Jiao Zhongqing

Jiao Zhongqing

Jiao Zhongqing, from the Peacock Flying Southeast, is a small official of Lujiang County in the late Eastern Han Dynasty. He died together with his wife Liu Lanzhi. He is an artistic image with distinct character and rich connotation.

brief introduction

For the sake of his love and the happy life of himself and Lanzhi, Zhongqing has been fighting bravely and step by step in the face of the persecution of feudal patriarchal ethics and feudal patriarchal autocracy. Just because he was a feudal scholar who had learned a lot from a young age, received good Confucian education, and made progress in his official career when he was an adult, and also because he was a son raised by a widowed parent, his identity and experience made his form of resistance different from that of Liu Lanzhi. At the beginning of the story, he returns home from the county. When Lanzhi tells him the cause of the contradiction between his mother-in-law and his daughter-in-law, and asks him to make a choice for their marriage and love, we can see that Zhongqing doesn't take the way of silence and inaction, or making peace with each other and playing fifty big boards in the conflicts between his mother-in-law and daughter-in-law, like the ordinary cowardly men, but does not hesitate to protect Lanzhi and serve him To protect their marriage and love, they went to admonish their mother and prevent her from harming Lanzhi. He said to his mother, "my son has lost his fortune. Fortunately, he got back to this woman and made friends with her. After working together for two or three years, I haven't been working for a long time, and I'm not biased in my career. What's the point? " He said this in a proper way with mental intelligence. He first explained that he was not a rich man, but just a poor taxi. It was a fluke for him to marry Liu Lanzhi, a beautiful, virtuous and hardworking wife. Then he said that he and Lanzhi fell in love with each other, had deep feelings, and wanted to accompany each other all his life. Finally, he turned to defend himself and accused his mother of being mean to her when Lanzhi's character was unbiased ？ What a clear attitude, what a clear emotional tendency, and what a reasonable and effective way to resist autocratic parents? Next, when Jiao's mother rudely and severely refused his request, and tendered him with the condition of marrying a beautiful woman again, Jiao Zhongqing not only didn't shrink back under Jiao's mother's threat and inducement, but further fought: "if you send this woman now, you will never marry again!" Jiao Zhongqing resisted his mother's autocratic parents by refusing to marry all his life. Under the control of feudal ethics, Jiao Zhongqing did not respect his parents and serve filial piety, which made him bear the charge of violating human ethics. It was also the most powerful means for him to fight against Jiao's mother as an autocratic parent in the form of individual in the blood relationship. Isn't this the most direct and courageous resistance? We can't ask Jiao Zhongqing, who lived in the last years of the Eastern Han Dynasty and read "four books" and "Five Classics", to resort to the law in order to maintain his marriage and love with Liu Lanzhi, or take Lanzhi to live independently from his mother. When Jiao Zhongqing resisted the feudal parents to destroy his marriage and love, what he could do in an individual, peaceful and rational way was to admonish him, argue with reason, and fight back with no marriage for life. When the autocratic and indifferent Jiao's mother loses her mind and goes her own way, Jiao Zhongqing hopes to weaken the contradiction between her mother-in-law and daughter-in-law through temporary compromise: he comforts Lanzhi to return to her mother's house for a while, in order to eliminate Jiao's hostility to Lanzhi through separation, and make Jiao's mother change her mind during the time when there is no conflict. Jiao Zhongqing's compromise is not weakness and cowardice, but an active and realistic action to protect their marriage and love. However, the love between Zhongqing and Lanzhi is not only destroyed by Jiao's mother, who is an autocratic parent, but also by Liu Lanzhi, who is also an autocratic parent. What Jiao Zhongqing never expected was that Lanzhi was forced to remarry after Lanzhi returned to her mother's home, because her tyrannical brother didn't give them time to guard their love. It's something he and Lange can't control. He was desperate because all his efforts failed in the end and was determined to die. In the works, we can see that when Jiao Zhongqing faced the complete destruction of their marriage and love, he first proposed his intention to die to Lanzhi. After obtaining Lanzhi's approval, he immediately went home to prepare for his own death. Even in the face of Jiao Mu's plea, he did not change the choice he made with Lanzhi. Zhongqing was determined to die in return for Lanzhi's love for him. For Lanzhi, who is beautiful, virtuous, kind, versatile, hardworking and deeply in love with his wife, he can't protect her and give her a happy life. He can only show his love for her by dying. Secondly, Zhongqing's choice of death was also a strong resistance to the feudal ethics and the feudal patriarchal autocratic system which destroyed the love between him and Lanzhi and destroyed their happy life. Zhongqing was a young man who attached great importance to feelings, understood love, loved his wife and his mother. When he said goodbye to his mother before he died, his sad words clearly showed his deep ethical love of blood relatives. However, in the process of the destruction of his love with Lanzhi, he clearly saw the cruelty of his mother, a feudal parent with feudal ethics and autocratic tyrant. He decided to respond to his mother's destruction of his marriage and love with death. In essence, he fought to the whole feudal autocratic society and feudal patriarchal ethics to defend himself The dignity of life, to maintain their good love. Is such resistance not brave enough, direct and thorough enough? Although Jiao Zhongqing did try to rebel against his mother, we can still see that Jiao didn't care much when Liu Lanzhi was asked to marry him for the first time. After hearing that Liu Lanzhi was going to get married, he was forced to meet Liu Lanzhi. When he agreed to die together, he hanged himself after hearing that Liu Lanzhi was dead. As a matter of fact, Jiao Zhongqing symbolized the representative of Confucian men who pursued love in ancient times. Under the oppression of social atmosphere, he was a cowardly man who could not disobey his mother. He could not bear the dual oppression of family affection and love, and finally gave birth to a tragedy that has been handed down through the ages.

