The past and future of folktales | art

Talk about how to inherit from the "Three Springs King"

In early September 2021, I went to Sanquanwang Village, Xiaoshanshouqian Town, Hangzhou, to collect wind, which is the settlement of the descendants of Wang Hu, the lord of Sanhuaitang.

The reason why it is called Sanquan Wang is because there are three wells in the village: Tiger Spring, Niu Spring and Longquan. Legend has it that their ninth ancestor, Yongkang, discovered these three springs and changed the name of the village to King Sanquan.

In fact, in the era of farming, it is not surprising that excavating water sources is necessary for survival. Since then, the folklore surrounding these three springs has been like a continuous stream of spring water, which has been passed down for hundreds of years.

Sanquanwang Village

Yongkang Gong found that the dragon spring, which has been used for hundreds of years, was naturally guided by the immortals. The villagers also said that the thousand-year-old camphor on the slope of Tiger Mountain and the tiger spring under the mountain are "sacred trees" and "fairy waters."

Legend has it that at the end of the Ming Dynasty, Shaoxing Zhang Yuanwai gave birth to a seriously ill son, and there was no cure for a hundred medicines, and after being reminded by a Taoist monk who passed by his home, he realized that it was not a medicine that did not work, it was not enough to boil the medicine, and it was necessary to use the tiger spring water under the thousand-year-old camphor.

Sure enough, after drinking the medicine boiled in tiger spring water for a few days, the illness of the son of the staff member quickly improved.

After that, the ancient camphor became the wishing tree, and the tiger spring became a life-saving water. If you have something on your mind, walk around the ancient camphor and you can do what you want. If you have some annoying illness, drink a sip of tiger spring water, and you will be able to eliminate all diseases.

Dragon Spring, is the dragon's saliva, is the dragon's saliva; even the "Cow Spring", is not a clear spring at the foot of Niu Mountain. It should be known that Niushan is also very valuable in local feng shui.

Legend has it that on the Qinghua Mountain, the upper tiger mountain and the lower tiger mountain are opposite, the two tigers are fighting, and they are about to fight, but fortunately, an old cow sprang up in the middle, and the two tigers were separated, and from then on, there was no trouble, and the villagers of this side of the water and soil were able to live and work in peace and contentment...

These legends assume the function of feng shui. There is also a legend that plays a role in indoctrination.

According to legend, there is a local custom that when they get married, the groom and bride each plant a camphor tree. When the children grow up and get married in the future, the camphor trees are also timbered, and they are cut down to beat the furniture as a dowry.

There is a couple in the village, the family is in the silverware business, the family is quite well-off, and the husband and wife have a good relationship. What is unsatisfactory is that after many years of marriage, the wife is always unable to conceive.

The husband is an only son, seeing that the incense is about to be broken, millions of furniture have no one to inherit, parents force their sons to take small incense, the son resists death, and the wife who has tied the hair has been staying together until he is old.

The two camphor trees planted at the time of marriage were also retained because the couple had no queen, and the longer they grew, the more luxuriant they became, and the branches desperately extended to each other, and gradually grew into a "Lianli Branch" husband and wife tree, which is locally known as the "Old with the Son".

Sanquanwang Village is building a tourist resort, and it is conceivable that the three springs and the thousand-year-old camphor tree have become attractions with stories.

And walking around the ancient camphor, you can do what you want, drink a sip of tiger spring water, you can eliminate all diseases, but also can become a new folklore.

The two old trees that grow side by side with their children will also become a punching point for couples.

How natural it is to live by the water and introduce mountain springs to cultivate land. However, the villagers of Sanquanwang Village turned the three springs into a story, and passed it on by word of mouth from generation to generation.

Gradually, folktales became the historical memory of the villagers. The villagers tell you stories as if they were telling history, and everything seems to have really happened.

In fact, of the thousands of villages in China, which one does not have the legend of the ancient well, the legend of the ancient bridge, and the legend of the ancient camphor tree; which one does not walk around the ancient camphor, can do what you want, drink a mouthful of tiger spring water, and you can eliminate such a folk custom?

The historical memory of the common people is carried in folk tales. At the same time, folk tales also carry the function of indoctrination, just like the tree that praises the deep love of husband and wife.

Therefore, I think that the so-called folk tales are a literary style that coexists with the twin peaks of the scriptures and historical classics above the temple.

From the ancient myths of Shanhai Jing, through the Wei and Jin Zhiwei, Tang Dynasty legends, Song Ren dialects, Ming and Qing Zhanghui novels, modern popular novels, all the way to the contemporary popular literature new stories and network literature, are the category of folk tales.

Compared with the classics of history, folk tales have assumed a greater indoctrination function among the people.

In the imperial era, when the literati were chanting poems, folk stories spread like weeds.

When the tao of Confucius and Mencius and the philosophy of Lao Zhuang above the temple competed over who was the Taoist system, the folk stories silently assumed the function of enlightenment.

That's where the value of our folktales lies. What could be more Chinese than a folktale that spontaneously grew out of a water and soil? So I want to say that folk tales are the real Chinese stories.

From "Nezha", talk about how to restate

Folktales are a literary genre that is constantly being recounted. Previously, it was constantly repeated in word of mouth.

Now, classic folk tales have become super IP, becoming the motifs and prototypes of many literary and artistic styles, and are constantly being adapted and retold.

