Thematic Ideology and Artistic Characteristics of the Teahouse

This year is the 105th anniversary of the birth of Mr. Lao She, the "People's Artist". I am honored to have the opportunity to discuss Mr. Lao She's famous play "The Teahouse" with you.

One, the purpose of "burying three eras"

The three-act play "The Teahouse" was written by Mr. Lao She between 1956 and 1957. It is the best drama in the writer's life, and as Mr. Cao Yu said, it is "an unprecedented example in the history of Chinese drama". ***In the seventeen years after the establishment of China, Lao She wrote very few novels, but a lot of plays. Before writing "Teahouse", in 1955 he wrote the play "Spring and Autumn", in 1956 he wrote the play "Looking West at Chang'an", after the "Teahouse", in 1958 he wrote "Red Courtyard", in 1959 he wrote "Shopgirl" and "Family Portrait" ...... "Teahouse" and these works with the current affairs and politics in the subject matter, style The theme, style and mode of creation of these works are very different, he rewrote the pre-liberation used to write the "old stories".

In fact, Lao She wrote "The Teahouse," which was originally intended to be a political propaganda work. People's Republic of China **** and the country's first constitution was announced in 1954, the author of a lot of emotions to recall the past, felt that the new constitution should be written to illustrate the difficulty of the play, used to educate young people. So, in 1956, he wrote a 4-act, 6-scene play, the play has many characters, from the Guangxu years until the liberation of the eve of the Beiping students "anti-hunger, anti-persecution" movement, the main characters in the play is the brother of three people. Lao She took the first draft of the play to the Beijing People's Art Center and read it to Cao Yu, the director of the theater, and Jiao Juyin, the chief director of the theater, for their comments. Cao Yu felt that the best part of the work was Act 1, Scene 2, which took place in an old teahouse, and felt that this scene should be used as the basis for a new play depicting the social landscape of the olden times. Lao She accepted this proposal quite quickly, and immediately said: three months after the handover of the script! Once the deadline arrived, the new work of "Teahouse" was indeed available. After the director, the actors cut and grind, this new work is really accomplished. The final draft of the script completely abandons the scenes of the revolutionary struggle, and becomes a social drama that combines the images of the city life in the past years.

After the play was published, Lao She wrote an article titled "Answers to Several Questions about the Teahouse", in which he wrote: "The Teahouse is a meeting place for the three religions and the nine streams of society, and it can accommodate all kinds of characters, and a big Teahouse is a small society. Although this play has only three acts, it has been written over fifty years of changes. In these changes, there is no way to avoid political issues. However, I am not familiar with the high officials in the political arena, so I can't depict their promotion or retreat. I don't know much about politics either. I only know some minor characters. These characters are frequent visitors to the teahouse. So, if I gather them in a teahouse and use the changes in their lives to reflect the changes in society, won't I side-step some political news?"

This passage confirms that Lao She wrote this play, took the idea of "avoiding political issues", and he wanted to use this play to write specifically about the "changes in Chinese society over the past fifty years"; the writer said, "avoiding political issues", because he had always been a political person. The writer said, "avoiding political issues", because he has always been "not very knowledgeable about politics", so the best effect that can be achieved is to use the minor characters to "reflect social changes in their lives", "side by side revealing some political news". The best way to do this is to use the little people's lives to reflect the changes in society" and "to reveal some political news side by side".

Writing "The Teahouse," Lao She redirected his writing to the old days he was familiar with, and said the play could only "reveal some political news from the side. I am afraid that this idea would have been labeled as "political" if it had been written at a time when the literary line was very "leftist". However, social development at this time gave Lao She an opportunity: in 1956, the country basically completed the socialist transformation of agriculture, handicrafts and capitalist industry and commerce, the center of gravity of the work of the Chinese **** Producers' Party, from the launch of the large-scale class struggle to the relative stability of the economic and cultural construction, in order to promote the cause of science, culture and the arts, puts forward In order to promote the cause of science, culture and art, the policy of "let a hundred flowers blossom and a hundred schools of thought contend" was put forward, and a relatively relaxed creative environment emerged in the literary world for a period of time. The Teahouse came out in this climate. Before and after, the social conditions are not good, he can only write some of the "Spring and Autumn", "Looking West at Chang'an", "Red Compound", "shopgirl" type of works.

