This set of tunes is a masterpiece of Guan Hanqing's prose compositions. The whole piece uses vivid similes to write about the character and talent of a talented person in a book club, with the style of spicy and witty folk lyrics. "I am a copper pea that can't be steamed, boiled, pummeled, fried or rattled." This is the self-portrait of Guan Hanqing's tough and tenacious character. It is this kind of character that enables him to engage in the creation of miscellaneous dramas throughout his life and write a great work. Bai Pu's words and songs are of another style. He generally paid attention to the mood, and was able to harmoniously use scenery and objects to set off the psychology of the characters. Although many of his works are also the expression of grief and sorrow, but very little of the general problem of frivolous vulgarity in the prose song, the text is clear, quite poetic.
In accordance with the song text, this suite as in the middle-aged, when its time, the Yuan-Meng aristocrats on the Han Chinese scholar discrimination, war and chaos caused by the upheaval of people's lives, coupled with the abolition of the imperial examinations and blocked the career path, and therefore most of the intellectuals in the early Yuan failed to meet the challenge of "sinking suppression of bureaucrats", fell to the "eight prostitutes, nine Confucianism, ten, and so on. "eight prostitutes nine Confucian ten beggars". At the time of rapid polarization within the literati group, Guan Hanqing chose his own independent way of life; in particular, the vicissitudes of the years of refinement, the experience of the hook fence life, so that he developed an increasingly mature personality, that is, able to break through the "seek employment", "return to seclusion" the That is, to break through the barriers of the two traditional literati modes of life; that is, to dare to fly down a living person with the entire feudal norms; that is, to embody a new sense of life that "heaven and earth have opened up, and throughout the ages, there are ghosts of immortality" (Zhong Sucheng, "Preface to the Book of Recorded Ghosts"). It is in this suite that the poet's brushstrokes bring the reader into such a profound spiritual world.
In the first song [A Branch of Flowers], the poet renders in strong colors the romantic life of the prodigal son who "bends the willow and climbs the flower" and "sleeps on the flower and lies on the willow". "Climbing out of the wall flowers, folding willow branches on the road", in the sentence "out of the wall flowers" and "willow on the road" are alluding to prostitutes, "climbing flowers and folding willow", refers to the work of prostitutes. ", refers to the world's disdain for the pursuit of happiness and apathy, the poet consciously will not cover it to the end of the pen, is precisely the embodiment of his contempt for the feudal norms and cynicism of life. Therefore, the poet in the first song in just nine lines of poetry, even breath even used six "flowers", "willow". "Flowers climb the red stamen tender, willow folding cui stripes soft" - this is to say: climbing flowers and folding willow to climb the tender red stamen, folding soft cui stripes.
"With my willow climbing flowers hand, straight to the flowers and willow defeat rest."
"With my willow and flower climbing hand, I will kill the flowers and willows." -- This is to show his means of romance. The romantic and indulgent life interest in the brothel, which is not inevitably exudes some of the bad habits of the city, the poet's this mood is essentially a mockery of the secular concepts and the affirmation of the free life. "Prodigal Son" is the comment he made to himself. "Prodigal son", this is the image of debauchery, in this more with a kind of unwilling to humiliate and I do my own meaning, and thus the final line wrote: "half a life to fold the willow and climb the flowers, a life in the sleep of flowers lying on the willow". Half a lifetime" is a summary of the poet's own career of "occasionally advocating excellence without resignation" ("Preface to Selected Yuanqu Songs"); "a lifetime" is an indication of his intentional pursuit throughout his life.