So how can our folktale texts be improved in the present moment to be embraced by contemporary audiences, especially younger audiences?

The national comic from "The Return of the Great Sage" to "Nezha", set off another round of climax. Later, to "Jiang Ziya", including 2021's "Jigong" and "Green Snake", Guoman has the same ambition as Marvel to create a universe of classic Chinese folk tales.

The national comic "Nezha" is a retelling of folklore and distills the theme of "my life is up to me".

National Comic "Nezha"

This reminds me of the classic line in the classic online novel "The Legend of Wukong": "I want this day, I can no longer cover my eyes; I want this land, I can no longer bury my heart; I want all sentient beings to understand my intentions; I want the Buddhas to disappear." ”

Why the image of Nezha and Wukong as rebellious, autonomous, and non-superstitious authority of "my life is up to me" is so popular because it is in line with the mainstream values of today's young people.

Therefore, when recounting folk tales, we must take care of and create with the concept of the moment. The concept of advancing with the times has long-term vitality.

Let's talk about the innovation of text. Now is the era of short video, post-95, post-00, is the indigenous people of video images, they are accustomed to using images to understand the world, rather than like the elderly are used to learning through reading books.

Then, in this era when video is the way, our story creation text should pay attention to the sense of scene and the sense of picture.

Traditional folktales are detached and separated, and the narrators are from the perspective of God, telling from a high place that "once upon a time there was a temple, and there was a monk in the temple..."

Now, the story should be written immersively, feeding the reader one by one like writing a script, so that the reader can have a sense of visual vision of the picture.

Finally, let's talk about the characters. Traditional folktale writing has only people, no characters. Even the names of the characters are human designs, such as the son-in-law, the sister-in-law, and the king carpenter.

In the context of word of mouth, they are too lazy to give the people in the play a good name, mostly replaced by the identity and personality of the characters. Most of the characters are flattened and do not have any growth.

But now, the context of communication is different, only the plot has no characters in the story is not transmitted.

"Nezha" tells the growth story of a rebellious child who grows into a hero, and ultimately let people remember the character image, not the plot. In a good story, what drives the development of the plot is not an accident, but a vivid character.

Character determines destiny, what kind of person you are, what kind of things you will inevitably do. Put the characters in one scene after another, let the characters act, choose, and grow themselves, and the plot naturally advances along the growth and choices of the characters.

Like Tolstoy's Anna Karenina. When the reader asks Tolstoy, why are you so cold-blooded and let Anna go to the rails?

Tolstoy said, I can't help it, this is Anna's inevitable choice. When the characters are written alive, even the author cannot control them.

From the "theater magic city" to talk about how to transform

As mentioned in the previous section, classic folk tales are all super IP, which can be adapted and transformed in various ways.

The rise of Guoman is a transformation of folk tales. Let me talk about the integration of folk tales and cultural tourism.

Director Wang Chaoge opened another new series "Only Series" after the Impression Series and see also series.

The first product is "Only Henan Drama Magic City", and the second "Only Dream of the Red Chamber" is already planned.

In Zhengzhou, the "only Henan Drama Magic City" is very popular. She planned a one-sided magic city with a length of 328 meters and a height of 15 meters on the land covering a total area of 622 acres.

With the theme of "Deeply Cultivating the Culture of the Central Plains and Telling the Story of the Yellow River", 21 immersive theaters were opened in a closed environment.

Walking into a theater, there is no sense of stage, the audience is integrated into the play, and unconsciously, it may become a role in it.

This is immersive performance, where there is no barrier between the actor and the audience, and the audience is immersed in it, as if entering an illusion.

Why is the Drama Magic City on fire? It unearths an immersive, interactive experience that the Internet cannot replace.

Like the hottest script kills right now. Because it is derived from the board game killing game, it is called Script Killing.

But in my opinion it's a bit of a headline party. The core of it is the script-style writing with a sense of scene and a sense of picture that I talked about at the beginning.

The audience felt that I wasn't enjoying a story enough, I wanted to be one of the characters. That's the interactive experience.

Readers work together to complete a good story. Every script killing performance is the completion of a retelling of the story.

Drama magic city and script killing are new varieties of cultural tourism.

Folk tales and cultural tourism have a natural connection. The circulation of folk tales is strongly regional.

Folklore has monuments, folk tales of a place are passed down from one place to another, and then a lot of traces are left in this place.

Like a "West Lake Folk Tale" how many years, it is no exaggeration to say that our generation is taking "West Lake Folk Tales" to tour the West Lake attractions.

The success of the drama magic city and the fire of the script killing are an inspiration for the transformation of folk tales into cultural tourism products: the original story can still be played like this. It's really not just about watching the story, it's about playing with the story.

Immersive experience, how long can this new variety of cultural tourism be popular? In the future, its form will change, the name will also change, personally think, the script to kill this name, or change as soon as possible as well.

But the characteristics of immersive, interactive, experiential products don't change. This is the inevitable trend of the Internet era and the video era.

Just now we said that the inheritance of folk tales, along the vein of "ancient myths shanhai jing - Wei Jin Zhiwei - Legends of the Tang Dynasty - Song Ren dialects - Ming and Qing Zhanghui novels - modern popular novels - new stories - network literature", then who is the next stick? Will it be script killing? Or will it be a script-killing story writing full of scenes and pictures?

Producer | First of all, Hongming

Edit | Yu Xin

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