汤显祖与临川四梦中英讲稿

中国传统文学在中国历史上每个时代都有它特征鲜明的独特载体，比方说，说唐朝文学我们就要集中讲气魄恢弘的唐诗，说宋朝文学就不能绕开温润典雅的宋词，说元朝则元曲，明清则小说，四大名著早已深入人心。然而，在明清之际还有另一种文学形式，虽然并不能代表那个时代的最杰出成就，但是也很可一观，风靡一时。那就是传奇。

Chinese traditional literature has definite distinctive carrier in different dynasty. For instance, when we talk about literature in Tang dynasty, we have poems with grand verve. When it comes to Song dynasty, there is beautiful and romantic ci. Yuan dynasty, Qu. And Ming and Qing dynasty comes novels. We all know the four classical masterpieces. However, there was another literature form during Ming and Qing dynasty. Although it could not represent the most brilliant achievement, it was quite popular anyway and you may fall in love with it. It is so-called Chuan QI.

传奇指的是明清以来在元曲基础上发展演变而来的长篇戏剧。大量文学家参与了剧本创作因而传奇的文学性较元曲有了极大的提高，并形成了自己独特的风格。传奇较元代戏曲情节更加丰富，曲文更加优美，思想也更加深刻。传奇相比小说更为精炼，相比诗词更为自由。仕途失意的文人在文学创作中找寻自己的归属已经是中国历代文人的传统，在明清之际，传奇也像小说一样成为了作家们表现自己的舞台。

Chuai Qi is a form of drama developed from Yuan Qu. Because of the participation of many litterateurs the literariness of Chuan Qi improved a lot compared to Yuan Qu and finally formed its own feature. Chuan Qi has better plot, more beautiful expressions, profounder thought and new structure. Chuan Qi is more concise than novels and freer than poems. In Ming and Qing dynasty this kind of literature was quite popular and had great influence. The writer I would like to share with you is a great chuanqiwright. He is called the Chinese Shakespeare.

汤显祖生于1550年，是江西临川人，很年轻的时候就因为文章写得好闻名天下。然而他性情刚直，不喜欢讨好权贵。当时中国选拔官员都是通过一种称为科举的全国考试。当时的丞相张居正想用自己的权力让自己的孩子拿到前几名，却又担心天下人的议论，于是就想拉拢几个有真才实学的人拿前几名，以免有不识相的人当官后给他儿子制造麻烦。于是张居正找到了汤显祖，却被汤显祖拒绝了，因为他看不惯张居正的这种破坏公平的做法。他也因此被张居正记恨，此后几次考试都被安排落榜。直到34岁才考中，出任官职，却又因为批评朝政被皇帝贬官。到1598年，他干脆辞掉工作回到家里，专心写作，他给自己的房子起名叫玉茗堂，玉茗是一种花，就是现在说的白山茶，意味着心性高洁，志向远大，他把自己的社会理想寄托在自己的作品之中，希望能在读者之中找到知音。他也确实找到了，这点不细谈。

Tang Xianzu was born in 1550 in Linchuan, Jiangxi Province. He had been famous for his article and poems since he was quite young. He was therefore very confident and did not like to kiss up

to the bigwigs. In Ming dynasty, if you want to be an official, you have to pass a kind of test called KEJU. The prime minister Zhang Juzheng wanted to use his power to make his own children to be top-ranked in the test. But he was afraid that other students may hold protests. So he wanted to draw some best students to his side and he found Tang. But Tang refused him because he would not lose his principle though he may get an important position and much money. Of course Zhang Juzheng was angry so he managed to make Tang out of the list in the following almost ten years. Tang passed the test in his 34 years old and got a job in the loyal court. But he was demoted because of his criticism of the politics. When 1598, he quitted his job and turned back to his hometown. From then on he put his soul and life to literature. He named his house ’Yu Ming’house. Yu Ming is a kind of flower, it is what we called white camellia. The flower represents noble, unsullied, and great aspiration. He put his hope of society into the masterpieces he wrote. 汤显祖提出文学作品的思想和内容是最关键的，倡导创新，反对当时流行的诗必盛唐文必秦汉的反古风潮。同时，他在曲文创作中也很讲究表达的优美，而不太在意声律，以他为首形成了倡导思想内容的传奇创作的临川派，与当时强调声律优美的吴江派对立。当时的明朝被曲解的程朱理学思想占统治地位，宣扬“存天理，灭人欲”，对于当时代表着阶级社会秩序的“理”，汤显祖通过在作品中宣扬“情”来对抗，他所谓的情只要是爱情，然而更广泛地说就是指的人性。他认为理想的社会应该是人性能够得到承认与尊重的社会。至于如何是现这样的社会，他则没能形成清醒的认识，体现在作品中往往是一些体制之外的豪侠来建立新的秩序，但他自己也明白这只是幻想，所以后期的作品则流于虚幻，多体现人生如梦之类的消极思想。然而，作品十分优美，值得一看。

Tang Xianzu put forward that the most important part of the literature opus is the thought and the content. He called on innovation and he was against the popular custom that writer should copy the ancestor’s ideal. Meanwhile he put more importance on the literariness of the expression than sound law in play writing. In Ming dynasty, the distorted ChengzhuLixue was the main thought in the society. It called on follow the God’s rule and destroy human feelings. For Li, which represents the society rules, Tang put forward ‘Qing’ in his opus to refute. The so-called Qing is just the human feelings and normal human desires. He thought the ideal society should be a society that all human feelings are recognized and respected. As for how to build a society like that, he was confused. And this confusion reflected on his opus is that he arranged some immortals to help protagonists. He put his hope on religious. Now we know it’s unrealistic.

汤显祖最著名的作品有四部《紫钗记》，《牡丹亭》，《南柯记》，《邯郸记》，因为四部作品都与梦有关，所以常被合称为临川四梦。集中反映了他所提出的“情”的理念，他认为情分为真情和恶情，所谓“真情”，就是人们力图摆脱封建专制主义控制，对理想爱情、幸福生活和清平政治的追求。而所谓“恶情”，就是人们对不正当的情欲，诸如功名利禄、腐化堕落的贪恋。汤显祖的四部传奇，前“二梦”写男女青年的爱情故事，主要是歌颂真情；后“二梦”写士人仕途生涯、宦海沉浮，主要是批判恶情。

The most famous four opus is ,,,Because the four opuses are all about dreams. So the four masterpieces are usually called the Linchuan Four Dreams. They intensively reflected the concept of Qing. Tang Xianzudivided Qing into real Qing and bad Qing. The real Qing is the pursuing for ideal love, happy life and peaceful politics. And the bad Qing is the abnormal desire for sex, money, power and so on. The first two dreams describe the beautiful love between young girls