A dynasty has a dynasty of literature, in the Tang Dynasty it was poetry, in the Song Dynasty it was word, and in the Yuan Dynasty it was song. However, today's Chinese only love Tang poems and Song Ci, and memorize the "Three Hundred Tang Poems" and "Three Hundred Song Poems".
However, there are few "meta songs" that I remember. In the Chinese textbooks of my childhood, the most impressive yuanqu, in addition to Zhang Yanghao's "Hillside Sheep Tong Cares for The Ancient", is Ma Zhiyuan's "Tianjing Sha Qiusi".
Perhaps those who love to read romance novels may have heard of Xu Zaisi's "Folding Gui Ling Spring Love", in which "ordinary life will not miss each other, will miss each other, it will harm each other..." is even more classic.
Xu Zaisi's song, although it is also very widely circulated, is also very suitable for those adolescent boys and girls, but compared with the previous "Hillside Sheep Tong Cares for The Ancient" and "Tianjing Sha Qiusi", there are some meanings of "difficult to climb the elegant hall".
But what is very strange is that most of the Yuanqu are works such as Xu Zaisi's "Folding Gui Ling" that make people blush. A small number of "serious" works are written in the vernacular and colloquial language of the Yuan Dynasty.
At that time, people were easy to understand, and today's readers are not only a little difficult to read, but also inferior to the Tang and Song poems "Yazheng". Therefore, most of the "Yuanqu" that people like today are works with a bit of "scholar-doctor atmosphere", and some of Ma Zhiyuan's prose works are just a model.
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"Tianjing Sha Qiu Si" - Yuan Ma Zhiyuan
Dead vines and old trees are dimwitted, small bridges and flowing water people's homes, and the ancient road west wind is thin horses. As the sun sets, the broken intestines are at the end of the world.
This small order can be called the king of the "white painting" in the yuan song, and today's chinese people, as long as it is not a "nine leaky fish", then most people should be able to recite it, and many people appreciate it from the heart. Because it is painted with poetry, there is a masterpiece of poetry in the painting.
The meaning of this meta song is also straightforward and easy to understand, and there will be no vernacular translation here. The biggest highlight of the whole song is the use of nouns. In just twenty-eight words, more than ten nouns such as dead vines, old trees, crows, small bridges, flowing water, and people are used.
Although these terms are very simple, when combined, they form an extremely complex and sad autumn scene. Ma Zhiyuan used a very simple and provincial pen and ink to express the feelings of a wandering wanderer.
At the same time, every sentence in "Tianjing Sha QiuSi" has a source. Nowadays, many people believe that its most direct source can be traced back to the Sui Dynasty and the Sui Dynasty Emperor's "Wild Hope". It was only because Wang Guowei praised it that it accelerated its circulation.
Wang Guowei greatly admired this small order, and once said: "TianjingSha" small order is purely natural. It is as if the Tang people have no sentences, and they are deeply rooted in the wonderful realm of the Tang people's absolute sentences. Zhou Deqing, a famous literary scholar of the Yuan Dynasty, believed that this small order was the ancestor of Qiu Si.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="76" > second, write the yuanqu of "Xiuxian opera"</h1>
Zhou Deqing, a famous literary scholar of the Yuan Dynasty, was mentioned earlier, and he praised "Tianjing Sha Qiusi" very much. In fact, he also has great respect for Ma Zhiyuan personally. He juxtaposed Ma Zhiyuan with Guan Hanqing, Zheng Guangzu, and Bai Pu, and collectively referred to them as the "Four Greats of Yuanqu".
Although Ma Zhiyuan's "Tianjing Sha Qiusi" is very famous, it is not this xiaoling that really makes him famous in history, but his opera works. Surprisingly, the main creative direction of Ma Zhiyuan's opera is the story of Taoist immortals who enlighten mortals.
Ma Zhiyuan has a masterpiece called "Ren Fengzi", and the protagonist of the story is Ma Yu, the capital of the Seven Sons of Quanzhen in "The Legend of the Eagle Hero". Ma Yu was the second generation of the Quanzhen Sect and the ancestor of the "Yu Xian" sect.
In the sixth year of the Yuan Dynasty (1269 AD), Ma Yu was given the title of "Danyang Bao Yi Wu Wei Zhenren" by the Yuan Dynasty imperial court, and later added "Danyang Bao Yi Wu Wei Zhen Jun". The play "Ren Fengzi" is to write ma Yu, who has become an immortal, to ignite the story of the mortal "Ren Fengzi".
According to legend, in the small town at the foot of the Zhongnan Mountain, there was a butcher named "Ren Fengzi", who was originally a immortal who had robbed the mortals. Because the killing was too heavy, it could not return to the immortal position for a long time. In order to "enlighten" him, Ma Yu deliberately made the whole town change to vegetarian food.
