Thanks to many film and television works, the historical legends and stories about southern Shaolin disciples such as Hong Xiguan and Fang Shiyu have long been well known.
However, tracing back to the source, most of the legends of Shaolin disciples such as Hong Xiguan and Fang Shiyu originate from a late Qing Dynasty public case novel "The Holy Dynasty Is Prosperous and Evergreen", which is also known as "Qianlong Patrol Lucky Jiangnan Record", or more directly called "Qianlong Lower Jiangnan".
As the name suggests, the novel is based on the various legendary experiences of the Qianlong Emperor traveling to Jiangnan, punishing corrupt officials all the way, eliminating bullies, and finally destroying the Southern Shaolin Temple in Fujian, among which the Southern Shaolin disciples led by Hong Xiguan, Fang Shiyu and others appear as villains in the book.
The emergence of the book "Evergreen" has influenced many later southern martial arts novels.
In the early years of the Republic of China, the times changed, and the characters in the book also changed, and the Shaolin disciples led by Hong Xiguan and Fang Shiyu gradually became positive characters, while the Gao Jinzhong and Wudang disciples who assisted Qianlong in suppressing Shaolin in the original work gradually became villains.
In all the film and television dramas with the theme of Hong Xiguan and Fang Shiyu in later generations, the main plot conflicts and character relationships in the story are basically derived from the novels of "Evergreen", such as the Shaolin Five Elders Infighting, Fang Shiyu fighting thunder tigers. The Baimei Daoists annihilated Southern Shaolin and so on.
The theme of this issue is Hong Xiguan, as a disciple of the Southern Shaolin layman with the same name as Fang Shiyu.
There are many film and television dramas about Hong Xiguan, among which there are not a few classics.
In 1994 alone, the Hong Kong film and television circle actually gave birth to three film and television dramas with Hong Xiguan as the protagonist.
The most famous of these is naturally the film "New Shaolin Five Ancestors" starring Jet Li, and the co-production film "Shaolin Hero Fang Shiyu Hong Xiguan" starring Lin Zhengying and Qian Jiale in the same year, but the influence is far less than the former.
In addition, in 1994, there was also an ATV TV series "Hong Xiguan", which starred Zhen Zidan, which was a great success after being broadcast that year, and was a classic martial arts drama that many viewers remembered as children.
In this issue of "Forgotten Divine Drama" column, Fan Yingjun will talk about this ATV classic martial arts drama.
"Hong Xiguan"
The Kung Fu Master
First of all, the story, like most Hong Xiguan film and television dramas, this drama is also based on the legend of "burning Southern Shaolin".
However, the screenwriter also borrowed the plot from Jin Yong's "Book of Swords and Enmity", in which there is a setting that Qianlong is a Han identity, and Hong Xiguan's father, Hong Tingnan, is basically a copy of Chen Jialuo, who is the head of the imperial court barracks externally, but secretly is the anti-Qing and Restoration of the Ming Dynasty.
At the same time, it continued the routine of the ATV Qing Palace drama at that time, and the villain Baimei Daoren in the play also had an extra layer of identity, which was the fourteenth prince of Kangxi, so it was derived from the "uncle and nephew palace fighting line" between him and Qianlong.
So the conflict of the whole play can be summarized into two parts:
The first is the Manchu-Han struggle, with the protagonist group's anti-Qing and Restoration Struggle as the main line;
The second is the feud between the jianghu and the jianghu, mainly the fight between the Shaolin disciples and the Wudang leader Feng Daode and the Baimei Daoist.
The protagonist in this drama, Hong Xiguan, is a typical growth role.
In the early stage, it was basically a hot-blooded stunned young man, although he had a sense of justice, but he was impulsive and reckless.
From the beginning of Hong Xiguan's debut, the director has used various details to show the conflict between the Han and the Manchus.
Hong Xiguan's father, Hong Tingnan, served as the head of the military camp in the local area, and the Hong family was regarded as a lackey of the Qing court.
