In fact, women have always been able to enter theaters and perform. China has been dominated by female musicians since ancient times, but it was only in the Qing Dynasty that women were banned from performing on stage in the name of immorality.
Even during the Jiaqing period, Lang Baochen, editor of the Hanlin Academy, proposed in a memorial that it was offensive for women in the capital to enter and leave the theater.
Emperor Jiaqing actually performed it correctly, and from then on the theater no longer sold female seats. But now it’s 1903, foreigners have arrived at our doorstep, and many regulations have been relaxed.
After all, foreign wives don't care about these inexplicable rules. Because this civilized tea garden is newly built, the layout is slightly different from the many other theater tea gardens on Qianmen Nei Street.
Li Yu arrived at the tea garden with Lu Bicheng early. Lu Bicheng paid special attention to how many women came to watch the show.
She found that although there were many people in the women's seat upstairs, they were basically the wives and maids of some dignitaries. It seemed that there were still fewer women among ordinary fans.
The two of them sat down at a table in the pool under the stage. The waiter then ran over: "Do you two guests have theater tickets?" Li Yu took out two tickets with one tael of silver marked on the face value and said: "Of course." The price is very expensive, and I will attend some concerts with future generations. It seems to be about the same.
Of course, not all fares are so high. The simple ones against the wall at the back
The "wall seat" only costs 200 yuan; and if it is upstairs
"Balcony" costs 400 yuan each. Even compared to the same period, the fees charged by Wenming Tea Garden today are very high. If it were an ordinary theater, it would usually only cost one hundred, twenty or thirty cents to listen to for a day, and some even provided free tea, melons and fruits.
The waiter picked up the ticket and took a look at it, then said: "Sir, in addition, you have to pay the waiter's change of 100 Wen and tea money of 40 Wen." Li Yu asked: "Isn't the six words 'no other expenses' written on the face of the ticket? Why?" Do you want to charge money again?" The waiter said: "Sir, after all, famous actors are on stage today, and there are too many people watching the show, so we have no choice but to increase the ticket price. Please understand." Li Yu was also unwilling to agree with him. He talked nonsense and paid the full amount.
Li Yu was easy to talk to, but many theatergoers later complained. Someone even wrote an article in the newspaper the next day complaining: "With the additional charges, the civilized tea garden is really uncivilized at all!" The civilized tea garden is determined to improve the current tea garden. receive
"tea capital" rather than
The custom of "fare" is a pity that the tea garden owners do not understand the new management ideas and models. This chaotic charging situation will continue for at least another two years.
Around 1905, tea gardens in Beijing gradually became
"Tea capital" is changed to
"Fare" charges have also gradually stabilized. However, tea gardens in Tianjin still use the long-standing tradition of
The old system of "tea capital". After paying for the tea, the waiter quickly brought tea and melon seeds. More and more people came later, and many people had no seats and had to stand in the back row, but even so, their ticket price was 200 yuan.
Today Wenming Tea Garden has made a lot of money. But although there were already a lot of people, no one came to the best seat under the stage, and no one dared to sit down.
It wasn't until the troupe was almost ready that a few people walked in swaggeringly. The owner of the tea garden came over immediately and bowed his head: "Prince Su, you are here!" Prince Su Shanqi brought a concubine of seventeen or eighteen years old, and a Japanese who was about forty years old and wearing glasses. It was Li Yu who bumped into him that day.
Prince Su said: "Are you all ready?" The owner of the garden nodded and said: "Everything is ready, let's wait for the prince." Several people sat down at the best table, and the two people following behind them glanced at Li Yu The table where he was sitting came over, and one of them was Xu Shiying, the sixth-rank chief of the Ministry of Justice who originally asked about Lin Binghua's case.
Xu Shiying said politely to another person: "Sit down on the Yi Daotai." After the two sat down, Xu Shiying said to Li Yu: "Mr. Li Yu also likes to listen to operas?" Li Yu said: "Just listen to it casually." Daotai asked in surprise: "So you are Li Yu?"
"That's right," Li Yu asked,
"Excuse me, your Excellency?"
"I am Yi Shunding, under the command of Zhang Zhitai, Governor of Huguang." He turned out to be Zhang Zhidong's staff. Li Yu said, "I'm glad to meet you." In fact, Yi Shunding already had an official rank, but he always regarded Zhang Zhidong as Dong was his mentor, and he always said that he was under Zhang Zhidong's command when he met everyone.
Yi Shunding said: "Zhang Zhitai has also heard about you and is very interested in you. He has always said that he wants to invite you to Wuhan to meet him." Zhang Zhidong values all kinds of Western talents very much, and he will definitely not
"Let go" Li Yu. Li Yu said: "That's a great honor for me." Yi Shunding said: "Now that work has just resumed after the new year, Taiwan is busy with railway matters. When he is finished, I think you will receive the invitation."
