Kou Mei

Kou baimen

Koubaimen, with the name of Mei and the word baimen, is called "Qinhuai Bayan" together with Ma Xianglan, Bian Yujing, Li Xiangjun, Dong Xiaowan, Gu Hengbo, Liu Rushi and Chen Yuanyuan. When she was 18 years old, she married Zhu Guobi, a famous official of Ming Dynasty.

In 1645, the Qing army went south, and the small court of the Southern Ming Dynasty failed. Kou baimen returned to Qinhuai gelou and died of illness.

Life of the characters

Kou baimen was born in 1624. He was born in the generation of prostitutes, and Kou baimen was as pure as white paper. In the late spring of the 15th year of Chongzhen (1642), Zhu Guobi, a famous meritorious official, came down to the Kou's house in chaoku street under the escort of the official. After several exchanges, baimen left a good impression on him. He was polite, gentle and kind, so he agreed with Zhu when he proposed marriage. On the autumn night of the lunar new year, 17-year-old Kou baimen boarded the sedan chair with heavy makeup. It was the custom at that time that all the women in Jinling of the Ming Dynasty, who were from music books, had to get married at night. In 1645, the Qing army went south. After surrendering to the Qing Dynasty, Zhu Guobi soon entered the capital and was put under house arrest by the Qing government. Zhu wants to sell her maids, including Kou baimen. Baimen tells Zhu Yun, "if you sell your concubine, you'll get only a few hundred gold. If you send your concubine back to the south, you will be rewarded with ten thousand gold in one month. " After Zhu thought, he promised that Kou baimen would return to Jinling with his maid Dou'er in short clothes. After koubaimen returned to Jinling, she was called nvxia. She "built gardens and pavilions, married guests, returned to literati and poets every day, drunk and hot, sang or cried, and sighed for the beauty's twilight and the red bean's wandering". Later, he went back to Jinling from a Xiaolian in Yangzhou, and fell in love with a Han Sheng among the young literati poets. He gave financial support in his life and solved his troubles emotionally. On a certain day, Kou wanted to pull Hansheng to sleep together. Hansheng tried several times to find reasons to shirk, and then left. Kou is depressed. Suddenly he hears laughter and abuse coming from the room next door. He gets up and looks around. He sees Han shengzheng flirting with his beautiful young maid. Kou beats her dozens with a wooden stick and scolds Han Sheng: "clothes, birds and beasts!". Kou was so angry that he couldn't get up.

Anecdotes of characters

After the failure of the Nanming Dynasty, Zhu Guobi was imprisoned in Beijing. In order to survive, Zhu Guobi planned to sell all the maidservants of the singer in his family to redeem his life. Although Kou baimen was distressed by Zhu Guobi's fickleness, he still raised 20000 taels of gold for Zhu Guobi after making a decision with him. After Zhu Guobi got away, on the one hand, he still felt that such a beautiful woman would not give up. On the other hand, he might be really moved: it was not easy to find such a righteous woman in a time of crisis, so he wanted to make up with Kou baimen. But now baimen is no longer his plaything. She told him: "you redeemed me out of the brothel with silver, but now I redeem you with silver. You and I don't owe each other." From then on, we broke with it completely. Since then, Kou baimen has returned to the Qinhuai opera house. He has been living in a dream day by day, communicating with literati and poets. He was drunk and full of poetry, and then unfortunately fell ill. At that time, there was a scholar named Hansheng. He had a relationship with koubemen. But one night during koubemen's illness, koubemen begged him to sleep beside her for a night. Hansheng didn't care about his old love, pushed koubemen's hand away, abandoned her, and teased with one of her maids in the next room. Koubemen was very sad and indignant after hearing this, so he became more and more ill. In a few days, a generation of chivalrous men came The brothel woman of righteousness and amorous feelings left the world and returned to the immortal.

Character evaluation

Overall evaluation

Kou baimen is really the saddest one among the eight beauties of Qinhuai. She is not outstanding in her integrity, which is slightly inferior to Liu Rushi and Li Xiangjun, but her life experience is very representative of the characters in fengyuechang. Her unfortunate marriage, fruitless love, dangerous sex games and so on are all stained with blood and tears. It is puzzling that an old woman is so attached to a young man physically. According to Zhao Yan's analysis, the reason for this situation should have something to do with her abnormal life trajectory. From a flower girl to a sex slave step by step, Kou baimen's experience can be described as "abnormal love" in every stage.

Celebrity Reviews

Yu huaicun said: "the white gate is graceful and beautiful; it is full of ups and downs; it is good at painting orchids; it knows each other and rhymes; it can recite poems, but it is not easy to learn." "miscellaneous notes of Banqiao" Wu Meicun said: "Zhu gongzhuan's apprenticeship leads to thousands of gold, and one Ge of Xi Shi's plan is deep. Today, because of collusion, it is difficult to unite the red powder. (to koubemen) Qian Qianyi said, "Cong canhong and fan read the grace of the emperor. Who knows koubemen, female Xia?" she is called female Xia. (Kou Bai Men) old Fang Wen said: "old people still have Bai men. They meet under the lamp and want to break their heart. As soon as I arrived in nanzhong, I asked you, knowing that you were far away from the secular atmosphere. I'm ashamed of the autumn river and the evening clouds. Zhang shengtu's meeting was very difficult, and this evening was very happy. We should only talk about the house of a good friend of poetry, but not the house of a girl. "A gift of drinking with Zhang cangshui and Li Qizhan to koubaimen zhaitou"

Artistic image

Literary image

Film and television image

Calligraphy and painting works

Koumei is a traditional Chinese painting created by fan Qi and Wu Hong in Qing Dynasty. It is now in Nanjing Museum.

Chinese PinYin : Kou Mei