For more than a thousand years, who the hell is too gossipy

Mei Lanfang", "Roselle"

Below the fish, the one that "jumps and clamps" is the whale salamander— Gu Kaizhi paints it as a beast with its arms waved and a loach-like body.

On both sides of the "flying and defending" are waterfowl with antlers, horse faces, snake necks, and sheep bodies. Take another look at the Liulong Cloud Car... It was the top rolls-royce of the Immortal Realm, and according to legend, the sun rode on the Six Dragon Cloud Car.

Naturally, Gu Kaizhi also seriously painted the screen of the wind, Feng Yi who sounded the drum, the nuwa of Qingge, and the queen of Chuanhou of Jingbo... Ping Feng is a beast with green fangs, wings on its back, and a red nose (different books say that he is the Rain Master, the Cloud God, the Thunder Master, and the Wind Master). Qingge's nuwa grew a pair of dragon claws to make her feet. The only two normal are the water gods Feng Yi and Chuanhou, probably because Feng Yi and Chuanhou are originally human. Feng Yi is the Hebo, in ancient mythology the Yellow River is under his control, and it is said that he is also the husband of Luoshen. Kawago is said to be the high priest of the Fengyi tribe and later became a river god.

99 years ago, the Beijing Enlightened Theater rehearsed a new play by Mei Lanfang. Mei Lanfang is Danjiao Luoshen, and Jiang Miaoxiang is Xiaosheng Cao Zhi.

It was 1923. This new drama called "Roselle" instantly became popular in the north and south of the Republic of China, and at the same time, it soared on the "hot search" with a piece of gossip related to "Roselle" more than a thousand years ago.

The streets and alleys are enthusiastically discussing whether this gossip is true or false, right or wrong, and since then, scholars who have studied Cao Zhi's "Luoshenfu" have written articles for twenty years, bitterly refuting rumors " No such thing! Stop gossiping! ”......

However, the people's fierce yearning for gossip can no longer be contained.

Cao Zhi's "Roselle Endowment" is "an ordinary literary exercise"?

Mei Lanfang's "Roselle" is based on Cao Zhi's "Roselle".

In the third year of Cao Wei's reign (222), Cao Zhi, the king of Juancheng, rushed back from the capital to the fiefdom of Dong'a, passing through a river called Luoshui, and he wrote a "Luoshen Endowment" next to Luoshui.

Cao Zhi's sad experience has been well known to many people. This talented man, "There are only ten buckets in the world, and Cao Zijian has eight buckets", because of his incredible talent and his painful encounters, he has received infinite sympathy from the people of the world, and this sympathy is placed to the maximum when reading "Roselle Endowment".

Huang Kan said in "Cao Zhi and Luoshenfu Research", "Cao Zhi wrote "Luoshenfu" under the atmosphere of writers in the Jian'an era when writers were writing poems with the theme of goddesses as the theme... This is an ordinary literary exercise based on the theme of Roselle. ”

This "ordinary literary exercise" was extremely well written, so it was also selected for the Selected Works of Zhaoming. The Selected Writings of Zhaoming was compiled between the seventh year of Emperor Wu of Liang 's reign (526 AD) and the third year of Zhongda Tong (531 AD), almost three hundred years apart from Cao Zhi's date, and only the top articles were selected—such as the "Three Capitals Fu" that made Luoyang expensive, such as the Nagato Fu that Empress Ajiao bought for thousands of dollars, and so on.

The status of the "Selected Works of Zhaoming" is probably very similar to that of the Nobel Prize in Literature, and the selected articles have thus received tickets for posterity, and have been continuously read, analyzed, imitated, and annotated by posterity. The Tang people's study of the "Zhaoming Wenxuan" was particularly energetic, and "Wenxuan" even became a specialized discipline, and the Tang li shan was one of the big names, it is said that when he made a note to the "Luoshenfu", he said that the ancient book of the "Record" recorded that Cao Zhi had a crush on Zhen Yi's daughter, but unfortunately Zhen's daughter first married Yuan Yan, and then married Cao Pi, and always had no connection with him. In the third year of the Huang Dynasty, Cao Pi saw his emperor brother Cao Pi in Beijing, and Cao Pi gave him the jade gold belt pillow used by Zhen Girl before, and Cao Zhi took a rest next to Luoshui when he returned to Dong'a, dreaming that Zhen Nu came to see him, and when he woke up, he wrote "Feeling Zhen Fu". Later, emperor Ming saw it and was evil, and changed it to "Luoshen Endowment".