This made the young and vigorous Hong Xiguan look down on his father even more, and the relationship between father and son at home was very bad, and it was all up to Hong's mother to mediate.
But what Hong Xiguan did not know was that his father Hongting Nan was serving the Qing court on the surface, but behind his back was the leader of the Sun and Moon Society who opposed the Qing and restored the Ming Dynasty. Therefore, Hong Xiguan despised his father around him, but unknowingly worshipped his father's other identity, the master Red Dragon.
Hong Xiguan was bent on joining the Sun Moon Society, so he rescued the second head of the Sun Moon Society and his daughter Yan Wing Chun.
Yan Wing Chun is the female number one of this play, in the historical legend, Yan Wing Chun is the founding master of Wing Chun, and her husband Leung Bo Li is her only disciple, but in this play, the screenwriter made Hong Xiguan become Yan Wing Chun's husband with a big stroke of a pen.
It is worth mentioning that in the same year as starring in this drama, Zhen Zidan also starred in the movie "Wing Chun", in which Yang Ziqiong played Yan Wing Chun, while Zhen Zidan played her husband Leung Bo Li.
Although the Hong family is Han Chinese, because Hong Tingnan was an official in the Qing court, he was highly excluded in the local area, and his son Hong Xiguan was often blindsided, and his only friend was Gao Jinzhong, who grew up together.
The role of Gao Jinzhong is the most tragic character in the whole play, pitiful in the early stage, hateful in the later stage, and even does not lose the protagonist in the scene.
Gao Jinzhong's tragic fate began with a marriage contract between her and her lover Tong Min.
The Gao family was originally well-off, but now the family is in the middle of the road, and originally had a marriage contract with Tong Min, the daughter of the general Hasado.
However, there is a local immeasurable evil young Shuotuo, who has always wanted to dominate Tong Min, and he pretends that his father is the Military minister of Guangzhou, Mulibu, and he regards Gao Jinzhong as a thorn in his eye.
In order to teach Gao Jinzhong a lesson, Shuo Tuo lured Tong Qianjin, who was working the street for a living, and asked him to make a contest with Gao Jinzhong.
Gao Jinzhong's martial arts were mediocre, so Hong Xiguan, who was in charge of righteousness, took the initiative to stop this matter, successfully defeated Tong Qianjin in the ring, and also persuaded Tong Qianjin not to help abuse him anymore, Hong Xiguan and Tong Qianjin, the representatives of these two future Shaolin disciples, so they did not fight and did not know each other.
Shuo Tuo did not succeed in his plan and had a plan, he designed to lure Gao Jinzhong, who was bent on revitalizing the family business, to engage in illegal salt trading, and then exposed the matter afterwards, leading soldiers to raid the Gao family and exterminate the door, forcing Gao Jinzhong to become a wanted criminal.
Hong Xiguan ventured to rescue Gao Jinzhong, but he was also implicated and framed by Shuo Tuo as a thief of the Sun Moon Society.
After this storm, Hong Tingnan planned to send his son away, but just as Hong Xiguan was leaving, he accidentally found that his father was actually the leader of the Sun And Moon Society, Chilong, and his father planned to assassinate Qianlong, who was about to come to Guangdong.
For the members of the Sun and Moon Society, Qianlong's coming to their base camp was naturally a golden opportunity to assassinate.
Hong Tingnan therefore decided to take the risk of assassination, but he did not expect to be ambushed.
It turned out that the imperial court had already found Feng Daode, the leader of the Wudang Sect, to suppress the Sun and Moon Society. Hongting's southern assassination failed, the members of the Sun and Moon Society suffered heavy casualties, and during the retreat, Hongtingnan was knocked off the cliff by Feng Daode, life and death were unknown, and Hongmu was also killed by the cunning Shuotuo.
Overnight, witnessing the murder of his parents devastated Hong Xiguan.
