The palace is a magical place.
Here, no matter how shocking, tragic, or absurd something happened, it would not stay in the minds of the palace people for more than a few days.
It's not that the feng shui here is bad, but that everyone has amnesia. The palace, especially the Ming Palace, has the best and most ambitious women in the world. The female officials here are all very smart and have their own survival wisdom.
People here forget the shocks of the past because, being at the top of power and wealth, nothing is surprising.
So many people died, and their deaths were so tragic, but because death happened too frequently, people just sighed in secret, then did their own things, waiting for the next storm to come.
For example, when Hu Shanwei first entered the palace, the case of Prime Minister Hu Weiyong's rebellion had just been settled. Thousands of officials, both inside and outside the court, had died, and countless family members were implicated. For example, Chen Xuan, the leader of the Eighteen Villages in Zhuoying County, went from being a playboy in an official family to being forced to join the Liangshan bandits.
But soon, the turmoil caused by Hu Mei's chaos in the palace "stole the limelight" from the case of Hu Weiyong's rebellion. People lamented that the Yanx Palace became a cold palace overnight, and the arrogant Concubine Hu became a commoner.
Not long after, there was another shocking case in which the concubine Deng of Prince Qin abused the princess and even dared to kill Liu Siyan and the Jinyiwei.
After this incident, how many people still remember the arrogance of Concubine Hu? How three clans of the Hu family were wiped out overnight, and even the son-in-law's family was exterminated
The people in the Ming Dynasty court were like reefs standing on the seashore, bearing the impact of wave after wave of waves. They were accustomed to strong winds and waves, and some were swept into the sea and smashed, such as Liu Siyan.
However, most of them still remain on the shore. No matter how fierce the waves are, tomorrow the sun will rise from the horizon as usual, the wind will be calm, and seagulls will fly. It will still be a prosperous scene, brewing the next tide.
Hu Shanwei completed the task, and Empress Ma rewarded her with some good things, but she was not promoted. She still served as the seventh-rank director in the Palace Administration Department.
The job of the Dianzheng was to judge disputes in the palace and punish palace servants according to palace rules when they made mistakes, and to keep a written record of the punishment. In addition, he was also responsible for reviewing operas and librettos from outside the palace to see if they were indecent or lascivious, so as not to pollute the ears of the nobles in the palace.
Looks simple? Actually it is complicated.
At the end of the year, the three major festivals, the Winter Solstice, the Spring Festival and the Lantern Festival, are all clustered together. According to the rules, the palace has to perform operas for several consecutive days. The Jiaofangsi has selected excellent repertoires from all over the country for rehearsal. Before the performance, they must first be reviewed by the Gongzhengsi.
There was a thick stack of scripts in front of Hu Shanwei. The play "Journey to the West" written by Yang Jingxian, a playwright of the previous dynasty, was being performed on the stage. The story of Tang Monk taking Sun Wukong and three other disciples to the West to seek Buddhist scriptures was widely circulated among the people. The scene was lively and interesting. It was an enduring opera and very suitable for performances during festivals.
There are hundreds of versions of "Journey to the West", among which Yang Jingxian's version has the most beautiful language and the most complete adventure stories.
On the stage, they were performing a scene in which the four masters and apprentices went to the Kingdom of Daughters. Sun Wukong was seduced by the beauty and tempted by worldly desires. This caused the golden hoop on his head to curse. The hoop tightened in circles, and Sun Wukong somersaulted in pain, singing:
"Xiao Xing was pinned down by a woman, but his worldly desires were awakened. He didn't expect the golden hoop on his head to tighten, causing pain in his joints all over his body, and he could even name several vegetables in pain—"
The following lyrics use several vegetables to express the pain in the body. The lyrics are easy to understand, the language is clever, and it is quite imaginative:
"My head hurts so much that my hair is like leeks, my face is as green as Polygonum aviculare, my sweat is like marinated eggplants, and my cock is like a pickled cucumber..."
Hu Shanwei did not hesitate, picked up the red brush, circled the line of words about cucumber, and annotated: "Delete."
Then Sun Wukong sang another song, "Parasitic Grass": "Zhu Bajie panted heavily, and Monk Sha whispered. The one on top struggled hard, and the one below slowly moved his waist to respond..."
While singing, Wukong also thrust his hips forward.