Ren Fengzi was cut off from his financial means and was very angry, so he secretly conspired with the butchers of the town to kill Ma Yu. One night, Ren Fengzi met Ma Yu at Cao'an and killed the killer, but was killed by the latter's protector, the True God.
Later, Ren Fengzi went to Ma Yu to ask for his head, and Ma Yu asked him to touch his neck, and as a result, his head was still on his neck. Since then, Ren Fengzi has followed Ma Yu out of the house.
After Ren Fengzi's wife and children learned of this matter, they went to persuade him to go home. However, no one expected that Ren Fengzi, in order to show his determination to cultivate immortals, would actually fall to his death to death.
Of course, the story isn't over yet. Ren Fengzi's son was named "Moheluo", and he was originally the "snake god" in the Buddhist scriptures. Moheluo was reincarnated after his death, and ten years later he came to his father Ren Fengzi for revenge.
Finally, after a great battle of gods and demons, Mohe Luo was also enlightened by Ma Yu and became an immortal with Ren Fengzi. Judging from the content of this story, according to our current statement, Ma Zhiyuan is actually the author of a "Xuan Fantasy Cultivation" opera.
However, it is such a popular opera work, but later it was loved by the literati doctor, why? Because his writing and language have a strong scribe's atmosphere, he has won the love of literati doctors.
There is very little information about Ma Zhiyuan's life in the historical data, and modern scholars have studied his life and believe that he probably lived between 1250 and 1324 AD, and lived for more than seventy years.
According to the "Record of Ghosts", he was "a native of Yuan Dadu, who was called Dongli and served as a provincial official in Jiangsu and Zhejiang.". Probably before he was twenty years old, he had been a tax official in Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces for two years.
However, he soon abandoned the government and began a decades-long wandering career, during which "TianjingSha Qiusi" was written. At the same time, because of the long-term career path, Ma Zhiyuan began to yearn for the life of immortal cultivation after reaching middle age.
He wrote many works, such as "The Dream of Huang Liang in Handan Province", "Ma Danyang Three Degrees ren fengzi", "Lü Dongbin Three Drunken Yueyang Lou", "Jiangzhou Sima Qingyi Tears" and so on.
Most of the stories are the stories of ancient mythological or cultural celebrities and the "encounters with immortals" of the students. A lot of Taoist myths and doctrines are involved, which shows that he has made great efforts to study them.
When the ancients wrote poetry, they did not shy away from "quoting" the works of previous generations of writers. Therefore, the Song Ci used a large number of sentences in Tang poetry, while the Yuanqu used a large number of sentences in Tang poetry and Song ci.
However, the same is the use of the works of predecessors, some people use it very cleverly, and some people use it very badly. Ma Ishiryuan is very successful in its use because he is proficient in phonology.
Zhou Deqing praised him in the "Central Plains Rhyme Sequence": "Rhymes keep the sound of nature, words can reach the world's language, words are smooth and handsome, rhymes and promotes tone... The princes are gone, and the future cannot be learned. ”
Roughly speaking, Ma Zhiyuan's composition language is smooth and natural, and the sound is harmonious and moving. Later composers imitated him, but could no longer reach his level. At the same time, among the "four masters of Yuanqu" recognized by later generations, Guan Hanqing actually ranked ahead of Ma Zhiyuan.
However, in the Ming Dynasty, Ma Zhiyuan and Bai Pu were more popular with the scribes than the obvious Guan Hanqing. This is because Ma Zhiyuan's song is more "elegant" than Guan Hanqing's voice.
Some people say that the Ming Dynasty people did not like Guan Hanqing because Guan Hanqing's language was too popular, and in his later years he also wrote "No Fu Lao" and told about his own affair of sleeping in flowers and willows.
In fact, Ma Zhiyuan is also very popular. Yuanren Jia Zhongming has a poem "Ling Bo Xian" to praise him: Horse Immortal in the Ten Thousand Flowers, Hundred Generations Concentrated Zhiyuan. All four sides of the sea are envious, the battle field, Qu Zhuangyuan, the name fragrant all over the pear garden.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="79" > conclusion</h1>
Wang Guowei glimpsed the charm of a generation of Yuanqu people from a small song "Tianjing Sha Qiusi". If people today have the opportunity to read Ma Zhiyuan's opera stories, they will find:
The reason why this "horse god immortal" has been sought after by literati and people for more than 700 years is not simply because he simply inherited the clear words and beautiful sentences of the previous generation of poets.
Mainly because Ma's works not only fabricate myths and cater to the bottom of society, but also inherit the writing skills of ancient classics. At the same time, it also retains the "scholar-doctor atmosphere" advocated by Confucians, and truly achieves the common appreciation of elegance and customs.