Author: Zhao Jingshen
Comrade Wenli:
The editorial board of Shanghai Drama forwarded your opinion to me according to your wishes. I think you edit the Kunqu opera textbook with a serious attitude; for a problem, you delve deeply and want to understand it, which is extremely admirable. In particular, you refer to my articles from the three periods before and after, and you see the difference in statements, which is very careful. But because of the difference between my three statements, it can be seen that this problem is not easy to solve. Now that I have tried to answer the question again, I am afraid that I will not be able to fully solve the problem.
First of all, I should explain that in the article "Persuasion of Jinke", I concluded that "Si Fan" was derived from "Persuasion of Jinke", which was wrong. You're right. At that time, I could not find the mother's home of "Si Fan", and I saw that Zheng Zhizhen's work was different from the popularity; as soon as I saw Qianlong's "Persuasion of Kindness Jinke", which was mostly the same as the Kun opera sung today, I felt that the Qianlong period was still relatively early, and it was the time when various local dramas arose, so I thought that the mother's family had been found. As you have pointed out, this book should be corrected when it is republished, and I would like to thank you for this.
Han Shichang's "Si Fan"
In my opinion, the question is not whether Zheng Zhizhen and Zhang Zhao dared to "write boldly", because they wrote "Sifan Down the Mountain" on the one hand, and also wrote about the elopement of monks and nuns suffering in hell. Zheng Zhizhen's "Mu Lian Saving Mother Persuasion Drama Text" (hereinafter referred to as the "Persuasion of GoodNess") in the second volume of the 25th fold "Eight Temples seeking mother" also has the following passage:
This is a nun who has escaped from the unruly.
(Net) Take it into the Night Demon City.
(Dan) His Highness the City God confessed that I am the sow of the next birth. (Part 2)
This is a monk who escaped down the mountain without following the rules.
(Net) Take it into the Night Demon City.
(Ugly) His Highness the City God confessed that I am a bald donkey in the next life. (Part 2)
The above students dressed up as Mu Lian, Jing dressed as Zhong Kui, Dan dressed as nuns, and ugly as monks. Zheng Zhizhen and Zhang Zhao's purpose was not to write "Si Fan Down the Mountain", but to write about how the two of them suffered in hell after committing their sins.
But people didn't care about this set, but they only performed "Sifan Down the Mountain" alone, and did not play the plot of the monks and nuns suffering in hell, which was unexpected by the two of them.
You agree with what I said about "Persuasion of Kindness" may be a work already in the Song and Yuan Dynasties, but Zheng Zhizhen has only slightly deleted it, which is only my conjecture, and there is not much basis. Indeed, the legend of the Ming Dynasty has never grown to more than a hundred, and it is also very special to be called "drama" and not "legend".
Lu Xiaoman's "Si Fan"
Look at the eleventh fold of the next volume, "Three Temples Seeking Mother", singing "Three Great Sufferings" in a row, singing one hundred and sixty-eight sentences and seven words and singing sentences often with sighs and five more, which is also quite like a folk product. However, the title is "Compiled by Zheng Zhizhen of the GaoshiShan People", and the word "compilation" does not have much to do with it, and "writing" and "writing" can also be written as "editing". And look at the folds often have criticisms.
For example, the fifteenth fold of the previous volume, "The Monk Descends the Mountain", criticizes the cloud: "The words are both northern and have a handsome and elegant wind; the meaning is "West Chamber", and there is no disadvantage of stacking." "It's not like codification. Zheng Zhizhen does not seem to be so cheeky, taking the compilation of other people's works as his own, and will also praise his own criticism and publish it on it.
Judging from several prefaces, it is known that the author is a student who has never been an official, "repeatedly trapped in the art field", and is probably close to the artist. Therefore, I still believe that "Down the Mountain" was written by Zheng Zhizhen. Since then, no matter what performance of "Descending the Mountain", whether it is Kun opera, Su Tan, folk drama, or even "Persuasion jinke", there has not been much change, but the newly changed Qingyang "Monks and Nuns" has changed a little bigger. Even if he is influenced by folk works, at least most of the words and phrases should be created by Zheng Zhizhen himself.
The situation of "Si Fan" is more complicated, because the Kun opera "Si Fan" is compared with the fourteenth fold of the first volume of "Persuasion of Kindness", "Nun Goes Down the Mountain", and there are too many differences. Unfortunately, I did not have the opportunity to see the Cabinet Library in Tokyo, Japan, and the Ming Dynasty Opera Anthologies collected by the University of Oxford in London, England, and I can only know some indirectly from the discussions of others.
