The late Ming period was full of tension and contradictions. This is an era of old and new ideas, and it is also a painful era of difficulty, living in the cracks of this ever-changing, chaotic and unstable era. In this era, there are not only political struggles for the country and the people, but also sectarian struggles in which parties are formed for personal gain; there are the efforts of reformers and the corruption and incompetence of the bureaucracy; we can see both the unprecedented display of individuality and the extreme expansion of desires. Tang Xianzu is not a brave fighter, but he is not exactly a passive traditional scholar. As a writer who leads the trend of the times, he has been plagued by the problem of "when he is obedient, he is not a eunuch".
His life practice and literary creation have truly engraved the complex mentality experienced by the Chinese scholar class in the torrent of history. Tang Xianzu grew up in a scholarly family, and showed extraordinary talent when he was young, and was known as "Tang's Ning Xin'er". At the age of 5, he was recognized by the superintendent for talking about the philosophical proposition that "the metaphysical is the way, and the metaphysical is the instrument", and he was regarded as a genius, and his reputation spread rapidly. Like other scholars, Tang Xianzu embarked on the road of studying and responding to the examination very early, hoping to realize the ideal of governing the world of traditional scholars through his official career. His talent overshadowed the world and was regarded as a blessing.
He became a county student at the age of 14, and when he participated in the Jiangxi Provincial Autumn Examination at the age of 21, he won the 8th place. However, Tang Xianzu's road to the imperial examination was not smooth. In the 4 consecutive Jinshi exams, 2 times were named Sun Shan because the art and literature did not meet the examiner's taste. He refused to seek fame by improper means through Zhang Juzheng's solicitation, and even said: "I dare not obey, and the virgin will lose her body!" It was not until 1583 that he took the examination for the fifth time and was admitted with a low rank in the third class.
This year, Tang Xianzu was born in the Beijing Ministry of Rites of Guanzheng with Jinshi, and was originally waiting for a good opportunity to be promoted to a high position in the central government, but he was unwilling to accept the officialdom to form a party, so he invited a person in charge of the sacrifice - Dr. Taichang of Nanjing. In July 1584, Tang Xianzu set off from Beijing to report to Taichang Temple in Nanjing, officially starting his career life in Nanjing. He was 35 years old at the time. During his tenure in Nanjing, he adapted the unfinished Zixiao Ji as the Zichai Ji, revised the Shufu Yuandian, and rewrote the History of the Song Dynasty (unfinished), and in 1589 he was promoted to the chief priest of the Zhengliupin Nanjing Rite Ancestral Hall.
In 1591, Tang Xianzu wrote "On the Auxiliary Ministers and Kechen Shu", fiercely criticizing the government and government, so he was demoted to Xu Wen in Guangdong to serve as the canon, but with the support of Xiong Min, the magistrate, he established a school called "Guisheng Academy" in Guangdong. Subsequently, he was transferred to Suichang, a small barren county located in the southwest of Zhejiang Province, among the peaks of the Wanshan Mountains, as the magistrate. During his term of office, Tang Xianzu regarded this place as a testing ground for realizing his political ambitions, and during his term of office, he simplified his administration and loved the people, supported Nongsang, suppressed the powerful and powerful, eliminated tiger troubles, established academies, and even released prisoners and Nafu on Chinese New Year's Eve.
However, during his five years in Suichang, his seven-year-old daughter and two-year-old son died one after another, and he was tormented by the loss of a loved one. The imperial court levied mining taxes on the people of the world to solve the financial crisis, and this "crazy tax" completely shattered Tang Xianzu's ideals of official career. After completing the masterpiece "The Peony Pavilion", he went to Beijing to report on his work, but resolutely asked the officials for leave to return to his hometown, and the imperial court cut him off three years later in the name of "being frivolous" and "impetuous". Under the indignation and sadness, he was completely disappointed in the officialdom and created the legend of the legendary work "The Legend of Handan". After his eldest son died in Nanjing, he created the legend of "The Legend of Nanke".
So far, Tang Xianzu has completed the "Four Dreams of Linchuan", which has been praised by later generations: "The Story of the Purple Hairpin", "The Peony Pavilion", "The Story of Handan", and "The Story of Nanke". Looking back on Tang Xianzu's life process, he embarked on a career with simple and beautiful ideals. However, in the gap between the old and new ideas of the late Ming Dynasty, Tang Xianzu was no longer the image of a Confucian in the traditional sense. He adhered to the philosophical propositions of "the people's daily use is the way" and "not seeking the ancients, only the present, not the saints, only the foolish", denied Cheng Zhu Lixue's concept of "preserving the principles of heaven and destroying people's desires", advocated the independent spirit and consciousness of the individual, and proudly stood in the world with the arrogant spirit of "one life cannot be left, and the rest cannot be left for a lifetime".
