(2) In the records of legendary plays since the early Qing Dynasty, we didn't see the description of the legend of continuing pipa, but Comrade Zhou provided us with an extremely important clue and some materials in A Dream of Red Mansions, pointing out that the legend of continuing pipa was passed down from generation to generation (although it was already a remnant), and quoted the relevant records in Liu Ting's book. [1] Therefore, we are more interested in further exploring the only banknote at present. At the same time, the drama Cai Wenji and Kunqu Opera Cai Wenji were recently staged in Beijing, and Cai Wenji was the main figure who continued the legend of Pipa. It can also be said that Continued Pipa is a traditional Kunqu opera about Cai Wenji. For these reasons, we looked up this banknote, made some preliminary explorations on it, and put forward some superficial views, with a view to recommending a "new" game that has been lost for nearly 300 years and may still have reference value. Secondly, I hope to provide a research topic to attract the attention of classical literature researchers such as opera, lyrics and a dream of red mansions, and ask comrades for advice, with the aim of attracting jade.
( 1)
In the fifty-fourth chapter of A Dream of Red Mansions, "Shi Taijun's shabby pattern and Wang Xifeng's colorful drama", Cao Xueqin did express some incisive opinions on the playing and singing of traditional operas through Jia Jiakou, who was well-informed in the heyday of Jia's family. When two female storytellers were telling the outline of the new book Feng Qiu Chaos, they were interrupted by Jia Mu and immediately guessed the ending of the story, pointing out that "these books are all a condom, and the rest are just some beautiful women and talented people, which is the most boring." As a result, Wang Xifeng was called "a colorful coat" and Jia Mu's comments were called "lies", which made the audience feel full of spring. "Before I finished, everyone laughed." Then, the old lady suggested, "Take a new look and ask Fang Guan to sing" Seeking Dreams ".As long as you play the violin, you don't have to play the flute and sheng flute at all." Also, "You don't have to wipe your face if you ask Kwai Guan to sing Huiming Xia Shu." The purpose is to let relatives listen to a "talk" and a "exhortation" song, and make an expert artistic appreciation. It can be seen that Jia Fu's supreme power does have superb artistic appreciation ability, and he has experience and research. This is clear from the following dialogue about watching drama:
(Jia Mu said) "Just like the West Building and Chu Jiangqing, most of them were performed by young students."
(Jia Mu points to Xiangyun) "When I was his age, his grandfather had a little drama, but it was played by a pianist, such as listening to the piano in the West Chamber, picking the piano in the jade hairpin, and continuing the 18 beats of the Hu family in the pipa, which were all true later. [2]
Here, it is Cao Xueqin who tells the common characteristics of these legendary passbook with artistic characteristics through the mouth of Jia Mu: they are all plays in which actors can play musical instruments. For example, The Story of the West Building was sung for Mu on an uncle's night with a flute accompaniment; The West Chamber is Cui Yingying's understanding when listening to Zhang Junrui playing the piano. The Jade Hairpin is a melody in which Pan Bizheng and Chen Miaochang play the piano and sing separately, and tell their inner feelings with piano music. The Pipa Continuation is Cai Wenji's eighteen beats of Hu Jia, a compromise, to express the ups and downs of his life. The first three plays have been widely circulated for a long time, and they can still be performed in Kunming in the south and north after the founding of the People's Republic of China (although there are no actors who can play and sing themselves due to the development of division of labor). Only the play "Continued Pipa" has not been performed, and there is not even a tenfold play in the Kunqu script. For more than 200 years, it turned out to be a lost drama without a clue.
Why did Cao Xueqin write down the continuation pipa in A Dream of Red Mansions and put it next to the West Chamber and Hosta? It is conceivable that this uncommon play has a special origin with Cao Xueqin, perhaps it is a private school play of Cao family. In fact, the repertoire of actors playing musical instruments on the stage is not only 60% off, such as Cao Yin's contemporary plays Hong Sheng and Kong Renshang: Li Guinian plays the pipa and sings by himself in "Tanci" in the Palace of Eternal Life; In "Evening Fragrance" by Peach Blossom Fan, there are actors on both sides of Hou Chaozong and Li, and they even play "Ten Times". If we take this drama as an example, it will directly affect another legend of "Continuing Pipa", that is, You Dong's drama "Hanging Pipa", which is an unforgettable friend, is 40% off. The first three are to express his sorrow with Ming Fei, and the fourth is Cai.
