Reading | Xie Tiankai: Reading "Xue Tao's History"

Text/Thank You

In 2012, Chengdu Peking Opera House adapted "Xue Tao" into "Huan Hua Yin"; in 2014, Liu Lu, the lead actor who played Xue Tao in "Huan Hua Yin", won the 26th Chinese Drama Plum Blossom Award;

In 2011, with the support of The Chengdu Xue Tao Research Association to provide Xue Tao's materials and script review, Beijing Shengshi Huatang Cultural Communication Co., Ltd. performed the musical "The Legend of Xue Tao" in Wangjianglou Park;

In 2016, the dean of Sichuan Conservatory of Music, Lingol, created a large-scale original national opera "Xue Tao"... He has toured 9 music colleges and universities in China, including Sichuan Conservatory of Music, Xinghai Conservatory of Music, Tianjin Conservatory of Music, and Wuhan Conservatory of Music.

In 2017, the opera "Xue Tao" was performed at Xue Tao's memorial site, Wangjianglou Park in Chengdu.

In 2018, the opera "Xue Tao" went abroad and performed at Harvard University, Yale University, the University of Maryland and other world famous universities in the United States;

In 2020, Wei Yi, a teacher at the Sichuan Film and Television Academy, created a micro-drama "Furong Drunk"...

This is Ms. Wang Huixiu's combing of the contemporary shaping of Xue Tao's dramatic image in the chapter of "Remembering Xue Tao, Spreading and Creating" in the "History of Xue Tao". The chapter also sorts out the academic research and literary creation of Xue Tao in recent years, and the research and attention paid by overseas (including Japanese, Korean, European and American) scholars to the Chinese female poet Xue Tao of the Tang Dynasty. In this way, the "History of Xue Tao" was extended from the Tang Dynasty to the contemporary era.

From the perspective of the history of Chinese women's poetry, we can say that Tang poetry has Xue Tao, and Song Ci has Li Qingzhao. They are the most outstanding female poets and lyricists of Tang poetry and Song poetry. Xue Tao is not only versatile and independent in personality, but also after thousands of years of interpretation and inheritance, this talented woman in Shu has been born and accumulated into a "Xue Tao culture" composed of poetry, calligraphy and painting, song and dance, wine and tea, flowers and bamboo, etc., so as to be loved and respected by the world. This is the most sufficient reason why Xue Tao has become a historical and cultural celebrity in Sichuan and even China.

Of course, the most entertaining and effective part of Wang Huixiu's "History of Xue Tao" is to use history as a narrative to narrate the life of the first female poet of the Tang Dynasty who rose and fell and rose up in adversity.

Xue Tao (c. 770 [Gregorian five years] to 832 [Taihe 6th year]), from birth to death, basically survived the entire Middle Tang Dynasty; Xue Tao's trace space was Chengdu Prefecture Jiazhou Zizhou Zizhou Rongzhou Maozhou Songzhou 夔州 (荆南道), with footprints almost all over Western Shu.

"She is not an ordinary woman, her genius is extremely high, and her personality is extremely strong." This is the evaluation of Xue Tao by the Republic of China scholar Fu Runhua in the first monograph on Xue Tao in modern times, "Xue Tao's Poems". In fact, Fu's "Xue Tao Poems" is a historical reading that combines popularization and research. Wang Huixiu's "Xue Tao's History" also inherits such a historical tradition, taking historiography as the basis and logic of literature and literature as the speculation and imagination of historiography, which can be the latest achievement in the popularization and research of Xue Tao's culture.

One of the characteristics of Xue Tao's History is the fusion of historical facts and knowledge.

In the twelfth year of emperor Dezong of Tang 's reign (796 CE), Xue Tao and Zhen. 笄, an ancient hairpin for men and women with coiled hair or a man's hat. Ancient women became adults and performed the ritual of cutting. There is a cloud in the Book of Rites and Inner Rules: "Ten years and five years, twenty and married." "And 笄" refers to the time when a woman reaches adulthood at the age of fifteen. After that, the woman is an adult and can marry.

This is the narrative of "Xue Tao and His Fame" in "Xue Tao's Historical Sayings", which records ancient historical knowledge for fun and education, and integrates historical facts with knowledge.

