The Paper's reporter Gao Dan
On July 23, the "Sixty Years Mission Continued, Thousands of Volumes of Legends Completed--Symposium on the Compilation and Publication of the Guben Opera Series" was held at the National Library of China.
Guben Opera Series: a compilation that lasted sixty years
The Guben Opera Series was initiated by Mr. Zheng Zhenduo and compiled by him. Mr. Zheng Zhenduo planned to compile ten episodes and presided over the compilation and printing of the first four episodes, which were published by the Shanghai Commercial Press. After the unfortunate death of Mr. Zheng Zhenduo in 1958, the Institute of Literature of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences reorganized the editorial board, and Mr. Wu Xiaoling continued to preside over the compilation. In 1964, the Nine Collections of Guben Opera Series was published by the Zhonghua Book Company, which collected ten kinds of court dramas. Since then, the publication of the Guben Opera Series has been suspended. In 1986, the Five Collections of Guben Opera Series was published by Shanghai Ancient Books Publishing House.
"The First Collection of Guben Opera Series"
"Guben Opera Series II"
Since then, the compilation of the Guben Opera Series has been suspended for nearly thirty years. In 2012, Cheng Yizhong, editor and reviewer of zhonghua bookstore, submitted the "Proposal on Completing the Ancient Book Series" to the National Ancient Book Publishing Planning Group, proposing that the publication tasks of the subsequent parts of the "Ancient Book Opera Series" should be included in the national ancient book collation and publication planning project. The compilation and publication of the sixth, seventh and eighth episodes of the Guben Opera Series, which has been shelved for nearly thirty years, was included in the "National Ancient Books Collation and Publication Plan for 2011-2020". The National Library Press accepted the project.
In January 2014, the "Symposium on the Launch of the Compilation of the Sixth, Seventh and Eighth Episodes of the Guben Opera Series" was held, and in 2016, the "Six Collections of the Guben Opera Series" was published, collecting 77 kinds of legends and operas from the Shunzhi to the early Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty, for a total of 109 kinds of repertoire; in 2018, the "Guben Opera Series Seven Episodes" was published, collecting 55 kinds of legendary works and writers' opera collections from the Kangxi to Qianlong periods of the Qing Dynasty, including eight kinds of opera collections, with a total of 92 kinds of legends and miscellaneous dramas; in 2019, At the end of 2020, the "Guben Opera Series" was published, including 70 kinds of legends and miscellaneous dramas in the Qianlong and Jiaqing periods of the Qing Dynasty, with a total of 81 kinds of legends and miscellaneous dramas; at the end of 2020, the "10 Collections of Guben Opera Series" was published, including 73 kinds of legends and miscellaneous dramas in the Qianlong to Guangxu periods of the Qing Dynasty, with a total of 138 kinds of legends and miscellaneous dramas.
Inside page of the Eight Episodes of the Guben Opera Series
The compilation of the Guben Opera Series lasted for more than 60 years from the 1950s to 2020, and finally became ten episodes.
Although the content may not be completely consistent with the planning mentioned by Mr. Zheng Zhenduo in the "Preface" of the first collection, the "Series" includes a total of 1,193 kinds of legends, miscellaneous dramas, and court dramas, almost all of which are the most precious opera works in China from the Yuan Dynasty to the end of the Qing Dynasty, and try to realize the aspirations put forward by Zheng Zhenduo in that year: "In the third or fourth year of the period, when there are more than a thousand kinds of ancient operas, they can be provided to us as research funds, or more as a help to innovate." ”
Jingwei Infinite Reclamation Heart: The Rescue and Search of Generations
Mr. Zheng Zhenduo, the initiator of the Guben Opera Series, was one of the earliest scholars in China to pay attention to the importance of the protection and collation of opera literature. He once said in the new preface to "The Secretary of the Robbery": "Except for a few people, who has noticed the books of novels and operas? This kind of ancient books that are 'not elegant' are rare in the library, and I have to search for them myself. ”
Zheng Zhenduo also made a lot of hard work to rescue and collect novel and opera literature, such as the "Ancient and Modern Miscellaneous Dramas of the Pulse Wangguan Banknote Schoolbook", which included more than 200 kinds of miscellaneous dramas, which was rescued by Zheng Zhenduo in the "isolated island" in Shanghai during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression; he also visited Ningbo with Zhao Wanli and Ma Lian and copied the "Record ghost book" overnight, which can be seen in his cherishing of the remaining opera literature. It is precisely under the unremitting efforts of Mr. Zheng Zhenduo and other scholars of previous generations that the opera literature that was not valued in the past has been rescued and protected, successively classified into public libraries, and properly preserved, since then the opera literature has entered the field of vision of researchers more, and to a certain extent, the face of literary history research has been changed.
