Tang Xianzu's Peony Pavilion is full of unique life experiences that ordinary people can't understand. He himself said, "In spring in Tang Yuming, the screen is green, and the new word" Peony Pavilion "is sung. Sadness shoots all over the ground, and no one wants to teach Xiao Ling to follow Tan Mark. " At that time, people also said, "Because the author is famous for his poems and songs in his early years, he is also a thinker of Taizhou School and likes to talk about current politics, people often refuse to talk about drama based on drama in his plays, and always think that there are many surprises hidden in the drama image." (Historical Draft of Kunqu Opera Performance by Lu Kaerting, Shanghai Literature and Art Publishing House of Zhao University, p. 1980, p. 59). How to understand the cultural significance of the Peony Pavilion in Kunqu Opera? I think, first of all, we should go to the theater to read the script, but it may be enlightening to read the English translation and see what foreigners say. In addition, because the description method of anthropology is close to literature, anthropologists can "interpret" the script like literary critics. "Anthropologist's job is to choose a cultural undertaking that attracts his attention, and then enrich it with detailed descriptions and give it explanations, so as to tell his readers to understand the significance of the culture he described" (Anthropology as a cultural criticism-the experimental era of humanities (Malcus Fisher Joint Publishing Company, 1998, p. 52).
Shakespeare and Tang Xianzu belong to the same era and both died in 16 16. CyrilBirch, the translator of The Peony Pavilion, said that Tang Xianzu's inscription was written in 1598, almost at the same time as Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet written on the other side of the world. More similarly, Tang Xianzu's The Peony Pavilion responds to a western proverb "An inexhaustible Shakespeare". These two great dramatists not only lived in the same historical period, but also shared the same thoughts. So far, not only China people, but also foreigners. "If you don't go to the garden, how can you know the spring scenery!" How can I feel the splendor of spring without visiting this garden! This can also be a kind of concealment: I can't understand the classical Kunqu art, which is a manifestation of illiteracy. Cheng & Boston, USA; Tsui Publishing Company proudly published the Peony Pavilion (in English or pinyin) with a total volume of 55 volumes, and won the American Excellent Academic Works Award in 198 1. The translator used the proofreading version of Peony Pavilion by Shuofang Xu and Yang Xiaomei. The introduction of the book cover is concise. "This story of classical Chinese opera in the Ming Dynasty, which was produced in the late 6th century A.D./KLOC-0, tells the story that Du Liniang dreamed of an ideal lover; But there was no hope of seeing him again, so he died peacefully. She seemed to be dead, and kept looking for her dream lover like a ghost until the lover finally found her self-portrait; This lover also dreamed of her, and love made her magically come alive. "
In the preface, the translator first quoted Tang Xianzu's inscription: "All women in the world have feelings, so it is better to be Du Like Li Niang!"! I dreamed that the man was ill, and he was ill evenly, described by hand, spread all over the world and died. Three years after death, people who can regain their dreams in the desert were born. " Tang Xianzu knew that "the living can die, and the dead can live", but the world did not believe that "it is also a theory of skeleton". Therefore, he argues that the story has its origin, and that "nothing in the world can be done by the world." Since you are not an ordinary person, you must always be reasonable! There will be no cloud at the beginning, and there will be evil where you know it! "This is chicanery, but because we read the book and saw the Kunqu Opera Peony Pavilion, we were deeply moved and forgave him. For Tang Xianzu, "love" is great, heartfelt, irresistible and a victory over cold feudal rationality.
Indeed, the officialdom in the Tang Dynasty was exhausted, and he expressed his feelings of personality liberation and freedom through the love between men and women in The Peony Pavilion. "The living can die and the dead can live." Du Liniang is not only a girl's longing for spring, but also a metaphor of the free thought of personality liberation: "The most affectionate" can "revive the soul". "Writers feel the pain of the people, the oppression of the youth, and the uselessness of intellectuals. The depression of this era and society and the hope of longing for a way out are all condensed by the writer's pen and reflected in Du Liniang's character "(the first issue of Kunqu Art, p. 64). Amin scholar Wang Siren said: "Love can't be said to be death, and death is not enough to enjoy love. If there is Pepsi, death is more affectionate than beauty. " Ji Kang said in Emancipation that there is a profound contradiction between man's natural nature and feudal ethics. The two scenes of "going to the park" and "seeking dreams" concentrated on expressing the idea of advocating nature. "I know that my lifelong hobby is nature" is the crowning touch. The ancients attached their feelings to drama and entrusted their political ideals to beautiful women. This is a tradition since Qu Yuan's Lisao. "Beauty and vanilla are the myths of loyal ministers and dutiful sons." This requires constant understanding and reflection. Even the great Mao Zedong said that after reading Li Sao several times, he had a new experience. Wu Mei said that The Peony Pavilion is a time of life and death, with the first 50% being born and dying, and the last 50% being born and dying (Wu Mei Opera Essays, edited by Wang Weimin, China Theatre Publishing House, 1983, 156). The rebirth after Du Liniang's death is the real center of the play and the immortal ideal that the author hopes. Feudalism can be revived, so why can't democracy be as red as the moon sets like Du Liniang?