The controversy surrounding this paragraph has been dotted, and Li Shan is only mentioned here.

Li Shanzuo's "Notes on Selected Writings" has made great efforts, and Bian Zhengbo has quoted a total of 1582 kinds of literature including a subset of the history of the classics, asking for a "character with a source", and it is strange that what book is the "Record"? Moreover, not all the versions of Li Shan's Sixty Volumes of the Selected Notes on the Selected Writings have this commentary, and it was not until the Southern Song Dynasty Youyuan inscription of the Anthology of Texts that this annotation appeared, and there was no other version--was this annotation added by the Tang or the Song? I still haven't figured it out.

So is it the Song people who are too gossipy, or the Tang people who are too gossipy? Or, since the Jin people have begun to gossip?

Gu Kaizhi's "Luoshen Futu", the gods and monsters are carefully painted

Jin people also love "Roselle Endowment". More than a hundred years after Cao Zhi, Wang Xianzhi was alive. It is said that Wang Xianzhi loved to write the "Roselle Endowment" and wrote it many times. The Roselle Endowment is famous in the history of calligraphy, because there are only thirteen lines left, so it is also called the "Jade Edition Thirteen Lines".

Gu Kaizhi, who was only four years younger than Wang Xianzhi, painted the "Roselle Futu".

It is said that Wang Xianzhi was frustrated by his marriage, and after being forced to part ways with Xi Maozhi, he placed his love on "Roselle Endowment". What about Gu Kaizhi? The "Book of Jin" Gu Kaizhi says that Gu Kaizhi "tasted a neighbor's daughter, picked the Buddha," but drew its shape on the wall, and nailed its heart with a spiny needle..." He painted the "Luoshen Futu", which is said to have only accidentally read "LuoshenFu" from a friend, and was greatly interested, so he painted it. Perhaps it is the same as Cao Zhi's ordinary literary exercise with the theme of "Roselle", but it is just an ordinary painting exercise with this title.

Wang Xianzhi and Gu Kaizhi are as far away from Cao Zhi's era as we are from Mei Lanfang's era. If Cao Zhen's gossip had indeed been circulated, Gu Kaizhi might have heard of it and remembered it in his heart. For example, perhaps he will unconsciously paint Roselle in the form of Zhen and paint Roselle with a spirit snake bun that is said to be Zhen's original creation — this is inferred.

Unfortunately, the large and small fairies in "Roselle Futu" look like they are all spirit snake buns, and it is not obvious who is the only one...

All of Wei Jin's poems and Zhi Wei novels also have no news about this story.

However, Gu Kaizhi drew very carefully the gods and monsters that appeared in "Roselle Endowment".

Gu Kaizhi's "Roselle Futu" was originally lost, and the earliest "Luoshen Futu" that has been handed down now is a facsimile of the two Song Dynasties - in the facsimile, it may be impossible to praise Gu Kaizhi's silk drawing or his superb painting skills. However, facsimiles have the value of facsimiles, and the closest facsimiles, such as the Northern Song Dynasty facsimiles, must have retained a lot of the original and most original information, such as such a small, clumsy, ginkgo-like tree, Gu Kaizhi's tree is probably like this, and there are also such trees in his "Female History Proverbs".

It is said that the Northern Song Dynasty facsimile and Gu Kaizhi's "Luoshen Futu" in the literature are very close, even consistent, and it is very faithful to the original. Many of the strange animals and beasts in Gu Kaizhi's "Luoshen Futu" should have been copied very faithfully -- we should have thought that this was Gu Kaizhi's painting.