The Teahouse*** is a 3-act play, with each act taking place in the same scene - a large teahouse called "Yutai" in old Beijing. From a temporal point of view, the story of the three acts of the play, a long time apart from each other: the first act took place in the late Qing dynasty Guangxu wuxu year; the second act of the play, took place in the first act of more than a dozen years after the Beiyang Warlords cut off the period; the third act of the play, took place more than thirty years from the second act, after the end of the war of resistance to the period of the Kuomintang rule. The author has mobilized his own observation and accumulation of the old Chinese social life, using the ingenious conception of "a big teahouse is a small society", and has recruited and waved away all kinds of people in the three eras, which not only highly refined but also vividly demonstrated the basic conditions of the old China, and vividly drew the sick realities of the era. The book is a very good example of the sickly reality of that era.

When he wrote "The Teahouse", Lao She had already thought enough about the old times, and he had improved his ability to use the materialistic view of history to reflect on the evolution of the world and society in the old China, and he had also gained a deep understanding of the laws of social development buried deep in the historical process. This ensured that he was able to scan the holographic image of social changes in old China with great vigor, and hit the essence of history with a single stroke.

However, to write a good play, not only need to have a penetrating vision of history, but also have to find the right part of social life, cut a convenient image to show the historical picture of the artistic window. This window, also was Lao She probed like a bag to find, that is, the play "big teahouse". The old-fashioned teahouse, where almost everyone can freely come and go regardless of their status, position and line of work, is a sensitive point that can best call people's attention to the pulse of society; the teahouse is like the spiritual bond of the five lines and eight lines of work, which naturally reveals the survival of the multitudes of people. Lao She relied on the teahouse in the concentration of social life focus on the key position, the rare stage of life, artfully superimposed on the stage of the play, so that it can comfortably carry the history of history, such creative planning, can be described as extraordinary, the sound of the empty mountain.

To express three historical periods in just three acts is a serious challenge for the author. Ink like gold, Lao She, general writers do not have to make a masterpiece, only about 30,000 words, the play is written to the spirit of completion of the gas. In the 3 historical process of social cross-section of a character and a pile of events, after a careful screening, are very typical, these people and events to create a synergy, explaining a unified answer, that is: the unbearable old system, has long been rotten, ridiculous and dirty to the extreme, that the world, can not tolerate it back again. Under the general nature of the semi-colonial and semi-feudal society of old China, there were many kinds of contradictions intertwined with each other. And so many contradictions, in Lao She here, but easily be refined into a vivid sketch of life.

The historical focus of the 3-act play varies. Act 1, focusing on the depiction of the "Qing Empire" the night before the end of life of the sick and dying social scene, with a little, but also accounted for the sharp decline in society in front of the aspiring innovators and patriots, as well as some of the instinctive expectations of the life of the ordinary people, the heart of the remaining a trace of the quest; to the second act, the collapse of the Qing Dynasty, the tiger and wolf like evil feudal warlords, but with the use of the The feudal warlords, but with the guns and cannons given by the foreigners, causing years of war and social unrest, but the people who seek to live a few days of peace, are afraid, despite the change of the times, all the ugly, reactionary forces, as usual, like the end of the Qing Dynasty, rampant, and let the public to avoid; to the third act, the scene is the most bleak, the people easily get rid of the "outlaw" life, but instead, they are still a trace of pursuit in their hearts. In Act 3, the scene is the bleakest, people who have managed to get rid of the life of "slaves of the fallen country" are plunged headlong into the unprecedented darkness of reality, and the Chinese people who have always been struggling with good expectations and do not dare to relax even for a moment have reached the end of their destiny, and even the excellent traditional culture is not immune to the crisis of being sent to the end of its life. --The entire "Teahouse" thus faithfully depicts the deteriorating social status quo during the half-century from the end of the 19th century to the middle of the 20th century.

