Ancient Chinese Novels and Operas: Cylinder Analysis of the Cultural Significance of The Peony Pavilion

Tang Xianzu's The Peony Pavilion "becomes a dream due to love, and a play due to dream", "is full of strange qi, and has a wide range of arguments", in which the unique feelings of life are difficult to be experienced by ordinary people. He himself said, "Jade Ming Hall opens the spring cui screen, and new words are sung in the Peony Pavilion. No one knows the sadness of the song, so he pinched the sandalwood mark and taught the young actress. The people of the time also said, "Since the author was famous for his poetry and literature in his early years, and was a thinker belonging to the Taizhou school who liked to discuss current affairs, people often refused to treat his plays as 'plays on plays', and always thought that there were a lot of wit hidden in the images of the plays, which was not exhaustive". (The Historical Manuscript of Kun Opera Performances by Lu Calypting with Zhao Jingshen, Shanghai Literature and Art Publishing House, 1980, page 59). How to recognize the cultural significance of the Kun Opera "Peony Pavilion"? I think, first of all, we have to watch the play and read the script, but it may be enlightening to read the English translation and see what foreigners have to say. Besides, since anthropology's descriptive method is close to literature, anthropologists can "interpret" the play like literary critics. "The anthropologist's job is to select a cultural enterprise that has attracted his attention, and then to flesh it out and illustrate it with detailed descriptions, so as to tell his readers to understand the significance of the culture he is describing" (Anthropology as Cultural Criticism - An Experimental Era in the Humanities (The Anthropologist as Cultural Critic)). Marcus Fetcher by Triad Books 1998 52).

Shakespeare and Tang Xianzu belonged to the same era, and both died in 1616. Cyril Birch, the translator of The Peony Pavilion, says that Tang Xianzu's "inscription" was written in 1598, around the same time that Shakespeare, on the other side of the world, wrote Romeo and Juliet. More similarly, Tang Xianzu's The Peony Pavilion fulfills the Western adage that Shakespeare is inexhaustible. These two great dramatists not only lived in the same historical period, but also shared the same ideas. To this day, not only Chinese people can't say it enough, but foreigners can't say it enough either. "Without visiting this garden, how can I know that spring is as colorful as this!" (Without visiting this garden, how could I ever have realized this splendor or of spring!) This can also be a kind of implicit: not being able to understand the art of classical Kun Opera is a manifestation of lack of culture. Cheng&Tsui Publishing Company of Boston, USA, claimed to be "proud" to have published the entire 55-volume edition of The Peony Pavilion (The Peony Pavilion or MudanTing in pinyin), which was honored as the Outstanding Scholarly Work of the United States in 1981. The translator used a proof-text of The Peony Pavilion by Xu Shuo Fang and Yang Xiaomei. The introduction on the book's cover reads succinctly, "Produced in the late 16th century during the Ming dynasty, this classical theater tale tells of Du Liniang, who dreams of an ideal lover; but with no hope of ever meeting him again, dies an uneasy death. As if dead, she kept searching for her dream lover like a ghost, until this lover at last discovered her self-painted image; this lover also dreamed of her, and love brought her magically to life".

The translator's "Foreword" begins with a quotation from Tang Xianzu's "Inscription": "The world's women have feelings, rather like Du Liniang! Dreaming of its people that is sick, sick that is Milian, to the hand painting description, passed on to the world and then died. Dead three years ago, but also in the dark desert to seek to get its dreamers and life". Tang Xianzu knew that this "life can die, death can be born", the world does not believe, "the theory of the skeleton. So he argued that the story has its origin, and "the world of man, not the world can be exhausted. Since the non-common man, always to reason with the ear! If there is no such thing as reason, then there is no such thing as knowledge!" This is a strong argument, but because we read the book and watched the Kun Opera "Peony Pavilion", we were y moved and forgave him. For Tang Xianzu, "love" is great, it comes from within, it cannot be suppressed, it is a victory over cold feudal reason.