This scene seemed familiar - after the Yingyangwei Arena competition, Mu Chun also lost himself in thought and made these frivolous moves, scaring away Hu Shanwei who came to visit him.
The story of "Journey to the West" comes from the folks, passed down orally and exaggerated. In order to attract attention, the opera troupe added more dirty jokes. However, Yang Jingxian's "Journey to the West" script is still the cleanest and most elegant.
Hu Shanwei picked up the red pen again, circled this paragraph, and wrote "Delete."
As he wrote this, the scene of Mu Chun on the Yingyangwei arena that day appeared in his mind. Hu Shanwei could not help but smile: Mu Chun's rebellious and unconventional character is really like Sun Wukong.
This "Journey to the West" has a total of six acts. After reviewing "The Kingdom of Women", it is the act of fighting with Princess Iron Fan at Flaming Mountain. There is nothing wrong with it. Then it ends with the finale of Tang Monk obtaining the true scriptures and returning to the East to the Tang Dynasty.
The actor dressed as Buddha sang: "Tang Monk, listen to my words. It will take several years to reach the Western Paradise. Today, my mission is complete. I have just achieved the true fruit and completed the Great Tripitaka. Tang Monk has granted me the monk's biography. To this day, all the temples in the East are renovated. May my emperor live forever."
"Stop!" Hu Shanwei shouted to stop before the actor finished singing the end.
The green-turbaned actor from the Jiaofangsi hurried over and asked, "What's wrong? Please correct me, Hu Dianzheng."
Hu Shanwei took a pen and blackened out the word "Yuan" in "Just now I came to Yuan" and said:
"The word '原' was previously written as '元来', but the emperor didn't like it. After much difficulty in driving the Yuan people out of the Central Plains, '元来' meant the return of the Yuan Dynasty, so '元来' was changed to '原' and implemented in court documents to the people. In the imperial examination, if there was a typo and the two words '元原' were mixed up, no matter how well the essay was written, it would fail. You, on the other hand, sang '朝元' directly. Why do you have to say 朝元? The emperor hates this the most. If you hear it, you will all lose your heads. Change the script and sing it again."
The actor hurriedly said, "Thank you Hu Dianzheng for your advice. Let's change it to 'Chao Ming'."
If you don’t face Yuan, it won’t be wrong to face Ming!
"Chao Ming doesn't rhyme. You guys think about it again." Hu Shanwei said, "Don't thank me. Just don't think I'm bossing you around. I changed this, deleted that, and ruined a good show. You can sing like this in the folk, but in the palace, don't let anything go wrong. Everyone's lives are the most important thing."
For example, when Hu Shanwei deleted the "cucumber" part of the Daughter Kingdom, it was the climax when the folks sang it. The audience smiled knowingly at each other, cheered loudly, gave money and threw copper coins on the stage, which made a sound like a rainstorm. But in the palace, it was not copper coins that fell, but heads.
The actor hurriedly said, "How could you dislike Hu Dianzheng? You have saved us many times."
Hu Shanwei thought for a moment, pointed at the actor playing the Monkey King and said, "Less those... actions."
Hu Shanwei gave him a look that said "you know what I mean." "Be more serious, don't be so reckless."
The actor was embarrassed. "Sun Wukong is not a human being. He is a monkey. If a monkey is not reckless, can he still be called a monkey? Guanyin Bodhisattva even called him a naughty monkey."
Hu Shanwei said, "You can perform as you like in folk dramas, but this is not acceptable in palace dramas. It is unbecoming. If you don't change, I won't let you perform. In the future, other groups will perform in front of the emperor."
The actor was helpless and nodded heavily, "Okay, I'll listen to Hu Dianzheng. If they can perform in front of the emperor, their value will definitely increase greatly in the future."
After revising "Journey to the West", the next book is "Pipa Ji".
Hu Shanwei first glanced through the book and was very surprised: "Is it a southern opera?"
During the Hongwu reign, northern opera was the dominant genre in the court and the country. Famous Yuan dramatists such as Guan Hanqing and Ma Zhiyuan all wrote northern operas. The Injustice of Dou E, The Romance of the West Chamber, and the recently performed Journey to the West were all northern operas. Southern opera was considered a niche genre that could not be performed on stage.
