In the 1950s, the history of Chinese drama added a lot of color.
A "Tea House" outlines the three major volumes of the old era, and also writes the life of every ordinary person.
I've heard a passage like this:
The first tea is cloudy, just like the dazedness of people's youth, abandoning the bubble, in order to return to life clear;
The second tea is bitter, just like the difficult struggle of people in their prime, and the tall buildings rise from the ground;
The essence of the three teas, people to middle age, accumulated half a life, is the period of fruitfulness;
Four teas are light and charming, entering the old age, experiencing all kinds of glitz, seeing through the world, there is nostalgia, there is reluctance, but in the end I learned to put it down.
Each of us is like a bowl of tea in The Tea House.
In the hot world, taste thousands of bitter tastes, and wait for the return of fate.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="10" >01 Hold your breath</h1>
In the 1840s, people wandering around the city of Beijing could find a teahouse within a few steps.
Tea houses sell tea, as well as simple snacks and rice dishes.
People in the city, walking birds, discussing things, talking about media, can come to sit for half a day when they have nothing to do, drink bowls of tea when they are thirsty, and bowls of rotten meat noodles when they are hungry.
In 1898, most of the tea houses completely closed, but the Yutai Tea Houses were still bustling.
Wang Lifa is the treasurer of Yutai Tea House.
Since his father's death, Wang Lifa has taken over the Yutai Tea House.
According to the old method left by his father, Wang Lifa continued to use this classic business philosophy, saying more good words and asking for peace, so that he could be liked.
Everyone is a smiling face, and whoever comes to the tea house must make people obedient and comfortable.
If the high emotional intelligence of the left and right Sources is the basic ability of businessmen, in the turbulent and changing era, Wang Lifa has mastered a set of his own survival wisdom.
After Yuan Shikai's death, the large tea houses in Beijing were closed one after another, and "Yutai" became the only one left.
In order to avoid being eliminated, Yutai Tea House has greatly changed its appearance and business methods.
Now, tea is still sold in front of the tea house, and the back is converted into an apartment. The front part only sells tea and melon seeds, and the "rotten meat noodles" have sunk into the era. The kitchen was moved to the rear to cover the food of the apartment residents.
The café has also been greatly improved and changed: all are small tables and rattan chairs, and the tables are covered with light green tablecloths. The "Drunken Eight Immortals" painting on the wall, even the shrine of wealth, has been removed and replaced by an advertising painting of a fashion beauty, a foreign cigarette company. The note "Do not talk about state affairs" has been preserved, and the writing is larger.
It is said that the biggest skill of the treasurer Wang Lifa is that he did not make "Yutai" perish, but also made it have a new development.
As the classic saying goes: The times abandon you, and they don't even say hello.
When the tide of the times comes, the real high people know how to hold their breath.
When the sky changes, it changes with it; if the sky has not changed, we must also take precautions and think of danger in times of peace.
In Wang Lifa's view, if you can't go with the trend, at least don't go against the trend.
Insight into the current situation, follow the trend, in order to float with the times.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="30" >02 bend down</h1>
The background of the era described in "The Tea House" is gray and strange.
In the first act, Kangroku has to sell his daughter Junko.
At the door of the teahouse, he cried out because of self-blame, "I am not a human, I am a beast."
However, Kang Liu was caught in a dilemma, "But what do you tell me to do?" You don't find a place to eat, you starve to death! If I don't get a few pieces of silver, I'll have to call the owner to death alive!" You, Shunzi, confess your destiny, Jide! ”
Even though Xiao Shunzi fainted from hunger, eunuch Pang only said coldly, "I want to live, not die!"
Chinese warlords are divided, civil wars are being waged from time to time, and the streets are full of displaced people.
As the saying goes: A grain of sand of the times, falling on ordinary people, is a mountain.
Men and women have no place to live, and the teahouse becomes a glimmer of redemption in the darkness.
But even if Wang Lifa wanted to save the public, he himself could not take care of it.
The patrol police came to urge the delivery of dry food, and if they did not pay dry food, Wang Lifa directly gave them filial piety tea money. Wang Lifa repeatedly maneuvered around, playing the emotional card. Everyone thinks that he lives under the pressure of the powerful, but in fact, he is only trying to save this corner of his life.
The days of opening a teahouse were not very good, but in order to live, Wang Lifa lived enough to understand:
Putting down your face and making money is the greatest decency of middle-aged people.
Of course, there are many people who are reluctant to face.
Before the fall of the Qing Dynasty, he was idle, drinking tea and playing with birds all day, and eating the imperial grain produced by the "iron crops" in a leisurely manner. After the qing dynasty, what he most cherished was his identity as a flag man and his past life, so he was not willing to support himself.
He broke down and cried, but because his clothes had become tattered. He said he didn't look like a person at all.
