When Wen Gong lost his wife, the value of Gu Liujia was scattered. There is only one daughter, and she is very smart. My aunt wants to get married because she belongs to the public, and the secret of the public has the intention to marry herself. She replied, "There are few good husbands, but they are just like good husbands. What's the point? " Gu Yun said: "After losing, surviving is enough to comfort me for a hundred years. How dare you compare with me? " However, a few days later, the announcement said: "I have found a place to get married, and my family background is rough. My husband's surname is Guan, and I will never reduce my salary." Because of a jade mirror platform. I was overjoyed and got married. As a gift, the woman put a gauze fan in her hand, clapped her hands and laughed, saying, "I really doubt that I am an old slave." Yujingtai was acquired by Liu Yueshi's northern expedition to Liu Cong.
Whether this matter is true or not has always been doubted by many people. Liu xiaobiao annotated the book, saying: "According to the" Wen's Genealogy ",'the daughter who was first taken was the daughter of Lang Wangxu, and later the daughter of Lujiang Hejia. "It is a fallacy not to smell Liu." As a history, this may be a false rumor. However, as a short story, some of its characteristics have aroused the interest of some scholars in later generations. These characteristics are as follows: First, it is the first time in history that a couple of marriages were married with a real jade platform, which provides a precedent for future generations to privately pass on talents and beautiful women as keepsakes. Secondly, this paper also puts forward the problem that middle-aged people are afraid of the media because they have lost their wives and second wives. Thirdly, Wen Qiao's proposal has a certain comedy color: it is called ice, but it is actually a self-recommendation; It looks like a fake marriage, but it doesn't hurt, thus leaving a lot of imagination for future generations. Zhang Hong, a poet in the early Tang Dynasty, wrote in his poem Difficult to Walk: "You didn't see Wen Jiayu's platform, so you came to support and hold Jiuzhong. You don't see each other like a green pipa, with a stroke and a phoenix sound. Life must be early, don't be negative. " In the poem, Wen Qiao's jade platform for courtship is juxtaposed with Sima Xiangru's green piano for finding a phoenix, to express the intention of finding a good wife early and not stinting on eating, drinking and having fun. Li Shangyin, a poet in the late Tang Dynasty, wrote in The Left of the Central Plains: "Although the power is exhausted, the literary bridge will eventually become a jade mirror." In the previous sentence, the fairy green calyx sheep has a jade belt (that is, a hairpin), suggesting that the singer is actually happy; The next sentence borrows Wen Qiao's business, which means you won't get married. It can be seen that the "Jade Mirror Terrace" written by these poets is only a symbol of courtship. The profound connotation of this story was finally discovered, which should be after the birth of traditional Chinese opera.
Among the operas of Southern Opera in the Song and Yuan Dynasties, there is Wen Taizhen, see The Beginning of Nine Palaces. It's just that the script has been lost, and only a few songs are left. Regarding the first time, there is a saying: "The joys and sorrows of separation are all self-made." Seems to be very helpless about Wen Qiao after his wife's funeral. Guan Hanqing, a great dramatist in the Yuan Dynasty, wrote Wen Taizhen Yu Jing Tai and Yuan Qu Xuan, which were published by Zhonghua Book Company. They are famous zaju that comprehensively processed, deepened and recreated this story. It reproduces for us a comedy of pursuing and marrying a young girl because of the loss of his wife in middle age and the absence of the middle age, but the age gap brings discord between husband and wife, causes various troubles and is finally solved.
