"The world rises and falls, and the pirate is responsible!" This statement of the late Qing Dynasty and early Qing Dynasty Great Confucian Gu Yanwu Zhen deaf and deaf sigh, through hundreds of years, in the national crisis, has repeatedly inspired countless Chinese people to fight for the rise of the country. Now this sentence will be reinterpreted with Gu Yanwu's "rural tone" - Kunqu opera.
As a repertoire of the 12th China Arts Festival, the original Kunqu opera "Gu Yanwu", jointly produced by Jiangsu Performing Arts Group and Kunshan Contemporary Kun Theater, was staged at Xianghui Hall of Fudan University this evening and tomorrow.
Gu Yanwu, together with Huang Zongxi and Wang Fuzhi, was called the "Three Great Confucians" in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties. Born in Qiandeng Town, Kunshan, Suzhou Province, in the southern Ming Dynasty, he was knowledgeable and extensive, and had profound knowledge in classics, history, phonology, primary schools, Jinshi archaeology, Fang Zhiyudi, and poetry. Some researchers have commented that Gu Yanwu's clear interest in learning to be applied to the world, the simple and inductive method of examination, the spirit of exploration of creating a path, and his achievements in many academic fields ended the empty learning style of the late Ming Dynasty, opened the way for a generation of simple learning style, and gave Qing Dynasty scholars an extremely beneficial influence.
In the face of such a big Confucian, Luo Zhou, the screenwriter who wrote for the play, felt embarrassed at the beginning of the invitation. First, Kunqu opera has always been good at acting talented women, and second, her works are also known for their unique interpretation of emotions and life from a female perspective, and it is really difficult to write a erudite master with family and country feelings. But as she continued to go deeper and tried to touch the heart of such a scholar, she could feel more and more his conscious responsibility of continuing the Chinese context, so that she could face the great spirit of dynastic changes and seeking truth and truth in the vast history.
Therefore, she took the "three distinctions" in Gu Yanwu's life as the main line, took advantage of his late life to return to his hometown when he was a guest in Shanxi, accidentally fell off his horse when he set off, and recalled his life in a coma to start a flashback. The first is the "other mother"--the mother who went on a hunger strike in the Southern Ming Dynasty and made her take the oath of "not to be clean". Then there was the "other friend"—who was trapped in the literal prison because of the "anti-Qing and restoration of the Ming Dynasty", but did not dare to take his life lightly because the "Book of The Disease of the Heavenly County" and the "Zhaoyu Zhi" were not completed, and suffered the grief of the death of his best friend for the rest of his life; the third was the "other wife",-the true meaning of going north to seek learning, and had to make Gu Yanwu and his wife in his hometown endure the pain of almost lifelong reunion.
The pain of changing the manuscript of the map, the pain of suffering the blood of the death of his best friend, and the pain of parting with his wife who could not be reunited for thousands of miles, in Luo Zhou's view, it seemed that the hand of fate took away the most precious part of his life little by little, making him an increasingly lonely person, but because of this, he turned to plunge into the construction of the spiritual world and the search for truth.
It is not enough to have a parting, she specially set up a dramatic situation for Gu Yanwu - until the last moment of his life, Gu Yanwu met the young Kangxi, and then said the famous saying through the ages - the rise and fall of the world, the pifu has the responsibility.
The play also brings together a kind of mastermind of the contemporary theatrical stage. The director is Lu Ang, head of the directing department of the Shanghai Theater Academy. Gu Yanwu is played by Ke Jun, the first domestic wenwu veteran, and young actor Shi Xiaming plays Kangxi in the play. In addition, Li Hongliang, Gong Yinlei and other famous artists have also joined in.
As a Kunshan native, Ke Jun was able to have the opportunity to meet the soul of Gu Yanwu, a Kunshan native more than 300 years ago, and he sighed that it was his blessing as a contemporary Kunqu person, because he was not only a cultural symbol of Kunshan, but also a microcosm of the national feelings of Chinese literati. At this afternoon's media briefing, he was unable to attend due to a gout attack, but insisted on taking the sick to the stage. In the play, he starred from martial arts to the end and the foreigner, across the industry and across the family, not only with a large age span, but also with a very rich spiritual level.
The experience of bringing illness to the stage reminded Shi Xiaming of a dramatic encounter between the two in order to perform a good life, especially to go to the Ming Tomb together, holding the script bit by bit to find the opportunity to communicate with the historical figures of hundreds of years ago. Shi Xiaming said, "Before leaving, I found out that Teacher Ke's face was not right, it turned out that he had a gout attack, but he insisted on walking the whole process." ”
As the president of Jiangsu Kun Opera, Li Hongliang also led the provincial Kun opera actors to join in this time, and joined hands with Kunshan Contemporary Kun Theater to dedicate the story of a generation of Confucian scholars. He said that the provincial Kun and Kun Kun are linked by blood, and in the future, there will be more in-depth cooperation in talent exchanges and repertoire creation, and work together with various Kun opera troupes across the country to develop hand in hand.
It is understood that after tonight's famous version of the performance, tomorrow night will also stage the "youth version" mainly after the 80s and 90s. By providing a broad display stage for the young generation of Kunqu opera people, it shows the inheritance achievements and development momentum of Kunshan Kunqu.
Author: Huang Qizhe
Editor: Huang Qizhe
Editor-in-Charge: Li Ting
Image: Courtesy of the performer
*Wenhui exclusive manuscript, please indicate the source when reprinting.