Li Yu

Li Yu

Li Yu (1611-1680), formerly known as Xianlu, was banished to fan and named Tiantu, but later changed his name to Yu, Lihong, Liweng, Jueshi official, lidaoren, master of Suian, Liweng on the lake, etc. Lanxi, Jinhua (now Zhejiang Province), was born in Chigao, South Zhili (now Rugao, Jiangsu Province). At the end of Ming Dynasty and the beginning of Qing Dynasty, he was a writer, dramatist, drama theorist and aesthetician. Known as a gifted man, he is known as "Li Shilang" in the world.

Li Yu has been intelligent since he was a child, and he is good at ancient Chinese words. Chongzhen ten years (1637), was admitted to Jinhua Fu Xiang, for the government students. After entering the Qing Dynasty, he had no intention of becoming an official and was engaged in writing and directing drama performances. In 1651, he moved to Hangzhou. Later, he moved to Jinling and built a "Mustard garden" for other businesses. He also opened bookstores, compiled books and made friends with high-ranking officials and literary celebrities. In the 16th year of Kangxi (1677), he returned to Hangzhou and built a "layer garden" at the eastern foot of Yunju. He died in 1680.

Li Yu once set up a troupe to perform in various places, thus accumulating rich experience in opera creation and performance, establishing a relatively perfect theoretical system of drama, and becoming an advocate of leisure culture and a pioneer of cultural industry. He wrote more than five million words in his life. His drama treatise "leisure and love" discusses drama literature from six aspects: structure, CI style, rhythm, guest's voice, gag and pattern, and drama performance from five aspects: Drama selection, tune changing, music teaching, Bai teaching and off set, which has greatly enriched and developed the theory of ancient Chinese drama. There are also ten songs of Li Weng (including kite mistake), Silent Drama (also known as Lian Cheng Bi), twelfth floor and Li Weng's family speech. He also reviewed the annals of the Three Kingdoms, revised the plum in the Golden Vase, and advocated compiling the biography of mustard garden paintings.

Life of the characters

Losing parents when young

Li Yu was born in Rugao on the North Bank of the Yangtze River Estuary on the seventh day of August in 1611. Li Yu's father, Li Rusong, and his uncle, Li Ruchun, are both merchants of Chinese herbal medicine in Rugao. Li Yu said in his book "business with Li Yu, Jingzhou prefect": "although Yu was born in Zhejiang, he was born in Chigao, and he had the same surname but also sang Zi."

Li Yu was a smart young man who could read when he was a baby. He never forgot "four books" and "Five Classics". He was able to write poems and write a thousand words when he was a general actor. Every year he engraved a poem on the Wutong tree in his backyard to warn himself not to waste his time. Li Yu's mother arranged Li Yu to study in an "old stork house" in Lipu town in order to make her son study in peace and honor his ancestors and learn from "three migrations of Meng Mu".

In 1629, Li Yu's father died in Rugao. At the age of 19, Li Yu lived in Rugao for three years.

In 1633, 23-year-old Li Yu helped his father's coffin back to Lanxi, where he came from, to enter his ancestral tomb. In the same year, he married the daughter of the Xu family in tangxu Village (now Shuiting township) and lived with her for a long time. Li Yu has been traveling for many times, but she is responsible for her good housekeeping. Li Yu affectionately calls her "mountain wife" in her works.

Failure in the imperial examination

In the eighth year of Chongzhen (1635), Li Yu went to Jinhua to participate in the children's test and became a five classics boy. The success of the first battle made Li Yu taste the sweetness of becoming famous by reading. He had more confidence and studied harder.

In 1639, Li Yu went to Hangzhou, the provincial capital, to take part in the local examination. He thought that he would win the exam, but he never expected that he would fall into the sun mountain. He wrote a letter to his friend who failed in the examination. On the first day of the next year, he wrote "the memory of the flute on the phoenix stage" and sighed for his fame.

In 1642, the last rural examination was held in the Ming Dynasty. Li Yu went to Hangzhou again to take the examination. Due to the turbulent situation, Li Yu heard the police returning to Lanxi. Soon, the social situation changed fundamentally. The Qing Dynasty's iron cavalry swept the south of the Yangtze River, and the Ming Dynasty was in a precarious situation. In the face of a national crisis, Li Yu's pursuit of fame and fame has come to nothing. At this time, Li Yu is frustrated and disconsolate. This year's Qingming Festival, when he was visiting the tomb of Xianci, he had mixed feelings, felt guilty and cried.

Soon after, he was invited by the new minister of Wuzhou, Xu Xicai, to serve as an advisor. Later, he met Zhu Meixi, the new magistrate. They shared the same interests and had close contacts. Once, Zhu Meisheng invited Li Yu to visit the bayong building in the South East corner of the city, and asked him to write couplets for the building to make up for the lack of couplets. Li Yu immediately wrote a couplet: "it's hard to make a sentence after Shen Lang's leaving, but Wu Nu's leading role is not to pick up the stars.". Zhu Meixi ordered people to make plaques and hang them on the pillars.

In the second year of Shunzhi (1645), the Qing army invaded Jinhua. The building was damaged and the couplet was destroyed. Li Yu was forced to leave Jinhua and return to Lanxi.

