"The Tea House" is a well-known and famous work in the history of Chinese drama, and it is also one of the classic plays often performed by the Beijing People's Art Theater, almost every performance is a hot scene, unprecedented, and even many drama lovers queue up all night to buy tickets, afraid of missing out on wonderful performances. This landmark masterpiece of Chinese drama has been hailed by Westerners as "a miracle on the eastern stage".
Set against the backdrop of the rise and fall of a large tea house called Yutai in old Beijing, this work shows the vicissitudes of Chinese society in the nearly half century from the late Qing Dynasty to the Beiyang warlords to the victory of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, and depicts the current situation of the lives of three-class and nine-rate figures of all classes in Beijing in that era and the tragic lives of ordinary people.
"The Tea House" is a play created by the modern literary scholar Mr. Lao She in 1956. Lao She, formerly known as Shu Qingchun (舒庆春) and the character Sheyu , is a famous writer in modern China and the first writer in New China to win the title of "People's Artist". His major works include "Four Generations Together", "Camel Xiangzi", "Dragon Sugou", "Tea House" and so on, all of which are masterpieces passed down from generation to generation.
In particular, "Tea House", known as the "treasure of the town courtyard" of Beijing's art, the famous playwright Mr. Cao Yu once commented that ""Tea House" is an unprecedented example in the history of Chinese theater"
"Tea House" drama, there are more than seventy characters, but basically all are men, is the treasurer Wang Lifa, dream industry to save the country Qin Zhongyi, patriot Chang Siye and other male activities throughout the whole scene of a work, there are very few women, only seven or eight. However, from the depictions of these few women who have little ink, we can see the humble status of women and their tragic fate under that social form at that time.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="13" >01 the village woman's family is poor and wants to sell her daughter for two or two pieces of silver</h1>
One morning at the Yutai Tea House in Beijing, the tea house was full. Walk enough birds to rest their legs, say media pull fiber, fight crickets, count the face, and after the group fight, both sides invite people to come here to mediate... All kinds of characters come and go, and the business seems to be booming.
Just as the landlord Qin Zhongyi was chatting with the treasurer Wang Lifa and the old patron Gu Changsiye while drinking tea, the ragged and sad-faced village woman entered the tea house, followed by a timid and weak little girl, and the little girl had a grass label inserted in her head. When Li San, the guy who ran the hall, saw this scene, his heart was soft for a moment, and he did not stop them from entering the store.
The two of them walked slowly inside, and the country woman suddenly had a weak leg, and sat on the ground with one toe. The little girl tugged at the placket of the country woman's clothes, sniffed the faint aroma of tea wafting in the air, and shouted, "Mom, I'm hungry!" I'm hungry! The country woman looked at the girl in a daze and covered her face and wept. Later, she raised her head and cast a look around for help: "Which one wants this child?" Two or two pieces of silver! ”
The village woman had two or two pieces of silver, and planned to sell her teenage daughter Xiaoyi. If it weren't for the extreme poverty of the family, if it weren't for the desperate situation, what mother would be willing to sell her own child! The village woman also did not want her daughter to freeze and starve to death, and forcibly endured the grief of the separation of mother and daughter to find a chance for the child to live.
Under the social situation at that time, it was not only the villagers who sold their children and daughters! The decadent Qing government closed the country for a long time, and was later forcibly opened by the great powers with strong ships and cannons. After years of war and the double exploitation of foreigners in the government, the people live in a deep and fierce situation, and their livelihood is extremely difficult. It's hard for men to find a job to make ends meet, let alone women! Therefore, the fate of the country woman and her daughter Xiaoyi is destined to be very tragic.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="13" >02 Eunuch's "wife" - The tragic life of Kang Shunzi</h1>
The old owner of the tea house, Gu Changsiye, was an upright and kind person, and he asked Li San of the running hall to cook two bowls of rotten meat noodles for the villagers and the little girl, and they were sent away by the Wang Treasurer after eating the noodles. After the township women and mothers left, Kang Liu, a bankrupt farmer on the outskirts of Beijing, walked into the tea house.
Kang Liu, because his family was destitute and had a difficult livelihood, could not survive anymore, and planned to find a home for his fifteen-year-old daughter Kang Shunzi. In fact, I want to sell the shunzi and exchange it for some silver to live. After he went to the tea house, he found Liu Mazi, who usually made a living by talking about mediators, and the extremely selfish Liu Mazi actually said that he would sell Shunzi to the rich Pang eunuch in the palace! And only give ten silver!
