Cui Yingying in The West Chamber came onto the stage with youthful depression. When she met the romantic and elegant Zhang Sheng, they looked at each other and attracted each other like magnets. She obviously noticed a strange man staring at her, but her reaction was "holding her shoulders and smiling at the flowers." The matchmaker who wrote the script urged her to avoid it, and her reaction was:
Look back-at the end-next.
Please pay attention to this stage hint, which reveals the inner world of the characters extremely strongly. According to the provisions of the feudal ethics, for women, "don't talk if you are indecent, see no evil, don't listen if you are indecent". Yingying turned to Zhang Sheng step by step, leaving the rules behind. Through a subtle but eye-catching move, the author let the audience clearly see the trend of her personality development. At the end of the Ming Dynasty, Jin Shengtan adapted the West Chamber, so he deleted Yingying's action and asked her to take the initiative to say, "Matchmaker, I want to see my mother." There is also a comment cloud: "It is natural for this woman to write a double article and walk into the guest." Jin Shengtan's practice, whether appropriate or not, fully shows that he is aware of the key role of this action.
After Yingying met Zhang Sheng, the author wrote that she wanted to approach Zhang Sheng very actively. She knew that the "silly corner" was singing poetry under the moon, so she went to pay to sing; Zhang Sheng deliberately ran out to see her, and she was "greeted with a smile", which showed that she was merciful to Zhang Sheng everywhere. And her attitude, Zhang Sheng also see in the eye. Their hearts are connected, and they all feel their love for each other. It is precisely because of Yingying's eager pursuit of love from the beginning that she embarked on the road of violating feudal ethics step by step.
Master Wang writes Yingying only for love. Her love for Zhang Sheng is pure and transparent, without any impurities. When Zhang Sheng was forced to go to Beijing to take the exam, she regretted that it was "a hollow reputation, a petty profit, and it never rains but it pours"; When Changting saw Zhang Sheng off, her feeling was: "But getting a lotus head is better than being the first scholar"; Her most solemn exhortation to Zhang Sheng is: "If you get an official in this business, you will come back when you are ill"; What worries her is that Zhang Sheng is not as devoted as she is, and repeatedly reminds him that "seeing flowers and plants in a foreign land, don't stay here like staying up late". In short, in her mind, "love" is always in the most important position. As for fame and fortune, honor and disgrace can be ignored. This kind of thought is different from Yingying in The West Chamber and many noble ladies in Yuan Zaju. She is a female image who sincerely pursues love and boldly resists feudal tradition.
However, the strong pursuit of love is only one aspect of Yingying's character. Yingying has been influenced by feudal ethics for a long time and has scruples about the matchmaker. Therefore, her personality is warm and calm, smart and cunning. For example, when she saw Zhang Sheng's "short post" sent by the matchmaker, she became furious. "I was so tired that I frowned a long time ago. Suddenly the waves lowered my pink neck, which changed Zhu Yan." She also claimed to take the Jane Post, "sue my wife and cut you down like a little bitch." She put on airs and let the matchmaker blame Zhang Sheng. "That's what she said." In fact, this is a love poem about Zhang Sheng's personal meeting. When Zhang Sheng went to the back garden for an appointment, she suddenly changed her mind and severely reprimanded Zhang Sheng. All these performances turned Zhang Sheng upside down, even the matchmaker was confused. When the audience saw Ying Ying's "sweet words in front of people, no one will miss Zhang Sheng, and will frown and cry behind her", when they saw her sometimes serious, sometimes embarrassed, and sometimes embarrassed, they had no heart. In her works, Wang Shifu makes Yingying's image have two different internal rhythms, showing her pursuit of love, which is both anxious and uneasy. The disharmony of inner rhythm is the comedy factor that causes her behavior to make people laugh.
Zhang Sheng in Wang Shifu's works is also different from Zhang Sheng in The West Chamber. He was stripped of vulgarity in front of fame and fortune and cowardice in front of feudal parents. What stands out is his persistent and sincere pursuit of love. He is a "sincere species". Sincerity is the core of this image endowed by the author.