Mei Lanfang's "Si Fan"
Fu Yunzi's "Shirakawa Collection" has a "Continuation of the Cabinet Bunko Reading Song", which talks about the "ShengXian Ji" yun in the "Eight Energy Song Jin": this is not the "Han Xiangzi Nine Degrees Wengong Shengxian Record" selected in the "Cilin Yizhi", but a "Nun Descending the Mountain", the qu text has been completely completed, and the "Nun Descending the Mountain" of the "Mu Lian Ji" is immediately the "Nun Descending the Mountain". In addition, the "Yugu New Reed" also chose this, and the title is also marked "Si Marriage Record", which is the habit of the Ming Dynasty shujia to deceive the world. This Song Qu text is similar to the present "Si Fan", and it is suspected that the present text is not directly from the "Mu Lian Drama Text", but also from the "Si Marriage Record".
Hu Ji also talked to me, and he copied this "Si Marriage Record", saying that the text was similar to "Si Fan".
We may wish to examine the printing date of books such as "Persuasion of Kindness" and "Yugu New Spring". The Book of Persuasion (Guben Opera Series) has five prefaces and prefaces, the earliest of which is the preface of Ye Zongchun in the seventh year of the Ming Wanli Calendar, which shows that the Book of Persuasion has been written by the seventh year of the Wanli Calendar at the latest. The "New Spring of The Jade Valley" is a copy of the thirty-eighth year of the Wanli Calendar. In addition, the twelve volumes of the "New Pear Garden Picking Jinle Fu Jinghua" in the collection of Oxford University also have "Nun Sifan" (see Xiang Da's "Yingya Trivia" in the "Beiping Library Journal"), but unfortunately I have not seen the original book; however, even if the "Nun Sifan" in this book is similar to the one who sang it today, it is only ten years earlier than the "New Spring of the Jade Valley", and it was published in the twenty-eighth year of the Wanli Calendar. Like "Yugu Tuning Spring" and "Lefu Jinghua" are twenty or thirty years later than "Persuasion". Only the "Eight Energy Song Jin" is a publication in the first year of the Wanli Calendar, about six years before the "Book of Persuasion" was written, which is the most noteworthy. However, although this book contains "The Nun Goes Down the Mountain", it is "the quwen has been completely completed", so it is impossible to know whether this song is similar to the "Book of Persuasion" or to the modern Kun opera "Si Fan".
Among the documents that can be found today, it is not possible to find the fact that the Ming edition of the Kunqu opera "Si Fan" is earlier than the "Book of Persuasion". Therefore, as far as my existing knowledge is concerned, I can only assume that after the fourteenth fold of the first volume of the Book of Persuasion, "The Nun Goes Down the Mountain", it had a considerable impact, but after about twenty years, Qingyang Cavity was adapted on this basis into another kind of "Nun Down the Mountain", which is similar to the current singing kun opera. As for the [Siping Tune] who accepted the legacy of the Qingyang Cavity and included it in the "Persuasion of The Golden Branch", it should have been during the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty.
Tong Zhiling's "Si Fan"
The "Nun Descending the Mountain" in the "Book of Persuasion" is also some of the singing sentences that are quite similar to the present songbook, but not many. For example: [Zhuma Hall] at the beginning of the two sentences: "My father and mother are good at reading Polo, and they have many diseases in their slave bodies." "There are other sentences that are similar to the [tea picking song] in the song "Si Fan" today. Another example is [Narcissus] Yun: "Go and go, say what breaks the cymbals; do what you say, say what buries the scriptures; go, say what breaks the robes." These sentences are also similar to the "Wind Blowing Lotus Leaf Brakes" in "Si Fan". I think this is a proof that the Kun opera "Si Fan" was metamorphosed from the "Book of Persuasion".
The preservation of the Ming Dynasty opera heritage in the high cavity of Sichuan opera is the most amazing. Until the 20th and 29th years of Guangxu, "Mu Lian Biography" was basically performed according to Zheng Zhizhen's original performance, with few changes (see the tenth episode of the Compilation of Traditional Scripts of Sichuan Opera). However, the nine-year manuscript of Guangxu in Shaoxing, Zhejiang, and the manuscript of Xinchang, Zhejiang, "Mu lian opera", which I have collected, are both Zheng Zhi's rare copy and Qingyang Cavity adaptation.
