"Layman" Li Yu

Li Yu was an "alternative" among the literati of the Ming and Qing dynasties. However, the use of the word "literati" to summarize him is not impossible, but insufficient. Although he has excelled in poetry, novels, plays, and essays, he is a literary all-rounder, but in general, he is a freelancer outside the system, and he plays multiple roles such as best-selling author, home drama class owner, and calligraphy and painting publisher.

In fact, engaging in self-employment and being a cultural businessman is not his wish. Li Yu's ancestral home is Lanxi, Zhejiang, because his grandfather followed the "Lanxi Gang" to Rugao, Jiangsu Province, to do chinese herbal medicine business and the family moved to Rugao. I once went to Rugao to investigate, where although there are not many relics of Li Yu, they are not oblivious: Li Yu's family in the year of hair is well-off, "its garden pavilion Luo Qi Jia Yi", presumably included in the local rich list. Rugao is known for his reverence for literature and re-education, and the elders do not hesitate to spend a lot of money to hire famous teachers to enlighten Li Yu and send him to the best local palace for education. Li Yu was studious, and was influenced by the sons, scriptures, and poetry, and could be described as outstanding in learning. No different from most readers, the teenager Li Yunai took the heart of merit as the original intention, and the dengdi Shijin as the ambition of life, he participated in the boy test at the age of 25 and became famous in one fell swoop, and his composition was widely circulated as a model text. At the end of the Ming Dynasty, when the wind and rain were fluctuating and the flames were burning, the social unrest was unstable, and there was almost no room for a small desk. Following the 29-year-old township test failed the list, Li Yu rushed to Hangzhou again for three years, not wanting to go to the halfway point, that is, being blocked by the war, "the sails were weak and the wind was weak, and the boat was empty and the waves were sound." The middle stream strikes, how can it be clarified?" ("Hearing the Police Return in the Middle of the Exam") As if in a daze, a canopy boat on the Lanjiang River carried Li Yu's shattered dream and turned around to return to the road when he came. Li Yu said goodbye to Shi Tugong in this regard, but thus began a different life.

Li Yu's choice did not have the attitude of non-cooperation like Gu Yanwu, Huang Zongxi, and Fu Shan, who held on to integrity and was fat and high, or that it was difficult to "combine the aspirations of ji ji", and he could still bury his head in the pile of books, engage in literature, or explore the way of learning; Nor did he lower his eyebrows out of expediency like Wu Meicun, Wang Duo, and Qian Qianyi, who harbored the pain of the homeland, but as he said, "The life of the way is the great hidden in the world." But his "youdao" was a bit "outrageous", and he actually engaged in the pear garden business that was despised by the qinggao people, and spent all day in the field of youling powder and ink, running to the door of the dignitaries and dignitaries, so that "wandering the rivers and lakes, people are haiku" ("Outline of the General Catalogue of Quhai"). In order to seek peace, as the head of the family drama class, director and screenwriter, he set up a "three-inch dry pipe to whitewash taiping for the holy heavenly son; Unveil a piece of po-heart, follow the old Taoist MuDuoli Lane" ("Qubu Oath") the purpose of writing the play. From the very beginning, he realized the importance of risk aversion (although things are uncertain, and later in the harsh environment of the "word prison", some of his works were still listed as banned). When he did this, the bitter people were of course disdainful, and it was inevitable that they would be buried by the "Mr. Winter Bake", who regarded it as a tendency to attach to worldly utilitarianism and disqualification. Li Yu must have also made mental preparations, once he went to Beijing, he deliberately posted the three words "Untouchables Residence" on the lintel (performing arts were also untouchables in those years), revealing a casual nature of Ren'er's east, west, south, and north winds.

Li Yu's drama class, including more than 40 family members, daily needs are nothing less than a huge expense. He once said: "Fishing does not have half an acre of land, but there are dozens of families, and the Yantian pen is only one person." In order to maintain his expenses, he also sold literature to make a living, and many of his links can be said to be a clear proof of the time and the time to earn a melon and a two dates. His "chairman" and "general manager" is very bad, just imagine, if the production class relies on the low-end performance market, it will not be able to feed this group of artists, so it can only hope for the high-end commercial performance market. In this way, it is inevitable to pay homage to the docks, climb the giants, and make friends, and in order to make up for the increasing saturation of the local market, Li Yu also has to work the market radiation and marketing strategies. Therefore, how many days and months of morning and dusk, cold and summer, he led the drama team to "negative and four directions", wind and food and sleep. What Jinji Luyu, Shaanxi Gansu, Suwan, Fujian, Gansu, Eyue, have all fluttered the rhyme of Li Jiaban's yuan, and have also witnessed the figure of Li Jiaban carrying heavy loads forward. People who say that Li Yu gave up the aspirations of the readers and went to the camp and fell into vulgarity are a bit of a person who stands and talks without waist pain. For example, Yuan Yuling, who was also a dramatist and novelist in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, once attacked Li Yu for "being kind to meet", "his deeds are very dirty", and "Zhen Shilin despised it", in fact, he himself was just a character who had descended early to the Qing Dynasty and had written a descending table for the gentry of Suzhou.