These gods and strange strange birds and beasts, all of which are in "Roselle Endowment", Gu Kaizhi tried to move them to the painting. For example, the fish and jade luan in "Tengwen Fish Ride by Police, Ming Yuluan Die with You", the whale salamander and waterfowl in "Whale Salamanders And Cages, Waterfowl Flying and Defending", and the six dragons of the Leela car in "The Six Dragons Are In Unison, Carrying the Rong Descendants of the Cloud Car", all have them on the painting.

The jade bird is the white bird. It is recorded in the Classic of Mountains and Seas and the Classic of The Western Mountains that the partridge is a kind of bird second only to the phoenix, the male is called the luan, the female is called he, the shape is like a chicken, and the feathers on the body are colorful.

After saying goodbye to Cao Zhi in Yuluan and Sitting on the Six Dragon Cloud Car, Roselle left in a six-dragon cloud car - it can be said that the momentum is very large. The flying fish with a leopard's head on the side of the Roselle is a mandarin fish. The Wenyu is also called the Wen Ray, and it is said in the Classic of Mountains and Seas and the Western Mountain Classic that the Wenyu has the body of a fish, the wings of a bird, a white head, red lips, and a body covered with cyan markings, making a sound like a chicken crying, and can fly at night.

Gu Kaizhi's meticulousness made people cry and laugh

Gu Kaizhi's meticulous restoration of text with images may be related to the popular gods and monsters of the Wei and Jin dynasties, but this is only one aspect.

Many people can't help but be stunned by its strangeness when they open the "Roselle Futu", however, if you compare the text of the "Luoshen Futu" and the image of the "Luoshen Futu", Gu Kaizhi's meticulousness is still incredible!

You see roselle appearing in this section, with Roselle as the center, closely united around her grass, trees, rocks, birds, red sun, people who have seen it think it is nothing incredible, but you have to look at it like this -

Do you think this is two birds and a dragon?

Do you think that chrysanthemums are chrysanthemums, pine trees are pine trees, weather is weather, and lotuses are lotuses? Neither.

Because Cao Zhi said, "Her figure, like a frightened goose, a dragon swimming like a swimming dragon", Gu Kaizhi honestly drew two geese and a dragon; because Cao Zhi said, "Her radiance is like a gorgeous chrysanthemum in autumn, and her posture is as rich as a green pine in the spring wind", Gu Kaizhi honestly painted a bunch of chrysanthemums, two pines; because Cao Zhi said that "she is as agile as a light cloud caged moon, light as a swirling snow", Gu Kaizhi honestly drew a cloud; because Cao Zhi said, "From a distance, she is as bright as the rising sun in the morning sun", Gu Kaizhi honestly painted the red sun rising; because Cao Zhi said, "Approaching her, she is as beautiful as a new lotus blooming in the green waves", Gu Kaizhi honestly painted a pool of lotus flowers...

If Cao Zhi is not direct next, he should say "Extend the neck show item, and the hao is exposed." Fangze Wujia, lead Huafu Yu. Yun Ji E'e, trim eyebrow Lianjuan. Dan's lips are loud on the outside, and the teeth are fresh on the inside. Bright eyes are good, Jing Fu inherits the power..." But has always been "Fei Ruo, Wan Ruo You Long, Rong Yao Qiu Ju, Hua Mao Chun Song", I don't know if Gu Kaizhi is a beauty who does not draw the following picture, but has been painting the sun and moon, spring pine and autumn chrysanthemum.

Gu Kaizhi this is also too... Be honest. In fact, similar sincerity appears in the "Female History Proverbs".

The Female Shi Zhentu is a translation of Zhang Hua's Female Shi Zhentu. Among them, there is such a sentence: "Reverence for dust accumulation, for the sake of frightening the machine", which means "to accomplish a thing will be as slow and difficult as the dust piled up into a mountain, and the decay of a thing is much faster, as fast as an arrow off the string you can't imagine" - guess what Gu Kaizhi painted?

