Do you know what "storytelling" and "cross talk" were like more than two thousand years ago?

As one of the eight rivers and lakes, storytelling and cross talk are really hard to understand if they really trace their origins. At present, the modern grandfathers of crosstalk are Zhang Sanlu and Zhu Shaowen, and the ancient grandfathers are Dong Fangshuo of the Western Han Dynasty. The storytelling door is even more powerful. They set the ancestor of storytelling on King Zhouzhuang.

In fact, the origin of these two folk art industries has always been a research topic. At present, the farthest place can only be traced back to the Eastern Zhou Dynasty. At that time, there were two positions in the palace, one was Meng Meng and the other was Yiyou. Judging from the nature and form of their work, they are equivalent to "storytelling" and "cross talk" of that era.

Cuomon (pronounced the same as Meng Gu) originally meant blind. Cuomon's work is mainly done by blind people, so Cuomon is used to represent their work. Youmeng was originally a separate job. Youmeng is responsible for offering songs to the king, and Meng Meng is responsible for reciting them. Later, dreams and dreams merged into one, and his main job became a historian.

Ancient history is divided into two ways of recording, mainly by the language of dreams, and the auxiliary is the written record of Taishi Gong. Therefore, when a king wants to learn history, his first choice must be blindness. Why? Reading is not as interesting as listening to books!

When telling history and stories, sometimes some interesting burdens and satirical fables are added, which can play an ironic role. Over time, such works have become "storytelling". "Mozi" has a cloud: people who can talk, people who can tell stories, tell stories. This is probably the earliest origin of the word storytelling.

There are not many famous people left in the history of dream, but there is a celebrity who is suspected of dream, that is, Zuo Qiuming, the author of Zuo Zhuan who annotated Spring and Autumn Annals. He is blind, and Zuo Qiuming's father is in charge of recording Taishi. The history books of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty were written separately. The book about notes is called Chunqiu, and the book about language is called Shangshu. On the whole, Zuo Qiuming may have at least worked in this job.

Compared with Mo Meng's "Gao Qian", you's working position is slightly lower. They are responsible for joking with the king and relaxing the atmosphere. Some are dwarfs, such as Youyou around Qin Shihuang.

In Mo Meng's works, satire and persuasion are their duties, but in You's works, they only do it occasionally. Sima Qian said that they are "good at laughing, but suitable for Tao", that is to say, their funny language also contains satire and admonition.

Xi You's works have an inherent advantage, that is, their words can not be investigated, no matter how funny they are, they are confined to the funny range and will not be convicted because of their words. For example, Qin Shihuang's close friend satirized Qin Shihuang and Qin Ershi many times, but he was not convicted. He lived until after Liu Bang ascended the throne.

Perhaps it's because You told more jokes, and their deeds were recorded more than You Meng's. In the world of travel, there are two famous figures, one is Meng of Chu and the other is Wan of Qin.

There are two main deeds of Youmeng. The first one is about horses. Chu Zhuangwang has a horse that he likes very much. He ate and drank delicious food every day, so he was too fat and died. Chu Zhuangwang was very sad, so he decided to bury the horse with the funeral specifications of the scholar-officials, and ordered that no one should protest, so that the arrested person could bury the horse with him.

At this moment, Youmeng came crying. He told Chu Zhuangwang that the death of the horse broke his heart. Later, it was even sadder to hear that Chu Zhuangwang only buried Marta in the funeral specifications of the scholar-officials. He felt that Matthew was wronged.

Chu Zhuangwang asked him what to do? You Meng suggested that the horse be buried according to the king's burial specifications, with jewels as coffins and fine wood as coffins, and thousands of soldiers were sent to dig its grave. The envoys of Qi and Zhao were responsible for escorting the way, and the envoys of Han and Wei were responsible for the back of the temple. Upon completion, an ancestral temple will be built for it, and 1000 pigs, cattle and sheep will be slaughtered to commemorate it. In short, a horse is what you look like when you die. How embarrassing it is for such a thing to spread to vassal States.

Chu Zhuangwang knew he had gone too far. He asked Youmeng how to bury a horse.

You Meng replied: "We will dig a earthen stove as a coffin, use a big copper pot as a coffin, use ginger and jujube as funerary objects, burn straw as a sacrifice, use fire as a sacrifice, and finally bury it in our stomachs."

Listen, Chu Zhuangwang, it's up to you. Let's push the dead horse into the canteen.

Readers who are familiar with cross talk will understand at a glance that the story of a dream is exactly the same as the exaggerated jokes such as crossing the courtyard in cross talk.

Another well-known joke of Youmeng is "Makeup Crosstalk". Sun Shuai, the prime minister of Chu, died. He was honest and poor, so Youmeng decided to help his family. He found Sun Shuaio's clothes to imitate him, and also found someone to be his "handmaiden". Two people performed a "cross talk", which generally means that his wife complained that Sun Shuai would not be the prime minister of Chu in the future and would not make money for nothing. You Meng took the opportunity to sing a ditty similar to "It's hard to be honest and upright". Hearing this, Chu Zhuangwang immediately sealed four hundred households for Sun Shuai's family. This performance is the earliest makeup crosstalk.

Youyou served Qin Shihuang and Qin Ershi for a long time in Qin State, and some anecdotes have been handed down.

A grand banquet was held in Qin king Palace. It's raining outside, and the guards are soaked in the rain. Youyou pretended to show off to the guard: "Look at the usefulness of you big men. You stand in the rain. Look at me. Although I am a dwarf, I can stay in the hall without getting wet. " Hearing this, Qin Shihuang immediately ordered the guards to stand guard in shifts. Is this the irony in the crosstalk bag?

On another occasion, Qin Shihuang wanted to expand the hunting ground to Hanguguan in the east and Chencang in the west. Youyou immediately agreed: "We can raise more elk in it in the future, and when the enemy comes from the east, those elk can kick them to death." Qin Shihuang listened and said, "You have seed!"

On another occasion, Qin Ershi planned to paint all the walls of Xianyang City. Youyou agreed again: "In fact, I have long wanted to do this. How did you come up with it? " . You see, the city wall is beautifully painted, what's more, in case the enemy attacks, it can't climb up at all. But there is only one ... "What happened to Qin Ershi? Youyou said sadly, "I can't find a bigger house than the whole Xianyang city. I can dry these pigments in the shade." Qin Ershi: "I didn't say anything, okay? "

To sum up, Miao Meng and You may not be the direct pioneers of storytelling and cross talk, but they started the inheritance of these two arts in the form of irony. After more than 2,000 years, these two forms of works gradually went to the folk, and after constant changes and adjustments, they finally developed into two forms, storytelling and cross talk, which we loved to see in the last century or two.