The spread of traditional Chinese opera was a common phenomenon in ancient China. Studying this phenomenon can help us better understand the spread of ancient culture in China. The author tries to observe Tang Xianzu's drama from a new angle-the angle of communication, to study the spread of Tang Xianzu's drama texts in Ming and Qing Dynasties, and to examine the social value of Tang Xianzu's drama from another side through the publication, comments and attention of people in different periods.
First, the publication of Peony Pavilion-Breaking through the time and space limitations of drama communication
After Tang Xianzu created the famous drama Peony Pavilion, he first spread it through printing and publishing, which is the basic condition for drama literature to enter commercial communication. Although movable type printing was invented in the Song Dynasty, the era of commercial printing did not come until after the Ming Dynasty. Commercial printing copies drama texts in batches, which makes drama communication break through the time and space restrictions, with a wider range and longer time. This is the value of print communication.
The first factor that affects print communication is the publishing industry. In Ming Dynasty, official engraving books were very developed, represented by official engraving, supervision engraving and model engraving, and books were published and engraved by government agencies at all levels. Yuan Dong, a scholar of the Qing Dynasty, said in Yin Shucong: "The style of official books in the Ming Dynasty was extremely prosperous, and engraving prevailed in Gyeonggi, North and South, and Taoism." After Wanli, the printing industry became more prosperous, and all of a sudden, scholars were proud of engraving books. During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the proverb "Linchuan gifted scholar is golden" was circulated in Fuzhou, Jiangxi. The woodblock printing in Wan Hu Town, Jinxi County, Jiangxi Province was quite prosperous and became a famous bookstore at that time, which provided convenient conditions for the dissemination of Tang Xianzu's drama texts. According to Mao Xiaotong's Research Data Collection of Tang Xianzu, there were 26 editions of Peony Pavilion from Ming Dynasty to 1960s, including 1 1 in Ming Dynasty, 13 in Qing Dynasty, 2 after liberation and 3 in Le Shu: 2 in Qing Dynasty. Taking the Ming Dynasty as an example, the editions of Peony Pavilion include Wanli Jinling Pavilion engraving, Shilin Jushi engraving, Jinling TangZhenwu engraving, Taichang engraving, Zhu engraving (namely Huaidetang engraving), Pushuizhai engraving, Zhang engraving in the fourth year of the apocalypse, four poems of Chongzhen living alone, Liulangtang engraving in the late Ming Dynasty and so on. There are family carvings, workshop carvings and official carvings, most of which are family carvings, such as Chicken Bone Pavilion, Shen Du Settlement Carving, Shilin Jushi Carving and so on. It can be seen that people in Ming and Qing dynasties were keen on publishing Peony Pavilion.
The second factor that affects print communication is the circulation channel. In the plane communication of drama text, the audience accepts the communication through market consumption channels. Drama text has always been a commodity, and it has been transformed from a communicator into an owner of the audience through special circulation channels. The market channel of drama text dissemination is bookstore, and in ancient times it was bookstore, bookstore and bookstore. Its basic management modes include "selling books", "selling books" and "selling books". Bookstores in the Ming Dynasty sold a large number of popular novels and opera texts for profit. The rise of bookstores provides an important circulation channel for the printing and dissemination of drama texts, which enables drama texts to spread rapidly throughout the country. There are libraries in Jinling, Tang Zhenwu in Jinling (Lin Wenguan is owned by Tang and Tang Zhenwu is owned by Guangqing Hall, both of which are big publishers of Jinling Bookstore), and Huaide Hall in Shexian County (in Jiangxi Province). These prints are numerous and widely distributed.
