Sixty years ago today, on February 24, 1962, the scholar, historian, and intellectual historian Hu Shi died of a sudden heart attack.
Hu Shi, a well-known figure in modern Chinese history, led the development of the May Fourth Movement and pioneered vernacular literature. As one of the leaders of the New Culture Movement, Hu Shi has written a wealth of works and has conducted in-depth research in many fields such as literature, philosophy, history, evidence studies, education, and ethics. He was both enthusiastic and bland; weak and tough; free and conservative. As Professor Xia Zhiqing wrote in the History of Modern Chinese Novels:
"He embraced rational Confucianism, a 'realistic optimist.'" That is why he had the courage to face the truth, no matter how painful and embarrassing the cost. This spirit can be seen in his articles commenting on current affairs in China, as well as in his articles re-evaluating Chinese literature and culture. No matter how flawed and discouraging the facts he discovered, he could always maintain his calm and realistic spirit. ”
Today, movable type Jun shares with book lovers Mr. Hu Shi's "Literary Evolution Concept and Dramatic Improvement" (in New Youth, October 1918 issue). To this day, Mr. Hu Shi's words and ideas still have the power to penetrate time.
Literary Evolutionary Conception and Dramatic Improvement
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Author: Hu Shi
This article is an excerpt from New Youth, Vol. 5, No. 4, October 15, 1918
Hu Shi (December 17, 1891 – February 24, 1962)
Last year, I said that I would write a "Private Discussion on The Improvement of Drama", but unexpectedly, this year has passed in a hurry, and I have not yet published this article. In this issue of "New Youth", the issue of this theatrical improvement is officially raised, and I think I am afraid that I will not be able to rely on it this time. Fortunately, Fu Si Nianjun wrote a "View of All Aspects of Drama Reform" of more than 10,000 words, saying everything I wanted to say, and saying it very clearly and happily; so that my "Private Discussion on Drama Reform" could be blatantly dismissed. There are also two appendices in this issue: one is Ouyang Yuqianjun's "The Improvement View of Giving Drama"; the other is Zhang Zijun's "My Old Chinese Drama View". In addition, there is Fu Jun's subsequent "On the Improvement of Drama", which commented on Zhang Jun's defense of old plays. Later, there is Mr. Song Chunfang's "Hundred Kinds of Famous Dramas in Recent Times", which selects a hundred kinds of Western famous plays and prepares us to translate them as a model version of the new Chinese drama. This issue has so many articles about drama, and it really becomes a "theater improvement number"! I read these many articles, and I was a little itchy, and I wanted to join this interesting discussion, so I drew a part of the problem of theatrical improvement as my title, which is called "Literary Evolution and Theatrical Improvement."
When I returned to China at the beginning of last year, I saw a copy of Zhang Zhichun's "History of Chinese Literature", which contains a passage that says:
It is the rise and fall of the ancient Kunqu opera, and the rise and fall of the real. The salty road is lowered, and this tone gradually fades. The praise of ZTE has not yet ended, and the hearts of the people in the sea have gone. The wise ones regard the extreme prosperity of Qin Sheng as the precursor of the demons. Although his words are intense, they have no beginning and no cause. To see Shengping, when the Kunqu opera. The words of "Music Record" are better than the ten thousand volumes of the political book. (Vol. 118, pp.)
This kind of discussion actually appeared in the "history of literature" and was actually used as a "new textbook" for normal schools, and when I first returned from a foreign country, I saw this situation, which was really inexplicable. The root cause of this kind of discussion is that there is no historical concept, so the rise and fall of a generation and the rise and fall of Kunqu opera are regarded as a causal relationship, so it is said that "if you want to see shengping, when you want to restore Kunqu.". If the Revival of Kunqu opera can lead to Shengping, with only one presidential order and the power of several police departments, it will make Chinese opera gardeners sing Kunqu opera, will China immediately "shengping"?
