Recently, the "Wang Po Says Media" program in the Martial Arts City Scenic Area of Kaifeng Mountain, Henan Province has become popular, attracting countless single men and women who are looking forward to love, and it is also hotly discussed and sought after by young people on social media. Wuhan, Xi'an, Zhengzhou and other scenic spots have also imitated and launched similar programs, and many netizens lamented that "'Wang Po' is gradually becoming charming". The reporter interviewed cultural scholars to trace the origin of "Wang Po", and how they relied on a mouth to "revitalize" love in ancient times when they attached importance to the words of matchmakers.
"Water Margin" Lila Lang with,
It's more exciting than "Lian Zong".
Hou Yinguo, a young writer of literature and history, told reporters that the well-known image of Wang Po comes from the classical novel "Water Margin", and it also has a great role in novels such as "Golden Vase Plum". Interestingly, in "Water Margin", there has actually been more than one princess, such as the wife of the leopard head Lin Chong who was designed by Gao Yanei in the sixth episode, and asked Lu Yuhou to invite Lin Chong to drink, and then find someone to tell Mrs. Lin that Lin Chong suddenly fell to the ground when he was drinking, and asked her to check it out. When Mrs. Lin heard the bad news, she hurriedly went to ask her neighbor Wang Po to watch her house, and she hurriedly went out with someone, but was taken all the way to Lu Yuhou's house, where Gao Yanei had been waiting early. Another example is the twentieth episode, Song Jiang said that the matchmaker married Yan Poxi, and the matchmaker who was the matchmaker was also called Wang Po, so there was the famous episode of "Song Jiang angrily killed Yan Poxi".
The most famous Wang Po appeared in the twenty-third chapter, and in the popular book, the title of this time is "Wang Po is greedy and bribes to say amorous Brother Yun is not angry at the tea shop". Wang Po lives next door to Wu Dalang's house, and her main business is to open a tea shop and also work as a matchmaker. Ximenqing first fell in love with Wu Dalang's wife, Pan Jinlian, and communicated with Wang Po in this tea shop.
The image of the princess in "Water Margin".
This Wang Po has been a matchmaker for many years, and she is not a simple character. There is a poem in "Water Margin" to write about her, which is to say that she is the best at rhetoric, bullying the left and hiding the right, "Open your words to bully Lu Jia, and her exit is better than Sui He." Just by talking about the six countries, the whole battle is three tongues and swords. Only Luan Lone Phoenix, in an instant, they fought in pairs. Widows and widowers, a seat of words to instigate the right arrest. Solve the triple door of the woman, cover the nine-level hall immortals. His Royal Highness the Jade Emperor served the golden boy and dragged his arm over, and it was rumored in the palace of the Queen Mother that the jade girl stopped her waist and hugged her. With a little trick, the arhats were able to hold the bhikshunis, and with a little trick, they taught King Li to hold the devil's mother. Sweet words are tempting, men like Feng Zhi are also heartfelt; soft tones, women like Magu must be moved. instigated the weaver girl to be lovesick, and teased Chang'e to find a spouse. ”
After Wang Po matched, Ximen Qing was able to commit adultery with Pan Jinlian in Wang Po's house, and was later discovered by Wu Dalang, and it was Wang Po who made a plan, Ximen Qing found arsenic and handed it to Wang Po, and then Wang Po instructed Pan Jinlian to poison Wu Dalang to death. After Wu Dalang's death, it was Wang Po who came to deal with the details of the body. Wang Po's final ending was because of Wu Song's verification and was sentenced to death.
In fact, in the Song Dynasty scripts, many matchmakers are called Wang Po. For example, in the book "Hao Fan Lou Amorous Zhou Shengxian", there is a Wang Po who "calls Wang Baihui to accept people, do needlework, be a matchmaker, and read the pulse with people". In later generations of novels, there are often matchmakers named Wang Po who appear. For example, in the Ming Dynasty script "Bao Gong Case" and the Qing Dynasty novel "Shi Gong Case", there are part-time matchmaker Wang Po appearances.
The important role of marriage in ancient times,
Matchmakers and civil servants?
Looking at the inventory, as the saying goes, "there are no clouds in the sky and no rain, and there is no matchmaker on the ground to get married", the matchmaker industry has a long history, as early as the pre-Qin period, there was already a matchmaker such a profession. "Zhou Li" about the wedding has a collection, asking for names, Najib, recruitment, invitation and greeting and other procedures, later generations also called it "six rites", before the collection, there is generally a "delivery" ceremony, that is, the man first sends the matchmaker to the woman's house to propose, the woman allows it, and then the man sends the matchmaker to the woman's house to take the gift, that is, to give the gift. In "Mencius Tengwen Gongxia", it is said that "if you don't wait for your parents' orders, the words of the matchmaker, you will peep through the holes, and follow each other over the wall, then your parents and people will be cheap." It can be seen that the matchmaker was already a very important role in marriage at that time.
