Editor’s note: This is a nostalgic theater.
In 626 AD, Li Shimin, who was twenty-nine years old on the eighth day of August in the ninth year of Wude, sat on the imperial collapse seat in the Taiji Hall. Although he was about to become emperor the next day, he looked uneasy and absent-minded, and his greeting to Fang Xuanling seemed to be a surprise. Li Shimin recalled the night before Tang gaozu ascended the throne nine years ago, and he was really at a loss when he sat in that position himself. Fortunately, his thinking soon changed from farmland to governance.
-This is the relevant text describing the night before Li Shimin ascended the throne in the script of The Rule of Zhenguan.
The 50 episodes of The Rule of Zhenguan, directed by Zhang Jianya and written by Meng Xianshi and Acheng, was a domestic film and television drama that showed the style of Zhenguan Dynasty more than ten years ago. It has always been highly praised by history lovers. With the popularity of The Longest Day In Chang’an, this drama was once again mentioned by everyone.
But interestingly, this well-made "The Rule of Zhenguan" is generally only talked about by audiences interested in history. Why?
Because it has almost no characters, only history and politics.
First, no one can fail.
Before expressing my love for this drama, I decided to promote it first, to fully expose its shortcomings, and then to tell everyone that it is its shortcomings that I like. Its shortcomings are fatal and are bound to attract a lot of criticism.
We might as well consider a question, who is the protagonist of this play?
The answer is obvious, Li Shimin, Li Shimin, King of the Tang Dynasty and Qin Dynasty, and Li Shimin, Your Majesty of Zhenguan.
Ma Yue plays Li Shimin.
So what kind of person is Li Shimin in this play?
Ma Yue’s Li Shimin is thin and heroic enough, and her voice is like Hong Zhong’s. The most important thing is that those eyebrows and eyes are not angry and arrogant, and they are natural emperors. Naturally, they have won the love of many people, but this love is not that the screenwriter writes well, but that he dresses well, the actors play well and the photography is good.
When Ma Yue sat there, it was imperial, and no one could hide it. The appearance of Emperor Zhenguan was frozen. So far, no one can compare with him in Zhenguan, but this role is static and has not changed.
What is the most important thing in a play? Not the plot, not the picture, but the characters. Maybe you don’t remember the plot of a good play, and you don’t remember how beautiful the composition is, but well-written and well-acted characters will certainly live in your heart.
Ma Yue’s success depends entirely on his natural contribution, which has little to do with the screenwriter. This Li Shimin character has no arc light, and there is no obvious change from his debut in the first episode to his exit in the last episode. No matter his personality, ability or cognition of the world, it is unchangeable. Of course, all characters don’t have to change, but the relationship between people must be dynamic, so that the character and emotion of the characters can be highlighted, otherwise it will only be a functional role.
Therefore, the most brilliant thing in this play is the relationship between Li Yuan (played by Ma Jingwu) and Li Shimin. At first, Tang gaozu was the emperor, Li Shimin was the prince, and Tang gaozu hovered between Li Shimin and Li Jiancheng, wondering who should inherit the unification. Later, Li Shimin fought bravely, raised Tang gaozu, and Tang gaozu abdicated in desperation, and the relationship between father and son became rigid to the extreme; At the end of the day, Li Shimin and Tang gaozu finally reconciled. Li Shimin took Tang gaozu and let Tang gaozu watch the people in North Hunan dance together. Tang gaozu was finally relieved.
Why is Li Yuan pleased? Because Li Yuan grew up at the end of the Southern and Northern Dynasties in troubled times, although Yang Guang claimed to be a saint Khan, it was impossible for Li Yuan to imagine the happy situation of reunification since the end of the Western Jin Dynasty, but his son made it.
This scene is very meaningful. It runs through a picture that Central Plains people dare not imagine for hundreds of years. However, if you don’t understand this background, your emotional understanding may not be particularly appropriate, and you may only feel the warmth of your family.
In addition to Li Shimin, even the roles of Grandson Queen, Changsun Wuji, Fang Xuanling, Du Ruhui, Wei Zhi and so on have not changed in this drama. What these people look like from the time they debut, then they have already been determined. Besides Wei Zhi and Li Shimin, the relationship between the characters hasn’t changed (even Wei Zhi, when he was the Prince of the East Palace beside Li Jiancheng, although his relationship with Li Shimin was hostile, the creator didn’t let them have direct contact with each other in order to be loyal to historical facts, so Wei Zhi didn’t have enough dramatic effect when he reconciled with Li Shimin later).