I cite this example to show that most people who talk about literature today do not have the idea of historical evolution. Because there is no concept of historical evolution, although it is a "modern person", it must be the dead text of the "ancients"; although it is a person of the twentieth century, it is better to say the words of the Qin, Han, Tang and Song Dynasties. That is to say, as far as the problem of drama is concerned, those who worship the current Xipi Erzhu opera and think that it is "the crystallization of Chinese literature and art" are inherently worth refuting; some people know that the existing pi reed opera is really not good, and finally refuse to advocate fundamental reform, preferring to advocate the restoration of Kunqu opera. Now a class of illiterate Kunqu opera in Beijing is also singing Kunqu opera every day, and a group of bored celebrities help blow, thinking that this is an improved drama. These people just don't know the reason for the abolition of literature, they don't know the reasons for the decline and fall of Kunqu opera; they don't know that kunqu opera can't protect itself from Daoxian, and it must not rise after it has died. That is why I say that those who now advocate the restoration of Kunqu opera and those who worship leather reeds lack the concept of literary evolution.
In 1916, Hu Shi read Dewey's "Experimental Famous Studies"
Now let's talk about the meaning of the concept of literary evolution. This idea has four meanings, each of which contains an important lesson.
▍The evolution of the first layer of general thesis: Literature is a kind of record of the state of human life, human life changes with the times, so literature also changes with the times, so there is a generation of literature. Zhou Qin has the literature of Zhou Qin, Han Wei has the literature of Han Wei, Tang has Tang literature, Song has Song literature, and Yuan has Yuan literature. The poets of the "Three Hundred Pieces" could not compose the "Selected Yuanqu", and the miscellaneous dramatists of the "Yuanqu Selection" could not make the "Three Hundred Pieces". Zuo Qiuming could not produce "Water Margin", nor could Shi Nai'an write "Spring and Autumn Left Biography". This is the first lesson of the concept of literary evolution, the easiest to understand, so there is no need to cite it in detail (the ancients, such as Yuan Ming and Jiao Xun, many can understand this).
In 1941, Ambassador to the United States Hu Shi took a photo at Double Oaks in Washington, D.C
The second meaning of the concept of literary evolution is that each type of literature can not be developed and completed in three years and two years, but must evolve from a very low and low origin, slowly, gradually, to a fully developed position. Sometimes, when this kind of evolution is just halfway through, when it encounters resistance, it stops and does not progress; sometimes, because this kind of literature is bound by all kinds of constraints and cannot develop freely, so the evolutionary history of this type of literature is all the history of getting rid of this kind of shackles and striving for freedom; sometimes, this kind of literary bondage is completely destroyed, so this kind of literature can develop freely; sometimes, this kind of literary revolution can only have partial success, can not completely sweep away all shackles and shackles, and later the habit becomes nature, just like a woman with her feet wrapped. Not only did I not want to resist, but I thought it was not so beautiful! This is the general trend of the evolution and change of various types of literature. Western drama is the evolution of free development; Chinese drama is the result of only partial freedom. The column tried to read Mr. Wang Guowei's "History of Song and Yuan Opera", and tried to see chinese drama change from the ancient "Ballad Dance" (Ballad Dance, song and dance is one thing, the dance of Juyan Song), and then changed to a drama; later added various tricks, and then changed into a story and funny acrobatics; later from the "narrative" body to the "endorsement" body, from the number of repetitions to the number of folds, from a very strict rhythm of the song to a yuanqu that can increase or subtract words and sentences to change the tone of the palace, so the Chinese drama changed into a meta-miscellaneous drama with a roughly complete structure.
However, meta-dramas are only largely complete, in fact, there are many shortcomings: (1) each play is limited to four folds, (ii) each fold is limited to one palace tone, and (3) each fold is limited to one person singing. Later, the Southern Opera destroyed all these restrictions, so that the length of a play was uncertain, the tone of the palace was undecided, and the singer was not limited to one person. The restrictions of miscellaneous dramas are too strict, so except for one or two people, they can only lay out the narrative reality, and there can be no twists and turns; the characters written are often lifeless; the life and human feelings written often lack the work of delicate experience. Later legends, because the genre is more free, so there is great progress in sketching, writing, romance, and all aspects.