With the change of the tune, the low tone of the "Prelude" becomes clear and clear, and the tone is high: "I am a universal leader of the Langjun, the prodigal son of the world's leader". The terms "Langjun" and "Prodigal Son" generally refer to playboys who hang out with prostitutes. And the secular concept is precisely to use this as a derogatory, and with the courtesans with the book club talent as non-class. Guan Hanqing, however, the opposite of derogatory for positive, back to the way, in favor of "Langjun leader", "prodigal son of the class head" to call themselves. It is not difficult to find, in this seemingly witty and frivolous, but also clearly reveals a kind of mockery of the dark reality and the value of self-existence of the exaltation. However, the reality of inhuman encounters, after all, has also produced "very much wine very sad" ("New Water Order"), so "I wish that the face does not change often remains the same, flowers in the pastime, wine to forget". But once intoxicated in the atmosphere of free and joyful life, "sharing tea_bamboo, playing horses and hiding lots, the five tones and six rhythms are slippery and familiar", and then suddenly felt "what idle sorrows come to my heart?" Then, the poet used three consecutive lines to express the various kinds of life in the courtesan court, and the satisfaction and self-gratification that came from it: I had been the companion of a singing girl, plucking the strings of the zither in front of the dressing table, and laughing heartily, so that we leaned comfortably against the screen; I had been the companion of a beautiful woman, and I felt sweet to carry that white hand, and we ascended the high building side by side, and how joyful we were; I had been the companion of a dancing girl, and I had been the companion of a piece of "Golden Skeleton Clothes", and I held my hand in a cup of tea, which was really touching. I was accompanied by a dancer, a song of "Golden Skeleton," which really moved my heart, and I held up a wine cup, which was filled with fine wine and good wine. In the poem, the author intentionally chose the cyclic narrative form, enthusiastically displaying the free and unrestrained interest in life, thus showing his extremely distinctive attitude towards life. Precisely for this reason, when some people persuade him to "old, temporary rest", the poet will be categorically denied: "occupying the platoon of the wind and moon and fame first, more delicate and transparent." "Occupy the rehearsal hall", this is the Song and Yuan Dynasty on the opera, skill performance of the special title. Obviously, Guan Hanqing "account for the rehearsal" as the "wind and moon" of the first, already does not mean that the pursuit of happiness and apathetic to prostitutes and so on over the top words, but seriously "compilation of miscellaneous operas, composing lyrics and songs" as their own career and ideal. It is also based on this, he is "more delicate and penetrating", only to show the determination of vowing not to ambush (serve) old age. However, people do not serve the old, after all, gradually old, so [at the end of] in the "son of every" two sentences, there is a faint hint of sadness, "son of every is a thatched grass, sandy soil nest of the newborn rabbit and lamb, at first to the paddock (hunting place, this refers to the brothel) on the go", and "I" I have been "caged and netted" by the "old pheasant with pale plumes". However, this moment of sadness and quickly with the emotional impulse and dissipate, all of this is just some "nest bow cold arrow wax gun head", the poet and "have not been behind", so although said" "I've never been behind others", so although he said, "'I'm in my middle age, I've never done anything', how can I spend my spring and fall in vain?" -- once again expresses the poet's firm belief in cherishing time and willingly dedicating himself to his ideals.
The first three songs in the emotional turmoil only reflects the poet's external state of mind, in the [end] song, the mood of the "prodigal son" has reached a climax, the poet's inner spiritual power to force people to come: "I'm a steaming, boiling, not cooked, pounding not plaque, frying not explode, ringing __ a grain of copper! I am a copper pea. "Copper peas" is originally a cut of the old apathetic customers in Yuan Dynasty brothels, but here the poet cleverly uses puns to describe the five strings of plant beans to modify the "copper peas", thus giving it a tough and unyielding, and the world's resistance to the characteristics. By using this technique, it is bold and spicy, and accurately shows the character of "Copper Pea". These long sentences, in fact, are composed of a series of three-word phrases arranged in an orderly manner, thus giving people a feeling of comfort in combining long and short phrases. In the five strings of lining characters, a kind of agitation and unyieldingness for the world's intolerance is embodied, and a kind of anger and dissatisfaction with the traditional norms is ejected. When people in the reality of the destruction and repression, the poet's vision of their own inevitably turned into a sad, helpless mood. The words "who taught you" typify the painful convulsions prompted by Guan Hanqing's sympathy for his own fall into the brothel's "brocade trap" (a trap, a snare). Here, Guan Hanqing shows a kind of spirit: the persistence to freedom, the pursuit of