Wen Qiao in the zaju is a bachelor of Hanlin. He is famous, full of ambition and boasting: "I am in a rich and powerful country. There is no slander in the family, no slander in the book, and no inferiority in fame and fortune. Cover it in front of the eaves to meet the royal building, and the boots are on the whole step. " The only distress and dissatisfaction in his heart is that his home is still empty and no one can give back. He is full of melancholy to tell:
It is worthwhile to open the whole house, empty painting hall, lucid dream, clear sky and bright night, and the breeze is melancholy to the moon. How can lovers get rid of the brocade phoenix and leave all their worries in the jade pillow mandarin duck account? ([parasitic grass])
This should be the sadness caused by the loss of his wife in middle age, although this point is not made clear in the play. Therefore, when he asked him to teach 18-year-old daughter Liu Qinqin to write, he couldn't help falling in love at first sight when he first saw this "soul-destroying" beauty and praised "what a good woman!" And immediately fell into a deep-rooted acacia. It means "if we meet here again, I'm afraid we won't die of rigidity." When Liu invited him to visit his brother, he stood up from the chair and leaned back in the chair to answer. Liu invited the teachers and students to meet in Zhou, while Wen Qiao sat half-sitting, afraid to accept gifts. The purpose of this is only to maintain an equal status that can develop into a marriage relationship. When Wen Qiao taught her to write, she took the opportunity to twist her wrist. This is not a simple flirting, more importantly, it conveys a message of love, but I didn't expect her to be severely reprimanded by Liu. Wen Qiao wanted to pursue Liu, but when he was hard and helpless, Liu solemnly entrusted him to "protect a marriage" for his daughter. Wen Qiao is in the middle of his heart, secretly having the intention of marrying himself; However, due to the inconvenience of my cousin's relatives, I found an excuse and said, "There is a bachelor in imperial academy ... his age is not much different from that of Wenqiao, and his figure is the same as Wenqiao. According to literature, it is smarter than Wen Qiao. How can Wen Qiao be as heroic as he is? " After getting Liu's consent, he immediately sent a copy of "power is a matter of course" to Yujingtai, and stressed: "But if you win the hearts of the people, you don't need a gift."
After the wedding, Liu Faxian's groom was artful and couldn't help flying into a rage: "This old man is so rude!" And said: "Wu Laozi, if you come near again, I will grab your face and teach him to go outside!" " Insist on refusing to kiss. No matter how skillfully he did it, he was humble and begged, even kneeling in front of the matchmaker and asking her for help, which was useless. Even after being married for two months, she didn't share a room. Qian Ying never called him her husband and refused to acknowledge the marriage. Knowing this, the prince prefect of Beijing called himself the emperor and specially set up an ink banquet, also called Yuanyang Club, to teach the couple to meet. During the dinner, Wen Mingqiao wrote a poem: If there is a poem, Admiralty drinks, and the lady puts Jin Fengchai in, and the official decides the powder; Without poetry, the earthen bowl drinks water, and the lady wears grass flowers and wipes her face with ink. This is a shame. Liu was afraid and begged Wen Qiao to write poems again and again. Although Wen Qiao is an expert with many talents, he intends to stall Russia and take advantage of the situation. It was not until Liu officially called him her husband and promised to be obedient that she improvised a poem and said, "No matter how kind-hearted, I feel sorry for Yujingtai;" Flowers are forbidden from the fairy, wine from the kitchen. This poem is a work of genius. Then mix the fish with water, and you will get harmony. "This pair really got married after this tortuous process. Wen Qiao proudly sang: "From then on, marriage is destined to be a marriage book, and acacia is also bitter. I have a strong sense of connection and I am willing to fly. I pity you for being a gentle and lovely witch. You failed your affectionate Song Yu. "The whole play ended in joy.
There have been different views on the nature of this comedy. Those who deny it either think that it "defends the unreasonable marriage of the old couple with few wives" or boil it down to: appreciating the literati's affair. These understandings actually do not conform to the reality of the script. Wen Qiao is longer than Liu, but the age gap is not as big as people understand. Many places in the play emphasize "when I am old, I will work hard for a few years", "I am only one year old" and "I am not with Sang Yu". Because Wen Qiao in history was only 42 years old when he died, the image of Wen Qiao created by historical figures was at most 30 years old at this time. He is just a middle-aged mistress, not an "old man with few wives". And this age defect can also be made up from talent and emotion. For example, Wen Qiao is a bachelor of Hanlin; But the script always emphasizes his talent rather than his official position. His marriage with Liu conforms to the feudal marriage standard of perfect talent and good looks. Wen Qiao won Liu's change of heart because of his talent, not his power. As for Wen Qiao's sincere feelings and single-minded love for Liu, this is the main reason why the script affirms and praises this marriage. Wen Qiao repeatedly stated: "If you don't find a young and frivolous husband, I'm afraid you won't respect you as much as I do." And vowed never to like the new and hate the old, and not to marry another "two wives and three wives." "There are immortals in Yaochi who are not interested in watching, and there are Chang 'e in the Moon Palace who are too lazy to peek." Therefore, Qian Ying refused to get married, but just tinkered around the edges, compromised, patiently persuaded and waited for a long time. He didn't bully others and force them to submit, and he didn't want to pass the legal authority of "being a wife". But the solution of contradictions is entirely based on the wishes of the other party. This practice and attitude of treating each other as equals and respecting each other to solve contradictions should be commendable at that time, and it has nothing to do with any "affair" at all.