Underneath the broader vein of history, the entire plot of the play appears in the form of silhouettes of characters and events. Take Act 1 for example, before and after including some of these relatively independent plot units: the first paragraph, the "pigeon" dispute - the capital mansion for a pigeon, almost fighting a group fight, the flag man Chang Si Master sent a few words of emotion, recruited the good fighting battalion beaters Er De Zi! Provocation, but was "eat foreign teachings," Ma Wuji a sentence to suppress; this section of the play, the performance of the late Qing Dynasty luxury, hooligan arrogance, and the top of the powerful have to be counted in collusion with the foreigners, "Ermaozi". The second paragraph, farmers sell their daughters - years of famine, bankrupt farmers Kang six have no choice but to sell their 15-year-old daughter, traffickers Liu Mazi take advantage of the opportunity to profiteer, selling small objects on the side of the poor old man by chance to see, a word to the point: "These days, ah, people are not as good as a pigeon it! " It is a contrasting technique to show the seriousness of the division between the rich and the poor. The third paragraph, Qin Chang dissent - teahouse landlord Qin Ershi came, he hesitantly to gather up the capital to do industry, to save the country, but his attitude towards the poor people begging for food in front of him is very cold, the old-fashioned warm-hearted Chang Sifa generous alms, the two then on whether the poor people should be a bowl of rotten meat noodles, expressed a different opinion; this section of the play writes the national tragedy, some Chinese people still have no conscience, but also some Chinese people have no conscience. There are still some Chinese people who have not lost their conscience and want to help the people as much as they can, but the two zeal of Master Qin and Master Chang are historical limitations. The fourth paragraph, Qin Pang fighting - the spokesman for the court, the chief of the inner circle, Eunuch Pang came to the teahouse to buy farmers' daughters, just bumped into the tendency of the new Qin Ershi, two people, each not to show weakness, talking about the suppression of the Hundred Days' Reform Law, causing a discussion of the tea customers, these people on the improvement of reforms either insensitive, or hate The play is written to show the arrogance of the hardliners, but also to show that the reform movement was detached from the people and had a weak foundation. The fifth paragraph, Chang Si Master was arrested - Chang Si Master witnessed the sale of his son and daughter of the tragic situation, a long sigh: "I see it, the Qing Dynasty will be finished!" The two spies, using Eunuch Pang as a pretext, arrested Mr. Chang and Mr. Song, who was drinking tea with him, on the grounds that "it is an additional crime for a flag person to be a traitor." This plot outlines the darkness of the world under the secret service, the good people will suffer if they are not careful. Sixth paragraph, the eunuch to buy a wife - the old, dim-witted, psychopathic eunuch Pang came to look at Liu Ma-zi bought for him a peasant girl, he was old and ugly, on the spot the peasant girl Kang Shun-zi fainted in fear, at this time, the ear suddenly rang in the chess tea drinker a broken voice: "Will! You are finished!" This is the end of the scene, meaning that the end of feudalism, though still quite bluffing, has long since withered away to home. Act 1 is roughly composed of six interlocking plots, interspersed with Wang's subtle attitude toward the matters at hand, and the ugly performance of Tang Tiezui, Fatty Huang, and other dregs of society. The whole play, full of content, the story of this and that, life is very strong, every step of the plot to see a profound historical connotation, although the play is short but unlimited meaning, the whole of the end of the Qing Dynasty society, contradictions, darkness, absurdity, helplessness, are all brain embodied.

All the miasma and suffocating social conditions in the play depend on the old system of darkness, which the audience of "Teahouse" understands at a glance. Lao She wrote "Teahouse", respect for the audience's mind, he discarded political sermons, relying exclusively on the living art image to speak, the political views want to express, easily sent to the audience. At the beginning of Act 2, Li San, the old man of the teahouse, refuses to cut off his pigtails even after the Qing Dynasty has fallen for more than ten years, and he has his own "sayings": "Improvement! Improvement! The more you change, the better, cold! ...... I still keep my pigtails, in case the emperor change back!" This is the lowest level of society, no culture, no political awareness of the mouth of the small people out of the "political news", see the emperor is gone, but the world is worse than the former Qing Dynasty, the more the powers that be shouting "social improvement", that is, the ordinary people suffered and the time is approaching. Soon to come, he judged by simple experience, may be one day to change the old court back to it, he might as well protect this point of "foresight" of the good! These three or two sentences can not be more commonplace civilian chit-chat, the more one smacks the more flavor, the middle of the "side disclosure" of the "political news", is not both heavy, deep, but also very convincing? Act 1, by the secret agent Song Enzi, Wu Xiangzi captured Chang Sifu, in Act 2 and these two people collided, he found that these two guys actually again to the warlord as a secret agent, a little bit of a surprise, but the secret agents but the bold words: "when there is the emperor, we give the emperor, there is President Yuan, we give President Yuan service; now and now! ......" "Whoever feeds us, we'll work for them!" Mr. Chang Si pressed the question: "What if the foreigners give us food?" The agents were not ambiguous: "Let me tell you, Mr. Chang, those who want us to work for them are backed by the foreigners! How can we fight without foreign guns and artillery?" This dialog also reveals some important political information: the feudal dynasty is gone, but the feudal forces still dominate everything, and the foreigners' guns are still very useful - this is tantamount to telling the audience that the foreigners' guns are still very useful. Isn't this tantamount to telling the audience that the semi-feudal and semi-colonial nature of Chinese society has not changed at all? The play "Teahouse" is full of places like this where political information is revealed from the "side". Lao She turned the theories written by political scientists into textbooks, into the off-the-cuff remarks of the lower-class people, and into the details of the play, which he injected into the middle of the audience's enjoyment of the play, so that the effect of the play, if compared with that of a political textbook, is at least similar.