Hermit Garden

In August of the third year of Shunzhi (1646), the Qing army captured Jinhua, "Wucheng captured the southwest corner, and its head fell like rain on three days.". Li Yu, who failed in his official career and suffered from war, returned to his hometown and lived in Xiali. The Qing government issued the order of shaving. Although Li Yu was strongly dissatisfied with this atrocity that hurt the national self-esteem, he shaved it in order to protect his life and called himself "crazy slave".

Li Yu, known as a "literate farmer", built his own paradise Yishan bieye (i.e. Yiyuan) by the "ruins and tombs of ancestors" at the top of Yishan mountain, and wrote poems such as Yiyuan Shibian and Yiyuan Shiyi. He decided to learn from Wang Wei, a poet of the Tang Dynasty, to live in seclusion in Yishan and die here. Before that, he also wrote the ode to his hometown, which deeply felt that it was difficult to walk, and the meaning of seclusion was expressed between the lines.

Li Yu was very concerned about the village's public welfare. He led the construction of a pavilion beside the main road at the entrance of the village. It was named "Qiting Pavilion", and the couplet said: "the name is good, the road is busy, the people who come and go are quiet and stop.". This pavilion and couplet have been praised by later generations and listed as one of the "top ten pavilions in China". He also advocated the construction of water conservancy, actively led the construction of four weirs and dams such as shipingba, and excavated six rivers and ditches such as yikeng, which made the drought prone loess hilly area form "artesian irrigation" and improved the farmland water conservancy, and the villagers have benefited so far. According to the genealogy of the Li family in Longmen, "in Shiping after Yishan, during the Shunzhi period, Li Weng regained his solid position. At that time, at the foot of Mt. Yi, Li Zhifang was suitable to be appointed as the punishment Department of Jinhua mansion. He had a good bus with Li Weng and asked for a license plate. He dug a weir pit in the field from Tianshu at Shiping, and then stopped at the pavilion. He wanted to turn around the house at the foot of Mt. Yi. The general will is to make Tian He's envoy pay more attention, and to take advantage of the boat to suit the situation. " The descendants of shipingba are known as "liyuba".

In 1651, Li Yu was promoted to be the Prime Minister of the ancestral hall. He ordered about 13 items of ancestral hall and presided over the compilation of the genealogy of Li family in Longmen, which was deeply respected by the villagers. In this year, Li Yu was involved in a lawsuit with Hu Village in Shengtang during the construction of water conservancy project. Later, the lawsuit was terminated because "Hu's surname was treacherous and things didn't work out as he wanted.". This made Li Yu sprout the idea of developing his career in Hangzhou. So he wrote "selling mountain coupons", sold Yiyuan, which he had built and enjoyed all day, and moved his family to Hangzhou to find a new way to start a business.

Send Ping to Wulin

Li Yu inscribed his residence in Hangzhou as "Wulin Xiaozhu" and lived here temporarily. I'm new here and I'm not familiar with my life and land. Although I have friends to help me, I'm still in a very difficult situation. However, Li Yu was not discouraged. He knew that there must be a way for him to make a living in such a big city. For a period of time, he left his footprints and figures in Hangzhou's streets and alleys, theatres and bookstores. In constant contact, observation and understanding, he found that in this bustling city, from the rich gentlemen and doctors to ordinary citizens, he had a strong interest in drama and novels, and he just had the expertise in this field. On the one hand, he could solve the problem of "selling Fu to make his mouth water" On the other hand, they can make a living in Hangzhou and live in seclusion in the marketplace. With a definite idea, he resolutely chose a road of "selling writing", which had never been taken before and was regarded as "cheap industry" by the people of that time, and began his writing career as the first professional writer in Chinese history who "sold Fu to make a living".

In 1653, Li Yu returned to Rugao, where he had been born for 20 years, and made friends in Rugao and Tongzhou. After nine months, he wrote poems about his elder brother (Li Mao's tomb is in Rugao).

During his stay in Hangzhou, he wrote six legends such as lianxiangban, kite mistake, yizhongyuan, yuzuotou and two collections of vernacular short stories such as silent drama and twelfth floor.

After Li Yu lived in Hangzhou for several years, with the continuous publication of his works, "Li Weng on the lake" has become a well-known literary newcomer. His works spread all over the world at an astonishing speed. Some illegal Booksellers in Hangzhou, Suzhou, Nanjing and other places tried their best to make huge profits by copying them privately. At that time, when there was no means of transportation, Li Weng's new works could be seen in a few days and three thousand miles away. Some simply take the works of an unknown author and publish them under the name of "Li Weng on the lake" to deceive readers. The illegal bookseller's unscrupulous act of profiteering not only infringed his copyright, but also greatly affected his reputation and economic income. In order to defend copyright, he bravely stood up and fought against it unremittingly. On the one hand, he asked the government to do justice for him and sent messages; on the other hand, he ran around with his son-in-law, Shen Xinyou, to negotiate with him. It can be said that Li Yu is the first publisher with copyright consciousness in China, and also the first writer to defend his own copyright. However, due to the lack of legal protection of intellectual property rights in the society at that time, the phenomenon of piracy still couldn't be prevented, which made Li Yu busy negotiating and sighing. Among them, Jinling（

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