"Romeo and Juliet" in Three Lanes and Seven Alleys

Stills from "Lychee for Peach"

"Lychee for Peach" is a classic in the traditional repertoire of Fujian opera, known as the Fuzhou version of "Romeo and Juliet". Professor Zou Zizhen, a librarian at the Fujian Provincial Research Museum of Literature and History, believes that this play is an excellent repertoire of folk concepts, and uses Fuzhou opera to play Fuzhou people and talk about Fuzhou affairs. The customs and folk customs of Fuzhou in the play make "Lychee for Peach" present a unique charm, "it needs to be placed in the specific situation of 'Three Lanes and Seven Alleys', to complete the aesthetic process of the whole play, to experience the ideal vision of the people."

"Encounter" during dragon boat racing

The era of "Lychee for Peach" is set in the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period in Chinese history, and "Min" is a small country in the southern ten kingdoms. In fact, "this drama is based on a folk tale circulating in Fuzhou." Zou Zizhen said that in the 1920s, Fujian opera once had a play "Mandarin Duck in the Fire", that is, the story of "lychee for peach", but there is no biography, and the performance situation cannot be examined. After 1949, it was re-written by the playwrights Chen Mingjun and Lin Fei with reference to folklore and relevant chapters of the Qing Dynasty novel "Mindu Beiji".

The story begins on the fifth day of the fifth month of the lunar calendar. The traditional Chinese Dragon Boat Festival has the custom of rowing dragon boats in order to hang Qu Yuan, and according to the "Dragon Boat Race in May" in the "Fuzhou Palm", fuzhou's dragon boat racing is derived from "fishing for white dragons". Legend has it that during the Western Han Dynasty, Yu Shan, the king of Minyue, led the crowd to oppose the Han Dynasty and built a platform south of Fuzhou City to "fish for the white dragon" in advance to win the support of the people. Yu Shan had people carve a white dragon out of wood and float on the Nantai River for the athletes of various tribes along the river to take it by boat. Later generations developed into an annual dragon boat race, from the first day of May to the fifth day of the first month, often with white horses, frogs, etc. as the bow symbol.

"Encounter", in the sound of dragon boat racing, Ai Jinglang and Leng Frost Chan were introduced by Gui Niang and met in the West Lake Lotus Pavilion. Leng Shuangchan was quite appreciative of Ai Jinglang's paintings, and although she felt good about it, she was hindered by the reticence of her daughter's family and did not dare to ask Gui Da Niang about Ai Jinglang. Gui Da Niang looked in the eyes, but the mouth did not say clearly, first talk about "do you know the origin of the West Lake", and then talk about "today's West Lake is very lively", and finally said "half a mile away from the Lotus Pavilion, there is the West Stream here to the West Gate", the world south and the north of the hu Kan, only do not mention Ai Jinglang.

At this moment, Leng Frost Chan was extremely anxious, on the one hand, perfunctory "the current matter makes me clear", on the other hand, "I don't listen to you talk about the weather" and "I don't have to talk about anything else, just talk about this moment", approaching step by step, frequently hinting at the return of the eldest lady, but also not mentioning Ai Jinglang. Under the stalemate between the two phases, a side song of gui da niang revealed: "It is difficult to distinguish frost chan words, and I look at the style to guess her abdomen." Since she didn't say that I was also sleeping in my dreams, she saw who read the words first. ”

"This scene fully reflects the use of ridicule and creates a comedic environment with extremely strong lyrical colors." Zou Zizhen said that the more pleasant this environment is displayed, the more it makes the ending of the story highlight a kind of "heart-rending heart-rending" pain.

Across the Antai River

One day after the Dragon Boat Festival, it was nearly noon, Leng Frost Chan inadvertently glimpsed Ai Jinglang who lived in the opposite building, mistakenly thinking that his thirst was cast with lychees, and Ai Jinglang was also in love with peaches, and the two fell in love with each other.

Lychees were cultivated in China as early as the 3rd century AD, and it was officially named "lychees" during the Western Han Dynasty. Litchi prefers high temperatures and rains, and has always been distributed in subtropical and tropical regions such as Fujian, Guangdong and Sichuan. In the Ming Dynasty, Xu Bo's "Lychee Spectrum" recorded more than 70 famous varieties, such as honey lychee, clove lychee, tortoiseshell lychee, grape lychee and so on. There was originally a "Eighteen Niang" lychee in the southwest corner outside the Kaihua Temple in Fuzhou West Lake, and Song Caixiang's "Lychee Spectrum" said that "eighteen niang lychees, dark red and slender in color, when people compared them with maidens", "Slang legend that the King of Min wang clan has a female eighteenth, good to eat this product, hence the name".

The second "tossing li" took place in Guizhili in Sanfang And Qixiang. Tang Xi's "Zhu Zifang next to Antai Bridge" wrote: The Guizhili River runs parallel to Jipi Lane, and the Jipi Lane people on the north bank of the river align the building of the back door cheng at the small river, in order to make full use of the convenience of the river and enjoy the scenery of the small river, most people have propped up wooden pillars along the river barge, and the small buildings built up extend to the top of the river, becoming a stilt house living along the coast. Stilt houses are often places where students read and paint. In the laurel branches on the south bank of the river, a small street with ancient trees is left along the river. The south side of the street is also covered with many small wooden buildings facing north, and most of the upper floors are inhabited by young ladies who are not out of the cabinet.