Let's give an example. Li Yu's "Mirage In the Lou" was composed by merging the "Biography of Liu Yi" in the "Yuanqu Selection" and the two plays of "Zhang Sheng Boiling the Sea", but "Mirage In the Lou" not only has a more interesting plot, but also writes the characters in the play a little angry, and each one has a little personality difference, such as Qiantangjun in the Yuan opera, although it is related to the layout, but there is no intentional description; Li Yu wrote how painful and meaningful Qiantangjun was in the "Xianshou" of "Mirage Lou"! That's progress. Another example is the Yuan drama "Yuqiao Ji" wrote about Zhu Maichen, which was written by the later Southern Opera "Rotten Keshan", but the writing in "Rotten Keshan" is far better than "Yuqiao Record". Another example is the Kunqu opera "Hall of Eternal Life" and the Yuanqu "Wutong Rain", but compared with the two books, although the narrative of "Wutong Rain" is concise, the actual situation is far inferior to that of "Hall of Eternal Life". In the style of drama, the literary economy of miscellaneous dramas was really unattainable by later generations; but from the perspective of literary expression sketching, miscellaneous dramas were actually inferior to Kunqu opera. For example, in the "Hall of Eternal Life", the "Bullet Words" is folded, although it was born from the Yuanren's "Cargo Lang Dan", but once it is used differently, it writes an exclamation of infinite rise and fall, which has become a very moving article.
The three regulations cited above - "Mirage Building", "Rotten Keshan", "Hall of Eternal Life" - can indicate that the miscellaneous drama has become a legend of Southern Opera, although on the one hand, although it is not as rigorous as the Yuan Dynasty, but because the genre is more free, it has made great progress in sketching expressions on the one hand, which can be regarded as an evolution of the history of drama. Even in terms of the legend becoming the Beijing tune, in my personal opinion, it can also be regarded as a kind of progress.
The great problem of the legend lies in the fact that it is too much emphasis on music; in the heyday of the day, it may not be possible to be sung by private singers and children's orchestras; but this kind of play can only be enjoyed by the upper class, and cannot become popular literature. Moreover, the number of scripts is infinite, most of them are too long to be fully performed, so it is impossible not to cut out the most brilliant folds in each play, such as "Khao Hong" of "The Tale of the West Chamber", such as "Smelling bells" and "Shocking Changes" of "Hall of Eternal Life", etc. The remaining folds are often ignored. After the split, although the literati bachelor can enjoy the play, the ordinary society feels that it has no head and no tail, and cannot understand. Legendary miscellaneous drama can not be passed, so "earth opera" has arisen in various places: emblem has emblem tone, Han has Han tone, Cantonese opera has Cantonese opera, Shu has high cavity, Beijing has Beijing tone, and Qin has Qin cavity.
Looking at the folk dramas in various places, there are about five public tendencies: (1) although the materials are based on the "miscellaneous dramas" (there are also new editors) since the Yuan and Ming Dynasties, they are all changed to shallow and near text; (2) the music is simpler, and the various complex tunes in the past have gradually been eliminated, leaving only a few simple tunes; (3) because of the relationship between the two layers, the words and sentences in the song are much easier to understand; (4) the length of each play is more unlimited and freer than that of the "miscellaneous drama"; (5) although there are many long plays on the stage, the trend of short plays is extremely strong. Therefore, there are often very tailored short plays, such as "Three Niangs Teaching Son" and "Four Soldiers". According to these five natures, we can easily say that the transformation from Kunqu opera to "folk opera" in the past hundred years can be regarded as a major revolution in the history of Chinese drama. The great political turmoil of the past hundred years, the changes in livelihood, and the demise of private clubs are also closely related to the rise of this "vulgar drama". Later, the Beijing tune in the "folk drama" was advocated by several influential people, such as the former Qing Dynasty Cixi Hou, and thus became the most popular drama in the Chinese opera industry. However, the movement of this kind of vulgar drama originated in the middle and lower class society, and had nothing to do with the literati bachelor, so the words and sentences in the play were often very despicable, and there were more extremely incomprehensible words in the cavity. The content of the vulgar drama, because it is a popular product of the middle and lower classes of society, contains all kinds of badness of this kind of society, and there are few meaningful plays such as "Four Soldiers". Moreover, most of the people who make up plays are unlearned people, so the most evil habits of the stage are preserved in the customary drama. These are all the big shortcomings of the current drama. However, in the history of Chinese drama, this kind of vulgar drama really has a tendency to innovate and has a transitional status, which cannot be buried.
