Chen Yuanyuan, whose real name is Xingyuan and whose name is Wan Fen, was raised by old Chen Man. The introduction of Chen Yuanyuan's native place, life experience and talent is concise and poetic. "Gusu" is Suzhou; "Huanhuali" is the residence of Xue Tao, a famous prostitute who can write poems and enjoy music in the Tang Dynasty. Shi is also a "lotus picker". From this point of view, Chen Yuanyuan was originally a Suzhou fireworks woman. She is as versatile as Xue Tao, and the beauty of the whole city is like the reincarnation of a stone. As a woman of that era, she had an understandable ideal: "Sleepwalking in the tea garden, Gong E holding the king", hoping to get the king's favor, get ahead and shine. But she probably didn't expect that the sufferings brought by the double talents followed, and the realization of the ideal was actually bitterness and bitterness under the surface glory.
In the fourteenth year of Chongzhen (164 1), in the spring season, Chen Yuanyuan, a romantic genius, ventured across the border to see Suzhou for the first time. Mao fell in love with Chen Yuanyuan, who is good at winning the pear garden, at first sight: "It's a Japanese swallow, it's a plum blossom. With Yan's vulgar drama, the melody of babbling is Chen Ji's mouth, like a cloud coming out of a hole, like a pearl on a plate, which makes people want to die (Mei Ying is content with one). This autumn, Mao Bijiang came to Suzhou again to meet Chen Yuanyuan. A charming man, a talented man and a beautiful son love each other and decide to get married. However, when Mao went to Suzhou in February the following year, it was already too late. Ten days ago, Chen Yuanyuan drove the guests of Dou and Huo away ("Memories of Ann" Mao Bijiang)
The commander-in-chief of Zuo, a consort, visited Nanjing the year before last and bought a geisha to celebrate his birthday. And Chen Yuan is particularly amazing, otherwise he will be rewarded with 800 gold markets. (Tan Qian's Guoque Volume 1 10)
The historical fact mentioned above is that "the cross pond flies away without a strong home" in the Garden Song. The phrase "argue irrationally" shows how arrogant and overbearing "Good Home" is, and how humiliating and unfair it is to Chen Yuanyuan. She loves a talented person, not Tian Hong who met the 64-year-old man. How much she missed her sweetheart venturing across the border! Xiao Lang was a passer-by as soon as Houmen entered the sea. This is an embarrassing reality. No wonder she "has only tears on her clothes at this time". Yes, as a weak woman, what can she do in the face of the evil forces of "being angry and keeping her heart in the palace" besides lamenting "unlucky" and Lacrimosa? What makes people feel particularly sad is that this is far from the end, but the beginning for Chen Yuanyuan's misfortune.
At this time, the peasant uprising army led by Li Zicheng has come out of the trough, and its momentum is getting stronger and stronger, which is a triumph; Manchu promoted customs, eyeing the Central Plains. Under the internal and external troubles, Emperor Chongzhen fidgeted. In order to relieve the master's so-called "night, night" worries, Tian Hongyu offered Chen Yuanyuan to the palace, hoping that her beauty would make the master's locked brow slightly stretch. But at this time, Emperor Chongzhen was overwhelmed by the declining river situation and had no time to lean on Redjade. "White eyes and white teeth", Gong E swarmed in, which was too much for the king. Later, because of the opportunity to release the ladies-in-waiting, Chen Yuanyuan returned to his family and lived by "teaching new voices". "Who can I complain about flying to the red sun?" Chen Yuanyuan suffers from this life of flying to drink, but he can't get rid of it. When will this day-to-day suffering end? Who can you talk to about your dissatisfaction? Here, we heard the pain from a depressed heart.
