Tang Xianzu

Tang Xianzu

Tang Xianzu (September 24, 1550 - July 29, 1616) was born in Linchuan, Jiangxi Province. His name is Hai Ruo, Ruoshi and Qingyuan Taoist. He is a dramatist and writer of Ming Dynasty. His ancestral home is Yunshan Township, Linchuan County, and later he moved to Tangjiashan (now Fuzhou City).

Born in a scholarly family, he has a long history of talent. He is not only good at ancient poetry, but also good at astronomy, geography, medicine and divination. In the 11th year of Wanli (1583), he was a Jinshi. In Nanjing, he successively served as the doctor of Taichang temple, the chief bookkeeper of Zhan Shifu and the chief priest of Li Bu temple. Ming Wanli nineteen years (1591) witnessed bureaucratic corruption and anger at the time, "on the Assistant Minister Chen Shu Shu", which angered the emperor and was derogated as the history of Xuwen, and later transferred to Suichang magistrate in Zhejiang. After five years in office, her achievements were brilliant, but because of the repression of powerful and infuriated officials and the opposition of the local forces, Wanli twenty-six years later (1598) was angry and abandoned her official career. During the period of living at home, on the one hand, I hope to have the day of "reporting and meeting", on the other hand, I hope that "the imperial court has powerful officials, and there are no hungry tiger officials in the county. It is enough to chant Shengping and add a volume of poetry every year.". Later, he gradually abandoned the idea of being an official and concentrated on drama and poetry creation.

Tang Xianzu has made many achievements, among which the creation of opera is the most important. His dramas "the story of resurrection", "the story of zichai", "the story of Nanke" and "the story of Handan" are collectively called "four dreams of Linchuan", among which "the story of resurrection" (the Peony Pavilion) is his representative work. These plays are not only loved by the Chinese people, but also spread to Britain, Japan, Germany, Russia and many other countries. They are regarded as treasures of the world's dramatic art. His monograph "Yihuang County drama God Qingyuan Temple" is also an important literature on drama performance in the history of Chinese opera, which plays a pioneering role in directing. He is also an outstanding poet. There are four volumes of poems: complete works of yumingtang, one volume of hongquanyicao and two volumes of wenjiyoucao.

Life story

Tang Xianzu was born in a scholarly family on August 14, the 29th year of Jiajing in the Ming Dynasty (September 24, 1550). Originally lived in wenchangli, Linchuan (now Tangjiashan, Taiping Street, Wenchang bridge east of Linchuan), later moved to Shajing lane and built "Yuming hall" (with Lanxiu building, Qingyuan building, Yuai pool, Jinyang Pavilion, etc.), so he was also called Qingyuan Taoist. His ancestors were famous scholars in four generations, and his mother was also familiar with poetry since childhood. Tang Xianzu's serious attitude towards learning has made a deep mark in his young mind.

Tang Xianzu was gifted and intelligent. He was nurtured by his family and diligent. When he was 5 years old, he went to a family school to study. At the age of 12, he was able to write poetry. At the age of 13, he learned ancient Chinese poetry from Xu Liangfu. At the age of 14, he made up for all the students in the county. Twenty one years old. According to his talent and learning, he would have been as green as grass in his official career. But at that time, the imperial examination system which followed the whole Ming society had been corrupt. Examination became a behind the scenes transaction of the upper ruling group's malpractice, a fraud to determine the hereditary status of aristocratic children, instead of judging people by talent. During the two examinations in 1577 and 1580 of the fifth year of Wanli, Zhang Juzheng, the chief assistant of the current Dynasty, wanted to arrange for his sons to be selected as Jinshi in the middle school. In order to cover the eyes and ears of the world, he also wanted to find some people with real talents as a foil. When he found out that Tang Xianzu and Shen Maoxue were the most famous people in the country, he sent his uncle to win them over, claiming that as long as he was willing to cooperate with the prime minister, Xu Xianzu would be the first among them. With the power of the prime minister and the temptation of many people's dreams, Shen Maoxue and others betrayed themselves and won the high school. However, Tang Xianzu kept himself clean and did nothing. Although he did not oppose Zhang Juzheng's political reform, as an upright intellectual, he hated this corrupt atmosphere, so he severely refused to solicit twice, saying that "I dare not lose myself from women.". As a result, Tang Xianzu lost his reputation. Moreover, in the years when Zhang Juzheng was in power, he was No. 1 forever. However, Tang Xianzu was praised by people at home for his noble personality and pure integrity. After the death of Zhang Juzheng, Zhang Siwei and Shen Shixing became prime ministers one after another. They also allowed him to take Tang Xianzu to the screen as an imperial scholar, but he refused. In the 11th year of Wanli (1583), Tang Xianzu, 34 years old, was the 221st Jinshi in the top three of guiweike, and his official career began from then on. He first observed politics in Beijing, and the next year he went to Nanjing as a doctor of Taichang temple. Live for seven years. Since Yongle, Nanjing has been the capital of Ming Dynasty. Although there are all kinds of yamen, in fact, they have no power. Taichang temple is one of them. At that time, however, Nanjing was a gathering place of literati. There were Xu Lin, Yao Huo, he Liangjun, Jin Zaiheng and Zang maoxun before and after the poets and dramatists. Tang Xianzu is here. On the one hand, he compares poems and songs with some people. On the other hand, he studies knowledge and writes books. Others asked him, "why is an old doctor addicted to books?" He said, "I don't ask for a doctor when I study, but not a doctor." This kind of quiet and contented life is in sharp contrast to the literati who were finally severely punished for taking refuge in Zhang Juzheng.

