"Beheading a Single Boy" is a very famous traditional play in Qin Opera. The story is roughly similar to "The Romance of Sui and Tang Dynasties". This single boy is Shan Xiongxin, the fifth brother of Jiajialou in "The Romance of Sui and Tang Dynasties". . "Beheading the Single Boy" is an excerpt, with only one scene. It tells the story of a battle in Luoyang at the end of the Sui Dynasty and the beginning of the Tang Dynasty. Li Shimin defeated Wang Shichong and captured Shan Tong. After failing to persuade him to surrender, Li Shimin and the brothers from the original Wagang Village offered wine to Shan Tong at the execution ground, but Shan Tong scolded him for hiding his face and shame. The highlight of "Beheading Shantong" is Shantong's swearing jokes. From these curse words, we can feel the various aspects of history and life, and we can also get a glimpse of the cultural traditions rooted in our hearts.

Li Shimin was the first to offer wine to Shan Tong in the play, so he also became the first to be scolded. At this time, Li Shimin did not have the historical stain of killing his brother and forcing his father. But Li Shimin's family does have stains. This single boy explained the confusing relationship between men and women of Li's father and son in front of all the soldiers. The relationship between men and women in the Tang Dynasty has always been chaotic, so I guess this single boy is not just talking nonsense. The leader of the Ming Dynasty was scolded and stood aside with his face covered. There is another sentence in this Shantong's curse that is worthy of being written down here: "The kings of the world are just like animals." This sentence reveals the selfishness of the kings of the past dynasties, why do they serve the world for the common people, not just for fame and fortune? Of course Shantong's scolding was a bit excessive. A good king can still do half and half.

The second person who came up to offer wine was the black carbon-headed Jingde, also named Yuchi Gong. This single boy was captured by Jingde. It can be said that Shan Tong praised Jingde more than he criticized him. When Shan Tong appeared on the stage, he said, "It's not strange for Jingde to capture so-and-so." This sentence admits that his skills are inferior to others. In this paragraph, he first said that Jingde was a blacksmith and joined Liu Wuzhou. In one month, he conquered three passes, eight villages and nine states of the Tang Dynasty. This is a great compliment. It was not until the end that he scolded Jingde for betraying his master and defecting to the Tang Dynasty. This boy not only despised Jingde for serving his two masters, but also had a feeling of heroism towards each other.

Shan Tong, the first two people Shan Xiongxin scolded were Li Shimin and Jingde. As far as personal feelings were concerned, there was only national hatred and no personal grudges. But the next person who came up to offer wine was different. The next people who came up to offer wine were all from Wagang Village, and they were all his sworn brothers. These people "have all received his kindness and love", this is Shan Tong's lyrics, but now these people have betrayed their trust, so the resentment among them is not comparable to the first two.

The first person in Wagang Village to offer wine was Luo Cheng. When Shan Tong saw Luo Cheng, he was so angry that he was rescued by Shan Xiongxin and his wife because Luo Cheng was ill and trapped in Luoyang County. At that time, Shan Xiongxin's wife broke up with her husband because he did not seek medical treatment for Luo Cheng's money. I think this Shan boy values ????the word "righteousness", which is inseparable from this Shan's sister-in-law. There is also a warm verse in the section about scolding Luo Cheng, in which Shan Xiongxin sings the words of his daughter Jin Lian to comfort Luo Cheng who is suffering from illness: "Don't be heartbroken when you call Uncle Luo, there will be no disasters for anyone outside." Difficulties, there are no seven calamities or eight calamities, but gods." This libretto makes people cry, because the whole play of "Beheading the Single Boy" is filled with hatred and sorrow, and the tragic effect of the low singing here is even more dramatic. For strong. After Luo Cheng was rescued by Shan Xiongxin and his wife, he swore an oath to never surrender to the Tang Dynasty, but later he violated this oath. This was what Shan Tong hated the most about him.

Following Luo Cheng in offering wine was Xu Maogong, the soul figure of Laosan Wagang Village, the sworn brother of Jiajialou. His original name was Xu Shiji, but he was later given a surname and was renamed Li Ji. The aria criticizing Xu Maogong is the most exciting and crucial part of the play. When Xu Mao failed to succeed, he was a poor scholar who made a living by selling calligraphy and telling fortunes. One day, he met Shan Xiongxin, who was quite wealthy. After some sweet talk, Shan Xiongxin built a virtuous mansion for him and made friends with heroes all over the world. After some words, all the sworn brothers from Jiajialou went to Wagang Village. Shantong, a group of heroes, has always used their brains less and more hands-on. They originally just talked about the injustice and drew their swords to help, but they didn't know that there was another person who would change the world and rebel and become the king. The fight for the world in Wagangzhai was all inspired by Xu Maogong. The nature of scholars is to be resourceful and timid, and Xu Maogong is also like this.