"This special architectural structure allows Ai Jinglang and Leng Frost Chan to look at each other across the Antai River without being exposed to people." Zou Zizhen said that this created a suitable place for the occurrence of misunderstandings and coincidences, and fulfilled the ancient love song of Fuzhou, "An olive is thrown across the stream, and the sister on the other side is a slave wife".

Ai Jinglang wanted to include the lychee in the canvas, "glancing at the lychee from time to time", but was mistaken for "dry mouth and thought of drinking", so he threw a lychee to quench his thirst and "show me a piece of love". It can be seen that Frost Chan has feelings, but if there is no misunderstanding, it will not create a marriage. Immediately after, Ai Jinglang learned that Leng Frost Chan was thrown into his lychee, and was deeply moved, so he borrowed Li Yishan's poem "No Color phoenix double wings" title on the peach and threw it at Leng Frost Chan to show his heart. When Leng Frost Chan threw lychees again, she also used an embroidery pen to write "A little bit of wisdom in the heart". Ai Jinglang picked up the lychee, quite happy, and said: "Lychee, lychee, this lychee has a spirit and a sharp mind." ”

The whole scene of "Throwing Li" was spent in misunderstandings and coincidences. Mr. Zheng Chuanyin mentioned in "Introduction to Chinese Opera Culture": "Once these joyful elements are removed, the vast majority of tragic works cannot exist. "This fully affirms the importance of misunderstandings and coincidences."

Taste the "Tail of Joy"

The fifth "chance encounter" takes place on Tanabata. "Min customs often set up incense cases in the courtyard, and young women worship Vega, begging for dexterous hands, hoping to weave beautiful brocade. When begging, with 'seven' as the symbol of 'qiao', seven plates of melons and fruits, seven tea cups, seven silver needles, and seven embroidered silk threads are displayed. In the moonlight, the game 'leads seven threads, wears seven stitches', and whoever wears it accurately and fast gets 'clever'. ”

On this day, Leng Frost Chan and Ai Jinglang met across the river, and the two told the truth, although there was a river across, but they had been privately engaged for life. "This kind of spring breeze plot does make people forget that this is a tragedy for a while, but it does not affect the strong shock brought by the whole play, and the key lies in this 'suddenness' from joy to sorrow." Zou Zizhen said that the beauty of the Qixi encounter had not completely faded, and Leng Frost Chan was forcibly drafted into the palace by Wang Yanhan, and then Leng and Ai were thrown into the Chai Pagoda together and martyred for love in the fire.

Leng Shuangchan is a typical female image of traditional Chinese dramas, and at the same time she also has the cultivation and temperament unique to Fuzhou women. Zou Zizhen said: "This character image shows the self-reliance, self-reliance and spontaneous side of Fuzhou women, reflecting Fuzhou's relatively open and free social environment and feminist awareness of respecting women. ”

There is a story in Ji Xiaolan's "Notes on Reading Wei Caotang", saying that "the jasmine root in Minzhong, grinding juice with wine, drinking one inch, but the corpse can be pouted for a day", a Min woman actually used this method to trick death and escape marriage, and "fled together" with her neighbor man who was good to her. The confession of Yu Dafu's "Minyou Di Li" is more direct, saying that Fuzhou women "can certainly surpass the Lin Daiyu-like beauties in Suzhou and Hangzhou from the two points of physical health and mental liveliness."

In "Lychee for Peach", Leng Frost Chan of course also has the reservedness and shyness of ancient women, but compared with Ai Jinglang, she is more active. The "throwing li" behavior was carried out by Leng Shuangchan on her own initiative, which was undoubtedly a big breakthrough compared to Ai Jinglang's lack of attitude after the first encounter. Looking at the third "temptation", Leng Frost Chan and Ai Jinglang have already developed mutual love, so Shu Shi tries to test Leng Frost Chan's heart on the grounds that her son is looking for a famous cure for illness. In this link, Leng Shuangchan once again occupied a leading position, a sentence of "why don't you go to gui da niang", but also boldly expressed the willingness to ask Gui Da Niang to propose to her.

In contrast, although Ai Jinglang admired Leng Shuangchan, he did not dare to speak directly about the marriage problem, but instead let Shu Shi do the work for him. Although Shuang Chan's temptation of Shu also showed the shyness of a little girl, but in the end, she prompted Gui Gui to show her heart frankly in front of a stranger, and Zou Zizhen thought that this was "admirable".

To a certain extent, this female figure transcends the pattern of women being weak and bullied in traditional literary and artistic works, and flashes a new idea of anti-criticism, the pursuit of freedom, and the pursuit of democracy. At the end of the play, Leng Frost Chan and Ai Jinglang transformed into Mandarin ducks and flew up in the air, which could not help but remind people of the ending of "JiaohongJi": "Two Mandarin Ducks, double flying chestnut heads, like crying cranes mourning tree heads, looking at the mountains and empty water, white water sky, a thousand years of leisure, a trace of sorrow, even a day to rest, sigh tired full of wood and barren hills, looking back, sniffling and communicating." ”

Zou Zizhen commented that although this "tail" carries the color of romanticism, it inadvertently adds a tragic atmosphere and color, "writing mourning with a happy scene, and the 'tail of joy' is actually not really joy."