Ma Xianglan

Ma Xianglan

Ma Xianglan? －？） , name

Keep the truth

, words

Xianglan

, small characters

Xuaner

The word

Yuejiao,

She is one of the eight beauties of Qinhuai. She was born in Yingtian (now Nanjing, Jiangsu Province) of nanzhili. Unfortunately, she has fallen into the dust since she was a child. However, she is broad-minded, has a light heart, and often spends money to help young people. She is one of the eight beauties of Qinhuai.

She lives in Shengchu, Qinhuai, and has a lot of admirers. She has a good friendship with Wang Zhideng, a talented man in Jiangnan. Her letters to Wang Zhideng are collected in the letters of celebrities of all ages. At Wang Zhideng's 70th birthday, Ma raised money to buy a boat and carried dozens of geisha to Suzhou to buy a drink and celebrate his birthday. "After months of banqueting and dancing, he could not get up from his illness. Finally, he forced himself to support Mu and died at the age of 57.

Life of the characters

Home ranked fourth

Ma Xianglan was a famous prostitute on the Bank of Qinhuai River in Jinling during the late Ming and early Qing Dynasties. He was also known as Qinhuai Bayan with Chen Yuanyuan, Li Xiangjun, Dong Xiaowan, Kou baimen, Gu Hengbo and others. Her real name is Ma ShouZhen. Her character is Xuaner, and her little character is Yuejiao. She ranks the fourth in her family, so she is also called Si Niang. She is good at poetry and painting. She is especially good at painting orchids and bamboos, so she is famous for "Xianglan". Although she is not outstanding in appearance, "she looks like an ordinary person", but "she looks like a spring willow and a warbler, spits out her words and looks forward to them, and serves them skillfully".

All over the Qinhuai River

At that time, along the Qinhuai River, there were many buildings, galleries, boats and red pink beauties. It was the place of fireworks and willow alleys in Jinling. Ma Xianglan is not a gorgeous beauty. She has fine eyebrows and thin eyes, but her skin is white and greasy. With her medium-sized appearance, she is able to stand out on the banks of the Qinhuai River, which is beautiful step by step, mainly due to her elegant and refined temperament and outstanding talent. In addition to singing poems and painting, she is also good at talking and talking with people. Her voice is like a warbler's song, and her expression is charming. She is considerate and understanding. She knows the past and the present, and is always attractive. In this way, she gradually became a red man on the Bank of Qinhuai River. The guests in front of her door were like weaving, and most of them were elegant guests with status and education. Depending on the gifts from the guests, Ma Xianglan also saved some money, so he built a small building by the Qinhuai River, in which the flowers and stones are quiet, the winding paths and corridors are full of orchids, named "Youlan hall". Although Ma Xianglan is a brothel woman, she has the style of a lady. Ma Xianglan is an open-minded woman. She spends money like dirt. She is very generous to others. She has helped many scholars who have no money to take exams, businessmen who have been in trouble and some old, weak and poor people nearby. Seeing off Zhang Yingli and her old friends and new guests, her life seems colorful and lively. However, in other people's eyes, she is a floating fireworks woman. As a guest, she comes and goes in a hurry and has few deep friends. Therefore, Ma Xianglan's heart is actually lonely. In the late spring afternoon with light rain and cold weather, the courtyard is quiet, the flowers are everywhere, and the guests are lost for a moment.

It's only when you are down

In the midst of prosperity, Ma Xiangchun was alone in the taste of desolation. Accompanied by red wine and green light, Ma Xiangchun seldom knew her heart. It was not until she was 24 years old that she met a down and out talent, Wang Zhideng, a scholar of Changzhou. It is said that Wang Zhideng was good at writing big characters at the age of four, writing poems at the age of six, and writing Fu at the age of ten. At the end of Jiajing period, he visited the capital and became a guest of Yuan Wei. At that time, because Yuan Wei had offended the powerful Zaifu Xu Jie, Wang Zhideng was implicated and could not be reused by the imperial court. When he returned to his hometown in Jiangnan, he wandered in the restaurant Lane all day. Wang Zhideng came to "Youlan Pavilion" by chance. During the conversation with Ma Xianglan, he was quite congenial. After deep friendship, he sighed that it was too late to meet each other. As a result, Wang Zhideng often went in and out of the "Orchid Pavilion" to have a good chat with Ma Xianglan and enjoy the orchid together. One day, Wang Zhideng asked Xianglan for a painting. Xianglan nodded and agreed. She immediately waved her hand and drew a picture of her best orchid for him. This kind of one leaf orchid painting is an original orchid painting method created by Ma Xianglan. It can best reflect the quiet and ethereal charm of orchid with only a slanting leaf and an orchid.

Find a bosom friend

Because Ma Xianglan is a member of Huanchang, he is most afraid that Wang Zhideng will regard her as a woman who has no true feelings. So he specially made this picture to show that he is by no means a flower on a willow wall, but a lonely orchid on a precipice. What a wise man Wang Zhideng is. He certainly understands the love and meaning in Ma Xianglan's poems and paintings, but he has many worries. He felt that he was 37 years old. He still had no job and no position. He had a boundless future, but he was still ambitious. He didn't know when he would go through fire and water and fight hard. In this way, it would be very difficult to bring shelter and happiness to Ma Xianglan. He knew that Xianglan was a sensitive and affectionate woman. If she was careless, she might hurt or even destroy her. It's better not to make any promises early, and it's easier to communicate with her. Therefore, Wang Zhideng deliberately pretended not to understand the feelings in the poem, casually accepted the painting and politely expressed his thanks. Ma Xianglan thought that he was unwilling to accept himself, and he was heartbroken. But she couldn't forget Wang Zhideng, so they still kept close contact like good friends and never talked about marriage again.

