Stills of Tang Xianzu and "Four Dreams of Linchuan"
During the Ming Dynasty, there were four Xiucai in Linchuan County, Fuzhou Prefecture (present-day Jiangxi Province), named Chen Jitai, Luo Wanzao, Zhang Shichun, and Ai Nanying, all of whom were students of the famous dramatist Tang Xianzu and were known as the "Four Talents of Linchuan".
Portrait of Tang Xianzu
The so-called "famous teachers out of high disciples", Tang Xianzu (1550 ~ 1616) is indeed powerful, he was a great writer and a great drama writer in the late Ming Dynasty. A native of Linchuan, Jiangxi, who was a scholar in the eleventh year of the Wanli Calendar, he successively served as a doctor of the Taichang Temple in Nanjing and the chief priest of the Libu Ancestral Hall, who was too upright, dared to speak out, would not be inflammatory, refused to be co-opted by Zhang Juzheng, the first assistant of the prime minister, and was demoted to Suichangzhi County, Zhejiang. Not long after he arrived in office, he actually let the prisoners in the prison go home for the New Year, and the Lantern Festival was released to watch the lights! This time, he was grabbed by the ulterior motives, and even his superiors were blaming and criticizing him, so he simply submitted his resignation, did not do it, did not wait for the approval of the imperial court, and left! Three years later, the approval for "resignation and idleness" came down.
Fuzhou City Tang Xianzu Memorial Hall
He returned to his hometown of Linchuan, built the "Jade MingTang" bookhouse, immersed himself in writing, and at the same time opened a private school to collect disciples to earn money to support their families. Within a few years, he wrote the four legendary dramas of the famous "Book of Returning the Soul" ("Peony Pavilion"), "Purple Book", "Handan Record", and "Nanke Record", because the content involved dreams, so it was also called "Four Dreams of Yumingtang" or "Four Dreams of Linchuan", and his reputation was so famous that more and more disciples were running away. "Chen, Luo, Zhang, Ai" are the four most famous of them, all of whom have been in the show, all of whom are articles, are well-known local talents, and have the reputation of "Four Talents of Linchuan".
"Linchuan Four Dreams" one-line book
They are also really talented, not wasted. For example, Chen Jitai (1567 ~ 1641), he is good at contemporary literature, quick thinking, sometimes can write twenty or thirty articles a day, and compose more than 10,000 essays in his lifetime; Another example is Ai Nanying (1583~1646), who composed the "Seven Sages of the Bamboo Forest" at the age of seven, which caused a sensation, and the township examination (the examination for selecting people) was a strategic chapter, and dared to openly satirize Wei Zhongxian, who was powerful at that time! As a result, he was suspended from three subjects (three times). His prose has the style of Han (Yue) Ou (Yang Xiu). Luo Wanzao was also knowledgeable and rich in writings, and his surviving works include 12 volumes of this Guantang Collection and 14 volumes of the Thirteen Classics. The four of them also established a literary society, the Yuzhang Society, specializing in literary writing activities.
"Four Dreams of Linchuan" "Peony Pavilion Soul Return"
These four talents, with superior knowledge and fame, plus they were also disciples of Tang Xianzu, they were even more arrogant and proud, their eyes were higher than the top, and ordinary people did not pay attention to them at all, resulting in their later careers not being very smooth.
In this year, a prefect who was also born in Keju came to Fuzhou to take office. As soon as I got off the bus, I heard the names of the four talents. Since the ancient literati were light, this adult was very dismissive, thinking that under the fame, it was actually difficult to match. He ordered the four of them to come to the mansion within three days to confront him.
Stills from "The Purple Book"
After two days, there was no movement, and the prefect thought that they did not dare to come, in vain, and sold their reputation! On the third day, the prefect went out of the city in a sedan to visit guests. In the afternoon, the prefect returned to the city, passing a local bridge called "Wenchang Bridge", only to see four men with their chests exposed, lying on the bridge, blocking the road, sending people to come forward to ask questions, only to know that it was the four talents who came to find him, so they let them say the Shanglian. Si Xiucai read aloud in unison: "Article on the top, article on the next article, article on the bridge."