The drama class is just one of Li Yu's means of making a living. If he was just a class master, he would not have become the Li Yu that people talk about today. Li Yu, a talented man, is also the most successful best-selling author of the early Qing Dynasty. Although his works are regarded by orthodoxy as "a wave of ridicule, pure market, elegant atmosphere, sweeping away", from the perspective of market effect, it can be described as "universal". How popular are his works? For example, his "Huang Qiu Feng", not long after it was out of the manuscript, Pingyang, Shanxi, three thousand miles away, began to circulate; His "Kite Mistake" once reached the state of "carving out no place and no place". In addition to drama, his other genres of works are also very popular, "the most popular, such as the poetry of "A Family Speech", ShiYu's "Resistant Lyrics", "On the Ancient" of Reading History, and "Occasional Mail" of Leisure, all of which do not lean on one of the predecessors, and do not pick up a spit of celebrities." In today's book market, many writers are troubled by the loss of interests due to piracy, and the "grand situation" of Li Yu's works being "reprinted and infringed" in that year can be described as inferior to today's people. After he moved to Jiangning (Nanjing), he mentioned in a letter to his friends that the reason for moving was only because "there were many copiers, so they violated the precept of relocating to the land and in order to make a plan for immigrants to eat." Unexpectedly, the new carving came out, and Wu Men was greedy, that is, the heart of covetousness." Although he also entrusted people to "show the prohibition", the rampant piracy has always been difficult to solve, so that when the "Idle Occasional Mail" as we know it today was published, Li Yu, in desperation, even posted a rights defense notice that read, "Vowing to fight to the death." This reflects, on the one hand, how hot his books are and a cash cow for "unscrupulous booksellers" to do.

Li Yu's uniqueness lies in the combination of popular and liberal arts. His plays have a literati atmosphere that is not possessed by the jianghu opera class, on the one hand, it is necessary to properly cater to the audience's appreciation interest, which is the guarantee of the box office; On the other hand, it does not lose the artistry contained in it, and truly achieves popularity and not vulgarity. Because Li Yu is very good at drama, he can even personally guide the actor's one move and one style, word by word, and all the plays he writes have considerable box office appeal. The drama class he single-handedly created can be called the star lineup and first-class standard at that time.

Li Yu is famous for his novels and plays, and is known as the king of qing dynasty drama. As for his poems, Yuan Ming commented on him as "a man with enough talents" in the "Poetry of Suiyuan"; Sun Kaidi, a modern Liyu research expert, believes that it is "quite stable and harmonious.". Li Yu has written more than 1,100 poems in the present life, and the most literary value is those works written in the Ming and Qing dynasties that are nostalgic for the tragic world and based on historical facts, which have the legacy of Du Fu's "poetic history" in the chaos of Anshi. He chanted in the "Jiashen Ji Chaos": "I once saw Du Fu's poems, and many times were chaotic and divorced. Feeling indignant and sad, it makes people think less. At that time, people at that time had praises such as "deeply rooted in Du Li", "calm and energetic, Shaoling can do things", "sad and indignant, like the return of Shaoling Tianbao to all the works". It can be said that in the ming and qing poetry circles with various genres, although Li Yu's poems are not a big hit, he is considered an excellent poet with this part of his creation, and he deserves it.