At this moment, Wu Sangui broke into Chen Yuanyuan's miserable life. Wu Sangui's "Twenty-seven-year-old Confucian scholar became a monk, and his father and son became a monk" ("The Art of General Ningyuan in Meiji, Rulu"), especially in the spring of the fifteenth year of Chongzhen, after the battle of Jinsong in Ming and Qing Dynasties ended in a fiasco of the Ming army, his status rose rapidly and he was relied on by the Ming court as a barrier to the north. He was born with "big ears and long eyes" (Liu Jian's Records of the Court, Volume 6), and he was a handsome man. In a word, he is a handsome man with an early appearance. During the sixteenth and fifteenth years of Chongzhen, at the suggestion of Wang Duoduo in Yuxian County, the Qing court began to withdraw the invading army from the north. At the same time, Li Zicheng Rebels captured Huguang, Jingxiang and most parts of Henan, which seriously threatened the survival of the Ming Empire. In view of the grim situation of foreign invasion, domestic troubles and foreign invasion, the Ming Dynasty plotted to transfer troops from towns all over the country to deal with the rebels. It was at this time that Wu Sangui was called to leave Ningyuan sector and went to Beijing to "aid Han", where he was hosted by Emperor Chongzhen. (Shi Minglu Appendix A Record of Chongzhen, Volume 16). When Wu Sangui left Beijing and returned to Ningyuan, Tian Hongyou, who was good at speculation, buttered up the high-ranking general and gave a farewell dinner. This was a serious mistake, so there were many ups and downs in the Ming and Qing Dynasties.
When we first met Tian Dou's family, Wu Sangui was thirty-one, full of ambition and in his prime of life. The so-called "youngest in white" was true. This "child queen" is not only young and promising, but also romantic and affectionate. See Chen Yuanyuan, he "repeatedly review flowers", longing, feelings vividly. The appearance of Wu Sangui is a savior in the dark night for Chen Yuanyuan who lives in the cage of abundance. She regards him as a place to lean on and a symbol of hope. "Take the beautiful bird out of the cage early and wait for the Milky Way." At this moment, Chen Yuanyuan's expectation for Wu Sangui is so eager and eager! Hero and beauty, she fell in love at first sight, and Tian Hong, who is good at sense motive, immediately agreed to give Chen Yuanyuan to Wu Sangui. However, due to the urgency of military documents, Wu Sangui had no time to get married, so he had to reluctantly rush back to Ningyuan to defend. This is another cold water for Chen Yuanyuan, who is full of longing. "I hate killing the art of war, and I will miss people after suffering. She was disappointed by hope, angry and helpless because of disappointment, and only waited silently to pass the time. Unfortunately, what she was waiting for was not the general's "tanker" as she thought, but Liu Zongmin's recourse and * * *.
In March of the seventeenth year of Chongzhen (1644), the peasant uprising army of Li Zicheng set out from Shaanxi to enter Beijing with the potential of destroying the decay. Along the way, it is a major town of Xiongguan, falling with the wind. The "majestic" imperial city once fell. At this time, if the rebels keep a clear head and adopt correct policies, especially Wu Sangui, who is still heavily guarded by Shanhaiguan, this page in China's history may be another face. Unfortunately, the inherent inferiority of small producers was quickly exposed and expanded under the conditions of victory. One is to torture the ministers who surrendered to the Ming dynasty for money and ask for money. First, for the sake of color, the winner * * * is widely used in the red makeup generation. In this farce, Liu Zongmin, the military leader of the rebel army, acted as a depth charge. After he went to Beijing, he "laughed at prostitutes and drank for pleasure" (Qian Yue was only recorded in Volume 4 of Shen Jiachuan). He was not satisfied with "lord protector's beautiful and gorgeous daughter-in-law" and * * *, and he put his mind on Chen Yuanyuan, who is famous for his capital. At this time, Tian Hongyou was dead, and Chen Yuanyuan left Tianfu to go to the Wu family. He is a "homesick woman" with her own body, not a "powder wadding in the horizon" without a master. Liu Zongmin doesn't care about this. "Green beads are everywhere, and the trees are carved." ：
According to Tian Shidi, Liu Zongmin, the pseudo-governor, heard about Chen Yuan and Gu Shoumei and asked for it. Life is superior to others, so I am superior to others. It's cool that Yuan and Xiang Yan have returned, and Zong Min doesn't believe it. (Tan Qian's Guoque Volume 1 10)
The reason why Liu Zongmin dared to tamper with Wu Sangui's beloved concubine, Chen Yuanyuan, was because he was carried away by the victory of history and didn't take Wu Sangui seriously at all: "This tiny man is not enough for the corner of the capital, so he kicked his ear with the tip of his boot" (The Story of Continuation, Volume I of Anonymous). But he was wrong. It's so sad. He got the Chen Yuanyuan and planted the seeds of failure at the same time. His absurdity directly contributed to a vigorous revolution, which vanished in a flash.