With the general theater works, "Teahouse" is not a play to tell a specific story, it is to express the overall image of semi-colonial and semi-feudal society represented by three historical eras. In Lao She's words, the purpose of writing this play is to "bury three times". 3 acts of the play, solidly written in Lao She's deep look back and reflection on history, which makes the writer's contemporaries, as well as generation after generation than he came to the world, look at the play, the mind will be shocked. For a work to achieve such a role, its intellectual value just can't be underestimated.

When The Teahouse was first staged, some people thought that it was not strong in storytelling, and suggested that the plot should be developed by using Kang Shunzi's encounters and her son Kang Dali's participation in the revolution. Lao She declined the suggestion, saying, "In this way, my purpose of burying three eras will be difficult to achieve. Holding on to one thing to develop, I'm afraid that the teahouse would have collapsed without waiting to be overrun." (Answer to a few questions about the "Teahouse") In the 1950s, Chinese authors and readers and viewers, almost without exception, felt that, whenever writing about the old times, the only task should be to show the sharp class struggle, glorify the victory of the revolution, not so can not be. Lao She euphemistically explained that the old teahouse, if they have become a revolutionary fortress, its days will not continue for a few days, and why let it witness the three dark ages. As for why it can not reflect the revolutionary struggle as the theme of the work of art, Lao She at that time is not willing to talk about it, nor is it possible to talk about it.

The play "Teahouse" had already attracted some criticism before the Cultural Revolution even began because of its creative originality. Some people have written articles that "Teahouse" is "nostalgic" and promotes "the present is not as good as the past" and "fails to reveal the earth-shattering waves of the times," """ It did not point out the inevitable victory of the people and their lofty ideals", and "in the final analysis, it is closely related to the writer's worldview, class position and creative method." During the Cultural Revolution, "The Teahouse" became the "proof" that Lao She was falsely accused of being a "reactionary writer". Now, we don't need to refute the accusations of "Teahouse" one by one. What people can't help but think of is that in Act 3 of The Teahouse, Wang Lifa inexplicably asked, "'Strike' has changed its name to 'Riot'?" The secret agent, Song Enzi, immediately seized on this remark and said to Wang Lifa's face that he and the striking students were "all the same!" The old teahouse owner, who had been through life's battles for a long time, didn't let him fool him, but just muttered to him: "Me? You flatter me!" It seems that framing people by pointing to a deer as a horse has historically not been difficult to encounter in our land.

Today, decades later, many of the so-called good works that came out at the same time as "Teahouse" have long since gone up in smoke. It has been appreciated by audiences of different races, experiences and values, and has been called "the miracle of the Oriental stage".

Second, to write about society by writing about culture

The Teahouse was to show the audience the social changes in old China. However, Lao She was not very familiar with politics, which limited his ability to write directly about social and political changes. Therefore, the writer avoided the raw and familiarized himself with the social and cultural changes that he knew so well to reflect the subtleties of the social and political changes. We all know that the culture and politics of an era are subordinate to the superstructure of the society, and the two are intrinsically linked. The political nature of the society will always play a role in its culture, either explicitly or implicitly, and the various forms of culture can often pass the implied political information to the people. Therefore, it becomes a feasible way for art works to reflect the society through writing the cultural phenomena of an era to reflect the political landscape of the era.

The Teahouse reflects the artistic advantage Lao She gained by choosing this way of creation.