The reason why Liu refused to go along with it was that he paid too much attention to the young and romantic appearance of the other party, but not to his own sincerity and singleness. Wen Qiao repeatedly advised her not to be "a teenager thinking about love." Because, this kind of criteria for choosing a spouse that emphasizes appearance over heart will ignore the quality of the other person, so that "in less than a year and a half, he can have two wives and three wives earlier." A large number of situations in society are like this: "On the wealth of Chang 'an, I am afraid of being young; How many beautiful daughters are wives. This fellow is in pairs every night. Please fly early. What's the practical significance? Treat you like a dunghill and abandon you like dirt. "These phenomena exposed by Wenqiao are undoubtedly quite common in the upper class. In addition, our nation is accustomed to the custom that newly-married girls are unwilling to build houses for others, which may be the psychological factor that leads to Liu's instinctive aversion to this marriage. However, this script has not been fully developed.
The tortuous process of this marriage from contradiction, resistance, resistance to reconciliation, as well as a series of comedy conflicts, has aroused great interest from later writers, especially legendary writers in Ming and Qing Dynasties. Legends based on this story include Zhu Ding's The Jade Scene, Qingyuantang's The Jade Scene, Sun Xx's The Jade Scene and Fan's The Flower Night Banquet. But to this day, only Zhu Ben and the model exist, and the rest have been lost. However, the two existing legends have greatly modified Guan Hanqing's zaju, not only expanding Guan Hanqing's 40% short play into a large opera with nearly 30 or 40 works; More importantly, it has been re-conceived and thoroughly reformed from the conception, theme, plot and recent items of the whole script, making it completely different from zaju. This change reflects the different times styles and artistic tastes of post-drama writers.
Zhu Ding was born in the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty, and his "Yujing Taiji" has forty volumes (two episodes of the ancient drama series). However, there are only four short stories about Wen and Liu's marriage, such as visiting ancient times, discussing marriage, appearing in a mirror and getting married, which are far less than Guan Hanqing's zaju. The script not only deleted the plot of learning from the teacher, but also greatly reduced the problem of impersonating marriage proposal. Let Wen Qiao take the initiative to admit that the person he protects is Wen Qiao after explaining that the person he protects is "caring for his family and not losing his life" and before giving the jade mirror as a dowry. As a result, the opposition and conflict between Wen Qiao and Qian Ying (the play was renamed as Liu Runyu) caused by the age difference of their children and the different criteria for choosing a spouse was completely disintegrated. Wen Qiao and Liu Runyu have been getting along very well before and after their marriage, and there is no contradiction. In order to highlight the harmonious relationship between them, the script emphasizes that Wen Qiao is a "young genius" and "has the appearance of Song Yuzhi and Pan An", so as to transform this controversial and imperfect marriage into an ideal marriage completely in line with feudalism. The reason why the script idealizes Wen and Liu's marriage is precisely to idealize Wen Qiao's life and shape him into a rare generalist in feudal society with a happy family. In the script, the ideal marriage is the starting point of his career. The next thirty articles, basically divorced from Wen and Liu's marriage, mainly describe Wen Qiao's life's civil and military, especially his brilliant achievements in resisting foreign aggression and pacifying civil strife. This part contains a lot of historical biographies, and occasionally some folk stories are used. The author collected some famous short stories in history, such as Crying in the New Pavilion, Smelling Chicken Dancing, Farewell to Mother, Crossing the River, Burning Rhino to Illuminate Strangers and so on. And organize them into this huge script. Of course, several plots are also inserted in the play, such as the thoughts of the mother's wife, the thoughts of the boudoir, the delivery of books, and the taking of books. Wen Qiaojia's narration makes the heroic cause and children's affair constitute the dual-track development pattern of Southern Opera. In particular, the script focuses on the fact that when Wang Dun rebelled, he sent someone to arrest Wen Qiao's mother and wife, so as to break Wen Qiao's fighting spirit and coerce Wen Qiao to surrender. However, Wen Qiao, his mother and wife are both loyal and self-motivated. Although his wife was in prison, she still sent someone to take out the jade mirror and letters, encouraging Wen Qiaozhong to be loyal to the royal family and not thinking about his wife. It was under the guidance of this concept that the Yan 'an family was ruined, the feudal morality prevailed over their children's affair, and Wen Qiao eventually led troops to quell the rebellion in Wang Dun, and finally won the mother and son couple, who were all together.