So are there any well-written characters in this play?
Yes. This role is called Zhao Deyan. Zhao Deyan is indeed a historical figure, but he is a nobody, and there are not many records about him in the history books: "Jie Li Khan got Zhao Deyan, a Chinese, and entrusted him with it. The Chinese people are not happy when they talk only about virtue and change old customs, and the decrees are troublesome and harsh. Valerian is good at trusting the Hu and sparse Turks, and the Hu people are greedy and repeated, and the soldiers are old and moving; There will be heavy snow, several feet deep, many miscellaneous animals will die, and there will be famine for years, and the people will be cold and hungry. I don’t give you the money, but I have regained all the ministries. Because of the internal and external grievances, the ministries are rebellious and the soldiers are weak. " In the records, Zhao Deyan made a speech to Jie Likhan, thus sowing the seeds for his demise.
Because he is a nobody, the screenwriter can write this character. At first, it was set for him to be the secretariat of Beizhou. Li Shimin just became a prince, and Wei Zhi went to Hebei to reassure people. Zhao Deyan mistakenly thought that Li Shimin was trying to lure the snake out of the hole, so he made a lot of trouble by trying to figure out what he meant. When Li Shimin saw through what Zhao Deyan was like, he asked Zhao Deyan to take refuge in Pei Ji, the veteran of Tang gaozu, and quickly killed Pei Ji; Finally, Zhao Deyan was rushed to Jieli Khan by Li Shimin, and finally "made the best use of everything".
Such an adaptation is a dramatic adaptation. Unfortunately, in this play, only the little people are dramatized.
The essence of drama is construction. Whether it is a historical drama or a modern drama, whether it is a political drama or a romantic drama, there must be a pile of materials based on reality or past reality in advance, and then the creators extract and concentrate these materials, and finally readjust and establish a refined story.
These great figures in history in this play have been stereotyped when they appear, and their images come from history books. What Li Shimin and Changsun Wuji are like in the history books, they are what they are. In strict accordance with the historical records, the relationship between ministers is harmonious and there is no change.
Teacher Meng Xianshi, an expert and one of the screenwriters in Tang Shi, once struggled. He originally planned to design a sentimental line for Dou Jiande’s daughter and a hidden line for the former prince, but later thought it was too far from history, so he gave it up. It is right to give up, but this does not mean that all the constructions can be given up.
Li Shimin, why Li Shimin? Apart from his unique divinity, what influenced him during his growth? What changed his world outlook and personality in the long life?
This is the necessity of biographies.
Transcendental figures can appear, such as the first emperor, Emperor Wu of Han Dynasty and Emperor Taizong of Tang Dynasty. However, if you want every character to be brilliant, it is very difficult to ask every character to be transcendental. Why the character is this character is unclear, either with a history or a change. -and there are almost no roles in "The Rule of Zhenguan".
Imagine an audience who doesn’t know who Li Shimin is at all and opens the play with great interest. He doesn’t know anyone. What will the audience do at this time? He will abandon the play in ten minutes.
Let’s take a look at what was filmed ten minutes before the first episode-the answer is a conversation that lasted for ten minutes. This is not a tense dialogue in the first episode of "Ming Dynasty 1566", but a long speech by Li Shimin in front of Tang gaozu to analyze why he wanted to fight Wang Shichong and how to fight Wang Shichong.
Did you find the problem? There are no events, only endless conversations.
This is a spoken opening, and this is a spoken 50-episode TV series.
This is a rule of chastity.
Second, the way of heaven and earth, Zhen Guan also.
Li Shimin, the Emperor of Zhenguan, as a king who hardly confronted his opponents except conquering, had no initiative in the TV series The Rule of Zhenguan.
How to understand this sentence? When we look at Yongzheng Dynasty, Yongzheng wants to govern the bureaucracy because he saw the sufferings of the people when he was a prince. We watch "1566 of the Ming Dynasty", and Harry finally decided to go to the library because he finally realized the problem in the long struggle in the early stage.
What about "The Rule of Zhenguan"? When Li Shimin came out, he had an idea, that is, to govern the country well and make Datang flourish. The opening song "Look at this beautiful mountains and rivers, you have given me a lot, let me build this land into an ideal country wholeheartedly", which gives us the feeling that Li Shimin, who came out of nowhere, suddenly decided to take responsibility for the world and turn it into its own ideal country.
