Why is Teahouse a classic of contemporary drama?

The drama Teahouse is the works of Lao She 1956 to 1957. It is the best drama creation in a screenwriter's life. As Mr. Cao Yu said, it is an unprecedented model in the history of China drama. During the 17 years after the founding of the People's Republic of China, Lao She wrote few novels, but many plays. Before writing Teahouse, 1956 wrote the play Looking West at Chang 'an. After Teahouse, 1958 wrote Red Courtyard, 1959 wrote Salesgirl and Family Portrait ... Teahouse is in the same strain as these current political works in theme, style and creative mode.

In fact, Lao She wrote Teahouse to match the current political propaganda. The first constitution of People's Republic of China (PRC) was promulgated in 1954. The author feels very sorry for the past and thinks it is time to write a drama to explain the hard-won new constitution in order to educate young people. So, 1956, he wrote a play with four acts and six scenes, in which there were many characters. During the Guangxu period, it was written about the "anti-hunger and anti-persecution" movement of students in Beiping on the eve of liberation. The protagonists in the play are three brothers. Lao She took the first draft to Beijing People's Art and read it to Dean Cao Yu, Director Jiao Juyin and others for comments. Cao Yu and others think that the best part of this work is the second scene of the first 1 act, which took place in an old teahouse, and they think it should be based on this scene. When the deadline came, the new work Teahouse came into being. After learning from directors and actors, this new work is really finished. The final draft of the script completely abandoned the scene of revolutionary struggle and became a social drama composed of pictures of street life in the past years.

After the script was published, Lao She wrote an article "Answering Several Questions about Teahouses". He wrote: "The teahouse is a place where three religions and nine streams meet and can accommodate all kinds of people. A big teahouse is a small society. Although the play has only three acts, it has written changes in the past 50 years. In these changes, I can't avoid political issues. However, I am not familiar with senior officials and adults in the political arena. I can't describe their promotion or retreat I don't know much about politics either. I only know some small people. These people often go to the teahouse. Then, if I gather them in a teahouse and reflect the changes in society with the changes in their lives, won't I reveal some political news sideways? "

This passage confirms that Lao She made up her mind to "avoid political issues" when she wrote this drama, and he wanted to use this drama to write "the changes of China society in the past 50 years"; The writer says "avoiding political issues" because he has always "not fully understood politics", so the best effect he can achieve is "reflecting social changes with the changes in his own life" and "revealing some political news sideways".

When Lao She was writing Teahouse, he turned the theme of his writing back to the old times he was familiar with. He said that the play can only "reveal some political news from the side". If the literary line is "Left", I am afraid it will be labeled as "political hat". However, social development just gave Lao She an opportunity at this time: 1958. This country has basically completed the socialist transformation of agriculture, handicrafts and capitalist industry and commerce. The focus of China's work has shifted from waging fierce large-scale class struggle to relatively stable economic and cultural construction. In order to promote the cause of science, culture and art, the policy of "a hundred flowers blossom and a hundred schools of thought contend" was put forward, and a relatively relaxed creative environment appeared in the literary and art circles for a period of time. Teahouses were born in this climate.

Teahouse consists of three acts, each of which takes place in the same scene-all the scenes take place in a big teahouse called Yutai in old Beijing. In terms of time, the stories of the three acts have been separated from each other for a long time: 1 Act took place in the 18th year of Guangxu Movement in the late Qing Dynasty; The second act took place more than ten years after Act 1 in the period of Beiyang warlord regime. The third scene took place more than 30 years after the end of the Anti-Japanese War, during the period of Kuomintang rule. The author mobilized his profound observation and accumulation of social life in old China, and attracted people from three eras with the ingenious concept of "big teahouse is small society", which not only highly refined but also vividly displayed the basic national conditions of old China and vividly described the morbid reality of that era.

When Lao She wrote Teahouse, she had thought enough about the old times. He improved his ability to reflect on the great changes and social evolution in old China by using historical materialism, and also had a profound understanding of the law of social development buried deep in the historical process. This ensured that he could scan the holographic images of social changes in old China with great courage and breadth, and hit the nail on the head.

However, to write this drama well, we should not only have historical insights, but also identify the appropriate part of social life and carve an artistic window that is convenient for displaying historical images. Lao She also found this window, which is the "big teahouse" in the play. Almost everyone in society can freely enter and leave the old teahouse, which is the most sensitive point to call people to the pulse of society. Teahouses, like the spiritual bonds of the Five Elements and Eight Merits, can naturally show the living conditions of all living beings. Lao She relies on the teahouse's key position in concentrating the focus of social life, and artistically superimposes this rare life stage on the drama stage, so that it can bear the history and reproduce it calmly. Such a creative plan can be described as extraordinary and empty.