Fan Wen, born in the late Ming Dynasty, is the author of twenty-nine books (including two sets of ancient drama series). However, its content is very different from that of bamboo opera and Guan opera. Joe in the play is only in his twenties, but he must be bearded and ugly. He was detained by menstruation in the library and taught his nephew to read aloud secretly, but he didn't see his daughter, Miss Jasper. Wen Qiao's admiration for Miss Li is because she is younger and more beautiful than Xie Kun disguised as a flower drum. I would like to take this opportunity to see Miss Li's true face. Miss also found that they are not beggars, they especially like Xie Kun, and they love each other. Xie Kun was attracted by the young lady's beauty. He went into the backyard alone, peeping at Jasper among the flowers, and was found by the servant girl Fangzi. He lied that he was Vinjo. Fangzi told Miss Jasper that Miss Jasper was more and more homesick and wanted to be skillful. One night, Miss Fang and Fangzi were enjoying the moon in the yard. Jasper is a love poem written on a fan. Fangzi threw the fan through the partition library and was picked up by Wen Qiao, which caused his infinite acacia; But this fan was stolen by Xie Kun. Xie Kun jumped off the wall overnight. After pretending to be Wen Qiao, I want to flirt with Jasper on the basis of poetry. Jasper has turned back to the boudoir, but Xie Kun was caught by Wen Qiao and reprimanded, and then was beaten by the people in the yard. In a rage, Xie Kun left home to seek fame. Fang Zi here also worships Wen Qiao. Pretending to be a young lady, she went into the study and seduced her by reciting the poems of the model. They were about to tell each other what they wanted to say when Liu's mother came to the room and Fangzi left in a hurry. Liu's mother asked Wen Qiao to choose a good husband for her daughter. Wen Qiao wanted to marry herself, but worried about her bad face, she took Yujingtai as a dowry in the name of Xie Kun. Just when the marriage was settled, Wang Dun rebelled in Wuchang. Because he longed for Wen Qiao's fame, he sent someone to take him away. Wang Dun plans to attack Jinling. In order to stabilize Wen Qiao's heart, he sent someone to take Jasper's mother and daughter and Fangzi to Wuchang. Wen Qiao married Miss Jasper in the army. Jasper saw that the groom had to grow a beard, which was different from the person she admired before, so she sent Fang Zi to marry Wen Qiao. Later, when Jasper saw Wen Qiao, she was full of energy and spit. I really fell in love with Wen Qiao. At this time, Xie Kun has fame and fortune, and he will come to crusade against Wang Dun. Wen Qiao cooperated with Xie Kun and finally put down the Wang Dun Rebellion. Both of them made meritorious service and were promoted. Finally, Fang Zi married Xie Kun as his concubine, and both sides were very happy.
The story of Yujingtai, from Guan Hanqing to Zhu Ding to Fan, can be said to have gone through three stages. Guanju is a comedy, which highlights the contradiction caused by cheating marriage, the process of its final solution and the integration of two kinds of feelings. Its main purpose is to explain a meaningful mate selection standard. Zhu's plays try to narrow down the problem of impersonation and cheating on marriage and make it irrelevant. The purpose is to compress or even cancel its comedy factors to the greatest extent, so as to rewrite it into a more serious drama. The content of the script focuses on highlighting the life value of making contributions and promoting feudal morality. Fan's Fan Yan Earn strongly highlights the key point of cheating on marriage, rewriting the original expedient measure into a conscious use of the misunderstanding that has been formed, thus making the process of cheating on marriage extremely complicated and tortuous, becoming the central clue of the whole play, thus expanding its comedy factors. Let Wen Qiao and Xie Kun "feel around, you pretend to be me, I pretend to be you", adding a lot of gimmicks caused by confession and misunderstanding out of thin air, which is close to the so-called farce. His creative intention is mainly to express the romantic self-appreciation and debauchery of literati in courtship, thus creating two roles of hooligans and heroes. Unfortunately, due to the low style of the script, the portrayal of these two rebellious heroes was not successful, but the flirting style of these two almost clowns was rendered vividly. It can be seen that Guan Hanqing's zaju should be the most successful work to expound the social content of Yujingtai theme. Compared with Guan Opera, both Bamboo Opera and Fan Opera are retrogressive. The difference is: Zhu's plays fall to the feudal side; However, the model opera has slipped into the mud pit of praising the literati's affair and vulgar farce.