The ancients also often referred to the matchmaker Ya as "Vake", and this allusion comes from the Book of Songs. There is an article in "The Book of Songs: The Wind of Songs", which says, "How is Vake? How about taking a wife? "Just as you need an axe to chop wood, you need a matchmaker to get married. Therefore, later generations used "Vake" as an allusion to the matchmaker. In addition, "Iceman" and "matchmaker" are also used to refer to matchmakers. During the Western Jin Dynasty, there was a Linghu Ce who dreamed that he was standing on the ice and talking to the people under the ice. Suo Zhen, a famous artist from Dunhuang, explained to him that the ice represents yang, and the ice represents yin, and speaking to the ice on the ice is for the yang and yin, and it is a matter of the medium, so this dream means that you are going to be a matchmaker for others. Because of this legendary story, future generations will also be the matchmaker as an iceman.
Since the Tang Dynasty, successive feudal rulers have enshrined the "necessary medium" for marriage into the law. There are two types of matchmakers: official media and private media. Official media, as the name suggests, is a matchmaker who serves the government. Since the Zhou Dynasty in China, the state has set up a special official to manage the marriage of men and women. The duties of the matchmaker are also stipulated in the "Zhou Li": "The matchmaker, the judgment of the people", that is, the meaning of uniting men and women of appropriate age. Specifically, its duties include urging men who have reached the age of 30 and women who have reached the age of 20 to marry on the basis of birth documents, organizing the marriage of men and women in the middle of the spring month, controlling the number of dowries, and prohibiting unruly marriages.
The official media is the matchmaker for the people in the government to which it is subordinate, and the task of matchmaking ordinary private marriages is mainly undertaken by the private media. During the Ming and Qing dynasties, professional private media prevailed among the people, and the marriage of ordinary people was generally completed through private media. It is undeniable that in the feudal period, matchmakers played a certain positive role in maintaining the marriage system and improving the quality of marriage.
Suzhou Kunqu Opera "Red Lady"
In addition to "three aunts and six mothers-in-law",
Yue Lao has already set the "marriage in the past life"
Hou Yinguo said that the matchmaker first came out of the legendary "The Legend of Yingying" created by the Tang Dynasty writer Yuan Zhen, also known as "Huizhen Ji", which tells the tragic story of the love of the poor scholar Zhang Sheng to the declining aristocratic woman Cui Yingying. Dong Xie Yuan of the Jin Dynasty created "The Legend of the West Chamber" on the basis of "The Legend of the Yingying", and in the Yuan Dynasty, Wang Shifu created the famous miscellaneous drama "Cui Yingying Waiting for the Moon in the West Chamber" on the basis of the previous two works, giving the story a perfect ending, including the famous line "May all lovers in the world become dependents", and the role of the matchmaker is also more influential.
During the Song and Yuan dynasties, the saying of "three aunts and six women" also began to appear, Tao Zongyi's "Dropout Record" volume 13 said, "The three aunts, nuns, Taoist aunts, and hexagram aunts; "The matchmaker is one of them. The three aunts and six mothers-in-law often spread the word and tongue in and out of the women's inner circle, so they are often negative images in Ming and Qing novels. In the famous "Zhu Zizhi's Maxims", it is particularly emphasized that "three aunts and six mothers-in-law, the medium of real adultery and thieves". In "Dream of Red Mansions", there are sentences such as "Three aunts and six women, big families should not listen to them move around" and "The three aunts and six women are no longer necessary".
In fact, the well-known term "Yue Lao" comes from the Tang Dynasty legend "Engagement Shop", which refers to a male matchmaker. To Wei Gu, an older single young man in the Tang Dynasty, it was an old man who pointed out the direction of love, "There is an old man leaning on a scarf, sitting on the steps, and checking the book to the moon." It turned out that the old man was not a man of the world, but a man of the underworld who was "the marriage of the Lord of the world". In his bag was a red rope that "was tied to the feet of the husband and wife, and to sit and to be subtly tied." Although the enemy's house, the noble and the lowly are separated, the end of the world is from the eunuch, Wu Chu is in a foreign land, this rope is tied, and it will not be broken. "The old man under the moon also said that your wife is only three years old at the moment, and you will not get married until she is seventeen years old, and said that you and this three-year-old child red rope has been bound. followed by a "killing wife", and he still couldn't escape the fate of his previous life.
Yangtze Evening News/Purple Cow News reporter Zhang Nan
Proofread by Xu Heng