When Li Zicheng captured Beijing, Wu Sangui was on his way to Beijing. The fall of Beijing has thrown him at the crossroads of "dilemma", which is of great significance. Where are you going? After some hesitation, he decided to surrender to Li Zicheng. As far as class nature is concerned, Wu Sangui and the peasant uprising army were incompatible, but it was possible to disintegrate under the specific circumstances at that time. First, more than 30 lives of the whole family are in the hands of others; The second is to save money for your future; Third, I can't forget Chen Yuanyuan, and it's hard to give up. Ming Taizu's Shen Jia Diary records three letters written by Wu Xiang to Dashun regime on March 22nd, 25th and 27th in Chongzhen, Wu Sangui. In these three letters, Wu Sangui repeatedly asked "Chen Fei 'an" and her whereabouts when she died in the country, showing Chen Yuanyuan's position and weight in his mind. "Wife should be a big deal", but "the hero is helpless and affectionate"! But soon after the decision was made, news came that my concubine was taken away, my father was arrested, and the ministers of the Ming Dynasty were plundered. Wu Sangui rose to the top in a rage and rebelled, which opened the curtain of an earth-shaking historical change.
Li Zicheng learned that Wu Sangui had fallen to the Qing Dynasty, and took more than 30 members of the Wu family as hostages, stirring up a thousand waves with one stone to fight against the Wu-Qing allied forces. As a result, the rebels were defeated and angered a family, but Chen Yuanyuan survived and was recovered by Wu Sangui. "If it weren't for the victory of a strong man, he would have won the battle. The flying moth eyebrows immediately entered the page, and the clouds were shocked. The wax torch ushered in the battlefield and the makeup was red. " "Candle torches turned to ashes" but "went to the battlefield" and "red seal" remained, "fright" was just a freeze, and "the cloud was not complete", which vividly showed Chen Yuanyuan's exile and hardships. If Chen Yuanyuan was full of joy and expectation when he first met Tian Dou's family, then the "reunion" and the rich life in Hanzhong after that "the moon sets and the makeup mirror opens" made people feel faint sadness and lingering sadness. At that time, Suzhou's "fame and fortune" career, in A Pearl with thousands of worries, led to the death of love, the depression of claustrophobic "cage" flying with guests, the loss of "wanting to be a building girl" and the displacement of "caring about waist and waist", but these were not understood. "The news came from the town of Manjiang, and the tallow was frosted ten degrees. The pity of the music technician is still there, and Huansha's companion still remembers her peers. Long-term respect for the former is sad for the boss, and some husbands are good at Hou Wang. " When Chen Yuanyuan felt the pain of becoming famous, the old female companions were attracted by the superficial glory and admiration, and were saddened by the failure of the boss. For Chen Yuanyuan, this is undoubtedly a deeper sorrow.
Wu Meicun's Yuan Yuanqu was written in the seventh year of Shunzhi. (Feng Dui said: See Feng's Essays on Classical Literature, page 394). Therefore, the narrative in the poem ends with "Zhuge Cuiwu Guliangzhou", that is, Chen Yuanyuan's life in Hanzhong. What happened after she went to Sichuan and Yunnan with Wu Sangui failed to be involved. However, Wu Meicun, who is sensitive to poets, predicted the ending of Wu Sangui and Chen Yuanyuan:
If you haven't seen it, the pavilion baby starts to stay in Yuanyang, and Yue Nv is not enough to spend. Birds sing in the dust of the incense trail, and the people in the gallery go green with moss. I learned in Wanli that Zhuge Cuiwu danced in Guliangzhou instead of singing martial arts songs for you, and the Hanshui River flowed in the southeast day and night.
Allusions such as "Pavilion Baby", "Yue Nv", "Xiangjing" and "Gallery" are all related to Fucha tea. In history, is there no heyday of Fu tea? He built the official tile palace for Shi, which has a fragrant path and a long corridor. Later, Wu died in Vietnam, and the building was empty. It's all over. Isn't this the end for Wu Sangui? At the same time, it also indicates that Chen Yuanyuan's love for Wu Sangui will not come to a good end, and an inevitable tragic ending awaits her. This was unexpected, as Jin said during the Qianlong period: "Meicun can predict the Wu rebellion." He has no such political foresight, and his prediction mainly comes from the observation of characters and the development logic of things. Yuan Yuan was acquired by the prosperous Wu Sangui, as if "a piece of spring scenery came to heaven and earth", but after all, she was only a senior plaything of the upper class, and could not have an independent status and personality. Even if she becomes a princess, she can't get real happiness and freedom, and her life can only end in sadness and bitterness. In a more general sense, it is an ancient philosophical thought that existed from the pre-Qin philosophers. Wu Meicun was born in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, and he felt strongly about it. Feelings such as "luxury is like a turning point since ancient times" and "Lama Temple Ci" are sometimes revealed in his poems. From then on, Chen Yuanyuan's luck will certainly not last long. As for the fate of Chen Yuanyuan, some people say that she fell out of favor and became a monk, while others say that she committed suicide after the failure of Wu Sangui's anti-Qing campaign. The two theories are different, but the tragic ending is the same, which accords with Wu's prediction. In this sense, the story of Chen Yuanyuan in the Garden Song is complete.