Really, Tang's official love was exhausted, and he used the love of man and woman in The Peony Pavilion to express the love of personal liberation and freedom, "once you are in love with a person, the living can die, and the dead can be born". Du Liniang is not only a young girl's wistfulness, but also a metaphor for the free thought of personality emancipation: "the most affectionate" can "return to the soul". "The writer feels the pain of the people, the oppression of the youth, and the uselessness of the intellectuals' talents. The bitterness of the time and society and the hope for a way out are condensed by the writer's brush and reflected in the character of Du Liniang" (Kun Opera Art, 64). Ming Wang Siren said, "love can not discuss the death, death is not enough to enjoy, a hundred thousand love affairs, a death and stop, then the love is not deeper than Ally who carry on". Jikang in the "interpretation of private theory" said, "more than the name and religion and let nature", the natural nature of man and the feudal ethical and moral concepts of a profound contradiction between. The two scenes of "Garden Tour" and "Searching for Dreams" focus on the idea of reverence for nature, and "I know that my life's hobby is nature" is the finishing line. It is a tradition since Qu Yuan's "Li Sao" that the ancients used the theater as a means of expressing their political ideals with beautiful women: "Beauty and vanilla are all allegories of loyal subjects and filial piety". This requires constant comprehension and reflection. Even the great Mao Zedong said that after reading Li Sao a few times, he gained new insights. Wu Mei said that The Peony Pavilion is "at the time of life and death," with the first five acts "from life to death," and the second five acts "from death to life" (Wu Mei's Essays on Opera, edited by Wang Weimin, China Opera Press, 1983). China Theater Publishing House, 1983, p. 156). The regeneration of Du Liniang after her death is indeed the center of the play, an ideal that the author hopes will not be extinguished. Feudalism can be resurrected, but why can't democracy, like Du Liniang's, "be reborn when the moon is down and the lamps are red again"?

The translator adds that during Tang Xianzu's time, southern opera reached the peak of its popularity. It was characterized by the love of a young man and woman, which met with resistance but ended in a happy ending. Du Liniang is one of the most worshipped heroines in classical Chinese literature. The play has a flavor of idle elegance. In a beautiful atmosphere and in poetic language, the play analyzes the main roles between life and death, making "profound philosophical assertions". It is also said that on a sunny Sunday lawn, college students in China and Taiwan can have a good dream when they read this book. Moreover, the youthful girl, Du Liniang, has general characteristics. Old Mr. Pan Guangdan said, "It is unusual that young people who keep their bodies in good condition before marriage are prone to daydreaming." He used an ancient book as evidence: "There are two eight beautiful women, end standing on, ...... The colorful and beautiful, Xu Nai made back to the wind of the dance, such as walking on the ground, the gentle curls, a hundred charming cross-breeding, the two sleeves of the cloud, not sticking not off" (Sexual Psychology, Nicholas original Pan Guangdan translation of the life of the reading and new knowledge of the Publishing House in 1988, 172 pages) and there is also a woman in the Song Dynasty, the seventeen years of death, "Whenever the rain is hanging down the curtains, the fall of the British floating masonry, to the mirror to speak to themselves, sobbing down the lapel. She was sick and dying, but she forced herself to use her pen. Disease and Duchess, strong pen from the hairpin small shadow, spinning to see a long time, a mournful and extinct" (ibid. 179 pages). Hangzhou in the Ming Dynasty, a female actress named Shang Xiaoling, known as the color art, good acting Tang Xianzu "Peony Pavilion - Soul Records", and then because of one-sided lovesickness, depression into a disease, and ultimately died in the red rug. These ancient books describe how similar Du Liniang was. Li Yu's friend You Dong, a native of Suzhou, wrote "Juntian Music". This drama is a play of laughter and anger, attacking the darkness of the imperial court. It is also similar to The Peony Pavilion, in which the main character "dies for love, but death can bring him back to life". The early death of a sixteen-year-old daughter of a peasant family was also written about in He Qifang's "Record of Painted Dreams" in the modern era. "Now I am dreaming of a barren forest, with all the leaves off the trees. Or in the Wu Gorge between the journey, dark sky, dark water, do not know where to go. Wake up, a city of twilight is exactly like the world in my dream" ("Painting Dreams of Life" He Qifang Meiwen He Naiguang edited by Huacheng Publishing House 1992 1 page).