At that time, Wang Shizhen was the minister and Minister of the Ministry of criminal justice in Nanjing, with a prominent position. Scholars and bureaucrats flocked to him, and many people ran under his door. With a few words, he can "talk about Zhang Xianhao and brag about his talent", just like a literary leader. However, Tang Xianzu is a man who respects literature but does not give in to power. He emphasizes innovation but opposes the restoration of the ancients. He pays attention to absorbing all the excellent literary heritage of the ancients instead of being limited by the scope stipulated by the restoration school. His literary thoughts and purports are quite different from those of Wang Shizhen's generation. Therefore, although he was in Nandu with Wang Shizhen and a direct subordinate of Wang Shizhen's younger brother Shimao, he did not want to return with Wang's brothers. He wrote a letter to a friend and said, "if you don't want to get rid of the monarchs in the north, how can you get rid of them?" In order to reveal the true features of the literary retro school, he also asked his friends to dissect the poems of Li Mengyang, Li Panlong and Wang Shizhen, draw out the words and sentences in their poems that imitate and plagiarize the poems of the Han and Tang Dynasties, and daub them one by one. After Wang Shizhen knew it, she had nothing to do but laugh in silence. This shows that Tang Xianzu not only does not follow the trend of power, but also has his own ideas and special knowledge when the trend of retro literature is shrouded in China. This is actually the result of his acceptance of the excellent ancient cultural thoughts, especially under the historical conditions of that time, the influence of the anti Neo Confucianism, anti tradition and anti autocracy thoughts in the embryonic period of capitalism. In the middle of Ming Dynasty, with the emergence of capitalism, Wang Gen, He Xinyin, Luo rufang, Li Zhi and other deviant thinkers appeared in philosophy, which had a great impact on ideology and culture. Tang Xianzu was Luo rufang's student in his early years. He learned from him and read "the book of non saints". Later, he made friends with the radical Zen master Zibai, especially with the radical thinker Li Zhi. After reading his book burning, he admired it very much. He said: "such as Mr. Mingde (rufang), when in my heart, see to be able to master (purple cypress) of the male, listen to Li Baiquan (Zhi) of the outstanding, find its spit belong to, like a beautiful sword." His political and literary rebelliousness and struggle were formed, and he was also called "crazy slave". In this way, he not only did not want to go along with the autocratic rulers in character, but also showed his political edge.

In 1591, when Tang Xianzu was in charge of the priesthood of the temple of rites in Nanjing, he wrote a treatise on Assistant Minister Ke Chen Shu. He impeached Shen Shixing, Yang Wenju and Hu runing, and exposed their crimes of stealing power, bending the law and robbing the hungry people. Shu Wen criticized the politics of Wanli for 20 years. As soon as Shuwen came out, Shenzong was very angry. With an imperial edict, Tang Xianzu was exiled to Xuwen County in Leizhou Peninsula. A year later, he was pardoned and moved to Suichang County, Zhejiang Province. In Suichang, he "went to clamp (to kill), to strike Yang (to bind prisoners' instruments of torture on his feet or neck), to reduce discipline, to hold provincial meetings, to build shooting halls, and to build academies. Sometimes he went to the countryside to persuade farmers, but all the year round he exchanged words with Qingjin Zixiu. This kind of ancient officials' style finally made a great change in this remote and barren area of central Zhejiang, and the mulberry, hemp, cattle and livestock flourished. Perhaps Tang Xianzu regarded this place as his ideal kingdom. In addition to the above-mentioned good governance, he let the prisoners go home for the Chinese New Year. On the Lantern Festival, he let them go to the streets to watch the Lantern Festival and have no scruples about implementing his own political ideas. This made his political opponents finally grasp the handle. When the time came to assess the officials, they came out to slander them. Tang Xianzu naturally knew that someone wanted to drive him away. In the 26th year of Wanli (1598), he heard that the imperial court would send tax envoys to Suichang to disturb the people. He couldn't bear it, so he didn't wait for others to attack him and handed in his resignation to the Ministry of officials. Without waiting for approval, he left and went back to his hometown. Later, when the Ministry of officials and the Du Cha yuan formally gave him a punishment of dismissing from office and staying idle for "impetuous", it had been three years since he abandoned his shoes.

After leaving Suichang, Tang Xianzu met Li Zhi in Linchuan. After Li committed suicide in prison, Tang Xianzu wrote a poem to mourn. He also highly praised the anti Neo Confucianism Zen master of Daguan (Zibai), who called Li Zhi and Daguan as a "hero" and a "hero", and believed that "to find out their affiliation is like getting a beautiful sword". Their influence, to a great extent, formed the ideological basis of Tang Xianzu's exposing corrupt politics, opposing Cheng and Zhu's Neo Confucianism and pursuing personality liberation.

Tang Xianzu despised feudal dignitaries all his life and often offended celebrities. In his later years, he was indifferent to poverty and refused to deal with county officials. This kind of character and style made him keep close contact with Gu Xiancheng and Zou yuanbiao, who were strict with integrity and criticized the corrupt politics at that time, and also made him attach importance to such "Gengjie" or "Zongsheng" figures as Hai Rui and Xu Wei.

Tang Xianzu's thoughts in his later years were relatively negative, which was related to his devotion to Buddhism and his long-term political struggle after his resignation

Chinese PinYin : Tang Xian Zu