Of course, Zhang Sheng is a talented, romantic and generous person. When he appeared, he sang a song [Oil Gourd], describing "Snow waves hit the sky, and autumn clouds rolled the sky; Bamboo cable pontoon bridge, black dragon swallows in the water "scenery of the Yellow River, fully shows the literary talent and luxurious bearing. However, when Wang Shifu created Zhang Sheng's image, he didn't focus on showing his talent, but showed that once he fell in love, this talented person became a person who was neither sour nor jealous. He is cute and pedantic.
Wang Shifu wrote that Zhang Sheng met Yingying in the Buddhist temple and suddenly exclaimed: "I'm going to die!" These three words vividly describe his mood. Follow him to the Dojo to meet the matchmaker and sign up:
Zhang is from Xiluo, and he is 23 years old. He was born on the seventeenth day of the first month and has never been married.
The matchmaker asked, "Who invited you?" Zhang Sheng didn't answer, but came straight to the point and asked, "Do you dare to let the young lady come out often?" This wonderful dialogue is well-known, which makes Zhang Sheng's infatuated and reckless personality driven by love come alive. In the scene of "coming to the soul", the author wrote that Zhang Sheng thought a swan was coming at first, so he got up early in the morning and dressed neatly. "I also made two pieces of soap feet, changed two buckets of water, and earned my job by polishing my black hat." I was naive to wait for Cui's invitation wholeheartedly. Who knows, the old lady suddenly changed her mind. At first he was dumbfounded, and then he was flustered. He also knelt in front of the matchmaker with a sad face and claimed to hang himself. This performance of being at a loss is really amazing. When Zhang Sheng recovered his breath, the script had been written. He asked the old woman:
(The last cloud): I was drunk, so I excused myself. In front of his wife, dare to say a word. I wonder if I can. The former is forced by thieves, and as my wife said, Yingying's wife is the one who can repel thieves. Xiao Sheng stepped forward. Writing a book with General Du saved my wife from the disaster. Today, it will be a festive occasion, inviting a young student to dinner. I don't know what your wife thinks, treat him as a brother and sister. I'm not here to feed and sip. If I don't do this, I will retire.
As soon as Zhang Sheng opened his mouth, he said "Please forgive me" and asked the old lady if she could let him talk. Before the old lady responded, he said a lot. In fact, when the old lady responded "yes", of course he wanted to say; When he answered "no", he also wanted to say. His speech was incoherent, but it made sense. Jin Shengtan said: Zhang Sheng's stomach is full of resentment, his throat is supported, and he is full of blasphemy. Touch your teeth and break your lips. "In this scene, Wang Shifu clearly shows Zhang Sheng's anger from anxiety, happiness to disappointment, and whether he writes Zhang Sheng, cold brain, sour, or like a cat on hot bricks, he shows his persistence in love. The power of love makes this talented person stupid and unable to take care of his manners.
Zhang Sheng jumped over the wall, which is the most wonderful place for Wang Shifu to describe this character. That night, Zhang Sheng went down to the back garden at the invitation of Yingying's simple poem. He knew that the young lady was in the partition, so Fan Yuan jumped up and held Yingying in his arms. Yingying got a fright. She didn't expect Zhang Sheng to jump over, and the "corner gate" was still open. She exclaimed, "Who is it?" This time, the date was ruined.
Regarding Zhang Sheng's behavior of jumping over the wall, the writing of Hui Zhenji is: "On the east wall of Cuizhi, there are apricot flowers and a tree, which can be climbed over. Looking forward to the evening, Zhang Sheng climbed over his tree and reached the west wing, and then the fruit was half open. " The way to deal with The West Chamber is that after Zhang Sheng jumped over the wall, he called the matchmaker: "You should report a disease to your sister quickly, and a jade man will come outside the door." They met in the room. Wang Shifu changed the writing of Yuan Zhen and Dong Jieyuan, and changed the meeting place of Cui and Zhang to the back garden. There is a wall in the garden with a "corner door" on it. Both sides can pass, and Yingying "burns Ye Xiang" on one side of the wall. Here, Master Wang changed the scene slightly, which not only added new interest to the project, but also played a role in portraying Zhang Sheng's character.