The translator also said that in Tang Xianzu's era, Southern Opera reached the peak of popularity. It is characterized by the love between young men and women, which meets with resistance, but is ultimately a happy ending. Du Liniang is one of the most admirable heroines in China's classical literature. The play has an elegant flavor. In a beautiful atmosphere, with poetic language, the main roles between life and death in the play are analyzed and a "profound philosophical judgment" is made. He also said that college students in Chinese mainland and Taiwan Province can have a good dream when they read this book on the sunny Sunday grass. Besides, Du Liniang, a young girl, has general characteristics. Mr. Pan Guangdan said, "Young people tend to daydream before marriage." . He took ancient books as evidence: "Twenty-eight beauties stood on the ground, ... gorgeous and unparalleled, while Xu Nai danced back to the wind, as if walking on the ground, graceful and charming, with his sleeves stirring and not touching" (Pan Guangdan's original translation of Sexual Psychology +0988+072). I fell ill, forced my pen to take a small picture of flowers, and died for a long time "(ibid., p. 179). In Ming Dynasty, there was a famous actress Shang Xiaoling in Hangzhou. She was famous for her color art. She is good at performing the Peony Pavilion by Tang Xianzu. Later, she got sick because of one-sided lovesickness and finally died on the red flag. The descriptions in these ancient books are very similar to those in Du Liniang. Li Yu's friend, Suzhou Youdong, wrote "Jun Tian Le". The play laughed and cursed, attacking the darkness of the examination room. It is also interlinked with The Peony Pavilion, where the owner "dies for love, and death can revive". In modern times, He Qifang wrote about the premature death of a 16-year-old girl from a peasant family in Painting Dreams. "Now my dream is a bare forest with all the leaves gone. Still in the journey of Wuxia, dark days, dark water, I don't know where to go. When I wake up, the twilight of a city is like a dream world (drawing a dream life, edited by He Qifang He Naiguang Huacheng Publishing House, 1992, 1 page).
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The translator's other elaborate work is "The Stage of China People-Elite Drama of Ming Dynasty" (a stage with a theater). Its theme is to introduce the relationship between elite and stage in Ming Dynasty. He studies and teaches Chinese at the School of Asian and African Studies, University of London. I have been to this college, and the Chinese library in it is said to be the best in Britain. There are many overseas students and many black people. There is a traditional landscape painting of China hanging on the wall, but I dare not compliment the foreign food I ate in the university cafeteria.
It's just a coincidence that there is a passage at the beginning of Professor Bai Ye's book that is particularly similar to my sense of presence at the theatre. The old American expert said that Kunqu Opera came into being at the turning point of17th century, which was the golden age of China's drama. Imagine "400 years ago, some foreigners visited the ancient city of Suzhou by the Grand Canal" and "some of them were invited to participate in social activities in the private houses of China people"; "Today is the birthday of our friend, the Governor of Jiangsu Province, and we celebrate with a small group of people. The yamen of the Governor's Office is quieter than usual. There are large-scale activities in the spacious house. He also said that it was a spring day, peonies blossomed and the roads in the bamboo forest were swept clean; The kitchen prepares Taihu fish; The new hall is a little cold; The theater is very tall and beautifully decorated. The most important thing is to have a play. The home class and the band are already waiting on the stage. The play is "a relaxed comedy, full of wisdom and picturesque singing". The background introduced by Mr. Bai Ye is very similar to that of our theater today. The ancient stage of the museum is in the former Governor's House, followed by the Humble Administrator's Garden.
Du Liniang, played by Wang Fang on the stage, is singing:
It turned out to be colorful.
Like this, they are all paid for broken wells.
Beautiful scenery, but which day?
Enjoying family happiness is a kind of enjoyment.
The stage is basically a Yi Deng with one person, one table and one chair. However, during the one-and-a-half-hour performance, the audience was brought into the artistic realm. The Peony Pavilion, taught by a generation of "Chuan" and Mr. Zhang, is "profound and colorful, which is beyond the reach of ancient and modern music", which can be said to be a model of artistic expression of traditional Chinese opera. If an actor lacks enough skills, he will never be competent to perform. Under the stage, the audience was immersed in the beauty of Kunqu opera for fear of ending. Kunqu Opera is the art that can best express China's traditional lyricism. It combines song, dance, poetry and drama, and its form is so exquisite. Some western operas seem to sing instead of dancing. Unfortunately, the recently popular Peking Opera China Guifei is a bit like a foreign opera. Kunqu opera can express the most beautiful emotions with the simplest and simplest stage. It is really the pride of Suzhou people that Suzhou still has such excellent traditional culture under the circumstance that modern global business culture dominates the whole country. If we want to maintain our present position, we must pass it on from generation to generation.