The third factor that affects print communication is the editing method. Historically, there have been two forms of drama text dissemination, namely, solo edition and selected edition. Because drama has always been rejected by orthodox literary ideas and the weakness of single-copy communication itself, it is extremely rare to have a single script, and quite a few versions of Peony Pavilion are still preserved in single-copy form, which just shows that Peony Pavilion is worth spreading. Some of the Peony Pavilion have been handed down through anthologies, such as Four Kinds of Songs of Tang Yuming, Sixty Kinds of Songs and Hundred Autumn Books, which were written by Chongzhen. In the spread of song selection, there are two kinds of music with or without music, which is also determined by the different needs of the audience. The audience of music selection is mainly opera performers, which greatly facilitates the performance of opera artists and the analysis and research of opera researchers. The selected script without music is distributed to a relatively wide range of ordinary readers. The type and standard of selection are related to the needs of the audience. Most versions of Peony Pavilion appear in the form of no music, just to meet the needs of ordinary readers. The widespread popularity of singles shows that many readers have a special liking for the play Peony Pavilion.
The Peony Pavilion was published every few years from its appearance to its demise in the Ming Dynasty. Without publication, the text dissemination of Peony Pavilion is impossible. The appearance of various versions has played an important role in the spread of Peony Pavilion in various periods. The mass printing made the Peony Pavilion spread all over the country quickly, so the printing spread made the Peony Pavilion break through the time and space restrictions and spread across time and space. The Peony Pavilion can last for a long time on the stage of China drama, which is realized through the production, reproduction and dissemination of drama texts. Therefore, the publication of Peony Pavilion has made great contributions to its text dissemination.
Second, comment on' Peony Pavilion'-enrich the content of text dissemination
The so-called communication, that is, the transmission of social information or the operation of social information system, is essentially a kind of social communication, through which people maintain the relationship of mutual influence and interaction. Drama criticism is actually the reprocessing of drama information, which is conducive to people's understanding and understanding of the original drama and the spread in a specific era and scope. Reading, commenting, rereading and commenting on drama texts is the operation process of social information system, and most people participate in drama communication activities by commenting on drama texts. When The Peony Pavilion came out, many scholars scrambled to comment and express their opinions. One of the important reasons why Peony Pavilion can establish its lofty position in the drama circle of Ming Dynasty is that theorists such as Wang Siren and Shen Jifei have explored its aesthetic value from the aspects of characterization and romantic expression. Chen Jiru said with emotion at that time: "The Peony Pavilion" was criticized by the king once, and the puppet began to cry. Have Guan Hanqing and Gao Zecheng seen this bosom friend? " Let's choose a few comments here for a brief analysis:
Wang Siren said in Comment on Peony Pavilion: "That is to say, if a scholar calls himself' Four Dreams' all his life, he is only proud of Peony Pavilion. Love is deep, and it makes people stunned after reading three lines. ..... Its jokes set a few people, laughing really, laughing is audio; The person who cried really cried, and there were tears when he cried; People who sigh are really sighing, and sighing is anger. The demon, the delusion, the delusion of Liu Mengmei, the softness of the old lady, the stubbornness of Du Suijing, the best fog of Chen, and the thief of Chunxiang; They all explore the vividness of their seven emotions from the joints of bones and muscles. " Wang Siren spoke highly of the artistic achievements of The Peony Pavilion, and thought that its description of the characters' voices, faces and smiles could make them laugh, cry and sigh. All kinds of people have their own unique personalities, vivid images and be vividly portrayed. Therefore, after the Peony Pavilion was circulated in the society, the communication effect was excellent: it could make the listeners of later generations cry, the readers frown, the heartless people break their hearts, and the lovers break their hearts. Young women who were deeply oppressed by feudal forces in later generations regarded Peony Pavilion as a bosom friend book in pursuit of love and a requiem to die for love.
Zhiheng Pan's "Xiao Luan's essay" Love Madness "said:" Du Zhiqing is infatuated and illusory; Liu's love is crazy. One is to make dreams come true, and the other is to make life come true, but only feelings are true, and there is nothing wrong with hallucinations. " Zhiheng Pan compared and analyzed the images of Du Fu and Liu from the perspective of emotional expression, and finally they all came down to the word "truth", which made their love have permanent artistic charm. This analysis can be said to grasp the root of the problem, profoundly reveal the ideological connotation of Du and Liu images, and dig out the artistic value contained in Du and Liu images.
