"Returning to the Snowy Night" is one of the classic Chinese drama works. In 2012, "Returning to the Snowy Night" produced by the National Grand Theater, directed by Ren Ming, and starring Yu Shaoqun, Cheng Lisha and others was impressive. The handsome Yu Shaoqun and the pretty Cheng Lisha interpret the awakening story of a pair of men and women who are inferior but pure in hearts bravely breaking through the shackles of the world and facing themselves in a very touching way.

　　Recently, the Beijing People's Art Theater rehearsed the play again, using imagery to give the love of the male and female protagonists in the play a poetic sense - not only did they add many opera figures when they talk, but also added new lines to strengthen their love; the ending was a double dance to show the meeting of two free souls in the void; the Kunqu opera "Peony Pavilion" that appears from time to time as the background music, indicating the love between the two transcends life and death.

　　But this work is not about simple love between men and women, but more transcendent freedom and fraternity. They not only have each other, but also have a clear understanding of themselves and a clear understanding of the world.

　　The deepest world is friendship

　　"Returning to the Man on the Snowy Night" was created in 1942. In the same year, Wu Zuguang also wrote an article "Records of "Returning to the Man on the Snowy Night"" to introduce the creation background and his own insights of the play as an appreciation guide for the audience and readers.

　　Although the main plot in the play is the short-term relationship between the famous Peking Opera actor Wei Liansheng and the official concubine Yuchun, judging from the lines of the two in the original script and the author himself, their relationship is not purely the love between men and women at first sight, and their ideals are not permanent bonds in the secular sense.

　　One word that Wu Zuguang repeatedly emphasized in the play and in the article is "friend". When Yu Chunchu talked to Liansheng, she said, "We have only met two or three times, and have never said six sentences in total... I think we should be very familiar friends." Is this what a concubine from an official family from a brothel would say when she expresses love to an actor? In addition to drinking, Yuchun's excitement was that she recognized Liansheng, a kind person, as her confidant, and wanted to get close to him and wake him up, but she could not be too offensive. Her throbbing was not the first love, but the little bird in the cage opened the cage door by chance, and was struggling with the struggle of being tied by anklets. Of course she loves Liansheng, but she is definitely not a crazy fan like the two ladies who came to see Liansheng backstage. She loved that person. The new version of "Returning in the Snowy Night" arranges two female fans who only have a few minutes of scenes to lay the foundation for Yuchun's appearance and form a contrast.

　　In the article "Records of "Returning to the Snowy Night", Wu Zuguang tells the story of his relationship with the popular male actress Liu Shenglian when he was in school. Naturally, it is the prototype of Wei Liansheng in the play. Although Liu Shenglian is a famous actor on stage, she is a miserable person in the audience. She seems to be happy only for her parents when she gets married. Although she becomes popular later, she doesn't know how to die. Many years later, Wu Zuguang was still feeling uneasy about what Sheng Lian said to him at the wedding, "You play for a while before leaving." They have had sincere feelings, but they have not become long-term friends. Not only is the status, identity, world, people's hearts, but also how many sincere relationships have been broken in that turbulent era. Wu Zuguang's "Returning to the Man on a Snowy Night" should be the purpose of letting the immortal Yuchun solve the dilemma of Liansheng in the name of love and fulfilling the unfinished friendship between himself and Sheng Lian.

　　Wu Zuguang and his mother did not despise Sheng Lian because of being an actor, and there was no offense from Su Hongji and Xu Fucheng to Liansheng in the original script. The new version of the People's Art Theater added a play when Su Hongji introduced Xu Fucheng to meet Liansheng: Su Hongji did not let Liansheng take makeup, please watch it closely. The two of them talked about Wei Liansheng's appearance, and Xu Fucheng even wanted to reach out to touch Liansheng's cheek, which really showed Liansheng's dilemma as a rich man's play.

　　But in the original script, Yuchun awakens Liansheng with his own situation. If Liansheng has already realized his misfortune in advance, then when Yuchun asks "Do you feel pitiful", how could Liansheng say "not"? If "not feeling" is against your will, then how can you fall in love with the pitiful Yuchun at first sight? In short, although this change is understandable, it disrupts the dialogue logic of the original script. Moreover, when they first met, the two looked at each other without any reservations, and were affectionate, which was not suitable for the relationship between the characters, which also weakened the sense of layering of the relationship between the two.

　　The music with "Peony Pavilion" is intended to exaggerate the love between the two at first sight, but their love is first of all, the mutual appreciation of the poor people. Relatively speaking, director Ren Ming’s borrowing of "The Peony Pavilion" is obviously more appropriate. In the performance of the National Grand Theater version, Chen Xiang asked Liansheng to sing "The Legend of Red Fu" to be changed to "The Peony Pavilion". Liansheng practiced in front of the mirror and saw Yuchun in the mirror. After the two bid farewell, "Peony Pavilion" became the unfinished performance. Their love is gone, but friendship is with you for life.