Besides, Emperor Hongwu was from Fengyang and was used to northern tunes. How could he understand this southern tune
The court actor nodded and said, "Yes, but the script is really well written, and it appeals to both the refined and the popular. It is not vulgar at all, and the emotions are delicate, and the listeners are moved to tears. I would like to ask Hu Dianzheng to help recommend it to the emperor."
Hu Shanwei frowned, "My time is very limited. I have to put on a new play on the winter solstice. I won't agree to you suddenly thrusting in a southern tune that no one in the palace is used to listening to. Besides, at the end of The Lute Story, a lightning bolt killed Cai Bojie, who refused to acknowledge his original wife and coveted wealth and fame. It's a tragedy and not suitable for performance on festive occasions such as the winter solstice, New Year, and Lantern Festival."
The story of "Pipa Ji" is based on the prototype of Cai Yong, a famous writer in the Eastern Han Dynasty, whose courtesy name was Boji, so he was called Cai Boji. He had a daughter who was even more famous than him - Cai Wenji!
Like Journey to the West, there are many versions of Lute Story in the folk. The most common version of the story is that Cai Bojie went to Beijing to take the imperial examination and never returned. He married the daughter of the prime minister and never returned to his hometown. In his hometown, his wife Zhao Wuniang ate bran and vegetables and gave the white rice to her parents-in-law. The situation was difficult, but her parents-in-law eventually died. Zhao Wuniang buried her parents-in-law with soil wrapped in her silk skirt, and went to Beijing to perform and look for her husband with her Lute. However, Cai Bojie did not recognize his original wife, did not recognize the portraits of his parents on the Lute, and even trampled on Zhao Wuniang with his horse's hoof to silence her. As a result, a thunderbolt struck Cai Bojie to death.
Ordinary people just like this kind of straightforward and hearty revenge drama, just like the case of Bao Qingtian beheading the beautiful woman. Qin Xianglian brought her two children to the capital to look for her husband, but found that her husband had become a royal consort. No matter how the princess and the emperor pleaded for mercy, Bao Qingtian still chopped off the head of Chen Shimei, who divorced his wife and remarried. The most famous drama about Bao Qingtian is also the case of beheading the beautiful woman.
The actor nodded and said, "There are many versions of The Lute Story, including both southern and northern operas, but the one written by Gao Ming is really good. The lyrics are touching, and the ending of the story is different from the popular folk tales. It is a happy ending for everyone."
The actor's enthusiastic recommendation made Hu Shanwei a little interested. She didn't have the patience to start from the beginning, so she just flipped through the pages and happened to see the 21st play, which was a song called "Shanpoyang". After Zhao Wuniang's husband had been away for a long time, she encountered famine, and her parents-in-law were about to starve to death, she sang:
"A desolate and barren year, a husband who never came home, anxious and impatient parents, and a timid and helpless lonely man."
In an instant, Hu Shanwei was struck by the poem "Shanpoyang". Every word was like an arrow, shooting her full of holes!
The chaotic years, the husband who never came back, the anxious parents, the timid self, wasn't he Hu Shanwei, the copyist in the Hu family bookshop
Hu Shanwei could not help but continue reading. The song sang by Zhao Wuniang, who was almost in despair, was: "The tears that are dripping down are hard to stop, the sorrow that is flowing down is hard to relieve, the sick body that is too weak to support, the time and years that are trembling with fear are hard to get through."
No!
Hu Shanwei slammed the script shut. He clenched his fists so tightly that his nails almost made his palms bleed!
The pain woke Hu Shanwei up, his heart pounding, just like when you wake up from a nightmare, you tell yourself again and again, no, no, no, this is not real, it's just a nightmare. As long as you wake up, the nightmare will disappear.
She is now Hu Shanwei, the seventh-rank official in the Palace Administration Department, the most powerful female official in the palace. Even when facing the imperial concubine, the prince does not show any weakness.
That husband who was away from home and that timid Hu Shanwei who could only copy books are all in the past.
The author has something to say: Hu Shanwei wants to defeat his past self.
The same is true for us. Sometimes the past is the most powerful opponent.
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[-Collapse] №16 Netizen: Now I want to catch an author who has stopped updating to make soup Review: "Hu Shanwei" Rating: 2 Published: 2018-12-14 20:37:24 Reviewed chapter: 53
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