This legend tells the tragic love story of poor scholar Zhang Sheng who abandoned the declining aristocratic woman Cui Yingying. At first, when Zhang Sheng lived in Pujiu Temple in Zhou Pu, there was a mutiny. He helped Aunt Zheng's family in Tongyu Temple. At Zheng's thank-you banquet, I fell in love with his cousin Yingying at first sight, and her maid, matchmaker, handed a book. After many repetitions, they finally had a full moon. Later, Zhang Sheng failed in the exam in Beijing and stayed in the capital. She exchanged love letters with Yingying and gave each other tokens to show her love.
However, Zhang Sheng finally changed his mind and thought Yingying was a "stunner" in the world. He also cited the example of Zhou Youwang and the subjugation of the Shang and Zhou Dynasties to prove that "virtue is not enough to beat Uber" and he had to give up what he loved. More than a year later, Yingying remarried and Zhang Sheng remarried. Once Zhang Sheng passed by Yingying's house and asked to meet her as a "foreign brother", but Yingying refused.
A few days later, Zhang Sheng left, and Yingying refused to reply to the poem. The full text focuses on portraying the characters' personality and psychology in the narrative, which shapes the image of Cui Yingying well and is full of poetic beauty. It is a masterpiece with poetic tendency in Tang legends.
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Yingying Biography is also a milestone in the development history of Tang legends. It deeply influenced the novel creation of later generations with its tortuous and vivid love description and unique artistic charm.
Previous legends, such as Away from the Soul, Biography of Ren Family and Biography of Liu Yi, all reflect love life in a strange way, while Biography of Yingying is about love and marriage in the real world. Since the Tang Dynasty, Biography of Li Wa and Biography of Huo Xiaoyu came out one after another, which made the creation of such themes in tang legends reach its peak.
The Biography of Yingying is one of the most influential and widely circulated works in tang legends. This story is widely circulated. Since the Northern Song Dynasty, scholars "all think that this is a beautiful talk, and as for women who advocate Excellence, they can generally explain it."
In the Song Dynasty, there were Zhao Lingzhi's Guci, Yingying Biography and Yingying; in the Jin Dynasty, Dong Jieyuan's The West Chamber; in the Yuan Dynasty, Wang Shifu's The West Chamber; in the Ming Dynasty, Li Rihua's The South West Chamber and Lu Cai's The South West Chamber; and in the Qing Dynasty, Cha Jizu's The Continued West Chamber. Until modern times, the Romance of the West Chamber, which is active in movies, television and various dramas, is still its source.