The “Lyrical” Expression of History: the Relationship Between History and Lyricism in the Yangzhou Play “Long Canal Willow”

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The “Lyrical” Expression of History: The Relationship between History and Lyricism in the Yangzhou Play “Long Canal Willow”

Zijun LIU Yangzhou Institute of Quyi

Abstract: The lyric expression of history, both ancient and modern Chinese and foreign literary works have dabble in, but there is no unified theory, the author tries to introduce this concept, to the creation, performance play a certain role of inspiration. If history cannot be expressed in a lyrical way, then the temperature of history cannot be felt by ordinary people. The dissemination of historical ideas is finally rooted in the people's minds from the perspective of ordinary people. It is also a clever combination of art and history. Youyou Yunyun Willow is a representative work of Yangzhou Tanchi, which expresses the canal culture of Yangzhou. This paper will try to analyze the success of Youyou Yunyun Willow from the lyric expression of history. Keywords: History; Lyric expression; Tanci

DOI:10.47297/ wsprolaadWSP2634-786503.20200104

angzhou Tanci, formerly known as Xianci, is a kind of play lyric song system based Yon Yangzhou dialect. It is mainly based on speaking and supplemented by playing and singing. The representative books include “Double Golden Ingots”, “Pearl Tower”, “Falling Gold Fan”, “Diao Liu’s”, etc. The Yangzhou Tanci and Yangzhou commentary are sister arts, formed in the late Ming Dynasty and flourished in the early Qing Dynasty, with a history of more than 400 years. It originated in Yangzhou and spread in Zhenjiang, Nanjing and the area around the Lixia River in central Jiangsu. “Long Canal Willow” is a representative work of Yangzhou Tanci, which expresses the culture of Yangzhou canal. This paper will try to analyze the success of the creation of “Long Canal Willow” from the perspective of “lyrical expression of history”. The lyrics are reproduced as follows. A river with clear waves flowing. Thousands of miles of willow color. The wind and rain are dancing on the shore. The canal willow is magnificent. Remember when the king traveled. The songs and boats could not hide the sorrow.

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I still remember the boats flying by the waves. The paddles are moving rapidly and the noise is endless. The wind blows by, the purple swallows fly The water is flowing for a long time. The tide rises and falls to the fishing fire. The water is flowing. The spring goes and the spring returns. The canal willow is long. The canal willow is long. Thousands of years of love is not old. A party with thick roots. New willow color year after year. Beautiful canal willow. Dance the spring light to stretch wide sleeves. Lightly clinging to the blue water to swing the wind flow. New color of the canal in the world. The spring color to the crisp autumn. The willow is long, the moon is in the head. Love, love like wine. I see people after dusk again. The willows are long. The curtain moves softly. The canal willow is long. The canal willow is long.

The Lyrical Expression of History

The lyrical expression of history is a creative method that the author has summed up over the years by participating in singing, performing and thinking about the lyrics. The aim is to use the “lyrical way” to portray and express the hard and grand history. “It can be said that it is a novel and theoretical method that can be explored, but in fact, from ancient times to the present, many authors have used this method to process history, scenery, and historical figures to create unique historical infections, and to tenderly convey their thoughts, songs, and appreciation of history to the audience. This method has been used by many writers since ancient times to create a unique historical message, and to tenderly

15 Research on Literary and Art Development Vol.1 No.4 2020 convey their thoughts, songs and appreciation of history to the audience. The earliest “lyrical expressions of history” were found in the two major sources of Chinese literature, the Shi Jing and the Li Sao. In the Poetic Edda, a large number of plants, animals, and natural landscapes give a veil to the local political, historical, and social culture of the time. For example - “The magpie has a nest, and the turtledove lives there. The magpie has a nest, and the turtledove has a square. The magpie has a nest, and the turtledove is full of it. “There are trees in the south that cannot be rested; there are women in Han that cannot be sought. Han’s wide, can not swim thinking; river’s eternal, can not be square thinking. The wrong salary, said the mowing of its Chu; son of the return, said to feed its horses. Han’s wide, can’t swim think; river’s eternal, can’t square think. The wrong salary is to mow the piper; the son of the son is to feed his horse. Han is too wide to be contemplated; the river is too long to be contemplated.” In this one of the earliest collections of Chinese poetry, we see a great deal of lyrical descriptions. Later, the Tang poet Li Shangyin also often used this method, and several of his poems, “Untitled,” invariably deal with both history and politics and feelings, such as. “It is difficult to part when we see each other, the east wind is powerless and a hundred flowers are wrecked. The spring silkworm will not be finished until it dies, and the wax torch becomes ashes before it dries up. I am worried about the clouds and sideburns in the morning mirror, and I feel the cold moonlight in the night. There is no more way to go to the mountain, the green bird is diligent to look for it.” The lyricism of history reaches its climax in “The spring silkworm is not finished until it dies, and the wax torch becomes ashes before it dries up”. The story of “Fifty strings of the golden serpent, one string and one column of thought. The dream of Zhuang Sheng is a mysterious butterfly, and the spring heart of Wang Di is a cuckoo. The moon of the ocean is bright with tears, and the sun of the blue field is warm with smoke. Can this love be remembered? But at that time, I was already at a loss.” From this, we can conclude that the expression of “lyricization of history” requires the existence of a specific person in the process of expressing history. This “person” has