In the long history of the script, there are also some actors playing fishing drums and pressing sandalwood boards, but these Cao Xueqin are not listed. It seems that although he never met his grandfather, after his death, the Cao family did not decline, and this small troupe could not be dissolved immediately. The "Neem Pavilion Library" with more than10,000 copies will also be retained. If Cao Xueqin catches up with the brief prosperous period of the Cao family, he may have seen several performances in the legend of Continued Pipa, and of course he may have heard vivid descriptions from his elders. As for the notes of this play, it is more reasonable. There is no doubt that Cao Xueqin is very appreciative of the continuation of the pipa, and will also be influenced by his thoughts and literary talent, so he can write his grandfather's masterpiece "Continued Pipa" into the book like a few treasures. We believe that this is not only because there is a character who can play the piano in the script, but also for "reminiscing about prosperity" and "dreaming of hometown". More importantly, it shows Cao Xueqin's own artistic talent and appreciation level.
(2)
Out of our love for A Dream of Red Mansions, we are interested in further exploring the existing characteristics and contents of the legend of the pipa. First of all, according to the clues provided by the New Certificate of A Dream of Red Mansions, with the assistance of Beijing Library, we searched the only remaining banknotes in China. It is understood that this banknote is one of 70 kinds of opera banknotes collected by Cao Shi in Huaining. It was purchased from Anhui by Mr. Zhang Yuanji around 1927 when he was in charge of the collection in Hanfen Building of Shanghai Commercial Press. This is a precious book that survived the "128" artillery fire.
The legendary dilapidated notebook "Continued Pipa" is a handwritten notebook with neat line format and clear handwriting strokes. The play is divided into two volumes with 92 leaves, and each volume has 20 crosses in 16 lines (there are 19 words or 2 1 words in the middle). The first volume has 56 leaves, and there is a 20% discount before the volume, and the end of "Trapped in Beijing" is missing about half. The second volume is only thirty-six pages, with gaps between the beginning and the end. There is no catalogue, only 15% of the titles are scattered. "Thirty-five fold of sight" has only 40 words written by Cao Cao, and it is almost 60% less in the future. In the middle of the first page of the 21st fold, the words "Wenxi belongs to Han" written in printed form are quite different from the handwriting of the original banknote, which is obviously added by later generations. There is a white seal on the head of the first volume, "Listening to the Rain Building and Appreciating Books", and there is no other preface and postscript. Lu Qian, the organizer of Notes on Cao Shi Opera in Huaining, only called it Old Notes, without the author's name, and said that the other side of the word "Ning" was not peaceful, and it was suspected that it was written by someone at work. This inference doesn't seem to be correct. We read the notes carefully. Except for a few typos, the author of the notes did strictly abide by the pen ban system, but avoided the pen ban of Kangxi and Michelle Ye. However, the pen bans of Yongzheng Yin Zhen, Ganlong Li Hong, Jiaqing Gala and Daoguang Yining, such as Dong Zhuo (singing), the fourth fold of Yi Li, told Li Ru, the same author, to "abolish the young master as the king of Hongnong". Chae Yeon's name was also written directly in the play. As for the fourteenth discount of "Trapped in Prison", Cai Yong (singing): "Today, it's not embarrassing." The word "Li" should be a common writing variant, not to avoid the taboo of Daoguang Li. From this, we preliminarily conclude that this is a banknote of the Kangxi era, that is to say, this "legend" written by Cao Yin was not only performed before his death, but also circulated.
Continued Pipa Story takes the history of Cao Cao's redemption of Cai Yan as the main line, perfunctory the story of Cai Wenji's joys and sorrows, and describes Cao Cao's whole political career. As far as we know, the story of Cai Wenji has also been written into operas in history. In the Yuan Dynasty before Cao Yin, there was Jin Renjie's "Cai Yan returned to Han"; In the Ming Dynasty, Chen and Jiao wrote "Yue's Entering the Village" (writing that he would return the messenger sent back by Cao Cao to Han Dynasty and stop at Yumenguan); In the Qing Dynasty, there were "Zhong Lang Nv" and "Hanging Pipa" that traveled to the East. Continued Pipa, also known as Hou Pipa, is the best of its kind, and its creative intention is to "prove the decline of the previous Pipa", so there is a poem at the beginning of Xijiang Yue: "Pipa is not this pipa." So that the audience can focus on it. After carefully reading the script "Continued Pipa", I really feel that its words are delicate and fresh, elegant but not astringent, and its thoughts are quite unique. The remaining 34 times test analysis is as follows.