Traditional view

The tragic reasons for Jiao Zhongqing and Liu Lanzhi's death are as follows

Peacock Flying Southeast is the greatest poem in ancient Chinese folk narrative poetry, which represents the peak of the development of Han Yuefu folk songs. There are different opinions on the tragic reasons for the death of the protagonists Jiao Zhongqing and Liu Lanzhi. There are mainly "family status theory", "Yueli theory", "conservative theory" and "love theory". (1) some comrades believe that since Jiao Zhongqing is a "great master" and "an official in Taige", he has status and status, but Liu Lanzhi is just a village girl who "grew up in the wild", which is very different from Jiao Zhongqing. Therefore, "it's wrong that the marriage between the two families should be separated from each other.". "The door is not right, the face is not bright", so Jiao's mother must resolutely oppose this marriage. If a lover can't be a family member, the tragedy of both dying for love occurs. (2) according to Jiao's mother's words, some commentators of Yue Li theory infer that Liu Lanzhi's expulsion was the result of her "lack of etiquette" and "acting on her own", disobeying her mother-in-law and acting willfully. (3) the conservative comrades who hold this view compare Liu Lanzhi with the anonymous in Shangxie, Qin Luofu in Moshangsang and the heroine in Yousi. They think that Liu Lanzhi's passive death for love is due to her weakness. This "weakness" is due to the role of "conservative psychology". Therefore, Jiao Liu's love tragedy "is the inevitable result of the combination of reactionary feudal social forces and backward feudal conservative psychology". (4) according to the statement of "son is suitable for his wife, parents are not happy, out" in the book of rites, some comrades think that Liu Lanzhi is not tolerated by Jiao's mother, because Jiao Zhongqing "is suitable for his wife", and transfers his former feelings towards his mother to his wife, which causes Jiao's mother's sense of loss and dissatisfaction.

Deep analysis

The tragic reasons for Jiao Zhongqing and Liu Lanzhi's death are as follows

the above four viewpoints are reasonable to explore the causes of Jiao Liu's love tragedy from different angles. But I think the reason is still weak, and some views are difficult to agree with. "Family status theory" can not explain the following two problems: (1) since the two families are improper, why did Liu Lanzhi's mother not object when she married to Jiao's family? (2) Jiao's mother thinks Liu Lanzhi doesn't deserve her son. Why do county magistrate and prefect like Liu and send matchmaker to propose marriage? Don't they have more status than Jiao Zhongqing? In fact, in the Jian'an period at the end of the Han Dynasty when Peacock Flies Southeast, feudal ethics had not yet formed a complete ideological system, and the imprisonment of women was not severe. For example, the remarriage of women was a completely normal phenomenon at that time, and it was not a matter of humiliation. This can be proved by the fact that Liu Lanzhi was retired by Jiao's mother to her mother's home, and the county magistrate and the prefect sent the media to talk with each other. In a similar situation, Cai Wenji first married the Xiongnu River East Wei Zhongdao, and then married the Xiongnu Zuoxian king. Cao Cao redeemed it with Jinbi and then agreed to marry Dongsi. Although she remarried three times, she did not lose her value. And the story of Zhuo Wenjun running to Sima Xiangru and returning to Chengdu at night is still a beautiful story? It can be seen that the theory of family status is untenable. The concept of "family status" began in Wei and Jin Dynasties. "Yue Li theory" can not be established. It is very clear in the poem that Liu Lanzhi is a virtuous daughter-in-law who "serves his father and grandmother" and "provides for his great kindness". What she said by herself is actually self modesty, which is against the background of her knowledge and propriety. Even to her cruel mother-in-law and brother-in-law, she is patient and obedient, never contradicting and so on. The argument of "conservative theory" is not enough. The fact that Jiao and Liu died for love is a reflection of "weakness", but objectively speaking, it can not be proved

Chinese PinYin : Jiao Zhong Qing