(William of Verona on the edge of the walls of Verona. Statue of Shakespeare)
Talk about "Liang Zhu" and "Romeo and Juliet" - voice version of the .mp3 (please pay attention to the WeChat public account: LiMing Reading)
The largest square in the Italian city of Verona is called BRA, which has nothing to do with the Bra commonly known in English, and is said to be from the dialect of The Ancient Veneto (the region where Venice is located), which means "spacious". The area around Piazza Bra is typical of Italy's medium-sized cities, which must have local autonomy after 500 years, like a small country. The largest building we can see here is the Colosseum, built in the 1st century AD, which is now a very famous open-air opera performance venue in the West, and the annual Verona Opera Festival (July to August) is a major musical event in Italy. When there is no performance, you can buy a ticket to visit the venue, where the circular grandstands are all marble, and its integrity and smoothness make people feel that the Colosseum is in its 20s, not 20 centuries old. In addition, on one side of the square there is the Greek temple-style Philharmonic Theater, with a series of antique commercial facilities, with double-arched arches, and in the lower corner of the arch, there is a small and inconspicuous bronze sculpture, which is the famous William Shakespeare. The pedestal of the statue is also inscribed with the lines of Romeo and Juliet in Italian and English: "For me, there is no world outside the walls of Verona..." And there is a shop at the intersection opposite Shakespeare's slightly sideways face, which you can call the contemporary Juliet equipment store Louis Vuitton. If you don't think so, skip ahead and move on, Juliet's House is just on the right hand side at the end of this high street.
Even if you don't attend an opera festival, you won't get bored for a few days in Verona. But if time is limited and there is only one place that must be visited, it must be Juliet's house. The symbolism of this small courtyard once again proves the enduring power of imagination. In addition to taking photos and buying souvenirs, people who patronize here also have to leave their love vows, and the location of some words (whether it is a note or a spray) makes me convinced that these people are carrying fire ladders. What's more, enthusiastic people who did not have the opportunity to come here to visit sent letters to Juliet. The city of Verona has a special agency responsible for replying to the letter, and the signature must be Juliet.
I went to that place more often, and in the face of so many eager group inquiries, I gradually came up with the idea of comparing two classic love dramas in China and abroad, even if I put a note on the corridor wall of Juliet's former home to join in the fun.
(In the courtyard of Juliet's former residence)
Due to space limitations, the framework of the two stories can only be explained as follows.
Liang Zhu: Yi Jie Jinlan. Three years in the same window. Eighteen miles long pavilion to send each other. Anti-marital. The building meets. The sandbo was dying. Yingtai throwing graves. Butterfly.
Romeo and Juliet: Family Feud. Let each other know. The ball meets. Balcony conversation. Secret wedding. The night before the exile, fish and water rejoice. Anti-marital suspended animation. Roju was martyred. Family and good.
At first glance, the two stories look so similar that one can't help but sigh, and although there are great differences in ethnicity, region, and time, the dramatic stories born of human nature have a striking consistency. But on closer inspection, the two stories have a considerable difference, whether from historical reality or textual considerations, this difference is essential.
First of all, from the perspective of the drama story, the motive setting in "Liang Zhu" is problematic, two young men and women, the same window (or even the same bed) for three years, the female body of Yingtai actually concealed the mountain, which is incredible. In addition to being unnatural, there can only be the following two explanations, one is that the sexual consciousness of the ancient Chinese is overpressed to the point of almost nothing; the other is that the author deliberately does it, that is, the author compresses the protagonist's sexual consciousness to the limit, in order to reflect the intensity of later love. But this leads to a contradiction of motives—purposes—that make the story unconvincing.
Secondly, Shanbo and Yingtai are commendable in terms of the autonomy of love, it is late to mention relatives, Yingtai promised to give it to others, and Shanbo did not do any fighting behavior, but only met in the building, and then ended up depressed. However, Britain and Taiwan are more heroic, but this boldness is manifested in desperate graves, and there is no realistic positive significance at all.
Finally, why do Shanbo and Yingtai love so deeply, but they lack material properties and stop at emptiness and flatness? If the basis for the latter is true, the premise of love has to be greatly reduced, calling into question the credibility of the story itself.
