"Peach Blossom Fan" West Garden carved book. During the Kangxi and Yongzheng periods, according to the Kangxi re-engraved version, there are many kinds of re-engraved copies. ）
The twenty-first play of Kong Shangren's "Peach Blossom Fan" is called "Mei Zuo". The song is during the period of Nanjing Nanming Hongguang (1644-1645), one day when the guests of the Ma Xiangfu feasted and the wine was hot, Ruan Dacheng led Zhang Sunzhen and other colleagues to flatter Ma Shiying, a cabinet university scholar who supported the first merit of King Fu, and said: "Late students and other abolished members are avoided and used, and the teacher is the country's mouth, which is really like Zhou Gonggong." Wouldn't it be said that Ma Shiying has the virtue of Zhou Gong's spitting and feeding, and Ruan Ziqian's "late birth" will make history laugh. "Ming History Traitor" records, "Ma Shiying, a native of Guiyang. In the forty-fourth year of Wanli, he took the same test with Huaining Ruan Dacheng. It can be seen that Ruan Dacheng, who calls himself a "late student", is of the same generation as Ma Shiying, and he has neither worshiped the dock nor his protégé, how can there be a "late student"? However, the flatterer bends to the best of his ability in order to meet the trend.
In fact, as far as Ruan Dacheng is concerned, perhaps his talent is not less than Ma Shiying. Especially in terms of literary talent and status, he is not inferior to Ma Shiying. As we all know, the opera of the Yuan and Ming dynasties was a time when the history of Chinese opera was mottled and brilliant, and the opera was popular in the government and the opposition, becoming fashionable and a grand spectacle. Tang Xianzu's "Four Records of Linchuan" (also known as "Four Dreams of Linchuan"), especially the "Soul Restoration" in the "Four Notes", that is, "The Peony Pavilion", has become a mountain of difficulty and transcendence in Chinese opera. and Ruan Dacheng, who was born in Tongcheng, Anhui Province, the most prolific literati in the Ming and Qing dynasties, was the most accomplished opera master in the late Ming Dynasty. His "Four Kinds of Stone Nests" ("Spring Lantern Riddle", "Swallow Notes", "Double Gold List", "Mu Nihe") is brilliant and catches up with Tang Gong. However, Ruan Dacheng is a person with no integrity. First to Donglin, and then to Wei Gelding. "History of the Ming Dynasty" contains, the apocalypse is not, and Chongzhen stands. When Wei Zhongxian was punished, Ruan Dacheng sent a secret letter to "impeach Cui and Wei". When we arrived at Hongguang, we saw the jokes and farces of "Peach Blossom Fan Charming Seat", which called itself "late life".
Qu Ying, sycophancy, and flattery have become a long-standing picture of Chinese officialdom, and they are also a face of "literati have no line", which we are not unfamiliar with and are accustomed to. Good words are listened to, good words are easy to say, maybe human nature. But on the other side of the good words, if the package does not contain evil intentions, and does not include the interests of the good speakers themselves, it is difficult to talk about the needs of the speakers and the listeners. Maybe that's not all. The problem is that not everyone can accept the truth, the truth, and the straight talk, especially the truth, the truth, and the straight talk, which point directly to the wrong. Even Li Shimin, who "follows the advice and follows the stream", was so angry that he lost his mind under Wei Zheng's direct advice, if it weren't for the persuasion of a virtuous lady and a lady eldest grandson, maybe Tang Taizong would have really killed Wei Zheng, the counselor who was scolded as a "hillbilly" by Tang Taizong. History cannot be assumed, but history can be used as a mirror. And now the question is, where does "charm" come from? Listen to good words, human nature; It is human nature to say good things. Or is there another reason? Let's talk about the Ming Dynasty. Since Zhengde and Jiajing in the Ming Dynasty, especially from the middle and late Wanli to the Apocalypse, the wind of sycophancy has become a grand view of the government and the opposition. In the "History of the Ming Dynasty", none of the eunuchs and ministers in the biography of "Eunuch Party" and "Yu Xing" are not sycophants and flatterers. In the later period of the Ming Dynasty, as stated in "Ming History Zhuang Lie Emperor II", "festering and irretrievable". In "No Help", sycophancy accelerates this process, which is a manifestation of history to our present. Where did "Meiza" come from and why was it born? "History of the Ming Dynasty" "The Biography of Yan Maoqing" wrote that "Maoqing is conceited with his talents, and when he sees Yan Song's authority, he is deeply attached to it". This is a very insightful commentary and assertion. Power is immersed in all levels of society, power loses the mind, and power makes people profitable. The power of the feudal dynasty is not authorized by the people, and because of the linear layout of power, which means that the trapezoidal structure of power will inevitably become a pattern of "crushing people to death at the level of officials and universities". The truth is hard to hear, and the words of criticism are even harder! Speaking good words, listening to good words, and as for the combination of flattery and flattery, it has become the "grand scene" of "Peach Blossom Fan Charming Seat" that we see. In this, of course, personal ethics is responsible for this, and it is also ridiculed and reprimanded, but the other side of personal ethics requires a kind of historical inquiry and contemporary thinking.
Talking about literature and history should not make the topic heavy. However, this heaviness is not without significance. Take the short-lived Hongguang period of the Southern Ming Dynasty as an example, at that time, most of the mountains and rivers were guarded, one had the Yangtze River natural danger, the second was the rich land in the south of the Yangtze River, and the third was like Shi Kefa's hundreds of thousands of troops, but they were still singing backyard flowers, still drunk and dreaming of death, still flattering and flattering, still fighting for power, and still tyrannizing people's wealth (Qian Qianyi dedicated Hongguang to set up the East Palace on the day he was canonized by the Ministry of Rites, and then selected ladies everywhere) quickly went to extinction. In this regard, it can only be hated, not regretted. In particular, the redemption of nationalist ideas (including the Qing Dynasty with the fall of Ruan Dacheng) can make people lose their minds. Okay, now back to the topic of "flattery" in Kong Shangren's "Peach Blossom Fan". "Peach Blossom Fan" added twenty-one "Lonely Yin" and wrote: "The old guests have no home, and each garden cup persuades themselves, and he is peaceful in the court, and he watches and performs "Peach Blossom Fan". He congratulated the peace of the court, watched the performance of "Peach Blossom Fan", whether it was to praise the world, to praise the holy right, or to praise the dynasty, or to praise every year, this kind of "ode" of the whole society, and at the same time suppress the words of the contrary, it is not necessarily a good thing. Most likely, it will paralyze our nerves, slack our enterprising spirit, or breed a social ethos like "flattery". In fact, for the author of "Peach Blossom Fan", Kong Shangren has something else to say about it. At the end of the fortieth episode of "Peach Blossom Fan", Kong Shangren wrote: "On the bank of the Longtan River, fishing for three years, some old things about the rise and fall of the wind and the moon are chatted."
It turns out that a "Peach Blossom Fan" is not only about the "Fengyue" rhyme between the famous man Hou Gongzi in Jiangnan and Li Xiangjun, who is good at color and art, but a "rise and fall of old things" that focuses on a certain dynasty! It turns out that "Meiza" can be associated with "rise and fall". Or whether it is "flattering" or not is one of the footnotes and joints of "rise and fall", and it may be one of the important footnotes and major joints.
November 2013 in Xuzhou.