Wang Jide

Wang Jide

Wang Jide (1540-1623), a Ming opera theorist, was born in Kuaiji (now Shaoxing, Zhejiang Province). He was named Bo Liang, Fang Zhusheng, Yu Yangsheng, Fang Zhuxian and Qin Lou waishi. Both father and grandfather are good at opera, and there are hundreds of Yuan people's operas in the family. Influenced by his family, Ji De was fond of opera since he was a child. Weak crown inherited his father's order to rewrite his grandfather's "red leaf" as "red title", which had long been called a gifted son. In the early years of Shenzong Wanli (1573-1620), he was taught by Xu Wei, and was deeply instructed in the study of qu. Around the 20th year of Wanli, he once set up a seat in the official office of Mao Shounan, the magistrate of Shanyin County, to talk about art, and discussed Ci and music with Mao Yisui, the son of Shounan. He was more than an ancient diner.

Wang Jide's life was full of books and swords. He had been to Jinling, Weiyang and Wujiang, and traveled to the ancient cities of Kaifeng and Luoyang. In his later years, he went to Beijing to investigate the local conditions and customs of Dadu, the birthplace of Yuan zaju, and visited the hometown of Wang Shifu, the author of the romance of the Western chamber, to investigate the evolution of local dialects. In his life, he had contacts with famous dramatists at the same time, especially with LV Tiancheng, Shen Jing and Tang Xianzu.

He wrote a lot. His representative work of opera theory, qulv, is a systematic and comprehensive monograph on Qu theory. It is a peak of opera theory in the Ming Dynasty. Lu Tiancheng's Qupin autobiography says that this book has "the doctrines of merit and fame, which are listed in detail. It can really be said that it has been declining for eight generations and has great achievements.". Most of the legends and dramas have been lost. Today, there are only two kinds of dramas: tihong Ji and male queen. There are also poetry collection "Fang zhuguan collection" and Sanqu collection "Fang zhuguan Yuefu", which do not exist. The collation and annotation of Xixiangji is a better edition of collation and annotation which is handed down to the present.

Personal experience

Wang Jide (? ~ 1623) was a dramatist and critic in Ming Dynasty. Bo Liang, Bo Jun, Fang Zhusheng, another official of the Qin tower. Kuaiji (now Shaoxing, Zhejiang) people. Wang Jide is a disciple of Xu Wei. He also had a close relationship with Shen Jing and wrote a preface to Shen Jing's "Thirteen tunes of nanjiugong". He also received sun rufa's instruction in phonology and had close contacts with LV Tiancheng, Wang danweng, etc.

Wang Jide once wrote five kinds of zaju, but now there are only four kinds of legendary operas, the male queen and tihongji.

The first draft of tihongji was written by Wang Jide's grandfather when he was young. It was originally named "Hongye Ji", and was composed of the legend "Hongye poem". Wang Jide "slightly changed his language, not for a biography, changed the name" tihong ", and" male Queen "wrote that the king of Linchuan favored men, but the two plays were not good.

Wang Jide also wrote "Zhengyun of nanci", proofreading and annotating "Xixiangji" and "Pipa Ji". There are four volumes in poetry and prose, two volumes in Sanqu and four volumes in qulun. His new collation and annotation of the ancient version of the romance of the Western chamber is more elaborate in collation and annotation.

Although Wang Jide is the backbone of Wujiang school, he has a fair and pertinent evaluation of Shen Jing and Tang Xianzu.

Main works

Wang Jide once wrote five kinds of dramas, including male queen, two maids and two maids, abandoning officials to save friends, Jinwu Zhaohun and qiannu liuhun. Today, there are only male queen, four kinds of legendary dramas and one kind. The remnant of Shuanghuan Ji can be found in Qun Yin Lei Xuan. In addition, other editions of Chuanqi huikao Biao Mu include Tianfu Ji, Tiqu Ji, Tiao Chai son-in-law and Baihe Ji, but there are no other opera records, I don't know the basis, and there are no biographical editions. Only tihongji remains. "The male Queen" describes the king of Linchuan's love for men, but neither of the two plays is good.

Wang Jide's other works include two volumes: Zhengyun of nanci, separation and combination of sound and rhyme, fangzhuguan collection and fangzhuguan Yuefu. Quanming Sanqu collected 58 Xiaoling, 32 sets. Notes: the appendix of Wang Jide's qulv, Fang zhuguan Yuefu Jiyi, contains 61 Xiaoling and 31 sets of divertimento. Most of the content is a gift from the singer Mingji. Most of them have true feelings, vivid images and beautiful styles, and they are harmonious in tune and melody. For example, guizhixiang was sent to Yuanwei by Liu caichun, and Feng Menglong called it "graceful and beautiful". A cup of Hibiscus. Zhao Ji, the capital of China. Feng highly praised "elegant but not less" Xixiang ", whose leaf rhythm is really practice makes perfect." There are four volumes of Qu theory in Qu law, whose opera thoughts are mainly reflected in Qu law. Fang zhuguan's Qu law advocates not only paying attention to Qu law, but also paying attention to content and words. In particular, the composition and singing of Nanxi are elaborated in detail. The legend tihongji is very popular. Tang Xianzu once compared it with zixiaoji. The collation and annotation of Xixiangji "to prove the truth by classics and history, to prove the dialect by Yuan Opera" (Shenjing language) provides convenience for later generations, and has its own unique treatment in style and heading, so it is a better collation and annotation version that has been handed down to the present day.