It is a severe challenge for the author to accurately represent three historical periods in just three acts. Lao She, who is so fond of ink as gold, uses unique skills that ordinary writers do not have. It only takes about 30 thousand words to write the script perfectly. After careful screening, the characters and events in the social cross-section of the three historical processes have typical significance. These people and things have produced a joint force, which shows one thing. In other words, the unbearable old system has long been decadent, absurd and dirty to the extreme. In such a world, coming back is absolutely intolerable. Under the general nature of semi-colonial and semi-feudal society in old China, there are many complicated contradictions, and so many contradictions can easily be refined into vivid life sketches here by Lao She.

The historical emphases of the three bills are different. 1 bill focuses on the social scene that the "Qing Empire" was dying on the eve of its demise, with a hint, and also explains the pursuit of aspiring innovators and patriots, as well as some ordinary citizens' instinctive longing for life in the face of rapidly declining society; By the second act, the Qing dynasty had collapsed, and feudal warlords as evil as tigers and wolves used guns given by foreigners, causing years of war and social unrest. However, a few days later, people who begged for a peaceful life were afraid. Although times have changed, all ugly and reactionary forces, like the late Qing Dynasty, are still rampant, keeping the public away. In the third act, the scene is the bleakest. People finally got rid of the "conquered" life, but fell into an unprecedented dark reality. China people, who have always had good expectations and dare not relax for a moment, have come to the end of their fate, and even the excellent traditional culture cannot escape the crisis of being ruined. -In this way, the whole teahouse faithfully depicts the period from the end of 19 to the end of 2009.

In the historical context, all the plots of this drama appear in the form of silhouette of characters and events. Take Act 1 as an example, there are some relatively independent plot units before and after: the first stage of "the battle of pigeons"-the battle for a pigeon at the entrance of Beijing government, almost came to a group fight, and the flag bearer often sent a few words of emotion, which attracted Er Dezi, a fighter who was good at saving the camp, to provoke. This scene shows the arrogance of tycoons and hooligans in the late Qing Dynasty, but the most influential is the "two Russian children" who colluded with foreigners. In the second paragraph, the farmer sold his daughter-in the famine year, the bankrupt farmer Kang Liu had no choice but to sell his 15-year-old daughter. The trafficker pockmarked Liu took the opportunity to make huge profits, and the poor old man who sold small things happened to see it. He hit the nail on the head: "This year, people are still alive!" In the third paragraph, Mr. Qin, the owner of the teahouse, came, full of ambition to gather capital to run industries to save the country. However, he was indifferent to the poor people begging in front of him, and the warm-hearted grandpa four gave generously, so he disagreed on whether to give the poor a bowl of carrion noodles. In this play, the national tragedy is on the head, and some people in China have conscience and want to help CoCo Lee as much as possible. However, these two passions of Mr. Qin and Mr. Chang have historical limitations. In the fourth paragraph, Qin Pang bickered-eunuch Pang, the spokesman of the die-hards in the imperial court and the general manager of the ouchi, came to the teahouse to buy a farmer's daughter, and ran into Mr. Qin, who had a tendency to reform, and angrily said that he was suppressed. This scene shows the arrogance of the die-hards, and also shows that the reform movement is divorced from the people and lacks confidence. In the fifth paragraph, Grandpa Chang was arrested-Grandpa Chang witnessed the tragic situation of selling children and girls and sighed: "I see, the Qing Dynasty is coming to an end!" Being targeted by spies, two spies borrowed eunuch Pang and took Master Chang and Master Song, the flag bearer who had tea with him. The reason is that "the flag bearer is a traitor, and the crime is aggravated!" In the sixth paragraph, the eunuch bought a wife-an old, groggy and psychopathic eunuch Pang, who was old and ugly and scared the peasant woman Kang to death on the spot. At this time, the tea drinker who was playing chess suddenly broke into his ear and exclaimed, "Yes! You are finished! " This scene ends here, which means that although the feudal last days are quite bluffing, they have already arrived home. Act 1 is roughly composed of six interlocking plots, interspersed with Wang Zhanggui's subtle attitude towards these things in front of him and the ugly performances of social scum such as Tang Tiezui and Huang Fatty. The whole scene is rich in content, changeable in stories and full of life.

