#Wu Sangui #" Weeping six armies are all vegetarian, chong guan angry into a red face." This poem is from the late Ming and early Qing poet Wu Weiye's "Yuanyuan Qu", and the story described is also very simple, that is, the story of Chen Yuanyuan, a famous prostitute in the late Ming Dynasty, and Wu Sangui, the king of pingxi. It is said that Wu Sangui, who was guarding Liaodong, was obsessed with Chen Yuanyuan, so Li Zicheng led a peasant army to revolt and captured Chen Yuanyuan to try to coerce Wu Sangui, and after his beloved was taken away, Wu Sangui was furious, so Wu Sangui decided to open Shanhaiguan to lure the Qing army into the customs to deal with Li Zicheng. Regardless of the authenticity of this story, it is true that when it comes to Chen Yuanyuan, we have to mention the eight fireworks women who were known as "Qin Huai Bayan" in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, according to the "Banqiao Miscellaneous Records", "Qin Huai Eight Yan" are: "Liu Ruyi, Gu Hengbo, Ma Xianglan, Chen Yuanyuan, Kou Baimen, Bian Yujing, Li Xiangjun, Dong Xiaowan". The eight fireworks women famous for their southern curves on the Qinhuai River should have only bloomed briefly like fireworks, but because of their true disposition and the unique historical era in which they lived, they left a trace in the long river of history, and they were truly like fireworks, reflecting the last glory of the late Ming Dynasty with their own short-lived light.
In the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, capitalism sprouted, society had a certain economic foundation and relative tolerance, some traditional concepts of the Chinese also underwent some changes, coupled with the actual ills of the Ming Dynasty after the brief prosperity of the Wanli Emperor, the Apocalypse Emperor promoted Wei Zhongxian to restrain the huge Donglin civil official clique also led to the late eunuch dictatorship, at this time the Ming Dynasty has long been difficult to return, Chongzhen's efforts to cure is just a return to the light of the dying patient. Just as ripe fruit often the grand dynasty also began to decay from the inside, at the end of the Ming Dynasty, the world's winds, the scholar class became a trend, in the face of the Qing army's growing strength outside the Guanxi, Guannei was dressed in luxurious singing and dancing, and even developed the most brilliant Qinglou entertainment industry in the past two thousand years of Chinese culture, a glimpse of the whole leopard, in this era of "celebrities and prostitutes flying together", Qin Huai's eight famous celebrities in Jiangnan Yan moved the capital in the end but finally ended in a desolate end, but also witnessed and secretly witnessed and secretly contrasted the rise and fall of the Ming Dynasty.
It can be said that most of the women in the Qinglou in the feudal era were originally good family women from innocent origins, but under the chaotic world, the people did not have a good life, and the poor families had to sell their children to make a living, and they were also sold several times and finally fell into the dust, "Qin Huai Eight Yan" is not the case. One of the eight Yans, Liu Ru, was sold to Wujiang by his father as a maid in his childhood, and after several resales, Chen Yuanyuan was born in the family of a cargo man, only because his mother died early, he was fostered in his uncle's house, and his uncle sold Chen Yuanyuan to a pear garden in Suzhou to sing songs, so Chen Yuanyuan's low status was difficult to get rid of the fate of the Israeli attendants, and Bian Yujing was originally a lady of the official eunuch family, but unexpectedly the complicated political struggle in the DPRK and China did not pay attention to others, so the family road fell into the official prostitute, and had to sell art with his sister in the Qinhuai River for a living... How is it that such a large number of good family women have been sold to the Qinglou industry in Liu Lane, Flower Street, and how is it not developed?
During the Chongzhen period, the capital city of Beijing cut down the teaching workshops and music households, and these kabuki had to be exiled to Yangzhou, which made Jiangnan one of the best holy places of wind and moon, at the same time, the economic, cultural transformation and political high pressure made the Chinese literati class in this period become extremely impetuous and uninhibited, as if it was the last carnival, the scholar class became popular, regarded the pleasure of prostitutes as a fun thing, and prided itself on marrying "famous prostitutes" as concubines. The Jiubu Sect also threw in its favor, and Ye Shaoyuan of the Ming Dynasty once said: "Women also have three yans, virtue, talent and color, and several Zhao Zhao are forever." In order to train these wandering women to meet the preferences of the scholar class at that time, the church would carry out relevant cultural and artistic education for these women so that they would later become gentle and lovely "interpretation flowers", which is ridiculous that this is the only way for women from low births to learn culture, and if they want to be involved in literature and art, they must commit themselves to the dust.
After becoming famous, Bayan is very different from the prostitutes in the traditional sense, they have the same treatment as the ladies of the family, they live in their private apartments with the literati and celebrities, and even have their own study and other places to meet guests, they talk with the flowing talents here, and the study is all available, such as articles, vases, pens and ink paper, and literary play, in order to create the same living atmosphere as these scholar-doctor classes. At this moment, the "Bayans" are no longer ordinary prostitutes, they are more of a symbol, they will hold lectures in their own rooms, just like the fourteenth century European salons, they are the hostesses here, are the most popular social celebrities, Bayan is like the Chinese version of the social flowers, they have a certain ability to social activities, walking between the four forces, borrowing poetry and scholars to sing peace, borrowing elegant things to play together to satisfy the different tastes of the aristocratic class.
"Qinhuai Bayan" and the scholar class binding, their fame and the popularity of the talent at that time are firmly linked, and with the decline of the Ming Dynasty, the establishment of a new class system "Qinhuai Bayan" naturally collapsed, it can be said that they shaped the "Qinhuai Bayan", and destroyed the "Qinhuai Bayan". In the Eight Yans, those who commit suicide, those who become monks, those who die in disgrace... All the people have a desolate evening view, and even like Chen Yuanyuan, Gu Hengbo, etc., they have to be scolded for false accusations and left guilty for eternity, but in fact, how much energy do they have?
How many people talk about the stories of this period mostly relish the peach-colored stories between Bayan and various celebrities with the eyes of the children of the chaotic world and the exploration of the affairs of the wind and moon, but ignore the specific historical background after these stories and the "Qinhuai Bayan" are all the epitome of thousands of poor toiling masses, many of whom have the true temperament and high dignity that are difficult for those self-proclaimed noble scholars and doctors to match, but they are limited by the shackles of identity and status, exploited by feudal rule, and they are all a group of poor people. Seeing him rise from the Zhu Lou, watching him feast on guests, watching his building collapse, the late Ming and early Qing dynasties "Qin Huai Bayan" with the rise of the Qinglou entertainment industry and so on became famous for a while, but fireworks are easy to cold, Shaohua is easy to pass away, just like this Daming Dynasty, everything is just a false prosperity that glimpsed before things turned around, "Qin Huai Bayan" was the last bit of glory and talking points of the Ming Dynasty, which was really ironic!