. Wen Qu has been rewritten, with more objects added and some unreasonable plots eliminated, and the artistic level has also been greatly improved. As a typical work in China's classical drama, it is grand in scale, rigorous in structure, tortuous in plot, full of embellishment and interesting, with vivid and delicate characters. Not only is it unprecedented, but it also surpasses other playwrights in the Yuan Dynasty. Because of this, Jia in Yuan Dynasty said: "New zaju, old legend, The West Chamber, the best in the world." Compared with The West Chamber, The West Chamber is more profound in thought. It actively put forward the idea that "all living beings in the world should get married", which has a more distinct theme of anti-feudal ethics and feudal marriage system.

First of all, The Romance of the West Chamber praises the marriage based on love and denies the traditional marriage mode in feudal society. As a Miss Guo Xiang, Yingying falls in love with a scholar who has lost both books and swords, which, to a great extent, violates the standard of choosing a spouse based on family status, property and power. Yingying and Zhang Sheng always pursue sincere feelings. At first, they fell in love with each other's talents and looks. After a series of events, such as chorus singing, temple fair police, listening to the piano, refusing to get married and forcing them to try, their emotional content became richer. What dominates here is a sincere spiritual feeling.

Secondly, Yingying and Zhang Sheng have actually put their love above fame and fortune. Zhang Sheng "stayed in Pudong" for Yingying, instead of rushing to the exam; For love, he almost lost his life several times until he was forced to take an exam in Beijing. After winning, he is still "dreaming of leaving Pudong Road". When Yingying saw Zhang Sheng off at the pavilion, she told him that "if you are an official in this field, you will come back when you are sick". She doesn't value fame, and thinks that "a lotus flower is better than a champion". Even when the news of Zhang Sheng's high school came, she didn't feel happy, but aggravated her symptoms. Although The Romance of the West Chamber also ended in success and all's well that ends well, the whole play runs through the idea of valuing affection over fame, which shows the progress of Wang Shifu's thought. (The Encyclopedia of China, China Literature Volume, China Encyclopedia Publishing House 1986 Edition) Lyrics of The West Chamber by Hou Xian.

Ci, Qu and Arrangement: Hou Xian

(Rap: I crossed the west wing. I'm over 18 years old, dancing and writing-)

Walking through the west wing, I smelled a fragrance.

The lady next door is still among the flowers.

Shoes have forgotten their original direction.

Stop at the age of eighteen or nineteen and feel blue.

How to reward the flowers in the flowerpot?

Compare this girl with it.

May a piece of flower paste be made next to the flower.

It doesn't take March to be intoxicating.

The day before the summer solstice

The scholar walked into the west wing again.

Miss Encounter is enjoying flowers on the windowsill, waiting for rainy days.

How many times have you read famous poems and copied many volumes of famous paintings?

There is an ignorant scholar's dream in The West Chamber.

I passed the west wing again.

A daydream twelve years ago.

Write down who you were.

Prelude to Water Melody

I'll go to the west wing of the White House again,

Twelve years later, in boy genius.

The flowers are still there, and the building is empty.

That flower often blooms, but it is difficult to stay.

Whose peach blossoms are in bloom,

Who is humming under the flowers?

It's still early to catch up with the scholars.

Report one's reputation.

Walking through the west wing, I smelled a fragrance.

The lady next door is still among the flowers.

Shoes have forgotten their original direction.

Stop at the age of eighteen or nineteen and feel blue.

How to reward the flowers in the flowerpot?

Compare this girl with it.

May a piece of flower paste be made next to the flower.

It doesn't take March to be intoxicating.

The day before the summer solstice

The scholar walked into the west wing again.

Miss Encounter is enjoying flowers on the windowsill, waiting for rainy days.

How many times have you read famous poems and copied many volumes of famous paintings?

There is an ignorant scholar's dream in The West Chamber.

I passed the west wing again.

A daydream twelve years ago.

Write down the love between you and me: The West Chamber.

During the Zhenyuan period of the Tang Dynasty, Cui died of illness. His wife Zheng took her daughter Yingying and the maid matchmaker. Protect Guo Xiang's coffin and transport it back to Boling (now Anping County, Hebei Province) for burial. The road was blocked on the way, so she stayed at Pujiu Temple (now Yongji) in the river. One day, Zhang Xun, a scholar in Luoyang, Henan Province, was preparing to take the exam in Chang 'an, and was trapped in the river because of the rain. I met Yingying at Youpujiu Temple. In order to pursue Yingying, Zhang Sheng stayed in Pujiu Temple for one night. One night, Zhang Sheng saw Yingying burning incense and praying in the garden. He took the opportunity to sing a poem loudly. Yingying knew that the poet was Zhang Sheng, so she replied to a poem. Occasionally, with poetry as the medium, our feelings for each other have increased.

