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All the buildings in Windsor Castle are made of stone and are surrounded by green lawns and dense forests. The setting sun shines between the castle and the forest at dusk, creating a magnificent scene.
This reception dinner was considered very sumptuous in the UK, but for Zhang Haoran and others from Daqin, it was just simple.
Cromwell was a man in his fifties, very gentlemanly, with a long face and a slightly hooked nose, which gave him the impression of being a very determined man.
"Dear distinguished envoys from the East, on behalf of the British people, I warmly welcome your arrival and hope that the friendship between our two countries will last forever."
Cromwell also had a very loud voice and a very oratorical style.
Among the important figures attending the dinner was a general named Lanbery, Cromwell's trusted subordinate. Following Cromwell, he also extended a warm welcome.
Zhang Haoran was elegant and said with a friendly and reserved smile: "It is a great honor for me to be received by you at Windsor Castle. During this period, I have read many works of Shakespeare, such as King Lear, Hamlet, Othello, Romeo and Juliet, and The Merchant of Venice. Among them, there is also The Merry Wives of Windsor, which left a deep impression on me. I didn't expect that after coming to England, I would be able to visit the fascinating Windsor Castle in person. It is really an honor."
Zhang Haoran's words stunned Cromwell and others. Obviously, they did not expect that the Qin envoys, who were thousands of miles away, were so familiar with their country's theatrical works. This was really unbelievable.
General Lan Bai even asked: "It is such an honor that the distinguished Ambassador Qin has read Shakespeare's works. I wonder what you think after reading The Merry Wives of Windsor?"
General Lan Bai obviously wanted to see if Zhang Haoran had really read these works, or just heard of their names. This is very important. If Zhang Haoran really read these works carefully, it would be enough to show that he knows all aspects of Britain very well.
Zhang Haoran smiled and said slowly: "Mrs. Page and Mrs. Fox, with their wit, made several vulgar men laugh. I admired their calmness and wisdom in the process, and saw the living conditions of the British upper class aristocracy from them.
If you think about it carefully, this work is fresh and lively on the surface, with a compact and funny plot. While being light-hearted, it is able to make sharp satires on the declining knight class and the shameless street rogues in a humorous way.
Although the two ladies seem to be "romantic women", their playful tricks on Falstaff reveal their lively wit and reflect their noble and upright character. "
Zhang Haoran finished speaking. General Lan Bai and Cromwell looked at each other, and their mood suddenly became heavy. The other party knew so much about Britain, and how much did they really know about the current situation of Qin? Then the next meeting was really not relaxing!
Zhang Haoran was familiar with Shakespeare's works. After the welcoming dinner, Cromwell simply arranged a play of "King Lear" for Zhang Haoran and others to watch.
"King Lear" is one of Shakespeare's masterpieces. It is very profound and roughly tells the story of King Lear and his three daughters.
The aged King Lear wanted to abdicate and divide the kingdom among his three daughters. When dividing the kingdom, he asked each daughter to express her love for him and divided the kingdom among them according to their love for him.
The eldest daughter Goneril and the second daughter Regan did their best to praise the king, but the youngest daughter Cordelia was expelled by Lear because of her plain and unpretentious expression. However, because of her honesty, she won the favor of the King of France and went to France to become the queen.
After dividing the land between his two daughters, King Lear was driven out of the house by his two unfilial daughters and was in a very miserable situation. After hearing about her father's experience in France, the youngest daughter immediately organized an army to fight back to England to rescue her father, but the army failed and she and her father Lear were both captured.
After Cordelia was executed, King Lear remembered the words she used when she expressed her love to him: love and silence.
The general meaning of Cordelia's words is: I love you, so I won't say anything else.
Thinking back on this sentence, King Lear couldn't help but burst into tears. The love of the little daughter was simple and unpretentious, but she could prove it with her life at any time. It turns out that the love that cannot be expressed is the most sincere and strongest.