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Another elaborate work by the translator is SCENESFORMANDARINSTheEliteTheateroftheMingDynasty (《中国人的舞台-明代精英戏剧》). CyrilBirchNewYorkColumbiaUniversityPress) book. Its theme is an introduction to the relationship between the Ming elite and the stage. He studied and taught Chinese at the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London. This college, which I have been to, has a Chinese language library that is said to be the largest in the UK, a particularly large number of foreign students, a lot of blacks, and large paintings of traditional Chinese landscapes on the walls, except that the one foreign meal I have had in the college's cafeteria was not very complimentary.

It's just a coincidence that the beginning of Prof. Bai's book has a paragraph that is particularly similar to a scene from a theater I saw. The old American expert said that the Kun Opera was produced in the 17th century, which was the golden age of Chinese theater. Imagine that "four hundred years ago, some foreigners visited the ancient city of Suzhou on the Grand Canal," and "some of them were invited to socialize in the private homes of the Chinese"; "Today is the birthday of our friend the Governor of Jiangsu Province. We celebrated it with a small group. The Governor's court was quieter than usual" and "there were large functions in the spacious residence". He added that it was a spring day, and the peonies were in bloom, and the paths in the bamboo forest were swept; fish from Taihu Lake were prepared in the kitchen; it was a little chilly in the newly built hall; and the hall where the theater was to be seen was very tall and beautifully decorated. The main thing was that there was a play, and the house band and orchestra were already waiting at the side of the stage, ordering a play that was "a light-hearted comedy, full of intelligent dialog, and sung in a picturesque style. Mr. Bai also introduced the background and the background of today's theater is very similar, the museum's ancient theater is in the former Governor (actually governor) House, behind the Humble Administrator's Garden.

Du Liniang, played by Wang Fang, was singing:

Originally, beautiful purples and brilliant reds bloomed all over the place

Like this, all of them were paid off with broken wells and decrepit walls

Good times and beautiful scenery are not the day

Then the pleasure is in the courtyard of whoever is in the house

Basically, there is one person on the stage with a table, a chair, and a lamp. But in the hour and a half long performance, the audience was brought into the realm of art. The Peony Pavilion, which was taught by the "Chuan" generation and Mr. Zhang Jicheng, "has a depth and splendor that no other ancient or modern opera can achieve," and can be said to be an example of the artistic expression of China's traditional operas. If an actor lacks sufficient skills, he or she will never be able to perform. Offstage, the audience is so immersed in the beauty of Kunqu that they are afraid that the song will end. Kunqu is one of the most expressive of traditional Chinese lyrical art, which combines song, dance, poetry, and theater into a form as exquisite as that. Some Western operas seem to have songs without dance, singing, unfortunately, recently fired a very red Peking Opera "China Princess" is somewhat like a foreign opera. Kunqu, on the other hand, is able to express the most beautiful emotions on the simplest and plainest stage. It is a source of pride for Suzhou people that there are such traditional cultural masterpieces in the modern world where commercial culture reigns supreme. Now it has to be passed on from generation to generation if it is to continue to maintain this status.

No matter how good the desk book is, no matter how much the script has been reduced, the impact will not be as great without the stage play. The traditional performance techniques left over from centuries, handed down from generations of older actors, are very precious. Indeed, a lot of traditional folding plays after hundreds of years of creative labor, the continuous processing of the actors, the actor's performance experience to make it appear more glamorous and moving. Such as Suzhou in the Qing Dynasty set of show class is "Su class of the most famous, its people are all the Pearland father and mother, do not do the colorful, and the sound of fine, body shape of the work, people move the eye, as the ancient will. Non-first-class can not enter this". Jin Dehui in the Qing Dynasty, specializing in the play of the lady's maiden (Kunban called the five dan), "Dream" is its representative performance. His performances are "cold and spare a kind of sadness and color". It reminds us of the poems of the ancients: "The rug is only green across the screen, and the tea-furnace is like jade", and "When the feast aroused the old Linchuan, the night was deep in the Jade Tea Hall" (Song of the Master of the Mandarin's Lake in the Peony Pavilion by a concubine of his family, Ming Poetry Chronicle, Volume XXII). This is how touching it is!