16 The “Lyrical” Expression of History: The Relationship between History and Lyricism in the Yangzhou Play “Long Canal Willow” his own happiness, sorrow, sadness and joy, and when such a person is placed in history, he will naturally look at history emotionally and lyrically, and the face of history will form an excellent work of art under a unique vision. Chairman Mao’s famous lyric, “Qin Yuan Chun - Snow”, is also an example of this, and no further examples will be given here. In contemporary times, the author who has done a good job of lyricizing history belongs to Yu Qiu Yu’s “Cultural Tribulations”, a series of cultural and historical phenomena under Yu’s “lyricized” tone, resulting in a very wonderful reaction, allowing readers to touch the temperature and warmth of history more closely. For example, “He stood in a daze, and there was no sound in the world, only the overflow of light and the envelope of color. He had a vision and put his tin staff on the ground, knelt down solemnly, and made a vow that he would from now on make a wide range of karma to build a cave here to make it a truly holy place. When the monk finished making his vow, the light was dimmed on both sides, and the pale twilight pressed against the vast sand plain.” -- “Mogao Caves This passage stays with a strong mythological color, but also gives our culture a sense of mystery, and after reading it does not feel touched, but can not say why, which is the charm of the text, but also shows the peculiarities of the Mogao Caves. “I have been to many small towns in Jiangnan, I can imagine with closed eyes, the narrow river through the town, an exquisitely carved stone bridge, the river and built homes, homes under the floor is the water, stone steps of the port from the floor under the level of the port, the women are on the port to wash, and only a few feet away from them on the crow-top boat is rising a white smoke, smoke through the bridge drift to the On the other side of the river, there is a low and wide stone fence, you can sit or lie down, a few old people sitting there with a serene face watching the passing boats.” Jiangnan town has become a style and culture, although after thousands of years of heritage and course, there are many landscapes we can not see, in the pictures left behind, in the history of the text, we can vaguely still depict that kind of picture. The culture of Jiangnan town can still be preserved after thousands of years, and this is the charm of culture. To sum up: the lyrical expression of history requires the author to creatively use language and details to portray history. The Canal and the Willow in “The Long Canal The canal refers to the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal. The Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal was built in the Spring and Autumn Period. The Sui dynasty made the decision to open the north-south canal after the unification of the world, and its motive went beyond the purpose of serving military operations, because the world was already unified at that time. Sui had economic motives for opening the canal. For a long time in ancient China, the economic center of gravity had been in the Yellow River basin, with the north being more economically advanced than the south. However, during the Wei-Jin-North and South Dynasties periods, society underwent profound changes, and in contrast to the 400 years of chaos that severely impacted the northern economy, the southern economy grew rapidly

17 Research on Literary and Art Development Vol.1 No.4 2020 and became the economic center of gravity of the country. After Sui unified the country, it paid extra attention to this region, but Sui set its capital in Chang’an and its political center could not move south along with the change of economic center of gravity. As a result, the state needed to strengthen its administration in the south, Chang’an needed to be connected to the affluent economic zone, and southern food supplies were needed to supply the north, whether it was the central court or the bureaucratic nobility or the northern border. At the same time, the long period of division blocked the economic exchange between the north and the south of the society, and with the increase of productivity, the economic development by this period had urgently demanded the strengthening of the economic connection between the north and the south. After the opening of the canal, it became the artery of the north-south longitudinal line of China, and all the fish and rice, money and grain from the south had to be transported to the northern capital through the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal. From Chang’an to Luoyang to Beijing, this river can be said to have carried an important mission in Chinese history. How should we conduct a narrative in the face of such a great river? Huang Renyu, a famous historian, wrote “The Transport of Water in the Ming Dynasty”, which specifically discusses the role, significance and imperial system of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal. But our literary work cannot be completed in this way, so we must cut to a detail of the canal, and that is the willow. The willow trees on both sides of the canal, green every year, yellow every year, ushered in and sent out, as if an old man of history, standing on the bank to gaze at the hurried passers-by. “The green hills are still red in several sunsets” is a good expression. The willow tree is descriptive, ornamental and chanting, and these properties make it the central prop of a literary work. So the first chant comes: “A river of clear waves flowing, a thousand miles of willow color show. Wind and rain dance on the shore, the magnificent canal willow.” Write about the canal and first write about the willow; write about the willow and first write about the clear waves. “A river of clear waves flowing, a thousand miles of willow color show”. The music is rhyming and catchy, and the colors are both clear and beautiful; physically, there is both a river and a thousand miles. It is very harmonious, and with closed eyes, a beautiful and magnificent Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal has appeared. “The wind and rain are dancing on the shore”. What does wind and rain refer to? The first is the natural wind and rain, the second is the historical wind and rain, here the wind and rain to express the historical turmoil, this is the artistic expression, the lyrical expression. When the basic mood is laid down, a falling sentence sums up the beginning - the magnificent canal willow. Willow and river, river and willow, are thus opened up, and the next is the lyrical and detailed narration between them. Third, the history and lyricism of “The Long Canal Willow After the lyricism and explanation are over, the chorus quickly enters the historical