And why did he do it? There is no explanation in the play. If the audience doesn’t understand the historical background, they will definitely not know Li Shimin’s motivation and vision, but will only feel out of place and never be able to empathize with this character.
These can be staged, but it didn’t do it. It just moved the contents of the history books intact.
Again, this is the rule of chastity.
Let’s think about two questions first. Why was there a rule of chastity in that era? Why do so many people want to copy the rule of chastity?
In order to answer this question, we must focus on the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties and the Eastern Han Dynasty. In these hundreds of years of troubled times, apart from the brief reunification of the Western Jin Dynasty, it has always been a separatist state of various forces, which is a merger war.
The war of annexation is different from the peasant war. The war of annexation means that the rulers of various separatist regimes encourage farmers to produce. On the whole, production will not be destroyed on a large scale, so the population will grow slowly in these troubled times of hundreds of years.
The population of the Western Jin Dynasty was more than 30 million. When the Sui Dynasty unified the whole country, the population was more than 50 million. When the productivity is not obviously improved, peace is bound to be sharp and short-lived, and the situation of not having enough food will inevitably lead to a rapid and large number of social contradictions, whether or not Emperor Yangdi will.
So it was not long before the Sui Dynasty was unified, and the peasant war broke out. The main body of the peasant war is the peasants. When the peasants participate in the war, it means that the production will be destroyed, the production will be destroyed, and the people will be displaced. What is the result?
It was in the early Tang Dynasty that there were only over 10 million people left.
This is the historical and social background of Zhenguan rule. If you don’t understand this background, not only can you not fully feel the feeling of crossing time and space when Li Yuan saw North Hunan and Vietnam singing and dancing together, but even why Zhenguan rule was born can’t really feel it emotionally.
And if you want to complete the rule of Zhenguan, you still need a figure.
Many years ago, a teenager witnessed his uncle’s reckless behavior, regardless of the world’s load, and pushed the Sui Empire to its downfall step by step. When the teenager grew up, he found that he finally had to face the situation that his uncle had faced.
Uncle’s name is Yang Guang. The boy’s name is Li Shimin.
Every step a teenager takes will take a look at his uncle’s mistakes and be careful. He can’t be as reckless as his uncle, from teenager to youth, from youth to middle age, from middle age to old age. He must always do his best. He always remembers the people and that water can carry a boat or overturn it.
However, teenagers still inherit their uncles’ ideas on major policies, such as culture, war, economy, diplomacy and so on.
This is the background of the rule of Zhenguan.
If we broaden our horizons, we will find that the relationship between Emperor Yangdi and Emperor Taizong appeared hundreds of years ago, that is, Qin Shihuang and Emperor Wudi of the Han Dynasty. It is also a short-lived dynasty established after the annexation war for hundreds of years, and it is also a unified empire quickly established after the short-lived dynasty because of the peasant war. What is the difference between the Han Dynasty and the Tang Dynasty?
The difference lies in a man named Zhang Qian.
In 139 BC, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty sent Zhang Qian, who was in his twenties, to the west. The young man walked with a mission for thirteen years and finally came back to Chang ‘an, the starting point that haunted him.
Nearly a thousand years after Chang ‘an City in Han Dynasty disappeared, Sui Daxing City was built some distance southeast of Chang ‘an City in Han Dynasty. After several decades, Li Yuan took Sui Daxing City as the capital of the new empire Tang Dynasty and renamed it Chang ‘an City.
Zhang Qian brought back to Chang ‘an, not only a few words from Yue’s family, but also nearly a thousand years of exchanges west of Chang ‘an.
Therefore, when history reached the Sui and Tang Dynasties, the Central Plains Empire was not as it was in the early years of the Western Han Dynasty. The exchanges between the Tang Dynasty and the outside world increased greatly, and trade, diplomacy, study, etc. What the Emperor of the Tang Dynasty had to do at this time was not to punish him from afar, but to sweat.
At the same time, the Confucian classics collapsed in the last years of the Eastern Han Dynasty, and the filial piety in the Western Jin Dynasty failed to stand up. Buddhism and Taoism began to penetrate into all aspects of people’s lives. At this time, let alone Cheng Zhu’s Neo-Confucianism, even Han Yu’s Neo-Confucianism theory has not yet appeared. In such a period of cultural collision, Tang’s political theory has not yet been completed, and everything is in the form of openness.