Eventually, King Lear collapsed and died from excessive grief.
The ideological connotations expressed in this opera are very profound. Zhang Haoran and others were fascinated by it and sighed in admiration.
Since the Yuan Dynasty, China's opera and novel works have developed very rapidly, producing many famous opera masters such as Guan Hanqing, Wang Shifu, Bai Pu, Ma Zhiyuan, and Tang Xianzu.
However, it must be admitted that even for these famous opera masters, many of their works still remain at the level of "talented men and beautiful women" and "love and romance". Works like Wang Shifu's "The West Chamber", Tang Xianzu's "The Peony Pavilion" and "The Purple Hairpin" can be regarded as such works.
If we make a horizontal comparison, objectively speaking, no matter how gorgeously written or how tortuous and moving a work like "Romance of the West Chamber" is, it is difficult to compare with a work like "King Lear" in terms of structure and depth of thought.
From these aspects, we can see that since the Renaissance, European cultural thought has gradually surpassed that of the East. This should not be underestimated. The progress of thought, culture and art is often the driving force behind the progress of the entire society and the cornerstone of progress.
If we do not pay enough attention to this, it is inevitable that we will fall behind others as a whole.
In addition to politics and military affairs, Zhang Haoran and his team also have important missions in culture, art, science and technology, education and other aspects this time. In short, in all aspects, we must have a humble mentality, a learning attitude, and bring back to Daqin as many good things from others as possible.
For example, when it comes to art, we must never think that it is just something used to embellish the romance, or something that the nobles use to decorate their lives after dinner.
Innovation in art will affect people's aesthetic views and thus influence their ideological emancipation. Just like the paintings of Leonardo da Vinci and others, they were actually one of the important driving forces behind the European Renaissance.
The Renaissance marked the beginning of Europe's leading the world in all aspects. It is not difficult to see how amazing the influence of culture and art is.
Its impact is not immediate, but it is often the most far-reaching.
As far as Europe is concerned, the most influential cities in terms of culture and art are London, Paris and Rome.
Zhang Haoran had to bring back works like Shakespeare's to Daqin to allow for more collisions between Eastern and Western culture and art. This would definitely be a shot in the arm for China's increasingly closed and rigid cultural thinking. At least that's what the emperor of Daqin thought. Therefore, one of the important tasks assigned to the delegation was to collect the cultural and artistic achievements of Europe.
Cromwell and others had no idea that Zhang Haoran and others came with so many missions. Seeing that Zhang Haoran had been immersed in British culture and art, he was secretly happy, thinking that Zhang Haoran and others were not pragmatic people who liked to eat, drink and have fun when they came to Europe.
This time, he invited the Qin envoy headed by Zhang Haoran to Windsor Castle, actually with the intention of bypassing the Parliament and reaching some agreements with Qin alone.
Cromwell's current ideas are completely different from those when he launched the bourgeois revolution.
If the past and the present were divided from the moment he sent Charles I to the guillotine.
In the past he was a radical bourgeois revolutionary who demanded reform and freedom.
Now that he holds great power, he advocates royal authority and is a thorough conservative.
Now he is determined to get rid of the British Parliament, take more real power into his own hands, and become the de facto king of Britain.
Zhang Haoran already had enough knowledge of this from the intelligence he had collected. In his view, Cromwell was a despicable thief who stole the country under the guise of a bourgeois revolution.
No matter what banner he fights under, he is essentially not much different from Cao Cao during the Three Kingdoms period.
Cromwell now has the ambition to steal the country and is actually doing so, but the British Parliament still has very strong real power, which has put a very big constraint on him.
Zhang Haoran felt that it would not be difficult to make such a villain give up more interests, so he was not in a hurry at all.
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ps: Even more, double monthly tickets have begun, brothers and sisters, the most critical moment of the decisive battle has come, please lend a hand, please give me a monthly ticket, please give me double monthly tickets, please! (To be continued..)
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