All the smoky and suffocating social status quo in the play depends on the dark old system, which the audience of Teahouse can understand at a glance. When Lao She wrote Teahouse, he respected the hearts of the audience, abandoned political preaching, spoke only with vivid artistic images, and easily sent his political opinions to the audience. The second act begins, Li San, an old teahouse buddy, has improved! The better, the colder! ..... Hum! I still have my braid, in case I change the emperor back! "This is" political news "from the mouth of a small person at the bottom of society who has no education and political consciousness. Seeing that the emperor is gone, the world is not as good as before. The more those in power shout for "social improvement", the more people will suffer. Judging from his simple experience, he may change an old court back one day, so he might as well protect this "foresight". These three sentences are more and more interesting than ordinary people can gossip. Isn't the "political news" revealed in the middle heavy, profound and convincing? In the first 1 act, Master Chang, who was caught by spies of Song Enzi and Wu Xiangzi, bumped into them again in the second act. He was surprised to find that these two guys were spies of warlords again. The spies boasted: "When there is an emperor, we work for the emperor, and when there is President Yuan, we work for President Yuan;" Now ... ""We'll work for whoever gives food! Grandpa Chang urged him to say, "What should foreigners do with food?" "The spies are also unambiguous:" Tell you, Master Chang, all the people who want us to work are backed by foreigners! How can we fight without foreign guns? " This conversation also "revealed" quite important "political news": the feudal dynasty is gone, but the feudal forces still dominate everything, and foreign guns still play a great role-doesn't this mean telling the audience that the semi-feudal and semi-colonial nature of China society has not changed at all? In the drama Teahouse, there are many places where political information is revealed from the side. Lao She turned the theories written by political scientists into gossip blurted out by little people in the lower classes, into handy details in the play, and imperceptibly injected them into the audience's appreciation activities. If compared with political textbooks, the results received are at least similar.

Teahouse is different from other dramas. It is not a drama telling specific stories, but an overall image of a semi-colonial and semi-feudal society represented by three historical eras. In Lao She's words, the purpose of writing this drama is to "ruin three eras". In the three scenes, Lao She's profound review and reflection on history is very practical, which makes his contemporaries and generations come later than him.

When Teahouse was first staged, some people thought it was not strong in story, so it was suggested that Kang's experience and her son Kang Dali's participation in the revolution should be used to develop the plot. Lao She declined this suggestion and said, "In this way, it will be difficult for me to achieve the goal of destroying the three eras. If I am obsessed with one thing to develop, I am afraid that the teahouse will collapse before it is occupied. " (Reply to Several Questions about Teahouses) Almost without exception, I feel that the only task of writing about the old times should be to express sharp class struggle and praise the victory of the revolution. Lao She euphemistically explained that if the old teahouse became a revolutionary fortress, its days would not last for a few days, let alone let it witness three dark ages. As for why we can't take the reflection of revolutionary struggle as the theme of works of art, Lao She was unwilling and impossible to delve into it at that time.

The drama Teahouse has attracted some criticism because of its originality, which has not yet begun the Cultural Revolution. Some people think that Teahouse is nostalgic, proclaiming that "today is not as good as before", "it has not revealed the earth-shattering waves of the times" and "it has not pointed out the inevitable victory and lofty ideals of the people". "In the final analysis, it is closely related to the writer's world outlook, class position and creative methods. Teahouse became the evidence that Lao She was framed as a reactionary writer. Now, we don't need to refute the accusations against the teahouse one by one. What people can't help but think of is that in the third act of Teahouse, Wang Lifa inexplicably asked, "The strike was renamed as a riot?" Special agent Song Enzi immediately seized this sentence and swept over the floor and said that Wang Lifa and the students who went on strike were "the same goods!" The old shopkeeper in the teahouse, who had been through many battles all his life, didn't frighten him, but muttered to him, "Me? "You flatter me!" In our land, it seems not difficult to refer to a deer as a horse and blame others.

Today, decades later, many so-called good works that came out at the same time as Teahouse have long since vanished. However, the teahouse, like Chimonanthus praecox in Ao Shuang, has stood the test and flourished. Since the late 1970s, Beijing People's Art has adapted Teahouse for many times, and the play has been staged for 500 times, creating many records that are most loved by the audience in the history of China drama. Teahouse also represents China's dramatic art and has been performed in German, French, Swiss, Japanese, Hongkong and Taiwan Province. It has been appreciated by audiences of different races, experiences and values, and is called "the miracle on the oriental stage".

Teahouse shows the audience the social changes in old China. But Lao She is not familiar with politics, which limits his ability to directly write about social and political changes. Therefore, the writer knows all about the social and cultural changes he is familiar with, which reflects the subtleties of social and political changes. As we all know, the culture and politics of an era are subordinate to the superstructure of society, and there are internal relations between them. The political nature of a society will always affect its culture explicitly or implicitly, and various cultural worlds can often convey all kinds of implicit political information to people. Therefore, writing cultural phenomena of an era to reflect the political outlook of this era has become a feasible way for artistic works to reflect society. Teahouse is the embodiment of Lao She's artistic advantage in choosing this creative method.