Fortunately, Yan Wing Chun, who had the Sun Moon Society, took care of him, so that Hong Xiguan came out of the shadows.
Hong Xiguan, who has regained his feet, is determined to take revenge, and with the cooperation of Tong Qianjin and Gao Jinzhong, he designs to entrust the common enemy Shuo to be killed.
But it also attracted Shuo Tuo's master, Feng Daode, the leader of the Wudang Sect, to hunt down and kill.
Compared with the kung fu of the three people and the famous masters like Feng Daode, the gap is too big. Fortunately, on the way to escape, the three people encountered the three precepts of the drunken monk who escaped from Southern Shaolin, and the martial monk Sande who went down the mountain to capture the three precepts.
Master Sande was the first Shaolin martial monk, and with a few moves he repelled Feng Daode, who was unwilling to fight with death, not to mention that the other party was not yet a person, so he let Hong Xiguan and the three of them leave.
However, this brief confrontation between Feng Daode and Sande laid the groundwork for the future feud between Wudang and Shaolin.
The three fleeing Hong Xiguan saw the master's martial arts and longed for Shaolin from then on, deciding to first go to Hangzhou to meet with the members of the Sun and Moon Society, and then turn to Southern Shaolin to learn the art.
In Hangzhou, Hong Xiguan, as the son of the Red Dragon, was elected by the members of the Sun Moon Society as the successor leader of the Sun Moon Society.
The three Hong Xiguan temporarily lived in the local Guangdong Guild Hall, so they became acquainted with Fang Shiyu, the son of the local rich gentleman Fang's family.
Like the image of Fang Shiyu in many plays, Fang Shiyu, played by Zhang Jiahui in this play, is also a naughty teenager when he appears. If Hong Xiguan is still only young and vigorous, then Fang Shiyu just doesn't know that the sky is high and the earth is thick, although he is smart and kind, he also has an arrogant and aggressive side.
Because he was bathed by his mother Miao Cuihua with medicinal water since he was a child, Fang Shiyu trained a copper-skinned iron bone, coupled with a high talent for martial arts, he was not convinced to see anyone, and the first meeting with Hong Xiguan and the three of them was tit-for-tat.
At this time, the relevant foreign master Lei Laohu set up a ring competition in Hangzhou, declaring that he would punch a province in Guangdong and kick the two prefectures of Suzhou and Hangzhou.
Such an arrogant slogan naturally caused dissatisfaction among many people in the southern Yue Wulin Forest, but in fact, Lei Hu seemed to be arrogant, but in fact, he was instructed by the imperial court to fight in the name of fighting, but in fact he wanted to lead to the Sun and Moon Society master competition, so as to find the Sun and Moon Society dens.
The young and crazy Fang Shiyu saw that someone in the ring had been killed, and angrily went to the stage to compete, and finally killed Lei Tiger.
The three Hong Xiguan bid farewell to the novice village and came to Southern Shaolin, where the abbot Zhishan Zen Master made an exception and agreed to accept the three as lay disciples.
Soon, Fang Shiyu was also sent to the Shaolin Temple by his mother Miao Cuihua, who came to Shaolin to avoid the enemy family.
After Fang Shiyu killed Lei Laohu in the ring, Lei's wife Li Xiaohuan vowed to avenge her husband, and what was more troublesome was that Li Xiaohuan's father Li Bashan was a first-class master in the jianghu, and Miao Cuihua decided to send Fang Shiyu to learn shaolin in order to help his son take refuge.
Later, the abbot took in Hu Huiqian, a lay disciple who had also come to steal martial arts for revenge.
At this point, the five major Shaolin disciples have been assembled, and the enmity between them will lead to the biggest crisis in Southern Shaolin.
The above is only the plot of the first 7 episodes of the play, and the later story mainly revolves around Hong Xiguan and Fang Shiyu and other Shaolin disciples to learn shaolin art, after which Hong Xiguan learned that his father Hong Tingnan was not dead, led the shi brothers to rescue, and continued to carry out anti-Qing and restoration actions, and finally encountered crises such as the Baimei Daoist and the Qing soldiers burning Southern Shaolin, and finally only Hong Xiguan and the heroine Yan Wing Chun survived.