Character evaluation

He said that Shen Jing was "good at Quxue, very good at law, and very rich in flood. It fully affirmed Shen Jing's achievements in standardizing the melody and opposing "desk drama". At the same time, he also pointed out the problem of "Wujiang abides by the law, pays attention to every inch, does not want to make a word obedient, but is extremely clumsy". He affirmed that Tang Xianzu was "interested in music", that his songs and Ci poems were "rampant, organized and skillful", and that his talent was wanton and his articles were moving. However, it also points out that Tang Xianzu's words and sentences are flat and narrow, which is slightly shorter than that of the method. Although he inherited Shen Jing's theory of rhythm, he was not limited to his family's opinions. Therefore, he made his qulv take the advantages of many families and go further than Shen.

Work evaluation

Qu LV plays an important role in Chinese classical works on Qu. The book consists of four volumes and 40 sections. It covers the origin, music, rhyme, characteristics and methods of opera. It also comments on many opera writers and works in Yuan and Ming Dynasties.

Qu LV discusses the source and the different styles of the northern and southern Qu. This paper describes the source of Diao name and Gong Diao, and adds 33 chapters of CI Diao to Shen Jing's nanqupu. When expounding the relationship between rhythm, music and singing, he basically accepted and inherited Shen Jing's viewpoint of "harmonizing rhythm and depending on tune". The author thinks that we should strictly abide by the rules and coordinate with singing in the following aspects: the tone of the characters should be flat, the four tones should be Yin and Yang, the consideration of the head, the discrimination of the pronunciation, and the use of the closed words. He thought that Zhou Deqing's Zhongyuan phonology was set up for Beiqu, the four tones of the northern and southern Qu were different, and the southern Qu had its own Southern voice. For this reason, he wrote "Zhengyun of nanci" to standardize Nanyin.

In terms of opera language, Wang Jide, like Shen Jing, advocated the original quality, which was equal to the head scarf style in the works of Qiu, Shao can and others in the early Ming Dynasty. However, Wang Jide and Shen Jing have different understandings of the nature. Shen Jing believes that the so-called "true color" refers to the use of folk slang. But Wang Jide thought that "the music portrays the material sentiment, is considerate to the human reason, takes the Weiqu Wanzhuan, speaks the word by the substitution". He didn't oppose the literary grace of opera language in a general way, but thought that "the disease of literary words is always too literary", and he didn't understand the essence unilaterally. It points out that "the disadvantages of nature are easy to be corrupted". He thinks that "the family of Yu Bense is only the one of Fengchang (Tang Xianzu), whose talent is between shallow and deep, thick and thin, refined and vulgar, which is the unique samadhi", and he tactfully criticizes Shen Jing's appreciation of individual "vulgar and vulgar" songs. This kind of understanding is better than Shen Jing.

Another main content of qulv is the discussion of the legendary composition, syntax and character. He advocated that we should pay attention to the structure of the frame and the details of the tailoring. "The key point in the biography is to pay attention to the spirit and try to give full play to it", the introduction should be "not obscure and not extensive", the passage should be "the big song should be elegant, but not too deep, the little song should be original, but not too vulgar"; the ending should be "the more spirit a song ends, the more beautiful the last sentence is", the object should be "clear and simple", and the haiku should be "refined by vulgarity" ”Wait. The part of "miscellaneous comments" in qulv mainly comments on the gains and losses of the writers of yuan and Ming Dynasties and the works of northern and southern qu. among them, there are many desirable comments on the writers and works of Yuan Zaju and the legends of Ming Dynasty. For example, he thinks that the category of hanxuzi in Taihe zhengyinpu is not accurate; Ma Zhiyuan is superior to the dramas of Huangliang dream and Yueyang Tower, which are all wonderful, but once he meets the beautiful feeling, his vigor will be hurt Wang Shifu wrote many other dramas besides "West Chamber" and "silk, bamboo and hibiscus Pavilion", and they were good at each other; on the other hand, they should look at the whole work, not judge it by individual words and sentences, and so on.

Most of the previous works on traditional Chinese opera focus on the brief comments on writers and works, recording the catalogue of works, anecdotes of writers and actors, as well as the simple records about the system, schools and methods of making music of traditional Chinese opera. For the first time, Wang Jide discussed the creation of Nanbei opera in detail. The emergence of this treatise has something to do with the prosperity of traditional Chinese opera in the middle of Ming Dynasty, the contribution of Shen Jing and others in the rhythm of traditional Chinese opera, and the controversy led by Shen and Tang in the field of traditional Chinese opera at that time.

Artistic achievements

A fair judgment on the confrontation between Shen and Tang

Wang Jide had a close relationship with Shen Jing and had a deep understanding of Shen Jing's dramatic ideas. Therefore, he also put great emphasis on temperament. Qu Lu itself is a monograph focusing on temperament. On many specific issues of temperament, he supplemented Shen Jing, deepened Shen Jing, and talked more carefully than Shen Jing. He also attached great importance to the role of temperament in the creation of traditional Chinese opera. However, Wang Jide's approval is that he also saw Shen Jing's shortcomings and Tang Xianzu's strengths. This is not easy for a theorist who has a close and friendly relationship with Shen Jing and his followers. It is a basic and difficult academic character for a theorist not to alienate himself from his relatives and decide his own theory.

Wang Ji