When Zhang Sheng received the invitation, the matchmaker was angry with Yingying and refused to help them again. It was when Zhang Sheng felt that love was hopeless. However, when he opened the poem, he found that a young lady had proposed a tryst to him. He was overjoyed, and the matchmaker asked him, "Why are you here? You understand me and listen to me. " He explained: "waiting for the west wing of the moon" means I want to go to the moon; Windward door half open', he opened the door for me; "The shadow of the partition wall is moving, and it is suspected that the jade man is coming", so I jumped over the wall. "On this basis, he jumped over the wall to keep the appointment.
Yingying dated Zhang Sheng, but she didn't let him jump off the wall. It was Zhang Sheng who misunderstood the poem. He didn't make a mistake in the first sentence of this poem. As for the second sentence, "the windward door is half open", he knows that it refers to the "corner door" of the garden. The problem lies in the interpretation of the third and fourth sentences. "The shadow of the partition wall is moving, and it is suspected to be a jade person." In any case, it can't be interpreted as asking him to jump over the wall, besides, the corner door is half open, so why should he jump over the wall! Zhang Sheng invented the word "jump" out of thin air, which is really ridiculous negligence. Originally, Zhang Sheng was a gifted scholar, but he couldn't explain it. The reason why he was clever all his life and confused for a while was because he was suddenly flattered and carried away in despair, so that even his poems were wrong.
In order to emphasize Zhang Sheng's misunderstanding of this poem, Wang Shifu can show his character and repeatedly pave the way and set off in the script. For example, when the matchmaker asked Zhang Sheng if he was sure of the answer to this poem, he replied, "I am a sociologist who guesses poetry riddles. I am a romantic, prodigal Lu Jia. Where do I have bad business? " In the evening, when the matchmaker opened the corner door, he met Zhang Sheng and asked him again, "Are you really here?" Zhang Sheng is still confident: "Xiao Sheng is a sociologist who guesses poetry puzzles." Later, Yingying turned against her, and the matchmaker laughed at Zhang Sheng: "A2, a sociologist who guessed poetry riddles, took a picture of the windward door half open." In "Making Jane" and "Relying on Jane", "sociologists who guess poems and solve puzzles" guess poems wrong. Because Zhang Sheng misunderstood this poem, it caused misunderstanding and conflict, which greatly strengthened the comedy color of the whole play. Through such artistic treatment, Wang Shifu showed Zhang Sheng's bold pursuit of love and reckless and pedantic character.
In The West Chamber, Wang Shifu put the matchmaker in a very delicate position. The old lady asked her to serve Yingying and put her in jail, but she was dissatisfied with the shackles of feudal ethics on young people. When she realized the love affair between Cui and Zhang, she always wanted to make it happen. She is willing to go through the needle for Yingying, knowing that Yingying has the temper of "squeezing salt into the fire" and the cunning of "turning her heart around", and she has to test and speculate everywhere, take care of the self-esteem of the young lady, and endure doubts and accusations. She has to deal with young ladies and old ladies and bear all kinds of pressures, but for the reasonable pursuit of others, she has no hesitation. The more Wang Shifu writes about the matchmaker's "two difficult characters" and this "mountain with cracks", the more vividly she shows her witty and stubborn character.
