Many people in the early Qing Dynasty alluded to and discussed the lessons of the demise of the Ming Dynasty in their works. Kong's Peach Blossom Fan is such a work, as is the Palace of Eternal Life, which focuses on the great disaster brought to the country by the fatuity and political corruption of the emperor during the Tianbao period of the Tang Dynasty, leading to the near collapse of the dynasty. Although the script condemned the extravagance and waste of Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty, it also showed sympathy for the love between Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty and Yang Yuhuan, indirectly expressed sympathy for the rule of the Tang Dynasty, and entrusted the ideal of beautiful love.
This drama takes palace life as the main line, interspersed with the evolution of social politics, ups and downs, and several climaxes. And let Xu Lin, a Suzhou musician, help him write lyrics in strict accordance with the melody, so that the whole music layout closely matches the lyrics, and the styles are different, which is just right for the character scene. After getting drunk, Yang Yuhuan used the song "Nanpu Dengmu" to "look like drunk Yang Fei"; Guo Ziyi's singing in Northern Song Dynasty is vigorous and passionate. Therefore, once the play was staged, it immediately caused a sensation, and almost every household in Beijing would sing the aria. Among them, the fragments have been adapted by various dramas, and Mei Lanfang's Peking Opera Drunkenness of the Imperial Lady has also been adapted from the Palace of Eternal Life.
Hong Sheng was dismissed from office and went back to his hometown because he still watched the Palace of Eternal Life during the mourning period of Queen Xiaoyi. He was drunk and fell into the water and died.
The Palace of Eternal Life is a silk reeling work in Ming Dynasty, which is now in Zhenjiang Museum, Jiangsu Province. Its theme is taken from the Song of Eternal Sorrow written by the Tang Dynasty poet Bai Juyi, and it describes the engagement of Tang Gaozong and Yang Guifei in the Immortal Hall of Huaqing Palace on Tanabata. According to the deep and dark scenes in the palace, the colors are mainly warm colors such as crimson, purple and black, and the outline is rendered with twisted gold thread, showing a magnificent palace atmosphere. The silk weaving method used is neat, flat and scaly. In particular, the scenery outlined with gold thread has achieved a strong color effect.
Peach Blossom Fan is a legendary drama created by Kong Yu, a playwright in the Qing Dynasty, in June of the thirty-eighth year of Kangxi (1699), when he was the foreign minister of the Guangdong Department of the Ministry of Housing, after more than ten years of painstaking efforts. A legendary script written by Sanyi manuscript has always been deeply loved by readers. Ou Yangyuqian, a modern dramatist, has a special liking for Peach Blossom Fan, and has dabbled in drama, Peking Opera, movies and other fields. The main line of the plot is that the talents of the Ming Dynasty came to Jiangnan to create Reunion and get to know Li, a Qinhuai geisha. They fell in love and presented a poem fan, exposing the crime that Wei Zhongxian's close friend Ruan Dacheng framed and forced Li to marry someone else. Li didn't hit his head and wanted to commit suicide. His friend Yang Longyou drew a peach blossom on the fan with blood spots on it. After the demise of Nanming, Li became a monk. After the fall of Yangzhou, he fled back to find Li and finally became a monk. Peach Blossom Fan vividly depicts the corrupt state of the ruling class before the demise of the Ming Dynasty, and it is a model of China's legendary drama.
A kind of appreciation
Peach Blossom Fan is the love object with Li. Kong Renshang used it to record the ups and downs of the hero and heroine, and also used it to connect various character activities. A slender fan, in the hands of Confucius, not only interweaves chaotic historical figures and events, but also eloquently demonstrates the inevitability of their disillusionment. In that era of national degeneration and social collapse, the author gave his noble personality to Li, a prostitute, and his weak soul to a famous wit. And I have the deepest sympathy for folk artists with humble social status. With the help of their mouths, Kong expressed his helplessness and irreparable sigh at the coming of the last days.
Su Kunsheng's elegy is not only a tribute to the Nanming Dynasty, but also a lament for the collapse of Daming Mountain in 300 years, and a lament for the rapid rise and fall of history. In the depths of these sorrows, sorrows and lamentations, there is a premonition of the historical trend of feudal society, which is "suddenly like the first floor, and suddenly like Yi Deng will be exhausted", and a lament of the last days of feudalism is sung! ...... In this era of mourning, there is a sense of ruin, loss and anxiety in the minds of literati in the last days of feudalism.