In the late Ming Dynasty, this period has become a "fault" zone of Confucian culture after the Wei, Jin and Six Dynasties, and it was in this era that Tang Xianzu shined. Tang Xianzu, a madman, stands out for his frank and straightforward personality. He emphasized the "change" in literary creation, that is, to get rid of constraints and show the alternative side of a madman. In his creation, he has the courage to break through the conventions, be proactive, and never stick to the rules. He claimed that "the articles are so vulgar and the curvature is self-taught", and said that his "legendary and dreamy words" show that as a Confucian scholar, he is not confined to dogma, but advocates inheriting traditional Confucianism while not taking traditional Confucian concepts as the only criterion for judging things.
However, this trait also led to Tang Xianzu's often being too emotionally passionate, lacking in rationality, and lacking in practical governance with a strong desire to participate in social and political affairs. Influenced by his romantic temperament, he failed to realize the twists and turns of the world, the hardships of his career and the sinister nature of people's hearts. Once he encountered a setback, he became discouraged and gave up his political activities to concentrate on opera. His deep insight into reality made him lose confidence in his political ideals, and it was difficult for him to realize his ideals through Confucianism, so he could only turn to Buddhism and Taoism through the creation of opera.
Especially in "The Legend of Nanke", after Chun Yudi woke up from a dream, he and Yaofang were "in love" and could only escape into the empty door, which shows Tang Xianzu's despair of the real world and his attempt to seek Buddhist ideas for liberation. In addition, Tang Xianzu's "Four Dreams of Jade Tea Hall" also clearly bears the imprint of Buddhism, which can be said to be his expression of the "three religions in one" trend of thought that prevailed at that time through art forms. Tang Xianzu's work was influenced by Buddhist and Taoist ideas, but at the same time it also clashed with Confucian ideas. Buddhism emphasizes the impermanence of life and death, and advocates that death can relieve people's suffering by describing the suffering of life, while Confucianism attaches great importance to life.
Xunzi pointed out in "Correct Name": "People long for survival and hate death. However, the choice of life or death is not because of a reluctance to live, but because in a given situation, sometimes it is wrong to survive and death is right. "This shows a deep understanding of the ambivalence between life and death. In the opera performance "The Peony Pavilion", Tang Xianzu treats life from a Confucian point of view, and puts forward a unique view on the issue of life and death: "What is the preciousness of life? There is only one life in the universe." The waves are always crashing on the shore, who can fully understand the preciousness of life!", which shows that he discusses the issue of life and death from the perspective of Confucianism.
In addition, both Buddhism and Taoism advocated the suppression of feelings and desires, while the Song and Ming Dynasty theories put forward the idea of "preserving heavenly principles and eliminating human desires". However, Tang Xianzu believes that "people are born with emotions" and "the world is dominated by emotions." Emotions give birth to poetry and permeate the spirit ......". Therefore, he advocated the rule of emotion in literature and art, and required his works to express emotions and move people's hearts. In his works, "love" is mainly embodied in the normal physiological desires of individuals. Subsequently, Tang Xianzu wrote the Yihuang County Opera God Qingyuan Shimiao Ji, in which he integrated personal emotions into social moral norms, that is, the order, norms, and moral codes advocated by Confucianism.
He believes that the ultimate goal of the expression of personal emotions is to maintain a good social order and human ethics, that is, to achieve "the highest pleasure of embodying social morality with personal emotions and becoming a moral code" ("Yihuang County Opera God Qingyuan Shi Temple Records"). In terms of social thought, he contrasted the "world of human feelings" with the "society of laws and regulations", and criticized "the current society generally suppresses talent and promotes the rule of officials" ("The Legend of Qinglian Pavilion"). During his tenure as governor of Suichang County, his practices such as letting prisoners go home for the Chinese New Year and watching lanterns during the Lantern Festival were intended to break the rule of Ming officials, but they were not recognized in reality. This assertion of his can only be expressed in his own drama through artistic means.
For the understanding of "love", Tang Xianzu has unique insights. In The Peony Pavilion, he depicts the image of Du Bao from two perspectives. As a father, Du Bao was stern and cold, even stubborn and old-fashioned, while as a Taishou, Du Bao was a loyal monarch who diligently governed the country and cared for the people. Tang Xianzu's life experience, from the ambition of a Confucian scholar, to the resignation of an official and a seclusion, to the transformation of his identity into a dramatist, shows the typical trajectory of many traditional literati. They are often in officialdom, but they are also full of the light of literature, deliberately pursuing the great contrast between the ideal of salvation and the sinister way of the world. Although this pursuit destroyed their political futures, it stimulated their literary talents.
Tang Xianzu's political achievements were not significant, but he succeeded in incorporating unrealized ideals into his theatrical productions, and it was this fusion that earned him an immortal reputation in the literary world for centuries.
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