Those who study the history of literature must clearly understand the tendency of this reform, and even more must recognize that this tendency has not only not fully achieved its goal in the present popular drama, but has been bound by the evil habits of all kinds of old plays, and has now become a bad drama that is neither popular nor meaningless.
The lesson of the above-mentioned small history of the evolution of Chinese drama is that Chinese drama has tried to break away from the shackles of music on the one hand for a thousand years, but because it is too old-fashioned, it has not fully reached the status of freedom and nature. The future of Chinese drama depends entirely on someone who can know the trend of literary evolution and can use manpower to advocate and help Chinese drama get rid of all the evil habits that hinder evolution as soon as possible, so that he can gradually become natural and gradually reach a fully developed position.
The third meaning of literary evolution is that the evolution of literature, every time an era passes, it often carries with it many useless souvenirs left by the previous era; such souvenirs were useful in the earlier naïve times, and gradually they can no longer be used, but because of the inertia of human conservatism, these souvenirs of past eras are still preserved. Sociologically, such souvenirs are called Vestiges or Rudiments. For example, a man's breast, although the form exists, the role has been lost; it can be abolished, but it is not abolished; so it is called "relic".
That is to say, as far as drama is concerned, the backbone part of ancient drama is all music and songs, and the joke Kebai is only a small part; later yuanren miscellaneous dramas, Kebai actually occupies a very important part; such as "Old Sheng'er", "Chen Zhou Rice", "Killing Dogs and Persuading Husbands" and other miscellaneous dramas have up to a few thousand words of white, these plays could have abolished the lyrics all using Kebai, but the lyrics were never abolished. In the Ming Dynasty, there was already a legend of "no song of the final song", such as Tu Changqing's "Dream of Short Flowers" (see The Sixty Songs of Ji Gu Ge), which shows that at this time it is possible to completely abolish the use of white; but later not only was this not the case, but the more white was reduced, the more the lyrics increased, and after the Ming Dynasty, except for Li Yu, there was not even anyone who could make a good white. Therefore, in the history of the evolution of Chinese drama, a part of the music could have been gradually abolished, but it still survived, becoming a kind of "relic". In addition, such as faces, throats, steps, martial arts, etc., are all "relics" of this type, which can be used for a long time, but they have not changed since then.
Western drama also passed through many naïve classes in ancient times, such as "Chorus", masks, "passing through the door", "back to the bow" (Aside), martial arts... Wait a minute. However, this kind of "relic" has long become a historical monument in the West, and it has gradually been eliminated. These things are eliminated, and only then is pure drama born.
Chinese are the most old-fashioned and the most preserved "relics". Although the emperor is gone, when the president comes out, the ground is still covered with yellow soil, and every year he still worships the heavens, which are all "relics". Returning to this topic, now that there is a set on the new stage, it is possible to avoid all kinds of opening, closing, and crossing the threshold, but these works still exist; even in a well-arranged ancestral hall, "on the horse and whip"!