He painted it as a shooter shooting an arrow at a mountain. At first glance, we may be a little confused: "What is the relationship between this hunting warrior and this mountain?" "When you know that this means "chongyu dust accumulation" and "ti ruo jie" respectively, you may be more confused, what is this and what... This is simply more difficult to understand than "Push Back Map".

Gu Kaizhi's translation work is indeed difficult. He wanted to translate every sentence of Roselle and The Female Chronicle into every image, completely faithfully, but it was far from the true intention of these metaphors—in any case, we cannot imagine a red sun as a beauty.

Such blunt and childish illustrations may appear only in children's drawings, or only in early drawings.

But it was such a blunt and childish "Roselle Futu" that finally impressed Mei Lanfang.

Mei Lanfang's "Roselle", the crew took pains to solve the problem of three views

Mei Lanfang told reporters in his early years that he starred in Roselle because he was deeply moved by this painting after accidentally seeing "Roselle Futu" and never forgot it.

The "Roselle" crew has put a lot of blood and thought into this drama. They consulted a lot of information, such as "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", "Anthology", etc., and learned that "Roselle Endowment" has always had a lot of interpretations, and they have painstakingly taken pains to the three views of this play - this play can neither be interpreted as "Feeling Zhen", nor can it be interpreted as "Loyal Jun", let alone dismantled and disassembled.

The final compilation of Roselle goes like this:

The play begins with Cao Zhi staying at the Luochuan Inn. On this night, Cao Zhi caressed Zhen Hou's relic, a jade wisp of gold with a pillow, saw the object sad, fell into a deep sleep, dreamed that a fairy came, and asked him to meet tomorrow on the river. The next day, he came to Luochuan as promised, saw the dreamer of last night, and asked, "Did Zhen hou become an immortal?" The fairy didn't answer, just let him follow. Therefore, he saw the fairy walking down the mountain stone and into the water wave, surrounded by Hanbin Younu, Xiangshui Divine Princess and other sisters. Only then did the fairy tell him: "In the past, the two fell in love with each other, but they did not give a word, and now the immortals have done everything they say here, and they will be indefinite." After the fairy gave him the ear bead jade pendant, she disappeared into the smoke cloud. On the stage, the lonely empty mountain and the lonely back of Cao Zhi on the river are left.

——Dai Yan: An Academic History of Walking with Modern Drama: A Study of the 20th Century

They also spent a lot of money to create sets, costumes and props based on the "Roselle Futu" to make every eye look like an ancient meaning, such as the clothes worn by Roselle, the posture of the wind blowing in the sky, Gu Kaizhi can paint it, and it is difficult on the stage - Mei Lanfang later said how troublesome this dress can be:

My outfit was a short jacket with narrow sleeves, a skirt that was quite long and did not hinder walking, and the outside of this skirt jacket was covered with yarn. This yarn is divided into three pieces: one of the left shoulder shawls is the longest, dragged all the way to the bottom right; one of the right shoulder shawls is shorter, tucked into the long yarn; and the other is formed into a colored ball hanging under the left shoulder. In this way, the dress will not be subject to clothing and can dominate it. These three yarns of different lengths replace the clothes they grew up on the body, on the one hand, they show the "Phi Luo Cloth of The Silk ... Light skirt of the mist", on the one hand, on the stage, you can have some smoke and clouds looming feeling. To make the audience feel that the grandeur of this appearance is very large, it is not a matter of dressing up, reflecting this "dragging" word, it is necessary to keep a considerable distance from the yarn dragged on the ground, do not let it be piled up in a mess under the feet, walk and turn around, and use a larger amplitude to flash the yarn away...

——Zhu Jiayun: "Mei Lanfang on Opera Stage Art"

As Qi Rushan, the screenwriter of "Roselle", said, this is a half-fictional and half-real romance drama, when he rehearsed the play in Mei Lanfang, he often reminded him that when He played When Luoshen and Cao Zhi met, it must not be too "real", it must be close to people and not like immortals, but it cannot be too "separated" so that the audience cannot understand.