(Stage stills of "Liang Zhu")
Look at Romeo and Juliet.
Feud is insoluble, which takes the lead in placing the hero and heroine in the context of a dilemma, and how the story tension develops on this basis will not be exaggerated and flow into the melodrama.
The two loves are natural, and this friendship is reinforced by hearing, meeting at the ball, and swearing on the balcony.
Presided over by the clergy, the two secretly married. In Catholic countries, on the one hand, this proves to the world that the relationship between the two is sacred before God, and on the other hand, it is in line with the mainstream of society and has a strong persuasiveness in the audience.
On the eve of Romeo's assignment, he and Juliet had a skin kiss, which made the relationship between the two have indispensable material properties. This point, in the eyes of the whole play, is the finishing touch, it fixes the directionality between the relationship between the sexes with the combination of spirit and flesh, providing a solid basis for the fierce struggle that follows.
(Romeo and Juliet in oil painting)
In the past, traditional Chinese literati seemed to have only two paths to follow, the first was to rely on the official government, the so-called "self-cultivation, nourishment, qi family, governance, and peace in the world", of which there was no place for emotional life; the second was to conform to Lao Zhuang. The latter is usually considered only when the former is hindered, such as Li Bai's poem: "Life is not satisfactory in the world, and the Ming Dynasty distributes flat boats." "To be attached to the government is to absolutely respect social orthodoxy." For example, "Liang Zhu", the fundamental obstacle is that Yingtai is also allowed to be matched. Since ancient times, "the order of the parents, the words of the matchmaker" is the iron law, and the violator is a great rebellion. From the author to the hero, along the way, it reflects a historical, social inaction and impotence. If you think about it from the text, The Bob is just a masculine symbol that must be had to be found in the emotional drama. Say he's a symbol because he does nothing. What he sees in him is not resistance, but resentment. There are many examples of this in ancient Chinese literature, as if this is the only way to be orthodox and sympathetic. I remember that Mr. Lu Xun was most disgusted with the traditional image of the literati, and he said that the ideal state of these people was: at dusk, they were helped out by the beard, looked at the begonias, and vomited half a mouthful of blood. The lack of one in the front is not elegant enough; if the back spits blood, it will die in a moment, and it will not be elegant. In contrast, since the power of the Church in the West has become strong, it has formed a knowledge system in society independent of secular power. This tendency, on the positive side, is that intellectuals behave in a manner that, apart from being doctrinal and responsible to God, does not have to be led only by officialdom and social customs. Therefore, in comparison, Shakespeare's Romeo is not only handsome in appearance, but also a hard-blooded man. Two of the scenes hand-bladed opponents, and finally got the news of Juliet's death, and rode to the city gate, with a line "Fate, I want to fight you!" "It's proof.
The ending of "Liang Zhu" is a typical old-fashioned butterfly, a kind of psychological self-deception that entrusts the powerlessness of reality to nothingness; although the ending of "Romeo and Juliet" is tragic, the positive effect is that the two families repent and are reconciled. In contrast, Shakespeare is world-related, equating drama and life.
The beauty of Liang Zhu is weak and morbid, while the beauty of Romeo and Juliet is alive and strong.
The individual of "Romeo and Juliet" is plump, and the whole story has an unquestionable three-dimensional sense and depth in terms of the motivations and behaviors of the characters and the deep relationship structure. The protagonists do not accept fate, they have to rise up and fight. But considering the disparity in strength: on the one hand, it is a deep-rooted family feud and a feudal social consciousness; on the other hand, it is two young men and women who are full of enthusiasm but are not involved in the world, and the tragic end of the tragic end has its inevitability. But conversely, the drama does not care about the fictional endings of the characters, but its metaphor. Romeo and Juliet's ending strongly reflects the blood and loyalty of the two people, so that the two will always be young and beautiful, and become a love model for generations. Looking at "Liang Zhu" in turn, in addition to throwing a grave, the two protagonists have almost no courage and behavior to resist fate. This shows that china's traditional forces are monolithic, and individuals are insignificant in them. Recognizing this, rather than making a senseless effort, it is better to accept the reality of the premise of seeking perfection and reciting some songs of resentment during this period. Such stories are constantly repeated and copied, and thus have a flat extension characteristic. Just imagine how many mountain uncles did not die of illness, but lived depressedly, such as the great poet Lu You of the Song Dynasty, whose "Phoenix" is such a song of resentment.