The fourth meaning of the concept of literary evolution is that a literature sometimes evolves to a position and then stops and does not progress; until it comes into contact with other literature, compares, is invisibly influenced, or deliberately absorbs people's strengths, and then continues to make progress. In the history of world literature, there are too many examples of this to mention. For example, British drama was extremely developed in the era of Queen Elizabeth, including the famous works of Ben Jonson and Shaw, etc.; later the British worshipped Shaw more than the Asia-Pacific region, and were enveloped by him, so although the Nineteenth Century British poetry and novels improved, there was really no outstanding work on the drama side; until the last thirty years, under the influence of new dramas on the European continent, there were famous works by Bernard Shaw, John Galsworthy and others. This is an example. Chinese literature has never been in contact with foreign high-level literature, and there is no literary force in contact with it; however, when we look closely at the foreign influences on Chinese literature, there are many of them. In the middle of the three or four hundred years from the Six Dynasties to the Tang Dynasty, the music, song, dance, and drama of the countries of the Western Regions (Central Asia Minor) were imported into China a lot: such as Guizi music, such as the "Dialing Head" drama (Old Book of Tang Dynasty Music Chronicle Yun: "Dialing head, out of the Western Regions Hu people"), but it is a very obvious example (see page 9 of the History of Song and Yuan Opera). Looking at the tunes since the Tang and Song dynasties, such as "Yizhou", "Liangzhou", "Xizhou", "Ganzhou", "Qizhou", the name is obvious, it can be proved that it is a tune imported from the Western Regions. In addition, I don't know how many foreign elements there are in Chinese songwriting! Sixty-seven out of ten of the instruments used on the stage now are foreign instruments, and the most important thing is the "huqin", not to mention. Therefore, we can say that the changes in Chinese drama really carry the power of countless foreign literature and art. It is a pity that the literature and art that have been in contact with Chinese opera stages for more than a thousand years are some very naïve literary art, so although Chinese drama has received many external benefits, it must have suffered a lot of bad influences. At present, Chinese drama has Western dramas that can be used as materials for direct comparative reference, and if someone can study them with an open mind, take advantage of people's strengths, and make up for my weaknesses; sweep away all kinds of "relics" of the old days, and adopt new concepts, new methods, and new forms that have continued to develop in the West in the past hundred years, only then can Chinese drama have the hope of improvement and progress.
Leaving aside now the profound methods and ideas that can be obtained from this "comparative literary study", I will cite only two very superficial benefits:
(I) The Concept of Tragedy - What Chinese literature lacks most is the concept of tragedy. Whether it is a novel or a drama, it is always a happy reunion. Nowadays, when singing in the theater garden, there is always a man and a woman who come out to worship, called "reunion", which is a wonderful representative of the "reunion superstition" of Chinese. There are one or two exceptions to the literary scholars, if they want to break this superstition of reunion, such as Lin Daiyu of "The Book of Stones" is not reunited with Jia Baoyu, such as Hou Chaozong of "Peach Blossom Fan" is not reunited with Li Xiangjun; but this kind of ending method is not allowed by the Chinese literati, so there are books such as "After the Stone Record" and "Dream of the Red Chamber" to dig Lin Daiyu out of the coffin to reunite with Jia Baoyu; so Gu Tianshi's "South Peach Blossom Fan" makes Hou Gongzi and Li Xiangjun reunited on the spot! Another example is that Zhu Maichen abandoned his wife, which was originally a public case of "covering the water and making it difficult to harvest", and the Yuanren wrote "The Record of the Fishing Tree", and the posterity wrote "Rotten Keshan", but to try to reunite Zhu Maichen and his wife. Another example is Bai Juyi's "Pipa Xing" written in the original sentence "The same is the fallen people of the end of the world, why should they have known each other when they met", and the Yuan people wrote "Green Shirt Tears", preferring to ask the pipa prostitute to jump over the boat and go to the reunion with Bai Sima together! Another example is that Yue Fei was killed by Qin Juniper, which is a great tragedy of eternity, and the posterity's "Biography of Yue Yue" prefers to say that Yue Lei hangs up the marshal to fight the Golden Wushu and seal the king reunion! This "superstition of reunion" is ironclad evidence of the weakness of Chinese's thinking. The writer knows that the real things in the world are unsatisfactory, and he knows that the things in the world are either reversed or separated from life and death, but he prefers to make "all the lovers in the world become dependents", preferring to say that good and evil are clearly distinguished and the retribution is evident. He closed his eyes and refused to look at the tragedies and tragedies of the world, and he refused to honestly write about the upside-down cruelty of Tiangong, he only wanted to say a big happy person on a piece of paper. This is the literature of lying. To go further, it is said that the words of reunion and happiness, after reading, can at most make people feel a satisfactory concept, and must not make people feel deeply moved, must never lead people to complete enlightenment, and must not make people think fundamentally and reflect. For example, the "Book of Stones" writes that Lin Daiyu and Jia Baoyu died, and one became a monk, and this unsatisfactory result can make people sad and sigh, make people realize the evil of family tyranny, and make people reflect on life problems and family social problems. If this pair of sentient men and women can achieve the reunion of "wood and stone marriage" and everything is satisfactory, then why should Cao Xueqin write this big book? What "aftertaste" does this book have to say? Therefore, this kind of "reunion" novel drama, in the fundamental sense, is just a literature with a simple brain and weak thinking, which is intriguing and cannot cause people to reflect. Western literature has had a very deep tragic conception since the time of Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides in Greece.