Yuan Yuanqu is "graceful and cynical" in Wu Sangui, but from the above, it can be seen that its attitude towards Chen Yuanyuan is obviously different from that towards Wu Sangui, showing a relatively progressive ideology, which can be seen more clearly in comparison with other similar works.
Since then, works about Chen Yuanyuan's stories have appeared frequently. There are two similarities between these works and Yuan Zaju: first, they all hold a negative attitude towards Wu Sangui, but the degree of expression is slightly different; First, the stories involved are basically out of the framework of Yuan Zaju, but the complexity is different. However, in the attitude towards Chen Yuanyuan, most of the later works are different from the Garden Song, which is divided into two groups: evil and beauty.
Lu Ciyun, the author of Yuan Yuan Chuan, clearly stated that Qu was the basis of his writing, but his basic attitude was to target Chen Yuanyuan and Wu Sangui. In Lu's works, Chen Yuanyuan is a scheming, manipulative, provocative and bold bitch. She incited Wu Sangui to oppose the Qing Dynasty with ulterior motives, in order to help others. In this way, the author not only has no sympathy for Chen Yuanyuan, but also criticizes her as a charming demon charm and a sin charm that harms the country. This is a concentrated expression of the typical traditional view that "women spoil the country". Lu Ciyun's other novel The Legend of Shengping Music also shows a love affair between Wu Sangui and Chen Yuanyuan, and his attitude towards Chen Yuanyuan is exactly the same as that in Yuan Yuan Chuan. In addition, Zengxiang Fan's Yuan Yuanqu takes the beauty of Chen Yuanyuan as its function, and its style is vulgar, which can't escape the secular view that women are suffering. However, the legend of vicissitudes of life, which can spread to the scene, thinks that Chen Yuanyuan committed the most heinous crimes in the first half of his life. Fortunately, he finally committed suicide, so that he can mend his ways and avoid going to hell. It can be seen that Ding's plays are in tune with Lu Ciyun's works, showing backward ideology.
Different from the above characters, Niu Xian's Biography of Yuan Yuan seems to be an article aimed at reversing the verdict of the theory of female disaster and national subjugation. Besides sympathizing with Chen Yuanyuan, I also greatly appreciated her, making her a heroine who is not only beautiful and kind, but also far-sighted and well-informed. For example, the author writes that she has a prominent position in the State of Wu, does not admire splendor, is in a quagmire, is politically calm, and does not agree with Wu Sangui's rebellious activities. At the end of this biography, I commented: "(Yuanyuan) can do whatever she wants to prevent chaos, but she refuses to give her honor." She has converted to pure heart and died late, which made Yanling meet Jiuyuan. What is she ashamed of? " The author's praise, criticism, love and hate are clear, similar to the tendency of button making, with the legendary color of Zhang Hongbin's "rushing to the top". Zhang Zuo tried her best to excuse Chen Yuanyuan from misunderstanding and slander, which showed her humble mind and dedication to saving the country. So writing high is high, but I'm afraid Chen Yuanyuan's slim waist can't bear the burden of saving the world and saving the day.
Comparing the two, it is not difficult to see that Wu Meicun's description of Chen Yuanyuan's tragic fate is full of infinite sympathy and sorrow. Her extraordinary beauty and outstanding talent brought her not luck, but constant suffering. She has never tried her hand in troubled times, but social unrest often puts her at the forefront. She has many beautiful wishes for life, but like falling flowers in a strong wind, she can't control her own destiny. She could only watch these wishes die one after another, and there was nothing she could do except sorrow, resentment, sorrow, tears and crying. This image is more real. Through this image, Wu Meicun expressed his deep regret over the destruction of beautiful things, and made a euphemistic protest against the reality that caused this tragedy.