No matter how good the desk book is, the script will shrink. If there is no stage to play, the impact will not be so great. The traditional performance techniques left over from hundreds of years are passed down from generation to generation by the older generation of actors, which is very precious. Indeed, after hundreds of years of creation, the continuous processing of actors and the performance experience of actors, many traditional passbook dramas have become more brilliant and moving. For example, in the Qing Dynasty, Suzhou Jixiuban was the most author of Su Ban, all of whom were old people in Liyuan. They were not glamorous, but their fine melody and craftsmanship were fascinating, just like ancient society. Non-first-class people can't enter here. "In Qing Dynasty, Jin Dehui was good at playing girl Dan (Kunban was called wudan), and seeking dreams was his masterpiece. His performance, "don't spare a kind of sadness in a cold place." Reminiscent of the ancient poems: "The screen is green with gauze, and the open furnace is like jade", "The banquet recalls the old days and Linchuan, and the night in the hall is thrilling" (Song of Peony Pavilion, Master of Garden Lake, and Chronicle of Ming Poetry, volume 22). How touching this is!
Suzhou Kunqu Opera Peony Pavilion was revived after the Cultural Revolution. At this time, people re-recognized the lofty status of Kunqu opera. This is the significance of Zhang's performance at that time. For a long time, Kunqu Opera has no such status. Zhang's song and dance: "Flowers and plants are loved by people, and life and death follow people's wishes, so no one complains", which is very wonderful. It is said that it surpassed Empresses in the Palace's generation and Mei Lanfang (only in this respect: in the documentary of the 1950s, Mei, as an elderly man, was naturally not as beautiful as a young woman). Zhang performed well in middle age. Although the audience is an ordinary woman, a young girl can be shown on the stage, still with a "throat like a young warbler". As the ancients said, "The word is gentle and graceful, and the length of the word is extended by a few breaths", and her luck is free. She also used a quiet dance to express her melancholy mood, sometimes smiled, waved her sleeves and took Feiyan and Yingying to the garden. The traditional "Peony Pavilion" is so unpretentious, "the true colors are distinct, MC Davi is ordinary, and the customs are unique."
The performance mode of the ancient stage in Zhongwangfu is the same as that in the old system, including admission and inspection. And the lights are also white, which highlights the performance of the actors. Zhu Jiajin, an old man, especially appreciated the accompaniment of the play, and only used Nanxian (that is, Sanxian) and Qin Yue. He said, "Why do you have to add cello and big bass? Kunqu opera is to listen to her elegant taste. If the soundtrack is too rich, it will sometimes destroy the classical charm and artistic conception "; "Not all foreign musical instruments can move into Kunqu Opera. This point has long been noticed by predecessors. So many Chinese and foreign musical instruments, why not' introduce' Kunqu opera? " Mr. Zhu emphasized: "The ancients were not stupid. They know how Kunqu opera should be shown to people. In fact, after several generations of polishing and washing, the music of Kunqu Opera has found a harmonious combination way, such as two flutes and three-stringed harmony, adding sheng to raw Dan opera and suona to pure ugly opera.
Foreigners also come to the garden, and now the whole Peony Pavilion has different versions, which is a worldwide craze. First of all, there are 55 Peony Pavilion directed by Chinese-American director Zheng. I saw the advertisement of director Zheng's Peony Pavilion on the Internet. Later, I watched the whole video. The other is Peony Pavilion arranged by Shanghai Kunqu Opera Troupe. Hong Kong scholar Gu is also interested in editing Peony Pavilion. He said, I only have two principles: first, adaptation must give full play to the theme of the original; Second, we should retain the advantages and characteristics of Kunqu opera stage art. I think, if it continues, there may be a new adaptation, which can refer to the love story of Shakespeare in the western blockbuster and interweave Shakespeare's deeds with the plot of Romeo and Juliet. However, this creative method has long been shown in Jiang Shiquan's Linchuan Dream in the Qing Dynasty, and both Tang Xianzu and Du Liniang appeared on the stage. Suzhou still needs a relatively complete notebook. Gu compiled a book, Peony Pavilion, which has been auditioned. Now there are other, processing performances. Script reduction is a skill. Suzhou, as the birthplace, should do better in adhering to traditional characteristics.