Limited by space, we will leave the follow-up plot to finish in the next issue (mainly because we don't want the article to be too long for no one to read).
It can be said that the entire "Hong Xiguan" TV series is a complete tragedy, so that only the male and female protagonists live to the end.
This drama is The first TV series starring Zhen Zidan in ATV, and it is also a tailor-made work of Zhen Zidan in that year, which was broadcast in the summer of August 1994.
The general director of the series is Chen Musheng, who worked for TVB and Asia Television in the 1980s and 1990s, filmed Jin Yong's martial arts dramas "Deer Ding Ji" and "Yitian Slaughtering Dragon" during the TVB period, and later cooperated with Zhen Zidan twice during ATV.
One of them is "Hong Xiguan", while the other is the hit drama "Jingwumen".
In particular, "Jingwumen" is still regarded as one of the pinnacle works of ATV to this day.
Zhen Zidan's two dramas filmed on ATV had a great impact on his career. In fact, as early as the end of the 1980s, Zhen Zidan joined TVB and filmed several TV series, but most of them were supporting roles and the response was mediocre.
According to Zhen Zidan's self-report, during the TVB period, the monthly salary was only HK$3600, and it was not enough to even take a car.
Later, Xu Ke asked Zhen Zidan to shoot "Huang Feihong 2" and "New Dragon Gate Inn", which made Zhen Zidan's career warm up, at this time ATV invited Zhen Zidan as a foreign aid to shoot the martial arts drama "Hong Xiguan", Zhen Zidan not only as a starring actor, but also as a martial arts consultant for the film, and also sang the theme song of the movie.
ATV attaches great importance to this drama, and the actors are therefore quite strong, and the heroine is Cai Xiaoyi, the head of ATV in the 90s.
The female number two was played by Wang Wei, who was born in Yajie, and was also a female artist who was popular in Yajie at that time.
In the play, Fang Shiyu is played by the later film emperor Zhang Jiahui, the master of the Three Virtues is played by Wu Yijiang, tong Qianjin is played by Liang Rihao, who is himself the champion of Southern Boxing, and later played Liang Shrimp in "Jingwumen".
The disadvantage of this drama is that the ATV drama has always been very rough in terms of set art, many scenes are simple enough to not work, Hong Xiguan returned to the first stop of the market, I feel that I just found a few temporary stalls on the mountain, and finally fought with the Baimei Daoist at the court, even the ceiling is out of the late P, and now it seems that the sense of wearing is full of help.
Of course, although the funds are limited, it does not prevent the martial arts scenes in the play from being very exciting.
After all, ATV dramas have always been an advantage in martial arts design.
The martial arts director of this drama, Ma Yucheng, studied under Cheng Xiaodong, whose action design style emphasizes the sense of strength and sharpness, the main martial arts routine in this drama is Nan Quan, so the style is relatively simple, focusing on showing the fierceness, and the fight between the characters is often tiger and tiger.
Zhen Zidan, as a martial arts consultant, once recalled in his autobiography that the reason why ATV dramas were filmed well in martial arts scenes was because ATV was willing to invest resources and spend time, compared to TVB to shoot more than a dozen scenes a day, and when ATV filmed "Hong Xiguan", a martial arts drama could play for a full day, so the creator had the opportunity to strive for excellence.
Therefore, in the following year, Zhen Zidan accepted the invitation of ATV and cooperated with director Chen Musheng for the second time in "Jingwumen", which made Zhen Zidan famous in Asia. So Zhen Zidan had the opportunity to set up a film company and return to the film circle, but this is the last word.
Nowadays, ATV is a thing of the past, and martial arts dramas are not as good as in the past, but classic dramas like this can no longer be filmed!