From this we bring up the question of the attributes of Chinese and Western cultures.
The Western culture of the Greek empire is masculine, manifested in drama, and the collision and agitation are full of contradictions and conflicts, in which the characters are either degraded or praised, reaching the praise of human meaning; while traditional Chinese culture is feminine, weak and repeatedly beaten, and people rarely have distinct personalities in them. But things have both positive and negative sides, Western culture lacks resilience, in the process of development encountered resistance, may be completely crushed, the big focus such as cultural generations, small places such as the crushing bones of characters. Chinese culture, on the other hand, is like water, seemingly weak, but has the ability to tolerate omnipotence, so it can develop for thousands of years without quitting. As far as individuals are concerned, surviving in adversity is the duty of the chinese people in the past. Just imagine how many songs of resentment are flooded, how many mountainbers are alive.
Express yourself and destroy, or grievances to survive and write poetry, which is more worth choosing? This is really a problem.
If it is said that "aesthetics have no advantages or disadvantages", then the "yin" "Chinese aesthetic psychology has the characteristics of wholeness, intentionality, ambiguity, and is better than intuitive judgment and dilution of understanding and thinking in the aesthetic process", which are "determined by elephant thinking". Next, the author says that the goal of "elephant thinking" is "the unity of heaven and man", "that is, the unity of subjective consciousness and natural laws through self-reflection, self-experience, self-intuition and self-realization." This means that "elephant thinking" tends to be autonomous perfection, a self-enclosing circular structure. On the other hand, Western aesthetics are outgoing and more rational, autonomously reflective and artificially constructed, simply put, linear and open-ended.
According to the above established arguments, then "Liang Zhu" must be the same as it is, and it is absolutely impossible to come out of the side. The most unsatisfactory thing is that, under the domination of the negative culture, men who should become the backbone of society lack strength and do not have the courage to act. Shanbo is like this, and isn't Zhang Sheng in "The Tale of the West Chamber" the same? And the heroine can really give everything for emotion, even life. This is perhaps the most paradoxical place of the feminine culture. Strictly according to the above point of view, "Liang Zhu" is not even a tragedy, because there is a reunion ending of "butterfly", even if it is fantasy, it ultimately reflects the aesthetic stereotype of "unity", so it can only be regarded as a positive drama. On the other hand, Shakespeare opera, its dramatic composition is not invulnerable, the key link of the whole drama, locked in the time error such a coincidental factor, it can be seen that the pursuit of the "composition of the world" of the positive culture, in the specific operation, inevitably has the traces of an axe.
(Poster of the violin concerto "Liang Zhu")
Russell once said: Chinese culture emphasizes moderation, intuition and a quiet and far-reaching attitude to life; Western culture emphasizes efficiency, rationality and scientific methods. But historical experience proves that either culture will face a disastrous outcome if either culture is not studied, borrowed and innovated. Western culture will be destroyed in infinite expansion; conversely, Chinese culture will die out in inaction. This is what Mr. Russell asserted nearly a century ago, and then in the two great wars of the century, the efficiency-oriented, blindly developing Western powers were almost destroyed, and China, because of its cultural lag, was devastated by foreign forces. Russell's next assertion was that the West should learn from the East's attitude toward life, and the East should learn from the West's scientific philosophy.
Russell believed that the key to the rise and fall of nations and nations was the issue of culture. Literature and art are the most direct and vivid expressions of culture.
Finally, whether it is Liang Zhu or Romeo and Juliet, the era they reflect has passed. In today's world of great cultural integration, there is no longer a unipolar "negative" and "positive". Maybe there is a third way to go. To society, to individuals, where to go, I can not give a conclusion, can only sincerely wish that the world's lovers will eventually become dependents! Besides, my note is a bit too long, so I'll stop here.
Author: Li Ming
Edit: Yongxing