So we understand that there are many prosperous times, but different prosperous times show different forms. At that time, the emergence of the rule of Zhenguan was inevitable, valuable and difficult to replicate.
The TV series "The Rule of Zhenguan" begins with Li Shimin leading an army to conquer Wang Shichong, the middle part is Li Shimin fighting for the throne, and the latter part is Li Shimin discussing with ministers how to govern the Tang Dynasty.
This kind of performance is accurate, but it is also unfriendly to the audience. For the audience who know the background, for example, the compilation of clan annals can make people look back on hundreds of years of history; But if the audience doesn’t understand the background, then such a thing is rootless wood and passive water. The audience may understand it, but they can’t understand its meaning emotionally.
Therefore, Zhen Guan should have the appearance of Zhen Guan. This sentence is not only aimed at Wu Dechao, but must be aimed at the whole history. Only in this way can we really make a grand history.
That’s true, but it’s actually very difficult to show it in drama. Because the time span is too big, we can’t invite the ancients, and we can’t slowly tell how all this came about. Therefore, it is very important to choose the starting point. We must find events that can profoundly reflect the background of the times at that time, wrap a series of political, economic, cultural and social propositions at that time as much as possible, and then write characters, so that the audience can feel these backgrounds personally.
The protagonist had better be as ignorant of the world as the audience. This is the best way to stimulate the audience.
It’s easier said than done, so I don’t want to criticize The Rule of Zhenguan too much. On the contrary, I really like this play.
Third, ask him about the importance of managing the country
The content of The Rule of Zhenguan is extremely solid. Although it is anti-drama, the audience who are really interested in politics and history will enjoy an unusually rich meal when watching this drama.
Call it anti-drama, because drama is about characters, it is not, and the most important thing is to talk about the macro.
Tell how to govern the country, tell how to control the courtiers, and tell how to stabilize the people …
For example, in the beginning, Tang gaozu told Li Jiancheng that you don’t want to compete with the minister, because all the work in the end belongs to the king. For example, after Li Shimin was sealed as a prince, he appointed Wei Zhi, who was once a political enemy, to go to Hebei to calm people’s hearts, in order to tell everyone that the world must be reconciled.
There are many truths in each episode, and every truth can be used for acting, but there are none. Because these are all spoken by mouth, the truth will be macro. What will it be like when the macro ideas are implemented at the grassroots level?
In the early Tang Dynasty, local administration was divided into states and counties, and grass-roots organizations in villages below the county level were led by county departments, which was a direct contact between people.
Therefore, when macro-policies reach the grass-roots level, there will definitely be actions, and they must be real and antagonistic actions. Why will we continue to develop the land equalization system, the rent-to-mediocrity system and the imperial examination system? What are the effects of these on the people? When we look at this moment instead of measuring it in a hundred years, we feel naturally different.
However, these feelings are not realized by the monarch and ministers who talked about them in the court, and the audience naturally cannot understand them. Everyone is surrounded by you and me, either you are full of fun or you are sleepy.
So this drama is actually about political philosophy.
Political philosophy is not completely politics, politics is behavior, and political philosophy is theoretical construction. Dong Zhongshu of China and Max Weber of Germany have been doing this all their lives. In the final analysis, what they want to do is to explain political behavior: why is it legitimate? Why is he the emperor?
Here we can understand why it is the classic saying of Li Shimin:
"Husband, with copper as a mirror, can be dressed; Taking history as a mirror, we can know the rise and fall; Taking people as a mirror, you can understand the gains and losses. "
Some people read history to know the truth and study the truth, some people read history to cultivate sentiment and seek comfort, while others read history to learn from experience and be alert at all times. Political philosophy is inseparable from history, but political philosophy is not history. It does not study history, nor does it feel history. It only uses history.
Li Shimin, who attaches great importance to the historical role, always warns people with Xunzi’s words that water can carry a boat or overturn it. He will say this, except that he always takes Yang Guang as a negative example as mentioned above (there are a lot of cases in Zhenguan Politicians and Youyang Miscellany) and his obsession with the change of Xuanwu Gate, there is another important reason.
Emperor Zhenguan was a horse leader in karis who didn’t need artificial construction. Karis horse means authority that needs no explanation. The ancient kings of China tried their best to shape their own image of karis horse, while Li Shimin was one of the few horses that naturally formed without shaping.