First of all, the main plot of "Continued Pipa" is basically born out of historical rap such as "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" in addition to official records such as "The History of the Three Kingdoms" and "Zi Tongzhi Sword". This was recorded in the Garden Magazine, where Liu met with him in the 42nd year of Kangxi and had the opportunity to watch the continued pipa performance. He said: (Continued Pipa) "The general idea is that Cai Wenji's spouse is engaged and divorced, and he is going to write about the recruitment of corps commanders. He is shocked and killed, and Wenxi is captured, which makes Khufu. And Cao Mengde thought of the corps commander, Yidun Youdao, ordered Cao Zhang to come to the Great Wall with an enemy, and threatened to return to China with redemption; Next to the bronze sparrow banquet, Mi Heng played drums and still reunited with Wenxi, which is a true story and is based on Zhong Lang Nv. Is disguised as a door, not painting ink season, the speaker and yintai namesake, so it is a cover ... "
Liu Tingqian's words are mostly credible, but there are also some inaccuracies. For example, there is no trace of "threatening blackmail" in the whole play. On the contrary, it was Cao Cao's urgent document that ordered Cao Zhang to send troops and defeated Huan, who robbed and killed Zuo. Then Dong Si was sent to "buy gold and white jade and go to Khan to redeem the empress". Liu Wenzhong's phrase "Meet Wenxi again" tells the main plot of the last 60% discount that is missing now.
In addition, the phrase "You don't need to paint as a pipa" not only explains the doubts about what the role of Cao Cao is in the script, but also points out a great artistic creation of the legendary author of Continued Pipa, which completely breaks through the appearance of "powder face hiding traitors". He dared to break the orthodoxy of regarding Cao Cao as a "traitor" since the Song Dynasty, and created a heroic image for us, which was resourceful, courageous, eager for talents and loving talents like treasure. In several plays, the legendary author abandoned the embarrassing situation in Romance of the Three Kingdoms, such as cutting off the beard robe and Zuo Ci teasing, which was enough to damage the image of Cao Cao. When writing Mi Fei's drumming, he also highlighted Cao Cao's generous side. From Cao Cao's mouth, who has always claimed to be a hero of traditional Chinese opera, he said: "Today, the princes of all walks of life have joined forces with millions of soldiers, which is enough to chill the traitors and move the heart of loyalty."
In the script, several main characters are branded with Shang Yan, such as Dong Si dressed as a "woman"; Cai Yong appeared as a "foreign pale scarf suit"; Wen Xi and the maid went on stage to "attract the audience to cherish the spring and embrace the piano", and "dress up as Dong Zhuo's golden crown python" and "dress up as a warrior robe with a knife at the waist and tail". However, the appearance of Cao Cao, one of the main characters, did not indicate what kind of business he played. First, "Cao Cao's crown led the crowd" and "Cao Cao's crown led the golden crown python jade". Of course, it can also be considered to avoid Dong Zhuo's "net", so I don't write it, just as Dong Zhuo only writes "net" and doesn't write "Dong" in the script to avoid confusion with Dong Si. However, according to Liu's truthful record of the performance, it was written that "BLACKPINK is not the painter", which is convincing.
Therefore, we believe that this is a bold innovation made by the legendary author in order to achieve the consistency between the internal character and the external image of the characters, and it is a great achievement of continuing the legend of pipa. Imagine that it is not easy for a feudal literati to create such an artistic image of Cao Cao more than 200 years ago. Without this record of Liu Tingji, we may never fully realize the ideological and artistic value of the work Continued Pipa. As for "the speaker takes Yintai's surname, so it is a cover-up", it seems impossible for Cao Yin's position, literature and history to be superficial and false just because he has Cao Cao's surname. Although famous people in history can be regarded as the pride of their ancestors, such as Guan Hanqing's "Guan Wang Going Alone to the Single Knife Club", there may be such a meaning, but there will never be an author named Qin who tries to "cover up" because he wrote with the same surname. You know, Cao Cao is also a traitor who has been scolded for hundreds of years! We believe that it is mainly due to Cao Yin's historical knowledge and some of his more enlightened thoughts and literary accomplishments that the first drama with Cao Cao as a positive figure was created in the history of China opera.