18 The “Lyrical” Expression of History: The Relationship between History and Lyricism in the Yangzhou Play “Long Canal Willow” stage. “I still remember when the king traveled, the songs and boats could not hide my sorrow. I remember when the boats flew by the waves, and the oars went to and fro in an endless stream.” The King, referring to Emperor Yang of Sui, but when history enters lyricism, the specific names of people should be diluted, so only the word King remains. The prosperity and bustle of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal is still vivid in our mind: “I still remember the boats flying by the waves, and the oars going to and fro in an endless stream”. A historical depiction, so we know that the object of the lyrics is the history of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal. “The wind blows, the purple swallow flies. Water, the water flows long, the tide rises and falls towards the fishing fire, water, the water flows long, spring goes and spring returns always faithful. The canal willow is long. The canal willow is long.” The simple vocabulary and metaphorical imagery evoke our memories of history, and finally the words “long canal willow, long canal willow”, a song with three sighs and endless rhymes. Next, and then into the history of the portrayal of “a thousand years of love is not old, a side of the root soil thick. Year after year, the new color of the willow, the beauty of the canal willow.” “Thousands of years of love is not old, one side of the root of the soil is thick. Ten words tell the whole story of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal. “In the early years of the Ming Dynasty, the total amount of taxes in the country was nearly 29.5 million koku. 12 million koku was at the disposal of local governments as official salaries, administrative fees, pensions and pensions, relief fees, government school fees and local granary storage fees. Another 8 million koku was levied, mainly in northern China, as military food for the troops stationed on the front lines in the northwest. The remaining less than 10 million koku was taxed for the central government’s expenditure, of which 1.208 million koku was given to Nanjing, with the total amount received by Beijing at around 8.2 million koku. Although the Ming bureaucracy was strictly divided into several parts - between the civil and military systems, between the imperial and local officials, and between the shang shu ministers and the special officials of the court - there was clearly an unbridgeable gap - yet the lower bureaucracy, such as the branches we branches mentioned above, showed enough adaptability to allow the various parts to function consistently. Officials from various opposing systems were able to organize themselves together. “In the supply list, in addition to the primacy of grain, other items including fresh vegetables and fruits, poultry, textiles, wood, stationery, porcelain, lacquer-almost everything of any kind produced in China-were conveyed through the Grand Canal; munitions such as arrow shafts and uniforms, camomile brooms and bamboo rakes, were also transported to Beijing via the canals. Throughout the Ming Dynasty, this dependence persisted without interruption.”

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--Huang Renyu, “Canals in the Ming Dynasty This is the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal’s “thousand years of love, one side of the root of the earth is thick”, and today, the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal is still playing its role, so the ending sentence is “The color of the willow is new every year, the beauty of the canal willow”. After the history, it is time to talk about the contemporary. In this new era, what is the canal like? --The canal of this new era is like: “Dancing with the spring light, the broad sleeve, and the wind flowing in the blue water. The canal in the golden age has a new color and is decorated with spring colors until the cool autumn. The willow is long and the moon is at the head. Love is like wine, I see people after dusk again. The willows are long, the curtains are moving and soft.” The author uses extremely lyrical sentences, cleverly dressing up the canal in a colorful way, lyrically presenting us the historical canal and the contemporary canal, and euphemistically comparing the historical and contemporary, and finally concluding that The canal willow is long and The canal willow is long and leisurely. The lyrical expression of history comes from the Shi Jing, develops with Tang poetry, and flourishes with the Ming and Qing dynasties. In our generation, we should make better use of the lyrical expressions of history in the creation and performance of Yangzhou Tanci and even all kinds of operatic works to celebrate the new era and eulogize the new era.