However, the historical facts of Xue Tao and Zhen, involving xue Tao's birth and death examinations, have always attracted the attention of the academic community. Zhang Pengzhou, a senior expert in Xue Tao's research, has a review in the "Biography of Xue Tao's Poetry Notes": "In the first year of zhenyuan (785), Wei Gao zhenshu summoned the order to serve wine, because of his naturalization, he was sixteen years old, and he was only one year old. Liu Tiantian, an expert on Xue Tao's research, said: "That is, the twelfth year of Wei Gao's ascension to the throne, it was the year that Xue Tao was summoned to the shogunate to serve wine and poetry. In addition, there are Peng Yunsheng's "Xue Tao's Birth and Death Year Examination", Fu Xuanchun's "Xue Tao Death Year Examination", Zhu Deci's "Xue Tao Birth Year Re-Examination", Xue Tao's 63-year-old saying, 52-year-old saying, and the 75-year-old and 80-year-old theory of the Ming Dynasty in the Yuan Dynasty.

In the "History of Xue Tao", Wang Huixiu is more inclined to Liu Tiantian's conclusion and has been revised, which is the academic recognition she obtained through special research and comparison, highlighting the personality and quality of academic research.

The second characteristic of "Xue Tao's History" is that historical events and speculations fit.

Xue Tao imitated the imperial court's "Fengshou Music" and processed it on the basis of the "Yizhong Songs" donated by Nanzhao to create the "Nanzhao Fengsheng Music".

The story of "Xue Tao's History" about "adapting the "Nanzhao Fengsheng Music" and "Recording it in the Annals of History" is obviously a reasonable speculation and imagination made on the basis of historical events. This is the "word" of history - the fiction of the story. It is precisely with such reasonable imagination and fiction that "Xue Tao's History" adds literature to the basis of historiography.

The interpretation of such details allows "Xue Tao's History" to inherit the style of Tang and Song Dynasty notebook novels.

The third characteristic of Xue Tao's History is the combination of popularization and scholarship.

Wang Huixiu originally studied history, and after graduating from graduate school, he joined the company in Wangjianglou Park in Chengdu. In addition to his profession and family, he has been diligently engaged in Xue Tao's academic research for more than ten years, and has published more than a dozen related papers and monographs, which can be described as remarkable achievements. Today, she also serves as the Secretary-General of the Chengdu Xue Tao Research Association. Therefore, in the publicity of Xue Tao, a historical and cultural celebrity in Sichuan, she also combines popularization with scholarship, inherits and carries forward the culture of Tianfu, and has a lot of personal help and dedication.

"Xue Tao's History" can be described as history as a word, there is history in the words, there is evidence in history, and there is discernment in the evidence; and it is sometimes supplemented by illustrations, left and right history, and history is illustrated; and the longitude and latitude of the narrative structure of "taking time as the order and taking history as the basis" not only tells xue Tao's life and poetry creation, but also through Xue Tao's experience, presents the complicated social and political, local economic and military situation inside and outside the Western Shu in the Middle and Tang Dynasties, so that in the context of the times and the environment, history is used as the script, and the dazzling eyes of Xue Tao, the "Ten Thousand Mile Bridge Girls' School Book" of the Tang Dynasty, are dyed.

"The History of Xue Tao" is not only a pleasant reading, but also a basic reading for Xue Tao's introduction to academic research. As Qi Hehui, a senior expert in Sichuan history and culture, commented: "Xue Tao's research currently has three ideas: one is academic examination, the other is literary and artistic creation, and the third is historical writings. The 'historical sites and events' of 'history' can be reasonably speculated; the 'words' focus on the story and can be slightly creative in details. "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" is a seven-point historical fact and three-point fiction, and "Xue Tao's History" seems to be able to break through the pattern of seven and three openings. How to write the historical words fully without distortion has yet to be explored, and this "Xue Tao History" is a useful exploration. ”

【About the Author】

Xie Tiankai, a well-known book critic, is a professor at Chengdu Jincheng University.

Title: The History of Xue Tao

Author: Wang Huixiu

Publisher: Sichuan People's Publishing House