Inside page of the Series
Liu Yuejin, member of the Faculty of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, introduced the twists and turns in the compilation of the "Series" in the article "Chronicle of the Compilation of the Guben Opera Series":
When Zheng Zhenduo was planning the work of the Institute of Literature, he included the compilation of the "Guben Opera Series" and the "Guben Novel Series" in the scientific research plan. He had long foreseen the necessity and difficulty of compiling a series of opera materials: "Only those who are engaged in collecting materials, only those who study the history of opera, know how difficult it is to collect materials. That work is arduous, it is encounterable and unattainable, it has to be accumulated bit by bit. ”
Zheng Zhenduo did not avoid the difficulties, gathered his armpits into Qiu, and compiled the first four episodes of the "Series". In 1958, Mr. Zheng Zhenduo was tragically killed in a plane crash, and the compilation of the "Series" was once shelved. Later, Qi Yanming and Wu Xiaoling took the lead and formed a new editorial board to continue to compile the remaining episodes, and finally published the ninth episode in 1964. Due to the Cultural Revolution, this work stagnated for nearly two decades. Not only that, due to current events, the manuscripts that have been handed over to the publishing house have been lost, and the original archives are also incomplete, which brings great difficulties to the follow-up work. In the 1980s, Mr. Li Yihao, Wu Xiaoling and others presided over the publication of the fifth episode of the "Series", and originally wanted to complete the rest of the compilations with a single blow, but they were helplessly faced with huge economic pressure, and the compilation of the "Series" was once again forced to be interrupted, and more than twenty years passed in a flash.
The compilation and publication of the "Series" also reflects the development process of classical opera research in China from one level. Mr. Zheng Zhenduo is one of the important scholars who have attached importance to the study of ancient Chinese novels, operas and other popular literature since the "May Fourth". He presided over the formulation of the principle of compiling the "Series", that is, to collect the orphan books and rare books together, so that more readers have the opportunity to use these surviving rare books, not only to facilitate the in-depth study of scholars, but more importantly, through the systematic collation and study of these materials, lay a solid foundation for the construction of the discipline of classical opera. Over the years, famous works of Chinese classical opera research masters have emerged one after another, and a large number of related research results at home and abroad have been published one after another, most of which have benefited from the compilation and publication of the "Series".
Take the tenth episode as an example to see the compilation of the Series
The compilation of each episode of the "Series" requires a lot of consideration, taking the tenth episode as an example, because the ninth episode has been published in advance in 1964, whether to publish the tenth episode, the editorial board has had many discussions, and unanimously believes that whether it is Mr. Zheng Zhenduo's original concept or the actual needs, due to the limitation of space, the eighth episode does not include the opera works after the Qing Dynasty Daoguang, and it is very necessary to publish the tenth episode and systematically include the opera works of the late Qing Dynasty.
The tenth episode of the Series is in line with the eighth episode in terms of content, and the main body contains opera works from the Qing Daoguang to the Guangxu period. In addition, due to the limitation of the eighth episode, there are several works that cannot be included by an anonymous writer in the Qianlong period, and they are put into the tenth episode this time. The collection includes a total of seventy-three kinds of legends, miscellaneous dramas and writers' operas from the Qianlong to the Guangxu period.