And where Mei Lanfang is particularly powerful, it is particularly good at these measures. In his later years, he recalled that when performing "Roselle", he also tried his best to use his body and expression to reflect the phrase "Shen Li prevents self-sustainment" - the love between Roselle and Cao Zhi - is not far away.

Cao Zhi and Zhen's gossip soared, but most scholars believe that "Roselle" was never gossip

Roselle's popularity is well deserved.

On the night of the Beijing premiere, the tickets sold out early, and there were people inside and outside the theater. A few days later, the crew went to Shanghai to perform again, and it was again an empty alley. A few months later, Tagore visited China, and on the densely packed schedule, Tagore proposed that he must go to the theater to see Mei Lanfang's "Roselle". In 1930, Mei Lanfang went to the United States to perform, and "Roselle" was also brought. In 1948, "Roselle" was almost made into China's first color film (it was not made later, and this first was given to 1948's "Life and Death Hate"). In 1955, "Roselle" was selected as one of Mei Lanfang's masterpieces, and finally came to the screen, directed by Wu Zuguang.

When the curtain opens Chinese, people "as if they are reading a lyrical fu, and it is like looking at a three-dimensional and sound famous painting."

And with the popularity of "Roselle", the gossip about Cao Zhi and Zhen also soared... After more than a thousand years, Cao Zhi's "Roselle Endowment" returned to the world again, but this return was accompanied by a period of gossip. Although Mei Lanfang tried her best to interpret the love of the gods and people very subtly, everyone watched the "Roselle" drama and then read "Roselle", and always saw Mei Lanfang's Roselle and Jiang Miaoxiang's Cao Zhi in a trance. At the same time, helpless scholars do not want the literary classic "Roselle" only because of the popularity of Mei Lanfang's "Roselle" drama to become a gossip talk in society, as the popularity of "Roselle" drama continues to rise, scholars continue to publish academic articles to distinguish that "Roselle Endowment" has never been gossip.

The intricacies and inexhaustibility of the words are most clearly stated by Dai Yan in the article "An Academic History of Walking with Modern Drama- A Study of the 20th Century's [Roselle Endowment]":

This generation of scholars, who have heard and witnessed Mei Lanfang's performance of "Roselle", have a personal experience of the appeal and dissemination of this new play, and as scholars, they are more aware that they must compete with Mei Lanfang in an academic way in order to offset the social impact of "Roselle" drama as a modern interpretation of "Roselle". This generation of scholars in the 20th century, under the pressure of the era when Mei Lanfang's "Roselle" was popular and regarded as a theatrical classic, began to enter the study of Cao Zhi's "Roselle Endowment", and they did not avoid publishing papers of different lengths one after another, not so much to contribute their new research results, but rather to express their position in a cultural anxiety to highlight their academic position and scholar status.

From the twenties of the twenties, a once cold academic topic was revived, until the 1930s and 1940s, and scholars such as Shu Yuanlong, Huang Chitong, Zhan Kun, Xu Shiying, Yang Biao, Lu Qinli, and Miao Yu published relevant papers. It was discussed for twenty years. Most of these papers argue that Roselle has nothing to do with "Feeling Zhen Theory", and may not even have much to do with "Zhongjun Theory", perhaps it is just an ordinary literary exercise.

Looking back at this journey of more than a thousand years, if there is no Cao Zhi's "Luoshen Endowment", there would be no Gu Kaizhi's "Luoshen Futu", and perhaps there would be no Mei Lanfang's "Luoshen". Without Mei Lanfang's "Roselle", people's interpretation of "Roselle Endowment" and "Roselle Endowment" may not be so gossipy. However, without Mei Lanfang's "Roselle", there would still be so many people who would seriously discuss this fu of Cao Zhi in the third century and this volume of Gu Kaizhi, and would they write so many articles for them?

When the background of Cao Zhi and Mei Lanfang finally faded, the eternal "Roselle Futu" was still attracting people to interpret. It's just that this interpretation is doomed to be insoluble.

Text and courtesy of photo/Ren Tanru