-Interpretation of the struggle between Li Bai and Lessing's personality theory

"Going out and laughing in the sky, is our generation Artemisia?" Xunyang Jiangtou, a poet Li Bai, started the ups and downs and struggles of his life with the usual contradictions of literati in that era, hovering between "further weakness and unwillingness to retreat" and shouldering the tragic fate that he could never escape.

The drama "Li Bai", starring Pu Cunxin, a famous actor in human arts, mainly tells the later period of Li Bai's life. In the 50s of the 8th century, the magnificent buildings of the Tang Dynasty collapsed in the pounding of hooves during the Anshi Rebellion. Poet Li Bai entered the Wang Yong shogunate with patriotic enthusiasm. He was ambitious, but he failed to detect betrayal. Soon, Wang Yong died of defeat, and Li Bai was unjustly imprisoned. The emperor sentenced him to long-term hooliganism. He went all the way to Leng Yue to Baidicheng. Li Bai was pardoned and released as the pawnbroker, because the commander-in-chief of Guo Ziyi's military and horses vouched for him. Although Dangtu's landscape dulled Li Bai's desire for official career, the call of the last battle of the rebel army aroused the poet's passion for serving the country, and he made a shocking feat: he joined the Guo Ziyi military camp in his later years. A boat was drifting in the moonlight, and the poet chased the moon shadow on the river and fell into the river and died.

The whole drama lasts for more than three hours, showing a historical story that is true and false or even fabricated. There are not too many earth-shattering joys and sorrows, and there are not too many bizarre twists and turns. Showed us such a group of characters: Li Bai, who is both immortal and vulgar; Li Jushi, who is upright and upright; Marshal Guo, who is kind and grateful; Song Kangxiang, who is intrigued and intrigued; and wujun, a Taoist who never gives up ... Through his contact and conflict with them, Li Bai's obedience and resistance to the environment vividly showed his character. Just as the screenwriter of this drama said: Li Bai has always been called a poetic fairy, leaving a white image. In fact, he has been hovering between being an official and hiding, both helpful and independent. Despise power, but also keen on fame and fortune; Proud and coquetry; It is generous and often ... "... This is the character of Li Bai that this drama tries to explain to us.

Personality is a person's stable attitude towards reality and the psychological characteristics of his habitual behavior. It has the characteristics of stability and habit. Lessing, the father of German new literature, believes that the description of characters must follow the principle of "learning from nature". "Learning from nature" means that art should reflect the objective reality, which is not the so-called historical truth, but a rationality of the occurrence of events and the development of characters. From Lessing's point of view, to analyze Li Bai's character, we should summarize all the events that Li Bai experienced from the perspective of seeing Li Bai. In addition, we have to see whether Li Bai's reaction in these events conforms to the personality characteristics that the play tries to show us.

Lessing thinks that drama truth is more attractive than historical truth, and what we should face squarely is drama truth and drama character. The creation of dramatic characters should pursue "inner truth". Authentic and credible dramatic characters do not refer to those who actually existed in life, but those who were created in dramatic art and achieved authenticity in the new world. In other words, in the drama Li Bai, we don't need to research Li Bai's struggle in being an official, the real character of Li Bai, and we don't want to force the director to show us all the historical truths. What we should pay more attention to is whether the process of development in this fictional art world conforms to the character Li Bai, and whether Li Bai's behavior and language in the play conform to the inherent possibility and rationality of his dramatic character. In Lessing's view, personality is far more important than events. "All things that have nothing to do with personality can be ignored by writers. For writers, only personality is sacred. Strengthening personality and clearly expressing personality are the most important places for writers to use pens in the process of expressing character characteristics. " In drama, it is a role selection event. What kind of character Li Bai is, our story matches this character. This is also the most important criterion to measure whether the event arrangement is typical.

The subtlety of "Li Bai" lies in establishing people, and Li Bai's role is also a vivid literati image displayed on the stage. Scholars in this era seem to present a prosperous scene of the Tang Dynasty, that is, they are no longer satisfied with writing poems and articles, but hope to make a difference to the country. This is exactly what we want to outline in this play, and his contradiction makes the facts in the play more real. This seems a little hard to understand, but it contains profound truth. Events are the product of human behavior and personality, so the rationality of events is determined by their related personalities. Then, let's analyze the character Li Bai who corresponds to the story in the play from Li Bai's plot arrangement.

