"All In Yuan Opera" Three Culture

The classic novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms is a typical accumulation workby generations, the formation of the book has absorbed the literary, cultural andideological essence from different historical periods. There are a lot of discussions onthe influences from Chen Shou’s "Three Kingdoms", Pei song-zhi’s Note","PopularStories of the Three Kingdoms" and Yuan Opera, however, few studies have beencarried out on Yuan dynasty non-dramatic songs and Culture of Three Kingdoms,especially researches about its influences upon the formation of the book are rarely seenup to the present. Therefore, this research area still needs to be further studied. Based onthe current research circumstances, and taking Sanqu of the Yuan Dynasty for example,reprinted in1981by Zhonghua Book Company, it sorts out the Sanqu of Yuan Dynastyrelevant to the Culture of Three Kingdoms. On the basis of this literature, the authorexplores the cultural connotation of the Sanqu of Yuan Dynasty relevant to the Cultureof Three Kingdoms, reveals its influences on the formation of "Romance of the ThreeKingdoms", hoping to promote the studies on the Culture of Three Kingdoms.According to author’s statistics, there are41poems related to the Culture of ThreeKingdoms in Sanqu of the Yuan Dynasty. The attitude on the characters in the book is tohonor Liu yet demote Cao. Yuan people sing the praises of their demeanors andachievements, and belittle Cao Cao from the ethical point of view. Furthermore, moreworks related to the Culture of Three Kingdoms in Sanqu of the Yuan Dynasty haveshown nothingness view of history. Specifically reflected in the following ways: itdenies what people used to praise and admire the pursuit of great achievement, and intheir eyes it is meaningless and not worthy pursuing of the great achievements whichhave been well accepted in the history. In this concept, the songwriter advocates to usehermiting desire and emotion to save and liberate those struggling souls.The causes of this cultural connotation are closely related to the special times andspecial historical background of Yuan Dynasty. Yuan Dynasty was under Mongolian’s foreign domination, and adopted an ethnic discrimination policy. Imperial examinationsystem was interrupted for many times and recruiting number was greatly reduced.Entering the official career has become extremely difficult for Han people. QuanzhenDaoism had many audiences in Yuan Dynasty and exerted tremendous impacts. Theliterati in such a social environment, their social status has greatly lowered, and reducedto beggars out of ten scholars. These are undoubtedly gave birth to Yuan people’sunique psychology. Under the ideological influence of Confucian tradition, Han peoplealways had the wishes for "self cultivation, family harmony, country management andworld peace". Facing this kind of unjust ruling, naturally there are some unwillingnessin their heart. They have shown a passive rejection and resistance to foreign domination,which has been reflected in the Culture of Three Kingdoms, namely nothingness viewof history with hermiting desire and emotion. They have also praised Zhuge Liang, CaoCao, Zhou Yu and Guan Yu, which indicated their struggle against the dark foreigndomination and expressed deep national sentiment and nostalgia. This undoubtedlyenriches the cultural implication of Sanqu in Yuan Dynasty.Sanqu of the Yuan Dynasty also had certain influences upon the formation ofRomance of the Three Kingdoms. We can not infer that Luo Guanzhong has specificallyreferred to certain Sanqu during his novel writing process, but we can be sure thatSanqu has made certain preparatory work for the formation of Romance of the ThreeKingdoms. The attitude on the characters in Sanqu is to honor Liu yet demote Cao,which was adopted by Luo Guanzhong. Sanqu has favored the hermit culture, and inRomance of the Three Kingdoms it has also shaped a number of unconventional andgraceful hermit images. Sanqu has indicated nothingness view of history, and the poemsin beginning and the end of Romance of the Three Kingdoms have had the same ideas.Furthermore, from the perspectives of characters, Sanqu has always more accuratelygrasped the characteristic personality of the three main characters, for instance, ZhangFei’s " rudeness", Zhuge’s "wisdom" and Cao Cao’s "treacherous". All these featureshave exerted certain influences on shaping characters in Romance of the Three Kingdoms.