The second appreciation
Peach Blossom Fan is a great realistic historical drama. The theme of the play, as Kong himself said, is "writing the feeling of rise and fall through parting". Through the love story with Li, the work reflects the turbulent social reality and factional struggle within the ruling class in the late Ming Dynasty, thus revealing the root cause of the collapse of Nanming. Based on his deep sorrow for the motherland, the author mercilessly exposed the ugly nature of the ruling class and severely condemned their crimes endangering the country and the people. At the same time, he praised the national heroes and the lower class people who loved the motherland with passionate patriotic enthusiasm. In the preface to Peach Blossom Fan, Kong clearly put forward his own creative intention:
Peach Blossom Fan is a new story in the Southern Dynasties. There are also old people, singing and dancing on the field, pointing out the maze outside, knowing the inheritance of 300 years, to whom? Defeated by what? What year? What's left? Not only make the viewer cry, but also punish and create people's hearts and save an end-time.
It shows that Peach Blossom Fan takes the unyielding love story of Hou Chaozong and Li as the main line, and combines the ups and downs of their love life with the fate of the rise and fall of the country. In fact, it is a wonderful pen to write the drama of the pain of national subjugation and express lofty patriotic feelings.
The works show a broad social picture in the late Ming Dynasty: political affairs were dark, factional struggles within the ruling class were sharp, irreconcilable class contradictions led to the outbreak of peasant uprising, the collapse of the Ming Dynasty, the entry of Qing soldiers, and Ma Shiying and Ruan Dacheng colluded with four towns to establish the Axe King and the Nanming Dynasty. But the axe king didn't want to recover lost ground. On the contrary, he was greedy for debauchery. Ma Shiying and Ruan Dacheng, who made great contributions to the country, manipulated state affairs and colluded with each other. They mean to declare: "Fortunately, it is the autumn that our generation is proud of our country", and they crowd out Zhongliang. Some military commanders "have fought in the nest, although they have not bravado in the battle." The whole dynasty army was a bad king, and the minister was a courtier. With a concrete artistic image, the play reveals the ugly nature of the decadent ruling group in Nanming.
On the contrary, the author created the immortal image of Shi Kefa with infinite reverence and deep feelings. Squeezed out by Ma Shiying and Ruan Dacheng, the generals of the four towns refused to listen to their orders. Under extremely difficult conditions, he persisted in resisting the enemy and defended the isolated city. Finally, he was martyred with indignation.
The great achievement of Peach Blossom Fan is also manifested in the enthusiastic praise of the loyalty and patriotism of the lower class and the creation of beautiful images such as geisha and artists despised by the feudal ruling class.
Li is a gentle, beautiful and versatile Qinhuai geisha, but most of her contacts are leaders of complex society and influenced by progressive thoughts. She has a clear political mind and a clear distinction between love and hate. She is honest, kind, strong, not greedy for wealth, not afraid of power, and deeply understands the righteousness and hates it. When she knew that Ruan Dacheng had sent a dowry, she sternly blamed Hou Chaozong:
What did the official say? Ruan Dacheng fawned on the powerful, committed adultery to excess, and his shame was ruined; Women and children were reviled, others attacked, and officials rescued them. Where are the officials?
The official intention is just because he helped me make up for it, it will waste the public for private purposes. Then I know that these hairpin skirts can't be put into my eyes!
Before that, Li had only a clear political mind. Later, she closely linked her fate with Hou Chaozong and Fu She literati, thus becoming the object of Ruan Dacheng's persecution. She waged an indomitable struggle against the dark forces who persecuted her. She resolutely refused to marry Tian Yang, publicly claiming that "a slave is poor and doesn't want to enter Zhumen". A firm ideal of life and like-minded love have given her the courage and strength to "break her head and refuse to accept power and violence". Hyung-Sang Lee is a female image with special brilliance in the history of China literature.
Liu Jingting, an energetic old folk artist with a white beard, is also quite successful. His skill is superior, but what is more commendable is that he has a strong sense of justice, hates power and evil, and understands the righteousness. When he learned that Ruan Dacheng was a eunuch, he left immediately and left the comfortable Ruan family, preferring to "sit around and eat Leng Cha" and use storytelling as a weapon to uphold justice and combat evil. His feelings for his motherland are extremely deep. The enemy is besieged on all sides, so it is necessary to unite against the enemy, and if Zuo Liangyu wants to lead his troops eastward to Nanking, he is not afraid of Wan Li, a thousand miles away, to stop Zuo Liangyu from making a move. After Ming Taizu's death, he went boating in rivers and lakes and lived in seclusion as a fisherman, instead of being a docile subject. He often stayed with friends, mourned the decline and fall of the motherland and poured out his deep feelings of missing the motherland. These qualities have a strong artistic appeal. Through the image of Liu Jingting, the writer enthusiastically eulogized the excellent quality of the lower class, praised their patriotic feelings and showed their beautiful souls.