The drama "Teahouse" was written by Lao She from 1956 to 1957. It is the best drama creation in the writer's life. As Mr. Cao Yu said, it is "an unprecedented example in the history of Chinese drama".* In the 17 years after the founding of the People's Republic of China, Lao She wrote few novels but many plays. Before writing "Teahouse", he wrote the drama "Spring Flowers and Autumn Facts" in 1955 and the drama "Looking West to Chang'an" in 1956. ", after "Teahouse", he wrote "Red Courtyard" in 1958, "Shopgirl" and "Family Portrait" in 1959... "Teahouse" and these works that match current affairs and politics, in terms of subject matter, style and creative mode
In fact, when Lao She wrote "Teahouse", he originally wanted to cooperate with current political propaganda. The Chinese People The first constitution of the People's Republic of China was promulgated in 1954. The author recalled the past with a lot of emotion and felt that he should write a play explaining the hard-won new constitution to educate young people. So in 1956, he wrote a play with 4 acts and 6 There are many characters in the play. It was written from the Guangxu period to the "anti-hunger and anti-persecution" movement of students in Peking on the eve of liberation. The main characters in the play are three brothers. Lao She took the first draft to the Beijing People's Art Theater and read it to Dean Cao Yu, chief director Jiao Juyin and others solicited opinions. Cao Yu and others felt that the most exciting part of this work was the scene in Act 1, Scene 2 that took place in an old teahouse, and they felt that this scene should be used as the basis. Start over again and write a play depicting the social scene of the old era. Lao She happily accepted this suggestion and immediately said: Submit the script in 3 months! When the deadline came, the new "Teahouse" was indeed produced. After discussions with the director and actors After much discussion and grinding, this new work is really finished. The final draft of the script completely gave up the frontal display of revolutionary struggle scenes and became a social drama composed of scenes of street life in the past years.
After the script was published, Lao She wrote an article titled "Reply to Several Questions About "Teahouse"". He wrote: "A teahouse is a meeting place for three religions and nine streams, and can accommodate all kinds of people. A big teahouse is a small society. .Although this play has only three acts, it describes the changes of more than fifty years. In these changes, there is no way to avoid political issues. However, I am not familiar with the senior officials on the political stage, so I cannot describe their promotion or promotion. Retreat. I don’t know much about politics. I only know some small people. These people often go to teahouses. So, if I gather them in a teahouse and use the changes in their lives to reflect the changes in society, why not just sideways Reveal some political news?"
This passage confirms that Lao She wrote this play with the intention of "avoiding political issues". He wanted to use this play specifically to write about the "fifty years" of Chinese society. "The changes in the coming year"; the writer said that he "avoided political issues" because he "didn't understand politics very well". Therefore, the best effect that can be achieved is to use the "changes in the lives of little people to reflect social changes", " "It reveals some political news sideways".
When writing "Teahouse", Lao She turned his writing subject back to the old era that he was familiar with. He said that this play could only "reveal some political news sideways". , - this assumption, if it were placed at a time when the literary and artistic line was very "left", I am afraid that he would be labeled as a "political label". However, social development gave Lao She an opportunity at this time: in 1956, the national The socialist transformation of agriculture, handicrafts and capitalist industry and commerce has been basically completed. The focus of the Communist Party of China has shifted from launching a turbulent large-scale class struggle to relatively stable economic and cultural construction, in order to promote science, culture and culture. , art career, and put forward the policy of "letting a hundred flowers bloom and a hundred schools of thought contend", a relatively relaxed creative environment also appeared in the literary and art circles for a period of time. "Teahouse" came out in this climate. Before and after, the social conditions were not good, and he also I can only write some works such as "Spring Flowers and Autumn Facts", "Looking West to Chang'an", "Red Courtyard", and "Shopgirl".
"Teahouse" has 3 acts, and each act is taken from Using the same scene - they all happened in a large teahouse called "Yutai" in old Beijing City. From the perspective of time
Following his father's lesson of "not having a very good life all his life", he moves forward with the times and colludes with the domineering Kuomintang bureaucrats to create a "Bao Yuan" organization that organizes all the dancers, prostitutes, prostitutes, jeep girls and waitresses in Peiping. "Er" company, serving American soldiers and bureaucrats. Xiao Liu Mazi's ambition and cunning can really put his dead father to shame. The business of human traffickers has innovated and reached its peak, which further proves that what kind of years will naturally have What kind of world style. Let’s look at Tang Tiezui and his son again: In the first two scenes, Tang Tiezui walked through the market with swagger. Although he was helped by selling divination and cheating in the turbulent years, he failed to make a fortune in the end and drank the leftover tea in the teahouse all his life. , even shopkeeper Wang dared to squeeze against him; however, when it came to Xiao Tang Tiezui, who inherited the mantle of the liar, he was named the "Heavenly Master" of the cult "Three Emperors' Way". Xiao Tang Tiezui said: "I follow Xiao Liu Mazi...we were born at the changing times, and living in this era is really like a fish in water!" In these extremely ugly and troubled times, except for Xiao Liu Mazi and Xiao Tang Tiezui, who are scoundrels and social scum, there will definitely never be anyone again. What kind of society is a serious person "like a fish in water"? You only need to look at the kind of people who "like a fish in water" to understand. This is also the so-called "survival of the fittest". Mr. Liu Mazi and Tang Tiezui Both father and son are actually "cultural symbols" of the times. They represent the most shameful kind of "culture", and they can only thrive in the most shameful society.
On the one hand, Ugly things are spreading everywhere. On the other hand, the valuable things in the national traditional culture cannot survive in such years, and may even be destroyed. In the third act, the famous storytelling actor Zou Fuyuan, Peking opera actor Wei Fuxi and Master Ming, the famous chef at the restaurant, each talks about the art and skills that he cherishes as much as his life, but they are all in danger of not having enough to eat. Master Ming is a person who can "handle one or two hundred tables of Manchu and Han banquets". In the end, for a living Forced, he sold all the kitchen utensils and household items and went to make steamed buns for the prisoners in the prison, because "there are so many people in prison now!" Zou Fuyuan expressed the extreme distress of these artists and craftsmen: "These days It’s a bad year, and all serious things are rotten to the root