In 1992, "The Legend of the New White Lady", starring Zhao Yazhi, Ye Tong and Chen Meiqi, became popular all over the country as soon as it was broadcast. The drama is based on the "Complete Biography of the White Snake" and adapted from the "Legend of the White Snake" of the four major Chinese folklore, mainly telling the story of the white snake who has been practicing for a thousand years to come to the human world to fall in love with Xu Xian in order to repay the grace of saving his life.
The lines are simple and elegant, the picture is antique, the singing is beautiful, the characters are profound and distinct... "The Legend of the New White Lady" has been loved by people since its inception, and has been replayed countless times over the years, affecting generations of audiences, and now when it comes to the play, many people are familiar with the plot, and the classic interlude in the play will hum a few words even if it can't be sung. Even so, every time you see the open-air screen broadcasting this drama, you will stop and look at it a few times, which is the classic charm.
To be fair, The Legend of the New White Lady is not flawless in its plot. Especially in the second half, there are many loopholes, and the rushing ending also makes the show have a bad ending. In "The Legend of the New White Lady", the most unpleasant thing for the audience is probably Fahai's final ascension to the immortal, such a "bad guy" who is difficult to find the protagonist everywhere has also been repaired to the right results, which is really indignant.
1. The pseudo-monk in the TV series
Whether in folklore or in the Legend of the New White Lady, Fahai is an indispensable and important role. In "The Legend of the New White Lady", he is set to have a feud with the White Snake and Xu Xian, and has become a major villain in the eyes of the audience, which plays a vital role in promoting the development of the story.
In the play, Fahai can be said to be a lot of good things. He is the abbot of The Golden Mountain Temple, a generation of senior monks. Because of his merits in rebuilding the Golden Mountain Temple, he was given a golden bowl by the Buddha and asked him to use it to slay demons.
Jihai has a good relationship with the White Lady and Xu Xian. Seventeen hundred years ago, Fahai was still a snake catcher, and captured the White Lady who was still a little white snake, while Xu Xian was a little shepherd boy and saved the little white snake, so after a thousand years, the White Lady found Xu Xian to repay the favor. During this thousand years, in order to speed up her cultivation, the White Lady also stole the six relics elixir given to Fahai by the Jade Emperor, deepening the enmity between the two.
In the play, the love affair between the White Lady and Xu Xian is the biggest attraction, but Fahai wants to break up the two, not only to force Xu Xian to leave the family, but also to ambush the Qingbai Second Snake. The White Lady, Xu Xian, and Xiao Qing practiced medicine and administered medicine to benefit the people, while Fahai did not catch evil demons such as toad essences, centipede spirits, and golden cymbals, but opposed the two snakes of Qingbai at every turn, which was really a villain who declared his personal vendetta. In addition, Fahai and Liang Xiangguo have a lot of friendship, and they are also suspected of playing for the tiger and aiding and abetting abuse. Therefore, Fahai in "The Legend of the New White Lady" is the "bad guy" in the audience's heart, and his immortality is really difficult for people to accept.
Second, the Fahai in the original script
In fact, in the original script, the image of Fahai is not like this, and the reason why this flaw occurs in the TV series is because many screenwriters write plots.
There are four screenwriters before and after the "Legend of the New White Lady", the original screenwriter is the guoxue master Gong Min, he set the story outline for the play, originally about thirty episodes, the focus of the play is "White Snake Love", after the White Lady was pressed leifeng Pagoda, Xu Shilin sacrificed the tower to save the mother's plot will be replaced by one stroke, probably two or three episodes to complete. Unfortunately, "art lost to business", in order to fight against the enemy Taiwan, Taiwan Television must continue to add drama. The difference in concept led to Gong Min's withdrawal from the crew.
Gong Min created the plot of the first nine episodes of the show, and In Gong Min's Fahai is a real taoist monk. In the first few episodes of "The Legend of the New White Lady", Fahai appears, optimistic and upward, preaching The Dharma everywhere, without the slightest intention of looking for revenge from the white snake, which is Gong Min's Fahai Zen master.
After Gong Min left the crew, Zhao Wenchuan, Fang Guilan and He Jiping completed the adaptation and continuation of the story under the story outline provided by Gong Min.
In order to increase the plot, these screenwriters originally created the plots of "Tie Liang Xiangguo", "Kill the Centipede Essence" and "Xu HuLian", and different screenwriters have different attitudes towards Fahai.
The passage "Tie The Grudge Against Liang Xiangguo" was created by Zhao Wenchuan, in his pen, Fahai is a pseudo-monk with a small belly and a vengeance. In order to deepen his grudge with the White Lady, Zhao Wenchuan also specially created the plot of "the White Lady stealing the relics". In order to subdue the White Lady, Fahai even designed to force her to commit the Heavenly Rule by "flooding the Golden Mountain", and in this part of Fahai has become a complete and utter villain.
The plot after "Flooding Jinshan Temple" is mainly written by Fang Guilan (it is said that He Jiping and Fang Guilan are the same person), and in her pen Fahai returns to the positive image of Gong Lao's pen, the main reason is that the story is about to end, and the character image must follow the plot outline.
Therefore, in the second half, master Fahai no longer mentioned his personal grievances when he arrested the Qingbai Second Snake, but advised him to put aside his vulgar heart and cultivate well to achieve positive results as soon as possible.
It is also the different philosophy of many screenwriters, so there are inconsistencies in the characters when writing the plot. Fahai, who has these shortcomings, can naturally make the audience feel puzzled.
Third, the Fahai Chengxian is reasonable
In fact, Gong Min's Fa Hai is a high-ranking monk who advises the world to educate people from beginning to end.
"The Legend of the New White Lady" takes the preaching to the truth as the theme: life is easy to grow old, dreams are short, red dust is long and troublesome, and love and indulgence are finally over, it is better to change the fur diligently, and there is no obstacle to going to the Spirit Mountain. In the outline of Gong Min's story, the White Lady's retribution for falling in love with Xu Xian has already committed the Heavenly Rules, which the Bodhisattva has reminded many times; and the "Water Flood Golden Mountain Temple" is also designed by the illegal sea; the White Lady is suppressed for fulfilling the oath of the year because of these two major mistakes, and cannot be practiced under the Leifeng Pagoda until Xu Shilin Zhongzhuangyuan can get out of the tower. However, when Xu Shilin rushed to the examination, the White Lady came out of the tower to save her son and committed the Tiantiao again, which caused her to be in the Leifeng Pagoda in Yongzhen, unless: the Leifeng Pagoda fell and the West Lake dried up. In the ending, the reason why the White Lady came out of the tower was because Xu Shilin's sacrificial tower touched the heavens, and Guanyin Bodhisattva cast a spell to dry up the West Lake and the Leifeng Pagoda fell.
Gong Min's Fahai has always obeyed the Mandate of Heaven and completed the supervision and indoctrination of the White Snake. Xiao Qing, Xu Xian, and The White Lady greeted them when they cultivated the Zhengguo and Feathered Dengxian to be the same person who greeted them, and at this time, the three of them realized that Fahai was actually the one who helped them cross the robbery.
In fact, in many mature "White Snake Biography" literature, Fahai is the image of a high monk who is cherished by the world, and Gong Min's "Legend of the New White Lady" refers to many documents, how can his Fahai be a person of great treachery and great evil? It is naturally reasonable to be able to attain enlightenment and immortality!