Interestingly, Master Wang made the matchmaker speak Taoist language all the time, which made her look serious. For example, she realized Zhang's motivation to sign up, so she moved out a set of "men and women don't kiss" and gave Zhang a flat refusal. From her posturing and Zhang Sheng's clumsy behavior, the author shows that she doesn't respect any ethics, but knows how to use "Confucius and Mencius" as a trick. Later, at the scene of "red copying", this stick actually played a wonderful role. The matchmaker told Zhang Yingying frankly, and then said to the old lady:
Believers are the foundation of human beings. "People don't believe it, they don't know what they can do, and there are no carts and cars. How can they do it? " When the Japanese army comes to the rescue, a woman's wife will be the one the old lady promised to withdraw. Zhang Sheng doesn't admire Miss Wang's color, but is he willing to build a plan for withdrawing troops? When the soldiers left the army, my wife regretted her foreword. Is it necessary to break her promise? Because he refused to do so, he only paid him gold and silk, which made Zhang Sheng leave here. However, Zhang Sheng was not invited to stay in the academy, which made the dissatisfied women look at each other differently sooner or later, so the old lady had this fate. Now if the old lady doesn't stop, she will humiliate Guo Xiang's genealogy; Secondly, Zhang Shengming will be famous in the world in the future, he will be kind to others, and he will be ashamed of it. Even if a lawsuit is filed, the old lady will be guilty of lax housekeeping. If the lawsuit is detailed, I also know that the old lady is ungrateful and ungrateful. How can it be virtuous?
These words are watertight and completely feudal. The matchmaker picked up the big sign of "loyalty", put on a show of safeguarding feudal principles and family interests, and pinned down the old lady with high-sounding dogma, which immediately caught its soft spot and hit the key. This trick of "attacking the shield with a spear of a child" is really effective, so the old lady has to admit her bad luck. From the thoughtful and eloquent speech of the matchmaker, and from the fact that she seriously fiddled with feudal dogma, it was actually a process of bold ridicule. The author let people see the distinctive personality of the matchmaker's pungent wit.
In Cui Zhang, the image of the matchmaker has a development process. The matchmaker in True Story has no important position. The matchmaker's words in The Romance of the West Chamber became an indispensable help for the combination of Cui and Zhang, indicating that Dong Jieyuan in the Jin Dynasty realized that in the face of strong feudal pressure, talented people and beautiful women must get outside help. He highlighted the role of matchmaker from a humble background, which shows that the lower class people know their own strength. Wang Shifu gave the matchmaker a new look on the basis of The West Chamber. He wrote that the reason why the matchmaker acted as Cui Zhang's "matchmaker mountain" was not only out of disgust at the old lady's failure to keep her faith, but more importantly, her own recognition of the pursuit of love; She is not only brave, but also rebellious. Master Wang wrote that she silently assisted Cui Zhang from the beginning and later did everything for them. This chivalrous spirit of actively helping "lovers" embodies the people's conscious pursuit of "love". Tang Xianzu said that the matchmaker in Wang Shifu has "twenty talents, twenty knowledge and twenty courage". With this strategist, the attack is invincible and the war is invincible "("Mr. Don Hai Ruo's Criticism of the West Chamber "). He compared the matchmaker to a "strategist", which undoubtedly saw her promoting role in Cui Zhang's love entanglement and gave him a high evaluation.
Drama is the art of language. Wang Shifu's skill in mastering slave language in The West Chamber has always been praised by people. Wang Jide said that "The West Chamber" "There are no new people today, but later they went to be philosophers. Although he is good at the tune of the ages "("New Collation of the West Chamber "); Xu Fu-zuo praised it as "the crown of North and South" (Qu Lun). They all regard The West Chamber as the highest peak of the language art of traditional Chinese opera.
The so-called "when the line" means that the language of The West Chamber conforms to the characteristics of drama, can be combined with performance, and has rich movements, like a piece of music in the second compromise in Book III:
(Red singing) [Pu Tianle] The night makeup is not complete, and the clouds cover the fog. I gently hooked my pink face, rolled up the clouds in disorder, pushed a simple post, pressed the cosmetic box, opened the lid and looked at it diligently. It doesn't hurt to toss and turn. (Shouting angrily) Matchmaker! (Red means clouds) Ah! Never spill it! I frowned in disgust. (Yun Dan) Little bitch, what if you don't come! (Red Singing) The sudden wave lowered the pink neck and sighed and changed Zhu Yan.
