How to tell the Chinese story well, even if it is not extended and played, is a very important proposition just from its original meaning. The ancient Chinese narrative art has a long history, and over the course of thousands of years Chinese writers have created many twists and turns, many of which have become classics.
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Time flies, the stars change, now we live in a rapidly changing era of big data, the social and cultural environment has undergone great changes, literature and art have also undergone major changes, how to conform to the needs of the times, these traditional stories that have been handed down for thousands of years to modern readers, to foreign friends, this is a problem related to cultural inheritance, need to be seriously faced.
In terms of the most widely circulated and influential opera in ancient China, it is one of the main narrative genres in ancient China, and behind each classic repertoire is a wonderful and touching story, which can be directly read and appreciated by the original work, or through the viewing of the play.
For modern readers, watching performances is limited by many conditions, even if they occasionally go to the theater, the repertoire that can be enjoyed is quite limited, and the repertoire of ancient Chinese opera is thousands, if not those lost. That is to say, if you want to enjoy the opera story, you need to read the original book more. In fact, after the middle of the Ming Dynasty, miscellaneous drama gradually disappeared from the opera stage and became pure desk literature.
Appreciating the original opera may not be a problem for professional scholars, but for the general reader, it is quite difficult, and it is even more difficult for foreign friends who love Chinese culture. It is therefore necessary to tell it in a way that is easily acceptable to modern readers. This is not only an effective way to popularize opera, but also a good means of inheriting traditional culture. In this regard, Professor Chen Meilin's series of miscellaneous drama stories provides us with a good example and has important reference value.
Quanyuan Opera
Professor Chen Meilin's series of miscellaneous drama stories is divided into three types, namely "Yuan Dynasty Miscellaneous Drama Stories", "Ming Dynasty Miscellaneous Drama Stories" and "Qing Dynasty Miscellaneous Drama Stories", which contain a total of 51 miscellaneous dramas, including 15 Yuan Dynasty miscellaneous dramas, 15 Ming Dynasty miscellaneous dramas, and 21 Qing Dynasty miscellaneous dramas. The influential and representative opera works of the three dynasties of the Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties, such as Guan Hanqing's "Dou E'e Grievance", "Saving the Wind and Dust", Wang Shifu's "Records of the West Chamber", Ma Zhiyuan's "Han Palace Autumn", Ji Junxiang's "Orphan of Zhao", Kang Hai's "Zhongshan Wolf", Xu Wei's "Serving the Army for His Father", and Wu Weiye's "Lin Chunge" were all selected.
Xiqu is a comprehensive art that contains many elements such as literature, music, dance, and fine arts, and has independent aesthetic value only in terms of its story. Through these stories, we can understand the living conditions of the ancient ancestors, understand their thoughts and emotions, and obtain the enjoyment of beauty. If you want to appreciate ancient Chinese miscellaneous dramas from the perspective of stories, Professor Chen Meilin's set of opera stories is undoubtedly the best choice.
The highlight of this collection of miscellaneous drama stories is not only reflected in the selection of the repertoire, but also in the innovation of the way of telling. As we all know, miscellaneous drama has its own unique system, and the storytelling of the story is mainly presented in two forms, lyrics and binbai, in contrast, binbai uses vernacular, which is easier for modern readers to accept. However, the lyrics are the core of the whole play, the text is more elegant, and for the general reader, if not annotated, it is difficult to understand. If you only keep the white and delete the lyrics, it will become too straightforward and superficial, losing the charm of the opera itself, and how to retain it is quite difficult.
"The Story of Miscellaneous Dramas of the Yuan Dynasty", by Chen Meilin, Jiangsu People's Publishing House, May 2021 edition.
In this regard, Professor Chen Meilin has carried out a creative transformation, in addition to using Binbai, but also organically integrated the content and style of the lyrics into the storytelling of the story, retaining the charm of the original work and increasing the connotation of the story. In this way, it is not only to adapt the acrobatic drama of the endorsement body into a story told in the third person, but to retain the unique personality style of the original work on the basis of respect for the original work. Although it cannot completely replace the viewing of opera, it can appreciate its charm through the reading of the story, and can also obtain aesthetic enjoyment.
This is different from simply adapting the miscellaneous drama into a story, increasing the connotation of the story and making the story itself have literary value. This is no longer an adaptation, but a re-creation. After the book was published, it was welcomed by readers, and then it was continuously reprinted and translated into English, French, German and other languages, which shows that the author's re-creation was successful.
Of course, it is easier said than done, and the author's good intentions are reflected behind the stories that are told one after another. Miscellaneous drama has its own unique system, there is a huge difference between the novel, rewriting it into a novel body, the need for a very thorough study and speculation of the original work, only in terms of the specific process of reform, from the structure to the language, from the character portrayal to the way of telling, we must make great adjustments, both to respect the original work, but also to tell the story ups and downs, fascinating, the difficulties are conceivable, academic popular reading is sometimes more difficult to write than academic monographs.
"Ming Dynasty Miscellaneous Drama Stories", by Chen Meilin, Jiangsu People's Publishing House, May 2021 edition.
The reason why Professor Chen Meilin has done so successfully is because he is very careful, this move is not a whim, but has a comprehensive consideration and a long period of accumulation, deep education and outstanding talent is also an important factor of success.
According to Professor Chen himself, the original rewriting of miscellaneous dramas into novels was mainly for the needs of teaching, teaching ancient literature courses, and opera is undoubtedly an important content. However, at that time, the number of operas that were compiled and published was very small, and many students could not read the original works, so they intended to rewrite the opera into novels.
In fact, in the Ming and Qing dynasties, there was a precedent for rewriting opera into novels, such as "The Tale of the West Chamber" and "Peach Blossom Fan", which all had novel works of the same name, but the number of rewrites was very small. Professor Chen's rewriting was not an hasty chapter, and it took more than 20 years from the beginning of the 1960s to the public publication in the 1980s.
As the saying goes, slow work produces fine work, and this ten-year-old sword-sharpening way of creation ensures the high quality of rewriting. In addition to the collection of miscellaneous dramas from the three generations of the Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties, Professor Chen Meilin also rewrote "Peony Pavilion", "Peach Blossom Fan" and "Hall of Eternal Life", which were also successful.
"Stories of Qing Dynasty Miscellaneous Drama", by Chen Meilin, Jiangsu People's Publishing House, May 2021 edition.
It should be emphasized that in addition to the elegance of the text and the elegance of the style, the style of the book is also perfect. In order to allow readers to better understand and appreciate these miscellaneous drama stories, the three books have a preface at the beginning, which introduces the situation and characteristics of the creation of miscellaneous dramas in this period as a whole and provides the necessary background knowledge. For each play received, there is a brief introduction of the author in the front, followed by an explanatory analysis of the play, introducing the relevant situation, and focusing on guiding the reader.
This kind of consideration is very thoughtful, and the twists and turns of the story are organically combined with the necessary introduction and guidance to form a complete story system. For readers, reading and appreciating these miscellaneous drama stories has many harvests, and these Chinese stories with strong national characteristics not only give people the enjoyment of beauty, but also help to increase historical and cultural knowledge and broaden their horizons.
Professor Chen Meilin
How to tell Chinese stories well, this is not only a theoretical proposition worth pondering, but also a practical problem that needs to be solved, Professor Chen Meilin has made a good demonstration in this regard, and has made important contributions to the popularization and dissemination of ancient Chinese opera and even Chinese literary culture, and also provided important inspiration and reference for related work.