Go north by boat

Not long after, Zhao Zhigao, a Bachelor of Kyoto University, recommended Wang Zhideng to take part in the compilation of national history. Thinking that he was lucky, Wang Zhideng was ready to embark on a boat to the north to make his future. In my heart, I still calculate: when I have developed in the capital, I will come back to pick up Ma Xianglan and share the happiness of this life. Ma Xianglan held a banquet for him in a complicated mood. She was sad for Wang Zhideng's departure, but also happy for his pride. She was mixed with sadness and joy, and didn't know why. Wang Zhideng revealed a little that he wanted to share prosperity with her in the future. However, Ma Xianglan, limited to the hidden injury of the last time, did not dare to make things clear, but secretly planted hope in her heart. At the farewell table, Ma Xianglan gave all kinds of advice and gave an impromptu poem "farewell in the middle of the road in spring".

Alone and lonely

After seeing off Wang Zhideng, Ma Xianglan quietly closed the door to thank the guests, hoping to wait for Wang Lang to return with his career. He was also able to accompany him, and then he left the brothel career of welcoming Zhang and sending Li. When he was lonely and bored, Ma Xianglan also wanted to drink to relieve his worries. He raised his glass, but sighed with emotion: "since you came out, don't share your worries. Wine is a thing to relieve your worries. How long can it last?" With the passing of spring and the coming of autumn, the chill is getting stronger and stronger. There is no news from Wang Lang, but Ma Xianglan worries about his warmth and coldness in the "Orchid Pavilion" and sings an autumn boudoir song. Unexpectedly, Wang Zhideng didn't feel very proud when he came to Beijing this time. Because of the exclusion of a group of literati under Zaifu Xujie, although he took part in the history compilation work, he did his best to send him some chores. He swallowed his anger and had a hard time. Barely to the end of the year, to see that there is really no future to speak of, simply pack up, defeated. After returning to the south of the Yangtze River, Wang Zhideng did not want to face the infatuated Ma Xianglan any more. He simply moved his family to Gusu to abandon the idea of spending his whole life with Ma Xianglan.

It's hard to be a bird in the same forest

Although they can't be the same birds, Ma Xianglan is still devoted to Wang Zhideng. When he hears that Wang Zhideng is frustrated, he rushes to Gusu to comfort Wang Zhideng. Maybe they knew each other as if they were friends, but they couldn't get married. After Wang Zhideng settled in Suzhou, Ma Xianglan always went to live in Suzhou for a few days every once in a while, chatting with Wang Zhideng, but he never got married. People who don't know don't understand their special relationship. They just treat Ma Xianglan as a relative like their brother and sister. Many people mistake Ma Xianglan for a family from Suzhou. the years passed in this kind of light communication, and more than 30 years passed unconsciously. In the past 30 years, Ma Xianglan, apart from his occasional visit to Suzhou, spent his life in this way: "he always treated Xiao Zhu, collected poems at night, had nothing to do with his boudoir, and hoped to return to the boat all day." As she grows older, her beauty is declining, and there are fewer and fewer guests on the door. Every day, Ma Xianglan is accompanied by loneliness and sadness, just as her poem "magpie bridge Fairy" records.

The oil lamp will go out

In this way, Ma Xianglan for Wang Zhideng paid a lifetime of true feelings, but like a orchid, secretly sobbing, secretly spit fragrance. On Wang Zhideng's 70th birthday, Ma Xianglan rushed to Gusu with illness and held a grand birthday party for him. At the party, she sang a song for Wang Lang, who had been in love for more than 30 years. Wang Zhideng was filled with tears. Later, he had such a description: "four filled, singing and dancing Dadan.". The remaining fat and powder, fragrant brocade sails, have never been seen since Fu Chai. Wu'er boasted about the grand event and made a stir for a while. " After two months of staying in Suzhou, Ma Xianglan returned to Jinling. He was exhausted and the lamp would go out. One afternoon shortly after, Ma Xianglan, who had already had a premonition, bathed and dressed carefully. Then, sitting in the living room of "Youlan Pavilion", she quietly finished her 57 year old life. Before she died, she ordered her servants to put orchids full of fragrance around her seat. When the news of his death came to Wang Zhideng, he wrote elegy in his grief

"Song and dance were first-rate in those years, and their names won the brothel. They were sentimental and died before they died. They turned into hibiscus

”。

Main works

Poetry Anthology: Xianglan anthology; script: biography of Sansheng

Character evaluation

General comments

Ma Xianglan is not outstanding in appearance on the Bank of Qinhuai River, which is full of beautiful women. Instead, Ma Xianglan is outstanding for her orchid like character, transcendent painting skills and infatuation with love. Among the myriads of colors, she is only in love with orchid, and her painting skills are unique. There are countless orchid poems expressing her ambition by borrowing things. Therefore, her poems and paintings were collected by literati and elegant guests at that time, and she became the object pursued by many talented scholars, princes and nobles in the south of the Yangtze River. The reason why Ma Xianglan can depict the orchids vividly depends on her love

Chinese PinYin : Ma Xiang Lan