When the prefect heard this, he was shocked. It turns out that the Fuzhou dialect "Zhang, Chang" is almost homophonous, "article" is "Wenchang", Wenchang is the article, four people on the bridge are full of articles, there is Wenchang (Zhang) Bridge below, under the sun, four people are belly, it is "articles on the bridge to post articles".
The prefect pondered for a long time, but could not say a good sentence, so he had to turn the car and take a detour. It was nearly dusk, and I came to a ferry called Dusk Ferry, and there was a village next to it called Front Dusk, and there was a village on the opposite bank called Later Dusk. The prefect was suddenly inspired and thought of the lower link. Back in the mansion, he was about to send someone to summon four people, but he knew that the four of them had already sent someone to send a lower link: "Before dusk, after dusk, dusk before crossing the dusk meets dusk." It is exactly the same as the pair of the prefect's thoughts. The prefect had nothing to say, but he was not convinced, and he wanted to find an opportunity to compete.
Stills from "Handan Chronicles"
After more than a month, the prefect disguised himself and falsely claimed to be a confucian student from a foreign country, and invited the four talents to drink at an inn opposite the teacher's book house "Yu Ming Tang", saying that he was a member of the Yiwen Society. The four talents did not know the truth and went to the appointment as scheduled. After all, there was only a distant friend, and the four talents did not recognize it. After three rounds of wine, but when he saw the jade tea flowers (that is, camellias, also known as mandalas) blooming in the jade tea hall of the opposite door, the strange fragrance wafted in, and the prefect said:
Fragrant Jade Tea Spring in March.
When the four of them listened, they were dismissive in their hearts: This is really Banmen getting an axe. Chen Jitai did not hesitate to say:
Illumination of the River Pen. (Tang Xianzu was known as Mr. Linchuan.) )
The prefect then pointed to a pagoda in the distance and said:
The pagoda has seven or eight floors, and the crane is in the middle.
Lianzhong also cleverly uses the Fuzhou dialect, "Rong" and "Yong", "Crane" and "Xue" are close to each other, and Lianzhong conceals the titles of "Zhongyong" and "University". Suddenly, the four were embarrassed. Just at this moment, their bookkeepers were bored, and they were flipping through a pamphlet in the store (imperial calendar), when Luo Wanzao inadvertently caught a glimpse of it, and suddenly he had a clever move and said in a loud voice: Twelve pages of the book, remembering the Spring and Autumn Period.
Stills from "Nanke Chronicles"
The imperial calendar naturally records the four seasons (Spring and Autumn), and the titles of the two books "Etiquette" and "Spring and Autumn" are hidden in them, which is appropriately pasted.
The prefect saw that they could not stop them, and unwillingly, he took out the last trick and said:
On the Wenchang Bridge, Xiucai was naked, and Sven was lost!
After listening to it, the four talents were stunned and looked at it carefully, and Fang knew that this person was the prefect, so he unceremoniously and counter-liped: Before dusk, Fuzun searched his intestines and scraped his stomach, and his face was disgraced!
The prefect was very embarrassed, knowing that with one bucket and four fights, he could not take advantage of it, so he threw up his sleeves and left!
【Evaluation】 Literati are light, ancient habits! As the old saying goes: "Full of losses, humble benefits"; "Yi Qian" said: "Humble gentleman, humble to self-muye", so there are descendants of "Hai Na Bai Chuan, there is tolerance is great; Walls stand on a thousand feet, and no desire is just" cognition. The four talents are arrogant and arrogant, and the following are committed, with more deception and less, there is no gentleman's wind! Character determines fate, which may be the reason why the four talents became famous at a young age, and later their careers were not smooth. (Chen Jitai was 68 years old before he was promoted to the prefect of Liuzhou, and Zhang Shichun was promoted to the prefect of Liuzhou at the age of 70, and as a result, he died in office that year, and Ai Nanying was punished with three suspensions of the examination and simply gave up the examination; Luo Wanzao also only lifted people in the middle, and only under the strong protection of others did he become the head of the ceremonial department. )
However, we can put aside these and enjoy and understand the charm of Chinese characters!
Thanks for reading! Thanks for your attention! Thanks for the thumbs up!