"Railway? Lu-Han Railway?" Li Yu asked.
"Yes," Yi Shunding said,
"A lot of railway trunk lines have been repaired now, but several bridges have never been completed." Li Yu nodded.
"Building bridges is naturally much more difficult." Construction of the Lu-Han Railway began five years ago. At that time, Zhang Zhidong felt that Britain, France and other countries were too powerful, so he
A Belgian company with "no ambition in China" undertook the construction, and the money for road construction was also borrowed from the Belgian company.
The price is that during the loan period of 30 years, all driving management rights will be controlled by the Belgian company. When I met Zhan Tianyou before to build the Xiling Railway, he also used part of the Lu-Han Railway that had been repaired.
Yi Shunding never thought that building a road or a bridge was a big deal. He said: "What's so difficult? Foreigners know everything. Just leave it to them. These are just troublesome things. It's so convenient if you have money to buy them." Li Yu was stunned, but this was the thinking of many people at the time. Even Li Hongzhang's main idea was to buy, buy, buy.
But it's really not easy to talk them through, so after thinking about it, I might as well not continue talking about it. At this time, Li Yu heard Prince Su Shanqi in front of him saying to the Japanese: "Mr. Kawashima, have you ever heard of opera?" Li Yu was surprised, Mr. Kawashima?
Looking back at the age in history, among the Japanese who have come to China currently, the surname is Kawashima. Who else can be Kawashima Naniwa besides Kawashima Yoshiko’s adoptive father!
And Kawashima Yoshiko's biological father was none other than Prince Su Shanqi, the ninth grandson of Hauge, one of the Qing emperors.
Kawashima Naniwa said: "Of course I have heard of opera, and I also love Chinese opera. One day, I hope to bring opera to Japan." Prince Zenki said: "If Mr. Kawashima builds a theater in Japan in the future, I will But you must go and see it.”
"That's natural. Your Majesty is proficient in opera. It would be great to have your guidance." Kawashima Naniwa said.
When Su Prince Shanqi heard Kawashima's praise, he directly said without shame: "I can't say I'm proficient, but I'm afraid there aren't many people who know opera better than me." Kawashima Naniwa said: "Of course! They say that in the whole city of Beijing, Prince Su's Mansion It's the place where most operas are performed. I heard that you have your own opera troupe, and you can even sing a song on stage. You are really an artistic genius!" Prince Su smiled and said, "I will let you see it when you come to my house again one day. It depends on my ability." Li Yu sounded a little helpless. These princes only want to eat, drink and have fun all day long, competing to see who sings better songs and who raises better mynahs.
Kawashima Naniwa just followed what he said: "I must appreciate it!" The two would become sworn brothers. After the fall of the Qing Dynasty, Prince Su joined the Zongshe Party and sought help from Japan for restoration, so he gave his daughter to Xianyu adopted his sworn brother Kawashima Naniwa, also known as Kawashima Yoshiko.
But he never expected that not long after his death, 17-year-old Kawashima Yoshiko would be defiled by her adoptive father Kawashima Naniwa.
What's even more unexpected is that even so, Kawashima Yoshiko turned out to be a loyal spy for the Japanese.
But these are all things for later. Prince Su's concubine said: "Can't you be a little decent? How can a prince come on stage to sing in an opera?"
"Madam is right." Prince Su did not refute her. When Yi Shunding saw it from behind, he was a little curious and said: "How dare you speak of the prince's Fujin." Xu Shiying explained to him: "The Zhangjia family of the Fourth Fujin is now the most favored in Prince Su's palace. If anything happens to you in the future, If you want to find the prince, it's better to find her than anyone else." This was to show the way. Yi Shunting quickly handed over his hand and said, "Thank you, brother, for letting me know." After hearing what the two of them said, Li Yu felt even more incredible.
He had seen an introduction about Yoshiko Kawashima before, after all, she was so famous. The biological mother of Yoshiko Kawashima is the Zhangjia family of Sifujin, Prince Su's family.
Speaking of which, there were many shameful things in the feudal palace. Zhang Jia's family was originally just a maid bought from the suburbs of Beijing by Prince Su's palace. Her real name was Miss Lan.
When she was a girl, she was defiled by Prince Su's son... Later, when she was fifteen years old, she was adopted by Prince Su as his fourth wife.
Then something extraordinary happened. She gave birth to ten children in succession to Prince Su, the first daughter of which was Yoshiko Kawashima.