Although these two manuscripts are very late in their time, I believe that they were handed down from the Ming Dynasty. At the beginning [Moth Lang'er] and Shubai used Zheng Zhi's rare book, and then sang [Hillside Sheep] [Tea Picking Song] [Weeping Emperor Heaven] [Fragrant Snow Lantern] and [Wind Blowing Lotus Leaf Flame], all of which were rewritten by the Qingyang Cavity. But these five songs are also quite different from the Kun opera "Sifan". For example, [hillside sheep] from "little nun year fang 28" until "he and we, let's share him" are the same; below, but there are more sentences than Kun opera:
Two times the eyebrows come and go, the eyes go to the ground eyebrows, not by people reading the sutra and chanting the Buddha's heart, once left on the sorghum hanging. Eager to achieve marriage with him, I died in front of the palaces of the Underground Yin Si and Yan Jun, and saw the halls of the first hall qin guang, the second hall Chu Jiang, the third hall Of Song Emperor, the fourth hall of the noon official, and the fifth hall of Yan Luo Tianzi, and he checked the good and evil things; whether it was true or true, whether it was false or false, even if he came to the door and grinded it, the little nun was not afraid of being afraid of the truth. You have seen only the living suffering, and he has seen the dead in chains. By him he is like a living Buddha, like a bodhisattva. The wrongdoer, the wrongdoer, burns the eyebrows, and looks at the present!
There are not very smooth sentences, but there are also enthusiastic sentences. For example, "Even if he is angry and grinding, the little nun is not afraid of being afraid of being really not afraid", it is said to be categorical, ignoring Yan Jun's high pressure, and the resistance is strong. This is the essence of folk literature. The following songs are also slightly different from Kunqu opera, with words and sentences reversed, and there are also sentences with fewer sentences at the end (such as [Xiangxue Lantern]). [Crying Emperor Tian] There are a few words that are particularly good: I was originally a real Jiao'e, a beautiful Jiao'e, and I have never violated the law, so why I am hanging on a plain bead, holding a wooden fish in my hand, and tying a hemp around my waist, how can I wear brocade and wear Luo.
She regarded "hanging on a plain bead and holding a wooden fish in her hand" as a punishment, believing that only those who "broke the law and violated the law" would suffer such a crime. Kunju changed "no law violation" to "and not manly", which tasted like chewing wax.
Now my conclusion is that the origin of the Kunqu opera "Down the Mountain" should be Zheng Zhizhen's "Mu Lian Saving Mother Persuasion drama text" in the fifteenth fold of the first volume of "The Monk Goes Down the Mountain". His writing of "The Nun Descends the Mountain" and "The Monk Descends the Mountain" may be influenced by folk operas or songbooks, as you said, and perhaps by The Accomplices of Monks and Nuns by Feng Weimin, the predecessor of Jiajing, but it is difficult to pinpoint whether they were influenced by Song and Yuan opera texts, let alone confirmed.
Ma Xianglin's "Si Fan"
As for the evolution of the Kun opera "Si Fan", it is probably as follows:
1. Around the ninth year of the Ming Dynasty, Zheng Zhizhen's "Book of Persuasion" wrote the fourteenth fold of the first volume, "Nuns Descending the Mountain", of which a few sentences of [Zhuma Hall] [Narcissus] were melted and adopted by later dramas.
2. In the thirty-eighth year of the Ming Dynasty, the "Yugu New Spring" collected the Qingyang cavity "Si Marriage Record , Nun Descending the Mountain", and the quwen is similar to the present "Si Fan".
3. During the Ming and Qing dynasties, Shaoxing and Xinchang Gaoluo adopted the beginning of the "Book of Persuasion" (Moth Lang'er) and adopted the quwen in "Thinking of Marriage".
4. The Four Pings of the Qianlong Period of the Qing Dynasty inherited the inheritance of the Qingyang Cavity's "Thinking of Marriage". And was adopted by Zhang Zhao into the "Persuasion of Jinke".
5. The Kun opera "Si Fan" does not use Zheng Zhizhen's "Moth Lang'er", but uses "Recitation". [Hillside Sheep] The following five songs have also been added, deleted and changed.
Seeing this, I don't know whether it is right or not, but I still ask Comrade Wenli and other comrades for advice.
salute
Zhao Jingshen August 2
("Zhao Jingshen Wencun")