Guan Hanqing, together with Bai Pu, Ma Zhiyuan and Zheng Guangzu, is known as the "Four Greats of Yuanqu", and ranks first, and its artistic status is very high. However, due to his age and lack of information, his personal research is not in-depth, such as only knowing that he was born before 1234 and died around 1300; his name is not known, only that his name is Hanqing; some people say that he is from Xiezhou (Yuncheng, Shanxi Province), some people say that he is from Dadu (present-day Beijing), and some people say that he is Qizhou (present-day Anguo City, Hebei Province).
Guan Hanqing
First, the smoke and dust of the ancient times cannot hide Guan Hanqing's radiant artistic achievements.
Guan Hanqing's dramatic creations in his lifetime are very rich, with more than sixty plays (unfortunately, most of them only have titles and most of the scripts are lost); his meta-dramas have tragedies and comedies, and the themes are very broad, the most famous of which are "Dou E'e", "Saving the Wind and Dust", "Wangjiang Pavilion", "Single Knife Society", all of which are popular works.
In the long-term creative practice, Guan Hanqing's theme is profound, the structure is rigorous, the image is lively and distinct, and the language is spicy and simple.
"Dou E'er Grievance"
Meta-drama "Saving the Wind and Dust"
Stills from "Save the Wind and Dust"
Second, the turbulent background of the times has made Guan Hanqing a member of the Beijing drifters, and has also created his rich experience in grassroots life, providing a steady stream of nourishment for his creation.
Guan Hanqing was originally from a family of "medical households", so I speculate that he had the conditions to enjoy a good traditional education when he was a child, which laid the foundation for his later creations. However, the social turmoil of the Yuan Dynasty and the Song Dynasty inevitably affected his life, so he went into exile in Dadu, today's Beijing, and became a Beijing drifter.
Because of the war (plunder), the capital of the Yuan Dynasty (Beijing) brought together treasures and talents from all over the world, and most of the capitals at that time became the world's rich cities, commercial centers, art centers, and prostitute capitals.
The Forbidden City in Beijing was built by Zhu Di on the basis of the Yuan Capital
Meta Capital
Ming Palace
The Italian traveler Marco Polo described "the prosperity of the Yuan Capital, the large population, the huge room of the Chinese house, the gathering of people from all over the world, the import of foreign goods and hundreds of things into this city, the incomparable city of the world", which is "gorgeous and wonderful", which constitutes the material basis of Guan Hanqing's later creations.
Guan Hanqing, who had just arrived in Beijing, plunged headlong into the "Bada Hutong" in the south of the city (at that time, it was still called the suburbs of the city, not called the Bada Hutong District), and spent all day mixing with prostitutes in the Goulan brothel, opera class artists, and a group of literati such as Wang Shifu, who wrote plays for the drama class and composed small songs for prostitutes, which made his creative level increase rapidly.
Guan Hanqing installed his creation room in a brothel, where he was very popular with prostitutes
In this way, Guan Hanqing installed his creation room in the brothel and made him a popular "big name" in the fat powder pile.
How large was the ranks of prostitutes in Beijing at that time? The "Travels of Marco Polo" details the scale and condition of the prostitute industry in the Yuan Capital.
Marco Polo said that there were about twenty-five thousand prostitutes in the skin and meat business in the new capital and in the outskirts of the old capital (Jinzhongdu), and that each hundred and every thousand prostitutes had a special official supervision, and these officials were under the command of the governor.
A prostitute in the Yuan Dynasty
From this description, we can see that the Yuan Dynasty exercised nearly semi-militarized management of a huge group of prostitutes in Dadu (Beijing), with officials equivalent to centurions or centurions, commanding this "red pink army" at the feet of Tianzi.
Marco Polo also said that prostitutes in Dadu were also involved in the foreign affairs of the Empire: "Whenever foreign envoys came to Dadu, they were as usual entertained by the royal family. The Great Khan would generally order them to be treated with the highest courtesy, and the governor would send each emissary a high-ranking prostitute every night, and change it every day. ”
Prostitutes of the Yuan Dynasty participated in the reception of foreign envoys without charge
The "consciousness" of the prostitutes is quite high, so they do not receive any remuneration for such errands.
Of course, prostitutes had to operate normally if they wanted to eat, and they served countless businessmen and other single male travelers to Beijing, including the great Guan Hanqing.
With a population base of about 1 million people in the Yuan Dynasty, there were 25,000 prostitutes in a single Beijing, which was probably a luxury consumer industry that no second city in the world could afford except Beijing at that time.
Guan Hanqing and the famous prostitute Bead Curtain Show
Conclusion: Guan Hanqing was in the water of the eight hutongs in Beijing, and he had a romantic love affair with the famous prostitute Zhu Curtain Xiu, and wrote a famous book with prostitutes as the theme of "Saving the Wind and Dust". Later, the Yuan Dynasty destroyed the Southern Song Dynasty to the south, and Guan Hanqing immediately went south to Yangzhou, Wuxi, and Hangzhou, and continued to create his great immortal works in the Goulan brothels in Jiangnan, and did not return to his hometown until his old age. Some people said that without the Eight Hutongs, there would be no Han Qing, and there might be no Meta-Miscellaneous Drama.