He cared most about his yellow bird, preferring to be hungry rather than make the birds hungry. Seeing that the yellow bird was still in the delicate shroud, he said that he was reluctant to die.
However, in the end, Second Master Song was still starved to death, and even the coffin was still transformed by the fourth master.
As for the face, fame and fortune in front of him, and the glorious past, they cannot be brought into the soil at all.
A person wants to really become strong, not to stick to face, but to start with putting aside self-esteem.
In the world of middle-aged people, there are high halls on the top, there are children underneath, there are cliffs in front, and there are chasing soldiers in the back.
There is more to our protection than self-esteem.
Who didn't sell their faces for a few pieces of silver? Who didn't take freedom seriously and change it to chai rice oil and salt?
As the teahouse's king treasurer said:
"People have to live, right?" I tried my best, but just to survive! If you should be bribed, I will hand over the baggage. I have not done anything immoral, or anything that harms heaven and nature, so why don't you let me live? Who have I offended? ”
Obviously, he has a noble heart, but he is willing to bend down and bow his head and admit it; on the surface, he does not care about face, but he lives more courageously than anyone.
Each brave intermediary swallowed his grievances, took responsibility, and held up a piece of the sky for the important people.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="57" >03 to lift your head</h1>
There is a sentence in "Heartbeat":
Some people live in tall buildings, some people hide deep ditches, some people are naked, and some people are rusty.
In the fate of the hundreds, the truly brave middle-aged man, even if he bears a thousand weights, still raises his head strongly.
After the complete collapse of the Qing Dynasty, Chang Siye lost his status as a flag bearer.
Once, he was dissatisfied with the corrupt Qing Dynasty and hated foreigners even more. In the first act, he is arrested for saying that "the Great Qing Dynasty will be finished", and he sits in prison for a year, and after his release, he joins the Boxer Rebellion.
When others were crushed by the times and breathless, in order to make a living, Chang Siye became a vegetable vendor to sell vegetables.
Fourth Master Chang carried a bunch of pickled radishes and two chickens and walked into the tea house where tea had been drunk.
He was also not afraid that those who knew him would laugh at him, and generously called Wang Lifa "Wang Treasurer".
He supported himself, and without imperial food to eat, he sold his arms and strength.
When he couldn't buy vegetables outside the city and sell them, he grabbed two chickens to sell.
Once the villain saw the look of Chang Fourth Master's downfall, he couldn't help but sigh, "Hahaha! Isn't this the Fourth Master Chang"?
Fourth Master Chang only said that they were the lackeys of foreigners, with the support of foreigners, and said: "Goodbye, two, I hope that you will soon be 'promoted to a higher rank and get rich'!" ”
Without the aura of prominence, the flattery of the past also turned into ridicule, and Fourth Master Chang was still stubborn and hard.
As it is written in the "Tea House": "Fourth Master Chang came in with a small basket, and there was some paper money and peanut rice in the basket." Although he is over seventy years old, his waist plate is not too bent. ”
Fourth Master Chang has not been soft all his life, daring to be bold, and fighting against injustice.
When people reached more than seventy, they only ended up selling peanuts and rice. But he still did not forget his greatest wish, that is, "where to hope, where to hope, only hope that the country is like a child, not to be bullied by foreigners..."
People reach middle age and walk to the middle slope.
In the face of inescapable suffering, the waist can be bent, but the head that never lowers and never stops is called "no compromise".
Walk into the second half of your life and just look forward. Taking a step further, you are not only in front of your children's high church, in fact, you are also for your own charge.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="77" >04 conclusion</h1>
I once saw such a comment from "Tea House":
Oh my God! What a strange picture of history! How many times have been crossed, how many quicksand have been swept away...
Three cups of tea in "The Tea House": a cup of respect for the elderly, a cup of respect for actors, and the last cup on the carrion of the times.
At the end of the story, Second Master Song starved to death, and the factory that Second Master Qin wanted to save the country was demolished, and he realized a truth, which was: "Where there is money, you should eat, drink, gamble, and act recklessly, but don't do good things!" ”
Wang Lifa's wives and sons have all died one after another, and the tea house has been improved to the end, but it is still a roller of the times.
In the end, Second Master Qin, Fourth Master Chang, and Wang Lifa scattered paper money to pay tribute to themselves and the times.
A "Teahouse" is not very accurate to say that it is a tragedy.
Although every middle-aged person has been abused by life to cry, every brave middle-aged man, after drinking the last bowl of tea, still chooses to drag his elderly body and continue to walk and survive.
Perhaps, this is also the truth that every middle-aged person realizes in life:
The dust is rolling in, the world is fierce, and living is the greatest courage in this life.
May every middle-aged person be treated with tenderness, through the wind and rain, and polished more skillfully by the years.
Author: Chen Xingkong, write a piece of starry sky with a pen.