Secondly, the legendary author of "Continued Pipa" takes "Cai Wenji Story" as the main line, and also strongly shows the moderate ethnic policy of the current rulers, making the legend of "Continued Pipa" more innovative than similar works. Judging from Cao Yin's prominent political position in the Kangxi Dynasty and Jiangning weaving, it is not only because he is the coat of the Office of the Interior, but also the nurse brother of Emperor Kangxi Michelle Ye, so he won the favor of the Holy Dragon as soon as possible. In fact, influenced by Michelle Ye's secret purpose, he made friends with adherents of the Ming Dynasty in the south of the Yangtze River, contacted the upper classes of the Han nationality, and was responsible for special missions such as "United Front". Therefore, it can be considered that Cao Yin understood the far-reaching significance and influence of "affinity" on stabilizing the feudal regime, and he would naturally agree with the policy of "national harmony", and embodied this idea with artistic practice in Continued Pipa. Therefore, "Continued Pipa" also affirmed the ghost of Zhaojun in the play. Even though it still follows the tragic content of "Frustrated Danqing, Married in a Foreign Land" in Ma Zhiyuan's Han Palace and other Zhao Jun's plays, it instills a new idea of "patriotism and fame", so the whole play gives people another ideological and artistic image in the narrative of Cai Wenji's story. The script begins with Cai Yong's Rejection and ends with Wenxi's Original Reunion, which affirms Cai Wenji's life. As mentioned earlier, the comedy ending of The Original Reunion is in the missing part. We can only learn from the fifteenth compromise in Visiting a Prison that this "original match" refers to the care of "giving my daughter Wenxi to you", and it was Dong Si, a student who personally visited Cai Yong, but Cai Yong's life was realized because of Cao Cao's fulfillment. This kind of plot arrangement and expression is unprecedented.
Of course, the legend of "Continued Pipa" also has some common problems of general legends, such as "redundant folding" and "wasting space", and there are also sentences carved, allusions piled up and strong phonological reflection, but its main line is clear, the story is concentrated, and the details are not miscellaneous, plus some artistic skills, it should be said that it is a better legendary script.
(3)
As for the reason why the script of "Continuing Pipa" has not been handed down on the stage, we think that apart from its grandeur, it is difficult for ordinary private theatrical troupes to perform, perhaps because there are not many banknotes, and it has been inconvenient to perform since Cao Jia copied it, so there are few scripts.
Another important reason that cannot be ignored is that, as mentioned above, Cao Yin arranged Cao Cao as a positive figure in this legend, which was not easily accepted by orthodox people in feudal society. We haven't found anything in this script that can violate the website of the Qing court. Its main line is even telling historical stories according to novels. In the play, Cao Yin only portrays Cao Cao as a hero with strategy and courage. For example, the thirty-first fold of the "Calling Banquet", a piece of "Dahongpao" summarizes the contents of several poems of Cao Cao, such as "Watching the Sea", "Although the tortoise is longevity", "Let the county know about it" and so on. It's really natural to move here, and it can also be considered that this is the first drama in the history of China opera to reverse Cao Cao's conviction.
Of course, while pointing out some new views on Cao Cao expressed by the legend of "Continuing Pipa" in Cao Yin, we do not object to and reject the treacherous and intelligent white-faced image of Cao Cao carefully shaped by artists in traditional operas for hundreds of years, not to mention that they have already performed the art of singing, such as Cao Cao in Kunqu Opera "On Sword" and "Offering Sword"; Or Cao Cao in Peking Opera "Catch and Release Cao Cao", "Kick a Young Horse" and "Huarong Road", or even a drama like "Zhanwan City" can be preserved as the legendary romance of Cao Cao as long as its obscene performances are excluded. Our idea is that the evaluation of any historical figure should be true in "historiography", but it can be "a hundred flowers blossom" in "art".
Finally, let's talk about the legendary version of Continued Pipa. Limited to our knowledge, we have only seen such old banknotes. Not long ago, Comrade Cheng Zhou Chang Ru taught me, and a friend told him that he saw an "engraved edition" somewhere in Shanghai a few years ago, but because the letter was copied away during the exercise, I can't find it now, so the clue of this "engraved edition" may be broken. Therefore, I would like to appeal to the comrades who know this clue to provide it, so that the ancient books that have been submerged for many years can play their due role in the further study of traditional Chinese opera and A Dream of Red Mansions.