Zhang Qi, a music critic in Ming Dynasty, spoke highly of the position of Peony Pavilion in the history of literature. In his book Heng Le Tan Tan, he said: "Bachelor of Linchuan, flag drum ci altar, today's songs, compete for population. The best thing is that this play is better than Feng, Sao, Qu and Song, and can be compared with The West Chamber. " Here, The Peony Pavilion and The Story of the West Chamber, a famous drama of the Yuan Dynasty, are mentioned side by side, saying that it is a high-level judgment. In particular, the Peony Pavilion is compared with the whole ancient literature of China, saying that it is a masterpiece in the history of China's traditional opera. Such comments are helpful for people to understand the value of The Peony Pavilion and promote its spread in China.
From the perspective of comment dissemination, it is particularly worth mentioning that the three women's joint evaluation book. This review of Peony Pavilion is full of the feelings of three young women, Chen Tong, Tan Ze and Qian Yi, and is saturated with their painstaking efforts. When Sanfu's comments came out, they were welcomed by readers, especially female readers. Gu Cong, a woman from Qiantang, said in "Three Women's Storytelling": "For more than a hundred years, people who read this book, such as Jade Niang and Xiaoqing, have many considerate people in the boudoir! ..... cherish its comments, don't spread to the world. Today, Mrs. Wu's three comments have made this book full of China feelings without a trace of regret; By extension, it is not the great fortune of the book to turn outside the ink! " Lin Yining even sighed in the preface: "Now Wu Sanfu is people-oriented, and his wonderful reading is fascinating. Although Yu Ming's master is in Jiuyuan, I can't write here. Different people and different books surprise me! " It can be seen that the story of Wu Wushan's Comments on Three Women in the Peony Pavilion is widely circulated and has become an influential book among various comments, which is not accidental, mainly because it does have its unique value. The appearance of three female editions has formed a new communication effect in the process of the drama text dissemination of The Peony Pavilion: The Three Female Joint Reviews, an engraving of Mengyuan in Qing Dynasty, is entitled Wu Wushan Three Female Joint Reviews of Peony Pavilion. Later, there was a joint comment by three women carved by Qingtian Mountain House and Qingfen Pavilion. Yang Baoguang's comments were recognized in "Comments on the Revival of Peony Pavilion by Three Women in the May 5th Mountain" (reprinted in Tibetan by Tongzhi Wu Geng and Qingfenge), with a total of 1 12 articles.
The spread of criticism often permeates the communicators' thoughts, making the drama text more positive than the original drama. Drama criticism of past dynasties has played such a role of meaning regeneration. On the one hand, it makes the classical drama produce new comprehensibility in the communication, on the other hand, it also makes people's understanding of drama spread and radiate more and more from the drama text. For most contemporary people, the classical opera they understand is the product of reinterpretation. It can be seen that comments are also indispensable in the text dissemination of Peony Pavilion. It is the comments of many opera lovers that enrich the connotation of the Peony Pavilion and make people better understand its ideological and artistic values.
Thirdly, "the dispute between Tang and Shen"-a debate with communication significance.
One thing that has a great influence on the spread of Peony Pavilion is the famous "dispute between Tang and Shen" in the history of Ming drama. At that time, the center of drama was in Jiangsu, and Wujiang School had a strong lineup. Shen Jing was the core figure of Wujiang School. Tang Xianzu's argument with him became a great event in the literary world of Ming Dynasty, which had a great response in the drama circle at that time.