Sun Feihu, a rebel guarding the bridge, lusted after Yingying's beauty and led troops around the temple to rob Yingying of his wife. Cui Furen asked for help everywhere and promised: "Whoever has a plan to retreat will marry Yingying." . Zhang Sheng stepped forward and wrote to his good friend, the White Horse General Du Kui. Du sure enough reinforcements arrived, and he was defeated and captured. After the incident, Cui Furen broke his word and refused to marry Yingying to Zhang Sheng, only allowing them to become brother and sister. Zhang sheng got sick because of this. The matchmaker suggested that Zhang Shengsheng play the piano under the moon. Yingying was very moved after hearing this. She came to Zhang Shengsheng's study late at night and had a lifelong private date with Zhang Sheng. This matter was discovered by Mrs Cui, who was furious and tortured the matchmaker. The matchmaker refused to argue, and finally persuaded Cui Furen skillfully. Although Cui Furen promised to betroth Yingying to Zhang Sheng, he forced Zhang Sheng to go to Beijing immediately to take the exam. If he fails the exam, he still refuses to marry his daughter.

Zhang Sheng bid farewell to Yingying, went to Beijing to take the exam and won the first prize. However, Cui Furen's nephew Zheng Heng lied that Zhang Sheng had become the son-in-law of Wei Shangshu, and forced Cui Furen to marry Yingying to him. At this time, Zhang Sheng returned to Pujiu Temple. With the help of General Baima, he exposed Zheng Heng's plot and married Yingying.

One of the love scenes: The West Chamber, Pujiu Temple

Pujiu Temple is located in Xixiang Village, northwest of yongji city 12km. Built in the early years of Sui Dynasty, it is the place where the story of The West Chamber, a Yuan drama, takes place. The temple site is towering, "the red walls are winding, the ancient pagodas are towering, and the temples are looming among the green trees", and the Yellow River Bay is in the west, and the water is surging; To the east, Zhongtiao Mountain stands like a barrier and has a wide field of vision.

An ancient Purdue Temple, a memory and past belonging to the West Chamber, and an eternal love legend. Read The Romance of the West Chamber, visit Pujiu Temple, listen to the bell of the big bell tower, and walk along the cloister of the Tayuan. The place where the old lady and Yingying live in The West Chamber is already in sight. A study in the west wing room has a passage "Waiting for the bright moon under the west wing, the dusty households are open." Brush the wall and move, suspected to be a jade person "; An Yingying Tower, a book, "Gui Lan has been lonely for a long time and has nothing to do with Fang Chun; "Those who are expected to sing deserve sympathy." Loneliness; A pear flower deep courtyard, scenes of shocking drama, borrowing carriages, making fast, seeking accommodation, staying married, listening to the piano, walking through walls and copying red. The place where Zhang Sheng climbed over the wall and the apricot tree trampled by Zhang Sheng reflected the helplessness in love in the past.

As the sun sets, the bamboo shadows in the back garden are blurred. Without the tryst between Cui Yingying and Zhang Sheng, there are still lovers who don't want to leave, and there are still reluctant love stories lingering. ...

The second scene of love: the welcoming tower where frogs croak to show love.

Yingying Tower, formerly known as stupa, stands on the west side of Pujiu Temple, with a height of 50 meters and a floor of *** 13. Simple and dignified, independent, it is named after the legend that Yingying once looked at Zhang Sheng from afar here.

Yingying Tower has a peculiar structure, and there are tunnels between floors in the tower, so ordinary people can go up to the ninth floor. However, the sixth floor and the seventh floor cannot be directly connected, and you must go from the sixth floor to the fifth floor to get up.

An ancient brick tower, a rare echo building in China, the title of six towers in the world, and an eternal romantic place with the same passion for love. The frog-beating platform is the seasonal rhythm of insects singing and frogs crying; A frog pavilion, * * * sounds like a soulmate love story.

Crossing the bridge and walking through the bamboo forest, you can't walk past the lingering in front of Yingying Pavilion, but you can't forget the crescent moon in front of Yue Bai and the figure bathed in moonlight.