Suzhou Kun Opera "Peony Pavilion" was revitalized after the Cultural Revolution. It was then that people re-recognized the high status of kun opera. This was the significance of Zhang Jiqing's performance at that time. For a long time, Kun Opera did not have such a status. Zhang Jizheng's song and dance, "Flowers and grasses are loved by people, life and death are at the whim of people, and no one complains about the sourness", was so wonderful that it was said to have surpassed the "Chuan" generation, and Mei Lanfang (for that matter only: in the documentaries of the '59s, Mei, as an older man, was naturally the first to play the role of the flower girl). (just for the record: in the documentary films of the '59s, Mei, as an older man, played the flower girl again, and naturally was not as beautiful as the young woman). Zhang Ji-Qing's middle-aged performances were also remarkable. Although she was an ordinary woman offstage, she could act like a young girl onstage, and still have a "throat like a young warbler". As the ancients said, "soft and gentle, the length of a word, extended to several breaths", luck freely. She also expresses her melancholy mood with her serene dancing posture, and sometimes she smiles a little, shakes her fan and dances with her sleeves, and swims in the garden with the swallows and warblers ****. The traditional Peony Pavilion is so simple and unadorned, "the color of clear words, ordinary tea and rice, absolutely vulgar away from the world".

The way of performance in the ancient theater of Zhongwang Mansion is the same as the old system, including the appearance of the generals and the inspection of the field, etc. The lighting is also used with a large white light, which highlights the performances of the actors. Elder Zhu especially appreciated the way the opera was accompanied, using only the nanxian (i.e., three strings) and the moon zither. He said, "Why do we have to add cello and double bass? Kunqu is to be heard in her elegant flavor, and if the soundtrack is too colorful, it will sometimes destroy the classical rhythm and mood"; "Not all the instruments available in foreign countries can be moved into the Kunqu Opera, about which our predecessors have long been aware. So many Chinese and foreign musical instruments, why have they not been 'introduced' into Kun Opera"? Mr. Zhu emphasized, "The ancients were not fools. They knew what kind of style kunqu should be shown to people. In fact, the soundtrack of kunqu has been honed over several generations and has found a harmonious combination, such as the general use of two flutes with three strings and a moon zither, the addition of a sheng to a raw dancer's play, and the addition of a suona to a pure clown's play."

Foreigners have also come to "visit the garden", and now there are different versions of the full-length Peony Pavilion, which is a worldwide craze. One is the full 55-episode "Peony Pavilion" directed by Chen Shiqiang, a Chinese-American director, and I saw an advertisement for the full 55-episode "Peony Pavilion" directed by Chen Shiqiang on the Internet. Later, a video of the full-length version was also seen. The other is the Peony Pavilion which is self-released by the Shanghai Kun Opera Troupe. The Hong Kong scholar, Koo Siu Shen, also intended to make a new version of The Peony Pavilion. He said, "I have only two principles: first, the adaptation must give full play to the theme and purpose of the original; second, it must retain the merits and characteristics of the stage art of kun opera. I think, further down the line, there may have to be a new kind of adaptation, which can refer to the western blockbuster British Shakespeare in Love, interspersing Shakespeare's exploits with the plot of Roméo et Juliette. However, this method of creation has been demonstrated early on in the Qing Dynasty in the play Linchuan Meng by Jiang Shiquan, in which Tang Xianzu and Du Liniang were both featured on the stage. Suzhou still needs a more complete version. Gu Dujuan has organized a version of The Peony Pavilion, which has been auditioned. Now there are others, processing the performance. Script reduction is a skill. Suzhou, as the birthplace, should do better in sticking to the traditional characteristics.