The Teahouse is about the darkness of old China, about the painful struggles and tragic end of the masses in a dark society that cannot be escaped in order to survive, seek justice, and seek development. Lao She did not put this heavy theme into a specific story, he decided to use the society, "how the little people live and how to die, to illustrate the age of laughter and color" ("talk about the" Teahouse "")，to express his disgust and spurn the whole old age of the ideological tendency. Sick society, deformed culture, strange life ...... composed of the "Teahouse" inside the bizarre social picture. Lao She's pen, as if a probe in the hands of the surgeon, each picking a scab of the rotten society, teach people to see a stream of dirty pus and blood gushing out, society from the outside to the inside of the ulcer to such a terrible point, with a big change to teach it to get rid of the bones, of course, is the most reasonable.

The audience of The Teahouse had to keep their eyes open at all times to see the absurdity of the world on the stage: the eunuch Pang, who was said to be "serving the Empress Dowager, so red that even the bottles of vinegar at home were made of onyx," was old and girlish, but he shamelessly declared that he was going to finish his "marriage" in front of a large audience. "marriage" news; traffickers Liu Mazi, ruthless, and not afraid of people to see through his selling a peasant girl to earn 190 two heartless silver deeds, he said, publicizing his own logic: "If I am not distracted, they may not find a buyer it"; two deserters, not enough money, the money is not enough, the money is not enough, the money is not enough, the money is not enough, the money is not enough, the money is not enough, the money is not enough. The two deserters, who did not have enough money and wanted to fulfill their physical needs, had to pool their money to buy a suitable wife from the trafficker, forming the unimaginable "friendship of three"; the war was raging, the warlords were divided, and the public was in danger and full of grievances, but there were people who were "thankful for this year! "For Tang Tiezui, who specialized in selling divination and cheating people for a living, he said, "The more chaotic the year is, the better my business is! In these years, who lives and who dies is all a matter of luck, so how can I not do more fortune-telling and face reading? These small plots with a taste of perversity and a touch of comical coloring are all rare scenes born in a ridiculous year, displayed together by the playwright, confirming that an era with no social justice at all is bound to conjure up all sorts of strange and incomprehensible things in a normal society. This is just like the Dream of the Red Chamber, which says "full of ridiculous words and a handful of bitter tears", and "Teahouse", which teaches people to "laugh and cry", so that every time the audience remembers, they can not help but sigh again and again.

"The Teahouse" shows that the world is in a state of decay. Works to take the ugly characters in the occupation of most of the father and son of the "hereditary reckless" identity arrangements, in three acts of the play, human traffickers Liu Mazi and small Liu Mazi, selling divination pretending to be God's liar Tang Tiezui and small Tang Tiezui, dry detective Song Enzi and small Song Enzi, Wu Xiangzi and small Wu Xiangzi, gangsters hit Erde Zi and small Erde Zi, are all fathers of a generation, Through this group of social dregs' not only shameless but also slightly changed words and behaviors, the audience can see some social changes. Act 1, Liu Ma-zi use of social differences between rich and poor, selling people, mixed quite pleased; but to the second act, he was not up, not the rich and poor polarization of society has improved, but a worse reality called him down on his luck, he whined: "so a revolution, ah, can be a bitter me! Now, people's chief of the sub-chief, the chief of the division, to marry the aunt to sing the fall of the kunjiao, the troupe of female celebrities, a spend on 3,000 5,000 now ocean! I dry look, can not feel the door!" Doing the old-fashioned obscene business Liu Mazi, vision, vigor, can not catch up with the "social development" of the speed of the Lords of the chaotic world into a new social nobility, the evil far beyond the former Qing dynasty's powerful nobles, they chose the aunt of the standard and a throw money temperament, so that Liu Mazi this way of the fiber field veteran only left to dry see the part of the world's decline in the world can be seen here! Carry on. To the third act, it is the turn of small Liu Mazi this fiber field newcomers show their faces, he summed up his father's "a lifetime of mixed and not how" lessons, to meet the times of the turbid current, collusion with the tyrannical bureaucrats of the Kuomintang, to create the whole city of Beiping, dancers, public prostitutes, secret prostitution, jeep girls and waitresses are all organized by the "The company was to organize all the dancers, prostitutes, jeep girls and hostesses in the city of Beiping to serve the American soldiers and bureaucrats. Little Liu Mazi's ambition and cunning, can really call his dead father a small witch, traffickers line when the pattern of renovation, the peak of the extreme, more confirmed what kind of years, naturally, what kind of world style. And then look at Tang Tiezui father and son: the first two acts, Tang Tiezui waving through the market, although the years of military chaos to help support him sell divination, he ultimately failed to make a fortune, white drink a lifetime of residual tea in the teahouse, and even the Wang shopkeeper dared to squeeze him; however, to inherit the mantle of liar of the generation of the small Tang Tiezui, was sealed into the cult of the "Three Kings Road" of the "Heavenly Master". "Tianshi", small Tang Tiezui said: "I and small Liu Mazi ...... we are born of luck, living in this era, really like a fish out of water!" In the ugly world, in addition to small Liu Mazi, small Tang Tiezui this group of scoundrels, social dregs, there will never be any decent people "like a fish to water", a society is a society, as long as we look at the net of which are some of the kind of person "like a fish to water" It can be clear that this is also known as the "survival of the fittest" it. Liu Mazi and Tang Tiezui, in fact, are a "cultural symbol" of the times, they represent the most inhumane which "culture", only in the most inhumane society to eat.