life, his anger, his struggle, his laughter, but also this kind of nine deaths without remorse for the spirit of the reverberation. It is because of the poet's strong dissatisfaction with the dark social reality, it is because of his resolute non-cooperation attitude towards the ruling class, Guan Hanqing used extreme language to exaggerate his full life that completely civilized the book club talents: "I also know how to play Go, Cuju, will play the siege, will be inserted into the section, will sing and dance, will play, will swallow for, will recite poems, will be a dual-landing". I can also sing and dance, blow and play, swallow and compose, recite poetry, and double land. In this bold and slightly exaggerated tone, in this talent, all the arts of the spread, in fact, a deep sense of pride, a in the feudal concept of the suppression of personal wisdom and strength of self-confidence. At this point, the poet's brush and a turn, in the heroic tone of the whole song on the basis of emotion has reached the strongest tone: "You are the fall of my teeth, crooked my mouth, crippled my legs, folded my hands, God has given me a few of these children with the wrong symptoms, but also since (still since) refused to rest! In addition to the King of Hell himself called, the gods and ghosts come to hook, three souls to hell, seven souls lost in the underworld (netherworld) God, that in the meantime not to the fireworks on the road to go!" Since he has a firm belief in life, he dares to defy all the pain and even death; since life belongs to people themselves, then they should complete life according to their own ideals, and firmly "to the fireworks on the road". This pursuit of the eternal value of life, and the negation of death as the end of the meaning of life, is exactly where the witty and optimistic spiritual power of the poem lies.
Artistically, the greatest feature of this piece of prose is the addition of a large number of liner notes, the skillful use of prose and serial sentences, resulting in a kind of rhythmic boring_artistic infectivity. For example, [end] in the song, "you are the fall of my teeth" sentence, the forward flow of a group of liner notes naturally cause emotional excitement in the rhythm of the rush, rough, resounding, powerful performance of the poet to the "fireworks on the road to go," the determination of the tenacity. The addition of liner notes breaks through the word limitations, allowing the number of words in the tune to increase or decrease freely with the recurrence of the melody, which better solves the contradiction between the neat and monotonous number of words in the poem and the complex changes in the rhythm and melody of the music. At the same time, the liner notes also have the function of making the language spoken and popularized, and making the meaning of the song witty and lively, and exhausting the appearance. The whole song is straight down, but there are several twists and turns, three songs in the "temporary rest", "everything rests" and other moods of contemplation, but also often is the line of staccato move, the strength of the dark turn of the place, read as if witnessing the three gorges of the waves of the situation, all have a kind of robust and bold, rich in rhythmic beauty.
This set of prose songs not only reflects Guan Hanqing often hanging out in the city and the appearance of the life of the green house, but also to the "wind flow of the prodigal son" boast, become a bold declaration of rebellion against the value system of feudal society. The tradition of the scholars is clearly "provocative". This choice of life is of course due to specific historical circumstances, but Guan Hanqing's self-description is full of high spirits, witty mood, compared to the customary dependence on the political power of the mentality of scholars, this spirit of love for freedom is very valuable. Guan Hanqing is not only a "flirtatious prodigal son". On the one hand, he advocated that "life is nobly moderate" and timely enjoyment, and at the same time, he showed strong concern for society, sympathy and praise for the weak and oppressed in society, which is very different from the attitude of sympathy for the people shown by many literati with the status of officials out of a sense of political responsibility, and here there is little conceptual content, but more of an individual's role in society. Here there are few conceptual elements, but more personal feelings in society, from the depths of the heart of the real emotions. The song is heavy in color and ink, and the layers of coloring are concentrated and exaggerated to portray the image of the "Prodigal Son", which is certainly the shadow of Guan himself, and can also be regarded as a reflection of the spiritual outlook of the talented people of the Book Club, represented by Guan. Of course, the cynical and playful attitude of life deliberately rendered in the song is not desirable. Combined with the specific historical environment of the Yuan Dynasty, it is not difficult to find that the image of the "prodigal son" embodies the spirit of rebellion against the traditional moral norms of the literati, the sense of individuality of life that is free to do whatever one pleases, as well as the indomitable and tenacious will to fight. In fact, it is a manifestation of a new type of literati personality identified with civic consciousness and civic culture.