Mao Zedong once commented on Li Shimin: "Since ancient times, there has been no right of Li Shimin, followed by Zhu Yuanzhang’s ear."
Tang gaozu Taiyuan arise, he participated in; When the Tang Dynasty laid the foundation for reunification, he contributed the most. In other words, without him, Datang may not be what it was later. In the process of establishing the Datang regime for many years, he proved his existence with countless victories. In layman’s terms, whoever can lead us to victory will follow us.
Therefore, when Li Shimin was crowned Prince, his hairstyle looked strange, but it was in line with history.
"The Book of the New Tang Dynasty Volume XXIV Chronicle XIV Car Clothing": "The Emperor is not dressed in Canadian dollars, but is decorated with a black top, a pair of children’s buns, a pair of jade guides and a treasure."
After Xuanwumen, he was already the son of heaven, although he was only a prince at that time. This detail is in place.
His son, Li Zhi, was different from him when he was made a prince.
We know very well why Li Shimin became emperor, but what about Li Zhi?
After reading the words written by Li Zhi, Changsun Wuji said this: "I just guessed that it was written by your majesty, because no matter how you write it, it is an imperial word, and the imperial word cannot be commented."
Changsun Wuji means that Li Zhi’s words are imperial.
This is political philosophy.
Fish in the water is not presumptuous, how can it yue longmen; The tiger is not presumptuous in the mountains, how can it roar in the mountains?
If it were any other drama, we would definitely try to act on Li Zhi, not to mention the costume idol drama such as "The Supreme Beauty", even the drama "Zhenguan Long song" under the banner of historical drama, but this drama didn’t. The core of this drama is not to explain why Li Zhi can be a prince, but only to show why Li Zhi is a prince.
Why is Li Zhi a prince? Changsun Wuji couldn’t give an answer, so he said it was imperial.
Why is Li Zhi imperial? The play also didn’t give an answer, but designed a bridge that he could control the sword in Li Shimin’s hand.
So Li Zhi finally became emperor.
However, as a result, Li Zhi could not create another rule of Zhenguan. He only had the legacy of Zhenguan and the rule of Yonghui.
Sun Yinggang sought a hidden line of history in The Age of Divine Literature: Divination, Arithmetic and Medieval Politics. Political history is the obvious line of history, but there are many hidden lines in history. History has folds, and we must find ways to find this fold, which is the hidden line of history.
In this book, he takes several emperors of the Tang Dynasty whose legitimacy sources are not very strong (such as Emperor Taizong, who appeared after Xuanwu Gate, Tang Gaozong, who became emperor only after the battle between his eldest brother and his second brother, Wu Zetian, the only female emperor, and Tang Suzong, who had a delicate relationship with his father after the Anshi Rebellion) as examples, and describes how these emperors used divination and magic numbers to construct ideology, auspicious signs, disasters and even historical cycles when their legitimacy was questioned.
Take this book to watch this play again, and you will naturally understand where the most interesting point of this play is.
This also leads to the great difference in ideological value between The Rule of Zhenguan and many historical dramas. We don’t make value judgments here, but only think about the differences.
-other historical dramas are deconstructing politics and history, breaking them and telling you why; But this drama is constructing politics and history, and only tells you what happened.
If you understand this layer, you can naturally forgive why it can’t do the characters and events well, because a drama that does the characters and events well will inevitably need to deconstruct it. The Rule of Zhenguan is unwilling to deconstruct.
Conclusion another kind of chastity
Personally, I like this play very much. I even want to put it in a very high position and take it out from time to time to taste it. I will often have some new understandings and new feelings, but this idea is private and I can’t share the fun with you.
I don’t mean to criticize the audience for not liking the play, and I don’t mean to criticize the drama’s dramatic problems. I just want to say that it is definitely a strange play. It is not in the same evaluation range as the previous good dramas and bad dramas.
I don’t want another "The Rule of Zhenguan", but at least we have to have a "The Rule of Zhenguan". Pay tribute to two teachers, Meng Xianshi and Acheng, and also to director Zhang Jianya and all the actors.
One of the most frustrating scenes in the whole play has nothing to do with chastity. That’s what a monk looked like after he traveled through mountains and rivers for seventeen years and returned to the Tang Dynasty from Tianzhu.
At that moment, I was shocked that everyone will get old, and so will he. His name is Xuanzang. That is not the rule of Zhenguan, but also the rule of Zhenguan. There are many kinds of Zhenguan.