First of all, we need to see whether Li Bai's character is consistent in this play. The play itself can be contradictory, but the characters cannot be contradictory. The first scene of the play took place in Jiangtou, Xunyang, and Li Bai's wife and others saw him off. Mr. Wu Yun, an old friend, had a long talk with Li Bai and said, "Half a day passed, and rivers and mountains flowed." From the beginning, it brought us into the natural, optimistic and unrestrained world of Li Bai's character. They drank wantonly and laughed at Zhuangzi's seclusion. At this time, Li Bai yearned for a more exciting environment and was full of ambition to go to such a realm, which was Li Bai's yearning for being an official. I can't help but let all our spectators have some regrets and sighs. A Taoist priest also saw Li Bai off. The most thought-provoking thing is the last sentence of Taoism, "Misfortune is not known in happiness, and misfortune is imminent", which suddenly turns the emotional cells of the audience into "bitterness" and the story begins in bitterness. And the second scene in Aeon House. We know from Hui that Li Bai has been here for some time. Although he was treated favorably by Wang Yong on the surface, he was not taken seriously by officials to do something practical. He doesn't know that his role is actually equivalent to a vase, putting the world-famous great talent Li Bai under the curtain. All Wang Yong wants is decoration. Scholars have always taken the road of official seclusion, but no matter which choice they make, it is just their wishful thinking and splendid dream. As long as you have the ability to call the wind and rain, as long as you have the bearing of three mountains and five mountains, what you need in the position of emperor is the amorous feelings of "clothes for the clouds, flowers for the capacity" and the ode of "making the monarch want to be Yao and Shun". Finally, the heroic political ambition and the general plan of governing the country can only be a joke in the crowing. This also tells us from another side that Li Bai's true temperament is not in harmony with his thought of serving the country.

Therefore, Li Bai drowned his sorrows by drinking, and finally broke into the conversation hall between Wang Yong and Si Mahui. He threw himself into Wang Yong's arms and cried and admitted that he could not repay the kindness of the son of heaven. Looking forward to the day when his ambition to serve his country will be rewarded, Wang Yong kindly advised him that "it is better to be an official than to write poetry", but after this "courtesy", a completely unpredictable rebellion against Li Bai is actually brewing. His literati character and temperament made him unable to see such treachery and conspiracy, so he could only devote himself to such a struggle after all, unable to extricate himself, and was eventually unjustly imprisoned. Events are the product of personality. If it weren't for Li Bai's yearning for the secular world and the simplicity and purity of the literati deeply rooted in Li Bai's heart, how could it happen that he went to Yongwangfu as an attendant and was killed and imprisoned? The story happened in this period accords with the contradiction of Li Bai's own character, and the result of the development of things is also the product of this contradiction.

Li Bai's reading of Zhuangzi in prison is a great exaggeration of the poet's noble character. It's amazing that only Li can recite Zhuangzi gracefully in this situation. But many people think that the dialogue scene between Li Bai and Xian Gu is too unreal after reading it. First of all, it's a question how Xian Gu got into prison. Xiangu longed for Li Bai's name and made a special trip from Lushan to pray for him, which made people very puzzled. Li Bai and Xian Gu knew each other, and Li also gave them poems. But when Xiangu finally reported her life story and told her that she was Li's granddaughter, Li Bai's mood suddenly changed and she was cynical. Many people will be puzzled by this dramatic change, but let's look at it with Lessing's personality decision. Why must we investigate its authenticity? We just need to pay attention to whether this development is the trend of Li Bai's personality. In fact, what Li Bai wants is a career, a strong desire to serve the country, and a straightforward personality. In addition, he is still in such a situation at this time, so he suddenly heard the truth and was short of breath. He vented his grievances and hatred against traitors on this aunt, which was quite indifferent and willful. We can understand that this process conforms to Li Bai's character and is very consistent with Lessing's character center.

Secondly, it depends on whether the relationship between Li Bai's personality and the environment at that time is harmonious. Personality has no purpose, it has no clear consciousness of what to do and what not to do, so it is personality that guides the development of events. In "Li Bai", the big environment that Li Bai faces is complex, and his personal small environment is also real and virtual. According to Lessing's point of view, when analyzing Li Bai's personality, we should also look at whether Li Bai's personality is harmonious with the environment, and what kind of relationship and conflict there are between them. Speaking of which, what happened in Song Kangxiang prison is a good proof. In this play, first, a group of small aides and Hui Sima "exposed" each other, revealing a group of servile faces, then, pointing the finger at Li Bai, and finally, the two sides joined hands to push Li Bai to the turning point of fate again by borrowing Li Bai's "Tour Song". In such a world where black and white are turned upside down by a group of people, Li Bai seems to be an alternative, out of place here, and the contrast formed makes us viewers laugh and cry. Hui asked Li Bai to testify for him about the poisoning incident and prove that he didn't trust him. Li Bai told the truth, they quoted Dong's "Wandering Songs", and Li Bai admitted it truthfully again. Li accepted such an interrogation with his natural and unrestrained frankness. In fact, he just filled in his own sketch on a piece of black paper, which was not harmonious, but also strengthened Li Bai's unique personality charm. It was not until the appearance of Dong's "The Eleventh Virtual Wandering Song" that Li Bai's ideal of pursuing justice was broken. The reality is cruel. In the contradiction between these two realities: environmental reality and Li Bai's personal reality, we once again feel Li Bai's temperament.