On the one hand, ugly things are breeding and spreading everywhere. On the other hand, the valuable things in the traditional culture of the nation could not survive in those years, and even went to ruin. In Act 3, Zou Fuyuan, a famous writer, Wei Fuxi, a Peking opera singer, and Ming Ming, a famous chef at a restaurant, each describe how their arts and skills, which they cherish as if they were their own lives, are in jeopardy. Master Ming is a man who can "run one or two hundred tables of full-meat feasts," but in the end, for the sake of livelihood, sold all the kitchen utensils and household utensils, to the prison inmates to go to the steamed dumplings, because "nowadays it is the prison of the people ah!" Zou Fuyuan out of these artists and craftsmen's extreme bitterness: "This year is the evil years, the serious things all have to be even rotten!"

The spiritual crisis of people is part of the cultural crisis of the times. The Teahouse's portrayal of the spiritual crisis of the people in the old society is accomplished with the help of three key characters in the play - Wang Lifa, Qin Zhongyi and Chang Siwei.

Wang Lifa, the proprietor of the Yutai Teahouse, is the main character throughout the play. His father died early, in his twenties to cope with life on his own, he knows, "in the street to make a living, the top of the people is important," so according to the old ways left behind by the old generation, that "more good words, more please, please everyone's favorite, will not go wrong. Every day, he was full of smiles to meet from the bureaucrats, foreign powers, bullies, gangsters, secret agents, the police in many aspects of extortion and harassment, he is not bad-hearted, but because of the status of the destitute class than a cut above, the world's suffering has long been familiar with the blind eye. He is a decent buyer and seller, hoping for social stability, his own business is also a little bit more comfortable, but society is always screwing with him, he dare not fight with the community, can only bow down as a "submissive people", often advise tea customers "do not talk about national affairs. The world is in turmoil, other big teahouses in the city are bankrupt and out of business, he is still struggling to hold on, and from time to time to come up with some small tricks to resist the trend of the street business all go back to the word child, in his later years, looking at the teahouse can not hold on, he did not mind the shame, and intends to add a female hostess. However, the clutches of society more and more tightly jammed his neck, the Kuomintang party stick founded the "Three Kings Road" to smash his teahouse, the secret agents also came to blackmail, to ask him to hand over simply can not get out of the gold bars for the old man, the hooligans to open a new brothel, encouraged by the authorities to occupy his store... ...Wang Lifa was at a loss, came to the end of his life, which realized that decades of caution and hard work, all for nothing, in the face of the temptation to die, in the end, he shouted out the words never dared to shout out: "People have to live, right? I changed all the ways, but to live! Yes, the bribe, I will pass the baggage. I have not done anything unethical ...... those dogs and men are living a tasty life, only not allowed to eat my nest egg, who's idea?" Wang Lifa's psychological crisis is very representative of this point, do not pit people, do not harm people, against the grain, no high life requirements, is the most common mentality of the small people at that time. The status is slightly higher than the general civilian small businessman Wang Lifa, striving for well-off but not, the end of such a bleak, living in that world below the poor citizens, there is even less hope. Wang Lifa walked to the last station of life shouted out a few words, but also is haunting the bottom of the society of the little people in the heart of the unanimous confusion and resentment.