　　Expressing the wish of redemption in the name of love

　　In "Records of "Returning to the Snowy Night"", Wu Zuguang stated that the few lyrics in "Nun Thinking of Fan" may be able to barely include the purpose of the play. Director Yan Rui must have read this article, otherwise he would not have modified the script specifically and asked the two to recite together when they met at the Su family: "In the past, there was a monk named Mulian who saved his mother to the gate of hell. I asked how many roads in Lingshan Mountain, and there were more than 18,000."

　　These four sentences may not sound very clear at first glance. If you say that it is the difficulty of love, it seems inappropriate, but it should be explained from Wu Zuguang's explanation and Yuchun's series of lines. Wu Zuguang wrote in the article, "When most people in the world are suffering, the most important thing is to share the joys and sorrows with friends, right?" What did Yuchun say? She doesn't think her good days are happiness, but she still thinks about her suffering friends. She hopes that Liansheng will also see through the glitz and recognize himself. Therefore, there will be no such thing as "In the future, this "Sifan" will only be sung for you." Since art has become a tool for making a living, it will lose its nobility. Yuchun only hopes to find their poor friends with Liansheng. Is this love? A woman fell in love with a man, and she actually wanted to live a poor life with him?

　　Of course, Yuchun's mentality in the play first reflects the anxiety that is common among intellectuals who are in the rear during the War of Resistance Against Japan. At the same time, Song Zhi's "Mist Chongqing" also showed the complex mentality of young people in the rear facing the war of resistance. They care about the War of Resistance and the National Compatriots, but they cannot effectively save the public. "Returning to the Snowy Night" expresses a wish for redemption and the difficulty of liberating all mankind in the image of Yuchun.

　　Yuchun sacrificed himself for Liansheng's freedom, but Liansheng was willing to be poor until death, and did not sell the gold bracelet left to him by Yuchun. The secular world that the two want to break free is not ethics and class, but the vanity that is brave enough to abandon others and rely on others. Liansheng died, and his soul was eternal. The golden bracelet made the two little beggars eat a meal, which was considered to be a disappointment to Yuchun's wish. Therefore, the story of Yuchun's gift of gold and the prelude of the two beggars taking the gold bracelet from the dead Liansheng is a plot that echoes each other and has meaningful meaning, and should not be deleted. Yuchun and Liansheng are more in love than Jin, but do not seek to stay together. They are prosperous but have noble hearts. Such unparalleled love is hard to understand by ordinary people.

　　How opera is used for drama

　　Drama is an art of narrating plots and shaping characters through dialogue. Including opera elements in drama performance has always been one of the practical directions of nationalization of drama. Especially in dramas where opera actors are the main characters, this kind of practice is even more natural.

　　The first act of the script "Going Back at Snowy Night" does not have a scene of Liansheng acting, but both the National Grand Theater version and the People's Art Theater version arranged a workmanship scene for the female actors. The National Grand Theater version uses "Fan Jiang Pass". The lights are bright in front of the curtain. Xue Jinlian, who is wearing a robe and riding a horse, has a heroic and cool action. The background sound is the cheers of the audience in the theater. This not only shows Liansheng's style and compliment, but also explains the lively atmosphere before the release, but also lays the foundation for Wang Xingui's first line "It's still a clean backstage." The People's Art Theater version uses "The Legend of the Goddess Flowers", where the actors walked out of the deep stage, danced from afar, and ended up dancing with the ribbon into a circle. There was a woman in white standing in front of the stage, of course Yuchun. It cannot be said that such a deserted opening is not good, but at least it will not be of much help in establishing a character image.

　　The two of them appeared in the backstage and showed at a loss from the beginning. After Lian gave birth to the stage, she met her old acquaintance Wang Xingui, and her attitude was cold; she was even more arrogant to the urging people, "let them wait." Yuchun's appearance was also cold, like Lin Meimei falling from the sky. Although the script says that Liansheng is a little confused in his life because he is a female role, at least in front of Yuchun, the wife of the financial supporter, he should be a man. What's more, the two have to fall in love at first sight.

　　In this first scene, the audience not only saw the two of them walking a few times with "Peony Pavilion" to smooth things over, but then they made a date next time, and could not feel how the two gradually got closer from strangers. Liansheng's perfunctory and lack of rigidity towards his neighbors and friends, and his closeness to Yuchun's unclear feelings make people unable to love these two characters. In the second act, when they met at the Su family, the two still had insufficient communication. They often had to stand on both sides and talked from a distance, turning the dialogue of going back and forth, going back and forth, going back and forth, dodging and dodging that should be shown into recitation; they also deleted the dialogue about poor friends, the world, etc., and changed it to their feelings about ephemerals. The overemphasis on the intention of the two of them to have sex with each other is really underestimating the spirit of the original drama. At the same time, too many imagery scenes interrupted the situation and level of language communication between the two, causing the overall rhythm to be too slow and affecting the visual feeling.

　　We do not lack love classics, but it is rare to see such noble and pure love in the world as shown in "Returning to the Snowy Night". Of course, we hope to find more beautiful forms to express classic works, but we should also respect the original works in terms of spiritual qualities. If the original works are modified, we should also make a self-confirm.

　　Photographed by Wang Jinjing/Li Chunguang (except for signature)

[Editor in charge: Tang Wei]