Yingying dressed up beautifully at first, but when she saw Jane's sticker, she rolled up her hair at random, pressed the cosmetic box in a hurry, savored Jane carefully, and hesitated with doubts. This lyric is very action. Master Wang let the lyrics define the actors' body movements and make the characters move, which is suitable for stage performance and characterization.
The language of The West Chamber has a very distinct personality. Even when singing lyrics, the author takes into account the differences of characters' identity, status and personality, which makes them present different styles. As a male character, Zhang Sheng is elegant in language, vulgar in Zheng Heng, bright and generous. As a female figure, Yingying's language is charming, such as:
[Mixing Dragons] It's worrying that the fallen flowers are in array and the wind is blowing ten thousand points. The pond dreams of dawn, the green threshold leaves the spring, the butterfly powder touches the flying snow, and the smell of Yan mud makes the dust fall. In spring, love is short and willow is long, and people are far away. Incense dispelled the gold powder of the Six Dynasties and reduced the Qi of the Three Chu Dynasties.
Yingying's family is good, and her lyrics are rhythmic, colorful and subtle, similar to graceful school. Therefore, Zhu Quan said, "Wang Shifu's poems are beautiful and euphemistic, which won the interest of poets".
The matchmaker's language is lively and pungent. For example:
[Man Fang Ting] Looking back and forth at the shadows, I learned magic, and the wind is not sour. I tried to make my forehead and skull very profitable, and my illness and delay overwhelmed the flies. The shiny oil dazzles me and hurts my teeth.
The matchmaker is a glib girl. The author makes her language mixed with slang, common sayings and everyday expressions, which is both simple and vivid.
In a word, the literary style is natural, gorgeous and rough, with strong dramatic effect, which is a major feature of the language of The West Chamber. Because Wang Shifu put a lot of images of Tang poetry and Song poetry into his lyrics, it is fragrant and interesting to read. Therefore, The Romance of the West Chamber is also called poetic drama.
The Romance of the West Chamber has been a household name since its publication, and some people even compare it with Spring and Autumn Annals.
Wang Shifu's The West Chamber has been lost, but there have been many versions since the Ming Dynasty. According to incomplete statistics, The Romance of the West Chamber has about 1 10 in the Ming edition and about 70 in the Qing edition. The complexity of the publication shows its deep influence and wide spread. On the stage of China's traditional opera, The Romance of the West Chamber is even more popular. Beijing, Kunming, Pudong, Henan, Sichuan, Yunnan, Fujian, Jiangxi and other operas have been adapted and staged, which have been deeply loved by the audience for many years.
However, The Romance of the West Chamber was banned and discriminated in its circulation. In the 18th year of Qianlong reign in Qing dynasty (1753), the imperial court ordered The West Chamber and The Water Margin to be classified as "obscene books", holding that "the ignorance of the people was caused by people close to bandits". In the seventh year of Tongzhi (1868), Ding Richang, the governor of Jiangsu Province, ordered the banning of "obscene words", pointing out that "the Water Margin, The Romance of the West Chamber and other books are all compiled at home, and people are pregnant with one". "If destruction is not strictly prohibited, the poison will depend on Hu Di". Of course, The Romance of the West Chamber cannot be banned, and the attitude of some feudal rulers can only prove its great influence from the opposite side.
The appearance of The West Chamber has deeply attracted many authors, and people have followed suit. Some even imitate its rhetoric and attack its plot, such as "East Wall" and? Xiang Mei is like a copy of The West Chamber. The story "Ghost Story" uses a willow pavilion to bid farewell, and also follows the farewell scene of the pavilion in The West Chamber. Some writers, such as Tang Xianzu's Peony Pavilion, Meng Chengshun's Jiao Hong and Cao Xueqin's Dream of Red Mansions, are good at absorbing nutrition from the Romance of the West Chamber, and all of them have developed and created on the basis of inheriting the idea of the Romance of the West Chamber against feudal ethics, thus making new achievements.