The more famous label of "Nightingale" is: the only story with Chinese elements. But in fact, this story is obviously related to Andersen's own fantasies when he was a child and his love when he grew up.
The era background of "Nightingale" is exactly during the Daoguang years of the Qing Dynasty in China, so in many foreign versions of Hans Christian Andersen's Fairy Tales, the illustrations of the story are Qing Dynasty costumes, which is still very realistic.
To summarize the story simply:
The emperor of China heard that there was a beautifully singing nightingale in his country, but none of the attendants knew the bird, and under the leadership of the kitchen maid, they found the nightingale in the forest. The emperor became fascinated by the song of the nightingale and left the nightingale in the palace, and the nightingale did not want to lose his freedom and quietly flew back to the forest.
The Emperor of Japan sent a pearlescent artificial nightingale, and later the artificial nightingale broke down and the emperor fell ill. Everyone thought that the emperor was going to die, and a new heir (the new emperor) was chosen, and no one paid attention to the old emperor.
When death came to summon the old emperor, the true nightingale returned, and in the beautiful song, the god of death left, and the emperor was well.
At the beginning of the story, Nightingale had a very ordinary origin, and later became a singer in the palace, which could have gained fame and fortune, but Nightingale did not covet glory and wealth, and could always insist on being herself, and in fairy tales, such female characters are very rare.
In Hans Christian Andersen's pen, the nightingale is kind, pure, noble, and talented. At the same time, the "nightingale" also got rid of the inherent label of the female "rescued" in the fairy tale, and even on the contrary, for the emperor, the nightingale appeared as a "savior", she not only snatched the emperor back from the hands of the god of death, but also saved the emperor's soul, so the image of the nightingale is very plump, very independent, which is very rare in fairy tales.
True nightingales and artificial nightingales
In this story, the contrast between the real nightingale and the artificial nightingale is also very intriguing.
The Emperor of Japan sent a pearlescent artificial nightingale, and court musicians praised it because the music in its body was arranged, and it sang whatever tune it wanted.
And the real nightingale will only sing the way she does it, so you can never guess what she will sing.
So the real nightingale was abandoned, and the artificial nightingale was favored.
However, everyone remembers that in "The Emperor's New Clothes", a brave boy who speaks the truth appears, piercing everyone's self-deception. In "Nightingale", there is also a person who dares to tell the truth, and a fisherman who has heard the real nightingale sing believe that although the artificial nightingale does not sing well and looks like a real bird, it seems to be missing something.
What's missing? soul! Artificial nightingales have no soul.
The appearance of the real nightingale is not as gorgeous as the artificial nightingale, but she represents the truth, goodness and beauty, she is a real singer, an artist, she has a broad heart and a big heart. She also snatched the emperor back from the hands of death with her great love, and touched the emperor, who was tolerant of the artificial nightingale that had been broken.
The most moving thing is undoubtedly the dialogue between the emperor and the nightingale at the end of the story.
When the Emperor wanted to repay nightingale, nightingale said:
"When I first sang, I got your tears in your eyes – I'll never forget it. Every tear is a jewel – it can make a singer's heart blossom.
And when the Emperor wanted to keep The Nightingale by his side, the Nightingale refused, saying:
"I will sing about those who are happy and those who suffer. I sing about the good and evil hidden around you. ”
"I love your heart more than your crown; yet the crown has its divine side."
You see, Nightingale has never coveted wealth and pleasure, she just wants to bring truth, goodness and beauty to the world, how noble Nightingale's heart is!
Andersen's dreams and love
Why would Andersen tell a story that takes place in China? From the historical data, although Andersen traveled to many countries and even to Turkey, he never went to China.
In fact, in his autobiography "My Fairy Tale Life", Andersen described his childhood yearning for this mysterious oriental country: on the night of the moon, he sat by the river in his hometown town of Odense, fantasizing about a Chinese prince digging through the earth to listen to him sing, and bringing him to China, making him a rich and prominent person.
In addition, there are also sources that Andersen grew single eyelids and thin eyebrows, and when he was a child, his hometown people often said that he looked like Chinese.
Perhaps it was these factors that gave Andersen the idea of writing a fairy tale for China.
And Nightingale, many friends know that Nightingale has a real character archetype, she is the girl who Andersen once had a crush on, the Swedish soprano Jenny Linde.
Jenny Linde's origins are as ordinary as the nightingales in fairy tales, and Jenny is an illegitimate daughter. She lived with Hans Christian Andersen at the bottom of society as a child, entered the Royal Swedish Opera House at the age of 9, and through her own unremitting efforts, became a high-profile soprano singer in Europe in the 19th century, and was later known as the "Swedish Nightingale".
The reputation of "Swedish Nightingale" comes from Hans Christian Andersen's "Nightingale".
In 1840, Hans Christian Andersen and Jenny met, but Jenny was relatively cold to Hans Christian Andersen at that time, and the two did not intersect too much. When the two met again in 1843, it became really familiar, and during Jenny's time in Copenhagen, Hans Christian Andersen would visit her every day and chat with her.
Andersen fell in love with Jenny, but Jenny only regarded Hans Christian Andersen as a brother, and Andersen never confessed to Jenny, and Jenny soon married a pianist.
So for Hans Christian Andersen, Jenny is his white moonlight. In his autobiography, Hans Christian Andersen said that Jenny was a "pure woman who is the culmination of vocal geniuses of all kinds."
Therefore, Andersen, who loved and could not help but love, sublimated this feeling into his own work, portraying a beautiful and holy nightingale in "Nightingale".
In short, "Nightingale" is written about Andersen's yearning for the mysterious country and love of the East, it is very realistic, it is written about Andersen's dreams and love.
(The picture of this article is from the network)