Kang Liu didn't expect that Liu Mazi was planning to find a eunuch for his daughter! Ben did not want to agree, but in the end, the words spoken were bargaining with Liu Mazi: Is a fifteen-year-old girl worth ten silver? Liu Mazi deceived Kang Liu and said: General Manager Pang, waiting for the empress, is red, and even the bottle of vinegar at home is made of agate. As soon as the girl passed the door, she ate delicious food and wore aya silk satin, is this not a creation?
However, this Liu Mazi changed hands but asked the eunuch Pang for two hundred taels of silver to sell Kang Shunzi!
For this ridiculous marriage transaction, Kang Shunzi did not want to fight, as soon as she entered the store, she fainted because she was hungry and angry. Let the foolish father and Liu Mazi make a deal. What if she was awake? Can she resist Daddy's approach? If she is not sold, the family cannot live, and the father may be beaten to death by the owner! Therefore, she could only resign herself to fate and could only be sold to the eunuch as a "wife"!
After Shunzi married the eunuch Pang, could he really live a life of glory and wealth as Liu Mazi said? This is not the case! Instead, they suffered a lot of pain and suffering in the home of the eunuch Pang, which can be seen from the words of their adopted son Kang Dali: that old thing, pinch you and twist you, bite you, and stab me with a cigarette stick!
Kang Shunzi also said to the treasurer Wang Lifa: I am a countryman, I can bear hardships! As long as you are no longer the wife of a eunuch, any bitterness will be sweet!
Why did Kang Shunzi experience such a tragic life? Was her tragic fate only caused by her father?
When Kang Liu found Liu Mazi, he said a sad word: Isn't that because the people who cultivate land in the countryside can't mix? If a family can eat a meal of porridge a day, I want to sell my daughter, I am not a person!
Liu Mazi also said when he retorted to Kang Liu's suspicion of silver: In the countryside, five pounds of white noodles will change a child! You don't know!
From their few words, we can see how miserable the lives of ordinary people were under the social situation at that time! At the same time, it also fully reflects the humble status of women and the tragic fate of being slaughtered.
Under the corrupt and incompetent Qing Dynasty at that time, the imperial court surrendered to the outside world, signed unequal treaties that humiliated the country, and desperately squeezed the poor and low-level people at home. The imperialist forces of aggression were constantly expanding in China, the Qing Dynasty was in the midst of turmoil, the government was in ruins, the court life was corrupt and absurd, the local hooligans were rampant and overbearing, oppressing the people, and a large number of refugees were forced to leave their homes and go to the city to beg for food.
In the dark and decaying old society of that time, women had no status to speak, no right to speak, and no ability to control their own destiny. Many women like Kang Shunzi, one by one, are ruthlessly swallowed up by their youthful lives.
The famous writer Mo Yan's novel "Red Sorghum Family" depicts two tragic women. Jiu'er, the daughter of a ruined landlord's family, was promised by her greedy father to the son of a winery owner suffering from leprosy when she was nineteen years old, and let Jiu'er struggle and resolutely refuse to agree, but finally failed to screw her father and married Shan Bianlang, who was already lying on the kang and could not move.
Gao Shuxian, the grandmother of the Shan family, is also a tragic woman. Not long after she was betrothed to the Shan family's grand young master, the eldest young master died, and for the so-called honor, she entered the shan family with the tablet of the single family grand young master, and became a poor woman who lived a life guarding the chastity arch.
There is also the tiger girl in Lao She's other work "Camel Xiangzi", and the Xianglin sister-in-law in Mr. Lu Xun's "Blessing"... Wait, a tragic woman with a troubled fate, is caused by that old era of cannibalism.
The torrent of the times rolled forward, the Xinhai Revolution finally overthrew China's imperial system for more than two thousand years, and the common people thought that they were looking forward to a good life, but what awaited them was still fierce.
After the founding of the Republic of China, Kang Shunzi's fate finally changed slightly. The Qing Dynasty was destroyed, and the eunuch Pang lost his power, was bullied by his nephews to starvation, and also bombed Out Kang Shunzi and his adopted son Kang Dali, without even giving a quilt.