Teahouse is to show the darkness of old China, the painful struggle and tragic ending that people in the dark society can't escape for survival, justice and development. Lao She did not put this heavy theme into a specific story, but decided to use the social "how little people live and die" to illustrate the various satires of that era ("Tea House Talk"). To express their disgust and spit on the ideological tendency of the whole old age. Sick society, deformed culture and strange life ... constitute the strange social picture in the teahouse. Lao She's pen is like a probe in a surgeon's hand. Every time he breaks the scab of decadent society, he teaches people to see a dirty pus spewing out, and the ulcer of society from the outside to the inside has reached such a terrible level. We should teach it to be thoroughly remoulded and changed.

The audience of Teahouse has to open their eyes at any time and look directly at the absurd world on the stage: It is said that Pang, the eunuch who "waits on the queen mother and blushes, even the vinegar bottle at home is made of agate", is senile and girly, but faces the news that he wants to end his "marriage" shamelessly in public; The trafficker pockmarked Liu is ruthless, and he is not afraid that people will see through his misdeeds of selling a peasant girl and earning 190 yuan. He boasted and publicized his own logic: "If I am not distracted, they may not find a buyer"; Two deserters, who didn't have enough money and wanted to meet their physiological needs, had to chip in to let the traffickers buy a shared wife, forming an unimaginable "friendship of three people"; The war continues, warlords are separated, citizens feel insecure and complain. However, some people "thank you for this year" and said to Tang Tiezui, who specializes in selling divination for a living: "The more chaotic the year, the better my business will be! These days, whoever lives or dies has to take a chance. How can it not be fortune-telling and face reading? " These plots, one by one with abnormal taste and somewhat funny color, are all strange scenes born in the absurd age. When they are displayed by playwrights, it proves that an era without social justice will inevitably bring out unreasonable strange things in normal society. Just like A Dream of Red Mansions is full of absurd things and bitter tears, these people are all taught in Teahouse.

The teahouse shows that the world is getting worse and the rivers are getting worse. The work adopts the identity arrangement that most ugly people are "hereditary" in their careers. In three scenes, pockmarked Liu and pockmarked Xiao Liu, swindlers Tang Tiezui and Xiao Tangzui who sell divination, detectives Song Enzi and Xiao Songzi, Wu Xiangzi and little prince, and thugs Er Dezi and Xiao Dezi are fathers. Through the words and deeds of this group of social scum who are not only shameless but also slightly changed, the audience can see some social changes. In Act 1, pockmarked Liu used the difference between the rich and the poor in society to resell the population and got along well. But in the second act, he lost his pride It is not that the society where the rich and the poor are divided has improved, but that the worse reality has made him unlucky. He complained, "What a revolution! How painful! Now the second in command, the class teacher wants to marry an aunt and pay attention to singing Kunqu opera. A flower for the actress in the troupe is worth 35 thousand! I'm staring, but I can't touch the door! " Asako Liu, who is engaged in old-fashioned ambiguous business, can't keep up with the speed of "social development". In troubled times, the hero has become a nouveau riche, and his evil deeds have gone far beyond the power of the previous dynasty. They chose the standard of concubines and the tolerance of spending a lot of money, leaving only the veteran in the field of optical fiber to watch, which shows that the world has gone bad. In the third act, it's pockmarked Liu's turn as a newcomer in the fiber industry. Facing the turbulent times and colluding with rampant Kuomintang bureaucrats, they want to set up a "Bao Yuaner" company to organize all dancers, prostitutes, jeep girls and waitresses in Peiping to serve American soldiers and bureaucrats. Asako Liu's ambition and cunning can really dwarf his dead father, and the business of traffickers has reached its peak, which proves what kind of years. What kind of world style does nature have? Let's look at Tang Tiezui and his son again: in the first two scenes, Tang Tiezui swaggered through the city. Although there were years of war to help him sell divination, he failed to make a fortune after all. He drank the residual tea in the teahouse for nothing, and even Wang Zhanggui dared to squeeze him; However, Tang Xiao Tezui, who inherited the mantle of a liar, was dubbed the "Shi Tian" of the "Yellow Sandao" cult. Tang Xiao stuck his mouth and said, "Pockmarked Liu and I ... we came into being, and living in this era is really like a duck to water!" In this hideous world, apart from street hooligans and social scum like Pockmarked Liu and Tang Tiezui, there will never be any serious people who are "like a duck to water". What kind of society is society? It depends on what kind of people are "like a duck to water" in it, which is also called "survival of the fittest" Pockmarked Liu and Tang Tiezui are actually the times.

On the one hand, ugly things breed and spread everywhere. On the other hand, the valuable things in national traditional culture could not survive or even be destroyed in those years. In the third act, Zou Fuyuan, a famous storyteller, Wei Fuxi, a Peking Opera actor, and Master Ming, a famous chef in a restaurant, all told their own stories about their art and skills that regard life as precarious. A master is a person who can "do one or two hundred things". Zou Fuyuan expressed the extreme distress of these artists and craftsmen: "This year is a bad year, and all serious things are rotten."