Background of Longjing Ferry

According to the legend of historical figures, the Chaozhou opera "Longjing Crossing the River" has long been a household name in Chaoshan. However, from reality to the formation of the script, we also found many interesting things.

Longjingdu was originally Longjingdu.

Crossing Longjing is a story of the Ming Dynasty. According to the chapter "Crossing Longjing" in Chaoyang County Annals edited by Qin Long in Ming Dynasty, the hero of the play "Crossing Longjing and Guandu" and "Arriving at the Provincial Capital" Shao Lin is from Dongxiang, the capital of Longjing. He went to the province to try it, not from the opposite Longjing River, but by boat.

Why did the script use "Longjing Ferry"? It is recorded in the history that "Longjing (crossing the river) officials were later merged into Qian Ying (crossing the river)". On the other hand, after Longjing Ferry opened to Shantou Commercial Port in Qing Dynasty, most passengers and goods in the middle and lower reaches of Lianjiang River were transported here by water, and then transported to Houxi Wharf to Shantou City by land and water, so Longjing Ferry became lively, and people in Chaoshan area knew that Longjing was the traffic line of Chaoyang. From generation to generation, people described the location of the story as the more famous Longjing Ferry.

Books are tiles, not paper.

In Longjingdu, Mei Niang forces Shao Lin to write a letter of parting at the crossroads. In fact, at first, the fascicles in folklore were written with tiles instead of paper books. From oral legend to Chaozhou songbook to the final script, there are many places like turning tiles into paper!

The contents of the four-volume Chaozhou Song Book "The Broken Wax in Xinlongjing Crossing" collected by Cai Litang, the Chaozhou government, and published by Li Wan Li, Yi 'an Road, Chaozhou in Qing Dynasty are as follows: "There was a poor scholar Shao Lin and his wife Shi Yu in Chaoyang, who were unhappy because their husbands didn't know how to make profits in business. Only Yao, Ma and Xiao Sanxiu tried to raise money and got off the boat, but the rest couldn't, asking for a divorce. There was no paper on the boat, forcing Lin to use the residual tile as a divorce certificate. Zheng Lao, the boatman, was unfair and advised Jelly Lin to leave, hoping to match his daughter Qiao Zhen. The last four people all won. Xie Yuan married Qiaozhen in the forest. My mother has given my daughter another Xu Wangs, and my father told the authorities that he was willing to pay compensation to cancel the contract and send her back to the Lins. Lin Jian refused, so he committed suicide. After Lin will work hard, he will become a scholar and an academician. He will greatly change the lintel and persuade Qiao Zhen to support his remaining parents to death. "

Screenwriters change folk customs, as if they were written on paper instead of books, which is suitable for stage performances. There are three books published in the whole play: the ferryman forced to write a book and showed it to the Wangs, and later Shao Lin showed it when he returned to China, which played a role in fueling the situation. In particular, the words "If you leave the book, you can't go home together" written in the book have different punctuation and meanings. If it is written on a tile, it is really a bit neither fish nor fowl, and it is not suitable for stage performance.

In terms of plot handling, the script mainly adopts such plots as writing a letter from the ferry, asking the media to be an intermediary to remarry, marrying the bride and returning to her hometown, and Shao Lin scolding Mei Niang, and cuts off such minor details as Shao Lin's remarriage and Qiao Zhen. This is because in order to better organize the drama conflict, the screenwriter has shaped the characters of the main characters more vividly. In particular, the change of Mei Niang's "father knew and told the official that he was willing to pay compensation to cancel the contract and send the woman back to the Lins, but Lin Jian refused to accept it" was changed to Mei Niang's remarriage, and when she heard that Lin Shao was honored, she broke off her engagement and came to the ferry to ask Shao Lin to renew the old alliance, which further enhanced the drama. Speaking of it, Shao Lin didn't "resolutely refuse to accept" at the ferry, but tried to test Mei Niang by "giving money not to renew the alliance". Mei Niang actually asked for advice, which vividly shaped the humorous negative image of Shao Lin's view of obsessing over the interests and forgetting the interests, and deepened the theme.

Shao Lin in history

What kind of person was Shao Lin in history? According to Chaoyang County Records, "Shao Lin was born in Longjing, Ji Bo". After winning Xie Yuan, he went to Beijing Hegong for an exam, where he became a scholar in Zhengde for three years. But ... he was not elected to the academician courtyard, but served as the director of the household department. As an official, he is honest and upright. When Liu Jin, a traitor, was in power, he wanted to pull Shao Lin's party for profit, but Shao Lin refused. Soon, Shao Lin resigned and returned to his hometown. The county annals say that he has a "good neighborhood" and is willing to do good things for the village. Many of them are for their own benefit. For example, there are still 18 houses in Hudong Town, and there is a "Lin ancestral hall" with a "sloping wall" at No.6 West Ring Road in Yuanmian City. The story of Lin Guojing did not go down in history. This may be a taboo for chroniclers, or it may be that later generations fabricated stories based on their own sincerity, benevolence and righteousness, which is unknown.