Seven Awakenings
In today's classical literature class, the teacher will tell them about "The Peony Pavilion", which is considered the pinnacle of Chinese classical opera.
Huang Yaya isn't really interested in classical opera, mainly because she can't understand it and it's often long and drawn-out. Unlike classical poetry, although she can't understand some of it, even the short and concise ones allow her to vaguely sense the emotions the poet wants to convey.
"First, let us introduce Tang Xianzu, who is known as the Shakespeare of the East." A female professor with glasses and gray hair, about fifty years old, was speaking at the podium.
Tang Xianzu is Tang Xianzu, and Shakespeare is Shakespeare! Why confuse them? Why not say that Shakespeare is the Tang Xianzu of the West?
"Due to various political setbacks, Tang Xianzu decided to resign and return home, where he later wrote the epic opera The Peony Pavilion, also known as The Return of the Soul."
Huang Yaya looked at the PPT on the whiteboard and sighed: How many famous poets and lyricists in history are proud of themselves!
Du Fu, who wrote "I wish I had thousands of spacious houses to shelter all the poor people in the world and make them happy!" and was so concerned about the country and the people and had the world in his heart, never entered the core circle of power in his life.
"From a philosophical perspective, Tang Xianzu wrote the timeless love line, 'Love arises from nowhere, yet it remains deep and everlasting'..."
Huang Yaya became interested. This sentence actually came from "The Peony Pavilion"!!!
"It turns out that all the beautiful flowers are left to the broken wells and dilapidated walls. What can we do about the beautiful scenery? Who can enjoy the joyful scene?"
"You must have heard this before!"
The students in the classroom all replied seriously: "I have heard of it."
"This sentence is from the tenth act of The Peony Pavilion: Awakening from a Dream." The female professor said proudly.
"Now let's get a general idea of the story, and then I'll pick out some excerpts for everyone to appreciate."
…
After hearing what the teacher said, Huang Yaya became more and more doubtful about herself. How could she still play like this?
Du Liniang in The Peony Pavilion was just dreaming in a garden, and she ended up having sex with her long-lost friend Liu Mengmei in Wushan Mountain!!!
Huang Yaya's head was buzzing. After more than a decade of materialism and atheism, she was stunned at this moment.
Her experiences and feelings were so real, as if they had actually happened.
She had assumed all this was the activity of neurons in the brain. After all, the human brain is so amazing and complex. Scientists have studied the brain for so many years, but they've only barely figured out one percent of it!
Is her experience similar to Du Liniang's?
No matter how shocked you are or how much you think, you still have to attend the class.
Huang Yaya tried hard to suppress her confused thoughts and listened to the class absent-mindedly.
"Let's first look at this inscription. This inscription is the essence of the entire text, and the subsequent content is all about explaining this inscription."
"Love arises from nowhere, yet it grows ever deeper. The living can die, and the dead can be reborn. To be alive without dying, and dead without resurrection, is not the truest form of love. How can the love in dreams not be true? How many people in the world are there who live in dreams?"
"From this passage, we can see Tang Xianzu's criticism of Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism. The Ming Dynasty was an era that promoted Neo-Confucianism. Their expectation of people was to uphold the principles of heaven and eliminate human desires."
"What is meant by preserving the principles of Heaven and eliminating human desires is to eliminate the desires within yourself. It can also be simply understood as dogmatism."
"This passage reflects Tang Xianzu's praise for the natural emotions that exist in human beings."
"Later, Du Liniang also died for love and was resurrected for love. Let's look at the title of the first act first."
…
"Now we are going to talk about the most famous scene from The Peony Pavilion: Awakening from a Dream."
"It's hard to cut, it's hard to untangle, I feel depressed for no reason... If you don't go to the garden, how can you know how beautiful spring is!"
"Look, this is the constraint that Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism places on women. Du Liniang didn't even know she had a back garden at the age of sixteen."
"Flying in the morning and rolling up in the evening, clouds and mists adorning the emerald pavilion; raindrops and winds, painted boats on misty waves - the people behind the brocade screen look down upon this beautiful time!"
"This scenery is so beautiful, yet Du Liniang feels depressed and tormented when she sees it. Why? Look at this line: 'The person in Jinping', who is she?' It's Du Liniang, one of the countless ancient women bound by Neo-Confucianism."
"Let me digress here! The feudal dynasty was a thoroughly patriarchal society, so by extinguishing human desire, they were actually extinguishing female desire. Just think about it, a woman's prime years were spent embroidering in her boudoir, waiting for a blind marriage..."
…
"Because you are as beautiful as a flower and time is passing like flowing water, I have searched for you everywhere. I feel sorry for myself in my secluded room."
"It's so well written, that's why we say that Chinese literature is both meaningful and emotional."
…
"Let's watch this part again!"
"When I see you, I cling to you, we cling to each other, I wish we could be like a piece of flesh, so that you look like rouge in the sun and fresh in the rain... When I walk, the spring scenery is three parts rain, and when I sleep, I am covered with clouds in Wushan."
"What does this say? It's about Du Liniang and Liu Mengmei secretly giving each other things. In ancient times, this was a very serious matter."
"In ancient times, especially after the Song Dynasty, female chastity was highly valued. Yet Du Liniang dared to break free and get together with Liu Mengmei without her parents' agreement or a matchmaker."
"This also shows Tang Xianzu's accusations against the unfair treatment of women! She understood Du Liniang's pain and also wrote about her bravery and boldness..."
"From ancient times to the present, we rarely talk about sex. Men can talk about it and go to brothels and prostitutes; women cannot. Women are expected to be polite and chaste."
"But Tang Xianzu's Awakening from a Dream shows that women also have sexual needs. This is what it means to be a pioneer. This is..."
…
"My mother gossiped me again."
"Du Liniang had a lustful dream, and then her mother gossiped about her."
"This highlights the contradiction between natural instincts and family rules and ethics, and the ruthless conflict between reality and ideals."
"It's natural for a young girl to yearn for love and a man, but Neo-Confucianism thinks this is wrong because they never paid attention to women, but only regarded them as foils and tools for reproduction."
…
After two classes, Huang Yaya really admires Tang Xianzu!
Many people nowadays have even more feudal ideas than those in his feudal dynasty. Women who dye their hair will be scolded to death, let alone someone like Du Liniang who takes the initiative to have sex with someone in the open!
Tang Xianzu is awesome, a great god among great gods. The phrases like "beauty like flowers, lingering like water" actually come from his "The Peony Pavilion"!
Compared to Shakespeare's Hamlet, which focuses on Hamlet's psychological activity of "to be or not to be", Tang Xianzu can better see the situation of women.
Two literary masters from different regions, two different philosophical propositions, one is "life and death" and the other is "reason and emotion".
They each have their own merits, but Tang Xianzu is Tang Xianzu, not some Eastern "Shakespeare."
He is the Tang Xianzu of China, a great dramatist. There is no need to use Shakespeare to highlight him because he is great in himself.
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