Unexpectedly, Kawashima Yoshiko's biological father, biological mother, and adoptive father were all here today. Prince Su said to Naniwa Kawashima: "I learned that Mr. Kawashima was here today. In order to express my gratitude for your hard work as the general supervisor of the Beijing Police Department, I specially invited Yang Xiaolou, a member of the Tongqing troupe who is currently popular in the capital, to perform. He is the Queen Mother's performance. He has been praised for his acting." Kawashima Naniwa sat upright and said, "Such an excellent art should be appreciated with all your heart." Prince Su, however, still just sat there with a carefree attitude, eating melon seeds and listening to the play.
Yang Xiaolou sang very well in today's opera, but it was a pity that Li Yu didn't understand opera. He just heard everyone around him cheering, and the atmosphere was indeed full.
Yi Shunding suddenly said with emotion: "When should female actresses take the stage at such a young age? Then I can become a real treasure. It will make me happy to have several beautiful actresses who can sing and act at home." Xu Shiying said with a smile: "Yi Dao Taiwan is indeed unique. I heard that when you became a monk, you took two beautiful concubines with you." Yi Shunding has always been proud of this and laughed: "What's the point of becoming a monk without beautiful women to accompany you?" He repeatedly pursued several leading actresses in the early years of the Republic of China, and even wrote very, very difficult to read poems.
It's so weird that if you write it, you'll be blocked. At that critical moment, Liu Xikui, the king of the acting world, who received the poem, was still a young girl, and she couldn't laugh or cry when she saw such a vulgar poem.
Xu Shiying added: "If you want female actors to appear on the stage, it is probably more difficult than building a railway bridge."
"It's difficult!" Yi Shunding also sighed,
"After all, foreigners are good at learning things, but they can't compare with our vast knowledge." Yi Shunding was arrogant and smart since he was young, and claimed to be the descendant of Zhang Mengjin, a great talent in the Ming Dynasty.
Lu Bicheng listened to them talk for a long time, but couldn't stand it anymore. They took their beautiful concubine to become a monk, and they were not enterprising and arrogant. "Sir, if you think it's easy, you can try it yourself. Don't imitate the empty talk of the predecessors and harm the country." Yi Shunting looked at Lu Bicheng and said, "Young lady, you have a very sharp mouth. Don't talk nonsense if you haven't read a book. No, it's not a question of whether you can read or not. You should first learn what women's virtues are." Lu Bicheng said disdainfully: "Woman I'm afraid I'm not necessarily worse at reading than men." Yi Shunding seemed to have heard the funniest joke: "Don't be ridiculous! Most women are too stupid and can't turn their heads. Even if they are reading, how many books can they understand?"
"If you say women are stupid, are you smart?" Lu Bicheng asked. Yi Shunting said proudly: "I'm afraid there are not many smarter than me." Li Yu looked very unhappy at him, so he whispered to Lu Bicheng: "Didn't Mr. Yan Fu just teach you a few logic questions today? Just test him." Lu Bicheng smiled knowingly and understood what Li Yu meant, so he said to Yi Shunting, "Do you dare to compete with someone who is smarter?" Yi Shunting was not afraid at all and asked, "How?" Lu Bicheng said: "I'll give you a logical thinking question, which tests whether your brain is smart enough."
"Hey, you! You dare to give me a question, go ahead! I'll tell you in advance, don't humiliate yourself." Yi Shunding is quite arrogant about his intelligence, mainly because he looks down on women and doesn't think they can understand at all. What knowledge.
Lu Bicheng said: "Listen carefully! The title is like this. Five extremely smart and extremely cruel pirates got a hundred gold coins, and then they decided how to divide the gold coins at sea. The five pirates were numbered one in turn. , No. 2, No. 3, No. 4, No. 5. The first pirate will start to propose an allocation plan, and then everyone will vote together. Only when more than half of the people agree can it be adopted, otherwise he will be thrown into the sea. It's his turn again The next pirate proposed a plan. The question is who is the pirate who benefits the most and how many gold coins he can get at most?" After listening, Yi Shunding opened his mouth and said: "Of course it is the last one! As for the gold coins, I haven't thought about it yet. Come out." Lu Bicheng smiled and said: "You don't have to think anymore, the answer is already wrong." Yi Shunding refused: "How could it be wrong?" Lu Bicheng also followed his example and said proudly: "I advise you to go back and think about it carefully. , I really can’t think of it, so I’ll tell you if you ask me. You can’t be stupider than me, a female generation, right?” Yi Shunding felt that he really couldn’t understand the idea for a while, so he said: “Okay! This question is my question. I can explain it to you tomorrow."
"You don't need to be so fast. You will win in three days." Lu Bicheng said. Xu Shiying was also looking at it funny: "Yi Daotai, don't lose." After being so excited, Yi Shunding became even more excited: "You all just wait and see." Li Yu secretly laughed in his heart, yes, wait Let's see.