Kang Shunzi did not expect to be able to escape from the clutches of Pang's eunuch in this life, but he left the Pang family without knowing where to settle down, did he want to live on the street? Junko suddenly remembered that she had been sold in the Yutai Tea House, so she pulled vigorously to find the tea house.
The treasurer Wang Lifa did not want to hire Shunzi because of the light business, and Shunzi tried his best to fight for it, and was finally left by the hostess Wang Shufen and worked as a helper in the tea house. Dali also stayed in the teahouse, but later, he ran to Xishan without Shunzi, where he was said to have joined the Eighth Route Army.
But the business of the teahouse was almost unsustainable. Warlords are fighting, the people are not happy, and patrols, soldiers, and spies have come to blackmail the king treasurer.
Silly Yang has a number of pieces of treasure, which fully illustrates the difficult situation of the people at that time:
In order to fight, guns and cannons were needed, and piles of money were sent to the foreigners.
For selling cannons, for selling guns, help the warlord you occupy the Yellow River he occupies the Yangtze River.
The common people were devastated, and the soldiers swept away the grain and livestock.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="13" >03 The house was confiscated and forced to become a waitress</h1>
There is also an unfortunate woman in the "Tea House", which is seventeen-year-old Ding Bao. She introduced her life to the Wang Treasurer: my mother was a widow and took me to live. After the victory, the government insisted that a small house left to us by my father was a reverse production and confiscated! Mom was mad and I made a waitress!
A few short introductions, however, show that a small family that was originally dependent on mother and daughter was broken up by the National Government after the victory of the War of Resistance.
The eight-year War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression drove out Japan and the whole country rejoiced, but the new life and good days that the broad masses of the people eagerly looked forward to did not come.
Secret agents and soldiers in the banner of the national army run amok and overbearing, scavenging the people's fat and people's ointment everywhere, the people are not happy, and the people are suffering. They can arbitrarily designate "reverse production" and say confiscation is confiscation.
Xiao DingBao's family was gone, and she was forced to become a waitress of Xiao Liu Mazi.
Little Liu Mazi is the son of Liu Mazi, who sold Kang Shunzi to the eunuch Pang, this son is more able to do business than his father, and actually wants to organize the dancers, the prostitutes, the secret prostitutes, the jeep girls, and the waitresses to set up such a big "torah", and also wants to jointly do business with Director Shen of the party department, set up the "Huahua United Company", and set up four major departments of the trading department, the transfer department, the training department, and the supply department, which is simply a one-stop service for human trafficking! It's really more brilliant than his dad's brain!
Since opening a company to do business, it is necessary to find a venue, Shen Director Xiao Liu Mazi they hit the idea of the teahouse, Ding Bao told the treasurer Wang Lifa about Xiao Liu Mazi's desire to occupy the teahouse, and asked him to prepare.
Although Xiao Ding Bao was forced by life to become a waitress, he did not lose his simple and kind nature.
Wang Lifa, the treasurer who has worked hard to run the tea house for decades, not only did not have hair, but even did not have a little white noodle at home! Her granddaughter Xiaohua had told her mother several times that she wanted to eat hot noodle soup. After learning that the tea house was about to be occupied, he said to his daughter-in-law Zhou Xiuhua: If there is still some noodles, make her a bowl, the child is strange and pitiful, and he can't eat anything!
Zhou Xiuhua said: There is no white face at all! I'll take a look and make her some mixed noodle soup!
How sad the king's treasurer's heart should be!
The tea house was occupied, Zhou Xiuhua took Xiaohua away, Kang Shunzi was afraid that even the treasurer had left long ago because of her strength, and Xiao Ding Bao was forced to continue to be her waitress. Nearly half a century of teahouses slowly ended in the gray and dark...
"The Tea House", this masterpiece left to us by Mr. Lao She, has a profound historical connotation, an encyclopedic life capacity, and it has successfully shaped many artistic models: Wang Lifa, Chang Siye, Qin Zhongyi and so on. Among them, there are only a few female characters, perhaps just the embellishment of countless wonderful stories in the big tea house, not the mainstream.
But from these few women, we can see the tragic fate of women in feudal society, semi-colonial and semi-feudal society, and it is the old society that eats people that deprives them of their happy lives and buries their beautiful youth!
Don't know where the country woman and chick will go? I don't know if the elderly Kang Shunzi will find Dali? I don't know if Ding Bao's future marriage can be decided by himself? Let us sincerely bless them...