Let's first look at the cause of the dispute between Tang and Shen, which was caused by the specific work Peony Pavilion. After the Peony Pavilion came out, on the one hand, it shocked the literary world at that time with its high ideological and artistic quality; On the other hand, because some places are out of tune, it has caused a lot of criticism. Shen Jing and Zang Maoxun interpreted the lyrics of Peony Pavilion from the perspective of music, and found that many of them were out of tune, so they criticized Peony Pavilion and adapted it according to their own opinions, which aroused Tang Xianzu's dissatisfaction and set off this debate. This argument involves the spread of drama. The relationship between sender and receiver is coding and decoding. Each receiver will interpret the drama text according to his own social history, artistic accomplishment and personal thoughts, so the meaning of encoding may be accepted, rejected or partially agreed, and the receiver can decode the drama text in a way that the text sender can't predict. The dispute between Tang and Shen is essentially the contradiction between the sender and the receiver in the process of encoding and decoding. When the receiver (Shen Jing) decoded the information in Peony Pavilion, it did not completely interpret it according to the sender's code, and sometimes it destroyed the interest of the work, which led to this dispute.
Let's take a look at the focus of the dispute between Tang and Shen. The first focus of the dispute between Tang and Shen is how to treat the opera tune. Shen Jing vigorously pursues temperament in form. Shen Jing thinks: "The rhythm is better coordinated without words, and reading a sentence is not good, but the coordination at the beginning is ingenious in the song." Shen Jing also specially wrote Thirteen Poems of Nanjiugong, Six Comments on Ci, Knowing When Singing, and Five Editions of Zheng. On the other hand, Tang Xianzu attached great importance to "Quyi". He believes that writing drama should be based on Quyi, but should not be bound by Quyi. He believes that "when I feel the lingering meaning, I might as well bend everyone's voice in the world." Another focus of the dispute between Tang and Shen is that the two parties have different views on lyrics and different creative styles. Tang Xianzu is a literary school, and Shen Jing is a true school. Tang Xianzu said in the article Answer Lu: "All essays are based on meaning, interest, spirit and color. If you have all four, you may have a good word. Can you give consideration to the nine palaces and four tones? If you must press the font, you will feel suffocated, stagnant, jumping and dragging. I'm afraid you can't make a sentence! " Shen Jing emphasizes the true colors, which means that the language is easy to understand. Specialty refers to an expert who is familiar with stage performing arts. Shen Jing used the basic requirements of the drama stage to measure Tang Xianzu's works, ignoring the unique style and interest of Tang Xianzu's plays, which may not be desirable from the perspective of literary creation. However, it makes sense from the perspective of opera communication. Li Yu once said in Qing Dynasty, "Do one or two people out of a hundred understand the meaning of the song Peony Pavilion?" Shen Jing adapted "Peony Pavilion" for stage performance, so that "Peony Pavilion" can be better appreciated by the audience, thus receiving better communication effect. From this perspective, the focus of the "dispute between Tang and Shen" is also related to the spread of traditional Chinese opera.
The third is the spreading value of "the dispute between Tang and Shen". We don't want to judge the right or wrong of this debate too much. We just want to think about the objective effect of this debate from the perspective of communication. The debate more than 300 years ago is unprecedented in the history of China opera. At that time, many dramatists and critics were involved in the whirlpool of this debate, which had a sensational effect in the drama world at that time. The dispute between Tang and Shen is worth pondering. The main thing is not the creation of the play, but its own communication value. Through this incident, the social status of Peony Pavilion was greatly improved, the popularity of the play in the society was expanded, and Tang Xianzu and his drama theory were better publicized, so that Tang Xianzu quickly entered the center of the drama industry in Ming Dynasty and became the most influential dramatist at that time.
To sum up, the text dissemination of Peony Pavilion is mainly based on printing. The editing, publishing and sales of booksellers in different periods enabled the Peony Pavilion to be widely circulated and preserved for a long time, which was the basis of text dissemination. Drama criticism in different periods has greatly enriched the connotation of Peony Pavilion, enabling people to understand the text deeply and stereoscopically. As for the value of the dispute between Tang and Shen, it has gone beyond the scope of the text, which makes us realize that there are differences in understanding the Peony Pavilion in literature, music, stage and communication. More historically, the dispute between Tang and Shen became an important event in the history of drama communication in China, which promoted the amplification effect of the text communication of Peony Pavilion, thus attracting more attention from later researchers.