After going to Wagang Village, Yang Lin, the patron king of the Sui Dynasty, led his troops to conquer. Old Yang Lin was so famous that Xu Maogong was frightened for a while. He could not trust the martial arts of his brothers in the village, so he sent someone to invite Luo Cheng from Yanshan to come. Although Luo Cheng has martial arts skills, he fell into Lao Yang Lin's "drag knife trick" without a fight. If he hadn't run too fast, he would have almost lost his life. Wagang Village was still besieged by Yang Lin, and the single boy Shan Wuye Seeing this situation, he was furious. He held a wolf fang and rushed into Lao Yanglin's camp without any soldiers or generals. Lao Yanglin was frightened for a moment, and just like Cao Cao in front of Dangyang Bridge, he slapped his horse and fled. Yang Lin's Sui army was in chaos as a result, and the brothers in Wagangzhai were able to break through the encirclement. It is a pity that the fifth master Shan and Wu were separated due to the war. Later, all the brothers defected to the Tang Dynasty, and the fifth master Shan and Wu joined Wang Shichong, the king of Luoyang.

Shan Tong hates Xu Maogong far more than anyone else, because Xu Maogong really determines Shan Xiongxin’s life. If Xu Maogong hadn’t told his fortune, he would still be a small boy from a small county in Luoyang. The rich man could act chivalrously and righteously from time to time, but Xu Maogong told him his fortune, so he went to Wagang to rebel. When the patron king came, if you, Xu Maogong, were not timid and could not trust the brothers, Shan Wuye would not have been separated from the brothers, so he took refuge with the king of Luoyang, and the last one ended up fighting with his own brothers. Therefore, Shantong was quite bitter and resentful towards Xu Maogong's aria.

Shan Tong hated Luo Cheng and Xu Maogong more than anyone else, not just because these two people had received great kindness from him. This had deep historical and cultural roots. During the Han Dynasty when Buddhism had not yet spread in China. The mainstream of Chinese thought and culture should be "Confucianism, Mohism, and Taoism." After Buddhism spread in China after the Sui and Tang Dynasties in the Northern and Southern Dynasties, the mainstream of Chinese culture became Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism, among which Mohism became Buddhism. However, in fact Mohism has never dissipated, and it has been believed by the lower class people until now. Compared with "Confucianism and Taoism", Mohist thought can be said to be simply expressed in the word "meaning"; while Confucian thought is mostly reflected in scholars, regardless of its fundamental thoughts, and its external expression is mostly expressed in the word "reason". As for Taoist thought, in Chinese history, it was mostly regarded as a good example by emperors and families. Abandoning the fundamentals of Taoism and looking at its appearance, it is more about conspiracy and power.

In the play "Beheading Shantong", Li Shimin and Xu Maogong are representatives of Taoism and Confucianism, while Shan Xiongxin and the not-mentioned Cheng Yaojin are followers of Mohism among the lower class people. , the meaning of the word in Mohist thought is difficult to explain. This is a very strange thing. A word has been used for thousands of years without knowing its specific meaning. To understand the meaning of this word by feeling, it includes many behavioral standards such as "loyalty, trust, benevolence", etc. The first choice should be the word "faith". This word "faith" is the reason why Shan Tong hated Luo Cheng. Cheng made a vow to Shan Xiongxin that if he surrendered to the Tang Dynasty, his life span would be shortened by 23 years. The play found such a reason for Luo Cheng's untimely death. Although the word "righteousness" includes many contents such as benevolence, love, loyalty and trustworthiness, it is not always the case. Sometimes the other contents can be ignored because of one of them. This Shantong just ignored the others because of the word "loyalty". Give up. Therefore, the meaning of the word "righteousness" is really difficult to grasp and clarify, but one thing is clear, that is, among the many meanings of the word "righteousness", none of them refers to "profit".

The word "profit" was often written as another word in modern times and in the past. What word is it? ——"Principle", this may be a depressing conclusion, but history and reality have proved that many "principles" lead to one "profit", "reason" and "benefit" are interlinked, and the word "reason" is exactly A signboard for many readers. In many novels, scholars and heroes who believe in the word "righteousness" often form a classic combination of wisdom and courage. However, in history, these scholars and heroes who only speak the word "righteousness" have always been mortal enemies. During the reign of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, a scholar born in commoner culture As soon as Prime Minister Gongsun Hong came to power, he exterminated Guo Xie, a family of knight-errants at that time. The reason was that many heroes broke the law with force. I won't mention this story here, but one fact cannot be denied, that is, most of them held official positions in history. Scholars indeed regard heroes and knights as enemies. When I say this, I do not mean to belittle Confucianism. What I am talking about here is the majority of scholars. These majority of scholars do not necessarily represent the true Confucianism. Historically, Confucianism has been The two groups that shout the most fierce slogans - the imperial family and the scholarly family - cannot truly represent Confucianism. The former "show Confucianism on the outside, but love Huang Lao on the inside". This "Huang Lao" is Taoism, and to them, it is Taoism. Conspiracy and power, while most of the latter's scholars "disguise law with Confucianism and make profits with literature." This phenomenon confirms the old saying "barking dogs don't bite."