Many people say that this drama has lost the immortal spirit of many poets and recovered a little vulgarity. The director may want to show us a multi-faceted and three-dimensional Li Bai in this play, so Li is more affectionate. The deep affection between him and his wife also made us feel the other side of the poet. I have to mention that Li Bai entered Guo Ziyi military camp at the age of 60. At that time, the Tang Dynasty was already in jeopardy in the Anshi Rebellion. Even though Li Bai was trapped and exiled at night, he still kept a loyal heart. On the one hand, Li Bai hates those bureaucrats, on the other hand, he wants to be one of them and dreams of transforming the world with his own hands. This may also be the sorrow of literati. So he is willing to break his promise with his wife and start his military career without hesitation. While the spirit is commendable, it is also a great irony to the surrounding environment. Li Bai's character is the opposite of his environment. In this respect, the play highlights Li Bai's contradictions and struggles. This also confirms Lessing's "personality center theory" again. Generally speaking, what kind of people will do what kind of things. Perhaps what he can bear is the identity of a poet, his loyalty to the country and the king, and his ambition to make a breakthrough in his official career, which makes him make difficult choices and suffer. In fact, during his exile, Li Bai remained indifferent to the desire to join the WTO, but he was aroused by General Guo Ziyi's call to quell the chaos, and Li Bai was full of blood for his country. It can be said that the development of this matter pushed his ambivalence to the limit. Wu Yun's advice and Taoist's admonition put Li Bai in a dilemma. In desperation, he only looked up at the moon and expressed his heroism.

There are many plots in the whole play that emphasize Li Bai's sincere and lofty character. Driven by such a character, there are two scenes in the play that should be regarded as the most touching: confession by the river and solo dance in the moonlight. In addition, some details are also very touching. For example, when Li Bai "shares weal and woe with you" by the river with a wine glass, he is miserable. Another example is that Li Bai can't dance sword after being drunk. These final stage creations make a living figure jump on the stage. The Monologue by the River extends Li Bai's tiny individual to the eternal world, and makes the poet calmly enter between history and reality. The distant Jiangyue, like the world created by the poet, truly expresses another kind of emotional sustenance when the poet is extremely disappointed with the real world.

His poetic poems cast his pride and brought him unparalleled painful experiences. When Li Bai wept bitterly in front of the surging Yangtze River, and when Li Bai's selfless hand danced under the moon shadow jade wheel, the poet had reached a state of narcissism, isolating us earthly people from unspeakable emotions. Plain and beautiful poetry transcends any specific poetic language. This kind of grace seems true or not, which leads the poet to sublimate freely in his own space, regardless of his own misery and madness, and writes the last crying poem with his own life, which is an epiphany after great sorrow.

Lessing believes that personality has no purpose, and we can only let all stories follow Li Bai's personality. Events can be fictional, but people can't. Indeed, these views are all reflected in this play. Lessing insists on the "people-centered theory" and thinks that anything with inherent possibility can become art. Therefore, in this sense, Li Bai is successful. Artists pay attention to historical facts, in fact, they pay attention to the way things happen, but also to the refinement of facts. According to Lessing, all facts should serve personality and should be the most direct product of personality. Therefore, many facts encountered by Li Bai in the play depend on Li Bai's complex mood of wandering between the bright moon and the floating clouds. Character description pursues inner truth, not exaggerated and unrealistic truth. This point was well grasped by the creator of this play, so that Li Bai never walked out of such a contradictory gap.

The play depicts Li Bai with this contradictory character, which deepens his tragic fate of wandering between "being an official but unable, hiding but unwilling" all his life. At the end of the play, this tragic implication is also concise and ethereal, dripping and far-reaching. Li Bai's contradictory character is reflected again at the end of the play. Is it a bright moon or a cloud? We have no answer. Perhaps only the bright moon around the poet and the illusory moon palace with everything on earth can dispel the poet's cynicism and cynicism all his life and really end his struggle and wandering.

To sum up Lessing's point of view, it is actually Li Bai's character that directed the play, connected the play in series, and achieved the play. The screenwriter said: Li Bai's gloomy life is not as beautiful and harmonious as many of his elegant and wonderful poems. Li Bai, who suffered from multiple tortures of being an official and hiding, was finally immersed in the sadness of drinking under the moon. "In fact, if the bright moon has been there, why care about the floating clouds outside! ! Sigh Li Bai ...