Li Yu's abundance also includes his karma with painting and gardens. When it comes to the "Mustard Garden Painting Notation", almost everyone who studies Chinese painting knows that modern masters Huang Binhong, Qi Baishi, Pan Tianshou, Fu Baoshi, Lu Yushao, etc., have all taken the "Mustard Garden Painting Notation" as a beginner's model. In the first year of the Qing Dynasty (1662), the 51-year-old Li Yu's family moved from Hangzhou to Nanjing, first living in Jinling Gate, and then personally designing and building a private house mustard garden (his architectural design works also include Hangzhou Layer Garden, Hui Garden in Dingwu Gate in Beijing, Half Mu Garden in Steak Hutong, Xinjiekou Stick Beizifu Garden, etc.), and lived in it for nearly 20 years. During this period, he funded the support of his son-in-law Shen Xinyou and the three brothers of the Wang clan (Wang Zhi, Wang Ying, and Wang Wei) in compiling the painting score, and when the book was written, he was ordered to take the name of his homeland "Mustard Garden". As an editor and publisher, the successful marketing and circulation of "Mustard Garden Paintings" proves Li Yu's outstanding business vision and his significant contribution to the popularization and enlightenment of Chinese painting.

As for his most proud "Casual Love And Occasional Mail", of course, it can be classified as a continuation of the Ming people's "sexual spirit sketches" and other texts. At that time, the writers replayed the old tune of "the original Six Classics, the Root Pole Rational Tao", and despised the literary value of the late Ming Dynasty essays. Although Li Yu's book, which deals with the contents of the songwriting, living room, diet, clothing, health maintenance, utensils, gardens, planting, etc., does have some more market atmosphere than the "Three Yuans" of the Public Security Sect and the Jingling Families, it is criticized by corrupt Confucians as "not for the great cause of the country, but for the small talk of breaking the Tao" (quoting Yu Huai's "Idle Love and Occasional Mailing" (Preface)), in fact, they did not realize that "the literary value of Chinese prose is mainly in the sketches" (Qian Mu's "Collection of Lectures on Chinese Literature"), and regarded it as a "small way" , but misjudged this intrinsic value. Of course, it is undeniable that many of the high-profile and good prose in history have attracted people to "transcend things", and Li Yu's "idle book" written by Li Yu, which is devoted to leisure and mobilizes most of his life's experience and knowledge, I think is a famous work about the aesthetics and aesthetic education of life. What is valuable is that he claimed in Ordinary Cases: Do not for half a lifetime, do not hold a word from others, and he attaches great importance to literary innovation and spiritual independence. I have read this book several times, and I deeply think that it is a good book with rich content, profound knowledge, and strong resistance to clichés. Lin Yutang commented on the book as "a guide to the art of living in Chinese" ("My Country and My People").

It is undeniable that most of Li Yu's works are basically driven by commercial interests, but with his academic roots and creative strength, at least he has adhered to the aesthetic taste, and will not fall into the situation of pitching with others and losing himself. His extensive experience, human touch, and years of experience in the business world have made him an excellent cultural project planner and a market darling with many skills.

It can be said that Li Yu's self-sufficiency at that time was a rebellion and transcendence of the canonical "discourse system". Doesn't that mean I'm "vulgar"? Then I will base myself on the world to show the extraordinary, to show fun; Didn't you say I fell into the pear orchard? Then, in addition to writing plays and novels, I also wrote and compiled multi-faceted academic works such as "Kasawong Poetry Rhyme", "Zizhi New Book", "Ancient and Modern Ruler Encyclopedia", "Ancient and Modern History", "Four-Six Initial Expedition", "Ancient and Ancient Strange Stories" and so on, to show my cross-border ability and academic support. Occasionally, you may wish to write poems to laugh at yourself: "The mountains and rivers have a spirit that should laugh at me, and the old face is thicker than the beginning." ("Yan Ling Chronicle") This tone, without the slightest remorse, shows an inner freedom and posture.

In Li Yu's place, the elegance and customs are intertwined with each other. In response to the current situation, choosing a business to seek food, and playing a career transformation from time to time, we have completed the self-adaptation and spiritual reshaping with the secular society. Is this the basis for the "Taoists" of that year to rebuke and denigrate Li Yu? In fact, the history of literature and theater already tells us that his controversial plays and novels were enough to constitute the two most important peaks of his creative career, and he was personally recognized as a rare figure in the history of Chinese culture. So much so that we can ignore his additional identity as a drama class leader, a calligraphy and painting publisher, a garden designer, etc., but we cannot but face Li Yu, admire Li Yu, admire Li Yu and even admire Li Yu with the positioning of playwright, novelist, poet, historian, drama theorist, aesthetician and naturalist.

I can't help but think of a sentence in Ge Hong's "Baopuzi" of the Eastern Jin Dynasty: "The world has a similar reputation but may not be virtuous, and the world has a joyous destruction but not necessarily evil." Let me ask, what is the custom of Li Yu?