Let’s talk a little about history and culture, and let’s take a look at the play “Beheading Shan Tong”. Xu Maogong happens to be a representative of Confucianism and Taoism, and is the mortal enemy of heroes like Shan Tong. The author of the play "Beheading Shantong" is probably well aware of the historical reasons mentioned above, so the lyrics of Shantong scolding Xu Maogong are extremely vicious: "We walked through the ten palaces of Yincao together, up the sword mountain and down the oil pan, We only play with grudges." At this point, I can only sigh one more line from an ancient poem to end Xu Maogong's paragraph: "Every person who is loyal is a dog-slaughter, and a person who is unfaithful is always a scholar."

The last person to come up to offer wine. "Devil King" Cheng Yaojin, this section is also the most exciting part of the play. Cheng Yaojin saw that his leader Li Shimin and many of his colleagues were scolded by the single boy, so he came up and knelt down first When he got down, people who were looking at him thought that Cheng Yaojin knelt down to avoid being scolded by the single boy, but from a later point of view, the trouble caused by his kneeling was far greater than the scolding. How could this "devil incarnate" not understand the consequences of being unconventional in front of his own leader? So he would never kneel down just to avoid being scolded, so why did he kneel down?

Throughout the novel "The Romance of the Sui and Tang Dynasties", Cheng Yaojin has always been a firefighter. He has been running around for his friends and their children and grandchildren. Whenever they encounter difficulties, he will Appearing, this is the so-called "Cheng Yaojin shows up halfway". After knowing this, we can see that although Lao Cheng is not as strong as Shan Xiongxin, they are both the same type of people, and they all value "righteousness" word person. Therefore, what Cheng Yaojin was kneeling on was the word "righteousness". What he was kneeling on was the feeling of shame that Shan Tong refused to surrender and Li Shimin wanted to kill him, but he had no way to do anything about it.

And Shantong also knew who the "Devil King" was, so in the following lyrics, he did not entrust his wife and children to Xu Maogong and Luo Cheng, who had received his great kindness, but to the person who had received the least kindness from him. Shan Tong knew that Cheng Yaojin was a person he could trust. On the surface, this section seems to be Cheng Yaojin kneeling down to prevent Shantong from scolding him, but in fact, Cheng Yaojin has nothing to scold. After Shan Tong finished singing his instructions to Cheng Yaojin in a sad voice, he wanted to drink his sacrificial wine. This really troubled Lao Cheng, because you, Dantong, didn't drink from the previous leader Li Shimin and his colleagues, and they all scolded him. Now that you don't scold me, Lao Cheng, you still want to drink. Doesn't this make it difficult for me, Lao Cheng, to be a good person? The actor Cheng Yaojin vividly portrayed the dilemma on his face when he heard Shan Tong wanted to drink his sacrificial wine. No matter how difficult it is for the "Devil King", he is facing his brother's last request in his life, so how can he not agree to it.

After three glasses of wine, everyone present was scolded and everything that should be entrusted was explained. I think it was time for Shan Wuye to shout out his famous saying of "revenge after twenty years." However, when I looked around, I couldn't see Qin Qiong. It turned out that Qin Qiong was sent to the army and was rescued by Shan Xiongxin's efforts. At this time, his brother was about to go to hell, but he didn't come to see him off. As a result, he was singled out again. The child scolded him. Then Shan Wuye shouted out a famous saying that would be regarded as the last words of life by later generations of heroes or robbers and bandits.

Wu Ye, the middle dancer, is strong enough but not tragic enough, which also shows that Qin opera is good at expressing tragedy. "Beheading Dantong" lasts for about 30 minutes, and it has a tragic atmosphere, but after watching it, it gives people a refreshing feeling. I guess it is because except for Cheng Yaojin, this Dantong's arias are all about yelling and screaming. There were scolds against Li Shimin's respect for virtue, scolds against Luo Cheng, and scolds against Xu Maogong and Qin Qiong. Shan Wuye didn't know if he could vent his own grievances with these scoldings, but they completely vented the grievances of the viewers.