The base on which it was compiled
In the tenth episode, there are several points that need special attention, such as Chen Xi's compilation of opera works "Ten Kinds of Legends of Jade Lion Hall", in addition to the short drama "Sorrowful Phoenix Song", so the "Sorrowful Phoenix Song" is attached to "Ten Legends of Jade Lion Hall" to facilitate readers to fully understand Chen Xi's opera works. Xu Shanchang wrote the "Bisheng Yinguan Series", which contains poems, notes, and six kinds of opera works, "Fistula Rock", "Rouge Prison", "Cocoon Immortal", "Lingwa Stone", "Shenshan Introduction", and "Wind and Cloud Society". It is not uncommon for the Qing dynasty to include opera works in the collection of poetry. Therefore, although the six kinds of opera works written by Xu Shanchang were not separately compiled into opera collections, considering the situation in the Qing Dynasty and the names that the academic circles have always called Xu Shanchang's opera works, these six kinds of opera works are collectively referred to as the "Six Kinds of Songs of bisheng yinguan".
The tenth episode mainly included works from Qing Daoguang to Guangxu, and during this period, with the introduction of foreign printing technology, lead typesets of opera works have appeared. In order to maintain the principle of "ancient copies" of the Series, the tenth episode includes only engravings, manuscripts, banknotes, and lithographs, and no lead copies.
The inner page of "The Legend of the Dream of the Red Chamber"
Although most of the opera works collected in the tenth episode are published in the late Qing Dynasty, there are still many precious editions. For example, the banknotes "Legend of Zilan Palace", "Qilin Pavilion", "The Legend of The Stork Qiu", "The Legend of the Chronicle of the Silk Embroidery", "The Legend of the Red Sheep Robbery", "The Peach Blossom Saint Xie Luo Le Fu", "Hui Zhongyuan", the Daoguang Zhao Lin toe Banknote "The Story of the Red Chamber", the Nanfu Banknote "Dingfeng Zhu", the Nanfu Sample "Cai Xing Zhao", the manuscript "The Legend of Mei Xinxue", the banknote manuscript "Yehai Bianzhou", "The Legend of the Mirror Reunion", "Jian Hua Ting" and so on are all rare and rare versions.
Since the middle of the Qing Dynasty, the strict boundaries of legends and miscellaneous dramas in terms of format and system have gradually been broken, such as Fan Yuanheng's "Legend of the Dream of empty mountains", not only the whole drama is only eight, but also the system does not use palace tones and does not follow the song card. There are also many plays that are between legends and miscellaneous dramas, such as "Ten Kinds of Legends of Little Penglai Pavilion", "Thousand Autumn Tears" is four, "Circle in the Mirror" is five, "YanLiang Coupon" is eight, the other three are ten, and the four are twelve. In the "Legend of jade lion hall ten kinds", five kinds are sixteen out, and five kinds are eight out. Whether these works are legendary or miscellaneous, each family has different opinions. Therefore, when the tenth episode of the work was written, it did not completely distinguish between miscellaneous drama and legend in the title of the play, and still wrote according to the title of the original book, and those with the words legend or miscellaneous drama in the title page or the beginning of the original book still remained in the original book.
At the press conference on July 23, Wei Dawei, Secretary of the Party Committee and Deputy Director of the National Library of China, congratulated the completion of the compilation and publication of all ten collections of the Guben Opera Series in his speech, and he talked about Mr. Zheng Zhenduo's deep relationship with the National Library. Liu Yuejin, former director of the Institute of Literature of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, gave a briefing on the compilation and publication of the "Guben Opera Series." At the symposium on compilation and publication, more than 20 experts and scholars, including Bu Jian, former director of the Office of the National Leading Group for the Revision of the History of the Qing Dynasty, Liu Zhen, director of the Mei Lanfang Memorial Hall, Gu Qing, executive director of the Commercial Press, and Zhang Jian, professor of Peking University, spoke successively.
Ten episodes of the Series
Editor-in-Charge: Chen Shihuai
Proofreader: Liu Wei