The concept of tragedy: first, it is to admit that the deepest and deepest feelings of mankind are not in the time of opening their brows and smiling, but in the season of sorrow and helplessness; second, that is, when human beings see others in miserable and pitiful situations, they can have a sincere sympathy, and they can temporarily consume the sorrows, joys, and sorrows of their personal egos into this sincere and noble sympathy; third, they are to admit that the people in the world do not have extremely sad and miserable sad situations all the time, not the heavens and the earth are not kind, and "create and make people" (The most common idea in this Greek tragedy) is that social ills cause individuals to lose their morale, degenerate their personality, and fall into sin and cannot escape themselves (the most common concept of this modern tragedy). With this concept of tragedy, all kinds of literature that is deep in thought, profound in meaning, most touching, and thought-provoking can occur. This idea is the wonderful elixir for healing our Chinese literature of lying and falsifying ideas. This is a great benefit of comparative literary studies.
(ii) The Economic Method of Literature – I have already spoken of the "economics of literature" in "On short stories." What is said in this article refers specifically to the establishment of dramatic literature.
Among the various types of literature, drama must not fail to talk about economics. Why? Because: (1) the time for acting is limited; (2) the energy and time of the people who do the play are limited; (3) the time of the person who watches the play is limited; (4) the time of the person who watches the play is too long, which makes life tired; (5) the equipment on the stage, such as the set, has all kinds of difficulties, not only to save money, but also to save trouble; (6) There are many factual plots that cannot be played out one by one on the stage, such as the war of thousands of troops and horses. For these reasons, it is necessary to pay attention to the following economic methods when making up plays:
(1) The economy of time must be able to fully perform a fact in the shortest possible time.
(2) The economy of manpower must be so that those who make plays are not exhausted; they must be made so that those who watch plays are not dizzy.
(3) The economy of the equipment must be so that the furnishings in the play do not exceed the capacity of the equipment in the theater.
(4) The economy of facts It is necessary to make all the facts in the play available on the stage; it is necessary to perform all the plots that cannot be performed by indirect method or supplementary method.
The above two points—the idea of tragedy, the economy of literature—are but the most superficial examples of the benefits that can be derived from the study of Western dramatic literature. The most taboo thing in the culture of a country is "old nature"; "old nature" is "twilight", and once this kind of death is committed, there is almost no cure; among hundred deaths, there is only one way to live: quickly use the injection method to hit some fresh "juvenile blood" into it, or you can hope to return the effect of old age and childhood. Now Chinese literature has reached the time when the twilight attacks the heart and the dying breath is broken! I am afraid that it is too late to quickly pour the Western "juvenile blood soup"; unexpectedly, the unscrupulous descendants of this patient's family will also ban the doctor and not allow him to prescribe drugs, saying, "Why should Chinese take foreign medicine!" ”...... hum!
Mingoku Seven Years September
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