Qin Zhongyi is a national capitalist. When he appeared in Act 1, he was only in his twenties. After the failure of the Hundred Days' Reform, the country was in decline, and with a heart to serve the country, he sold his ancestral property to create a factory, wanting to save the country through industry. He spent 40 years of hard work to set up a small enterprise, thinking that this will be enough to "enrich the country and enrich the people". He was wrong, just after the war ended, his property was confiscated by the government, and the authorities not only did not continue to run the factory properly, but also sold the machines as scrap metal. Looking at the ruins of the factory, Qin Ershi was pained and resentful: "All over the world, all over the world to find such a government can not find?" His life conclusion than Wang Lifa's even worse: "...... should advise everyone, money which, should eat, drink, whore and gamble, willy-nilly, but do not do good things!" Qin Zhongyi has had than Wang Lifa much greater ability to survive, he aspired to change the reality of China, however, his life did not escape the clamps of the world, semi-feudal and semi-colonial system, imperialism, feudal oligarchs and bureaucrats buyers *** with the control of the country's economic situation, did not leave him a little bit of space to show. Moreover, he regarded himself as superior and was unable to communicate with the public. It was inevitable that he finally failed miserably after a lifetime of fighting alone in the dark years.

The fact that Master Chang, in the play "Teahouse," is the least criticized has a lot to do with his specific identity and experience as a self-made man who came out from among the flag people of old Beijing. Lao She, a writer of Manchu origin, wrote many characters with Manchu character traits throughout his life, but it was not until he was nearly old that he wrote a decent, simple, upright and hardworking Manchu for the first time in his life in an unprecedented and clear manner! The main intention of the author to write often four masters, one is to write the flag people do have a group of loyal and righteous patriots, the second is to write the spirit of Manchu culture, there are some valuable things, the third is to reflect from the end of the Qing dynasty over the Manchu people, are not all sitting around and waiting for death "wimpy". Standing four master's body embodies until the late Qing Dynasty, most of the eight banners are still holding on to the patriotic sentiment, playing the end of the Qing Dynasty, he still ate the money, sitting up teahouse time, on the very disapproval of "eat foreign religion" of the horse five masters, disapproval of foreign pandering to the foreigners in the country, "how many foreign things on a person! ", see snuff bottles also imported from foreign countries, he was heartbroken "how much silver this has to flow out of the country ah!" Especially when he felt the tragic situation of the country is not a nation, he could shout: "I see, the Qing Dynasty is going to be over!" When detectives from the authorities tried to arrest him for saying this, he told them the truth: "I love the Ching Dynasty and I am afraid that it will be over!" He was arrested and sentenced to more than a year in prison. After his release from prison, he caught up with the Boxer Rebellion, and fought a few battles with the foreigners in defense of national rights. Later, the Qing Dynasty in the end died, he was not surprised, recognized that this is the punishment of history: "the death! I am a Manchu, but I have to say a fair word!" Throughout his life, he maintained the loyal and stubborn temper of the Manchus, not bowing to evil or giving in to fate. In the early days of the Republic of China, when Manchus were being ostracized everywhere, it was like Song Erzhi said, "Who wants to starve with their eyes wide open! But who wants us flag people!" Even if you sell vegetables in a basket or peanuts in a basket, you will still be able to live a straight life. Then, like often four master so a hard man, is not a better fate, no, he also can not escape the tragedy of life. After seventy years, he was still penniless, and only then did he realize: "I love our country, but who loves me?" He foresaw that if he continued to live like this, he would not be able to make a living. He had a premonition that if he went on like this, he would either starve to death or be killed by others, and he could not shed tears even if he had any. Chang Si, a Chinese man who wanted to fight for a better future for his country and himself, his tragedy did not come from cowardice or laziness, but from his outdated concepts, which belonged to the olden times and the traditional outlook of the Manchus, and told him to think that he could break through the darkness of the overwhelming society with his righteousness and unconquerable spirit. Evil society always opens its bloody mouth and devours the poor individual citizens without mercy, even if you are no longer bold and refused to give in. Apart from the responsibility of society, the failure of Master Chang is also due to the fact that his philosophy of life is outdated. In this respect, he is on the same path as Wang Lifa and Qin Zhongyi, who finally fell to their doom.

The Teahouse work has just been published, there are theater critics criticized: "This play ...... has too much low back vouching for some old people in the old times." This work incorporates a considerable degree of Lao She's "low back to venerate the feelings", should be said to be the fact that the question is, this kind of emotion is redundant or unhealthy? The playwright "hangs" the excellent culture that is not tolerated by the ugly times, "hangs" the good characters who struggled and finally failed, as long as we respect the history, it is not difficult to appreciate the value of Lao She's object of these hangings identified. The excellent national tradition was evil?br>

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