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Cao Yu (191-1996), whose ancestral home is Qianjiang, Hubei. Qing Xuantong was born in Tianjin on August 21st (September 24th, 191), formerly known as Wan Jiabao. I was nicknamed "Little Baby" when I was studying in Tsinghua. "Cao Yu" was the first pseudonym he used when he published his novels in 1926 (the prefix "Cao" in the traditional Chinese characters of surname "Wan" is homophonic "Cao"). Cao Yu is "an audience of civilized dramas, an amateur actor who loves American dramas, and a playwright under the influence of left-wing dramas" (Sun Qingsheng: On Cao Yu, Peking University Press, 1986). This sentence roughly summarizes Cao Yu's dramatic life.
the author's life
Cao Yu, an outstanding modern dramatist in China. Formerly known as Wan Jiabao, his ancestral home is Qianjiang, Hubei. Born in a declining feudal bureaucratic family in Tianjin. I participated in drama activities during my study in Nankai Middle School in Tianjin, and once played the leading role in Ibsen's A Doll's House and other plays. In 1929, he was admitted to the Department of Foreign Languages in Tsinghua University, and studied extensively from ancient Greek tragedies to Shakespeare's plays and the plays of Chekhov, Ibsen and O 'Neill.
On the eve of college graduation in p>1933, Cao Yu created a four-act drama Thunderstorm, which was published in public the following year and quickly aroused strong repercussions. It was not only Cao Yu's debut, but also his famous work and masterpiece. In 1936 and 1937, Cao Yu published his important plays Sunrise and Yuan Ye respectively. Cao Yu's important play during the Anti-Japanese War was Peking Man. After the founding of New China, Cao Yu's plays mainly include Brave Sword and Wang Zhaojun.
Thunderstorm focuses on the intricate conflicts between Zhou and Lu families for 3 years in one day (from morning till midnight) and two scenes (Zhou and Lu families), which shows the rigorous and exquisite dramatic structure skills of the work. The play repeatedly writes about cicada singing and frog noise, and the sultry weather before and after the thunderstorm. Its intention is not only to render the "hot" atmosphere in the bitter summer, but also to hint at the emotions, psychology and personality of the characters.
What is more commendable is the language of the play: First of all, Thunderstorm is written in a highly personalized language-from its lines, the audience (readers) can hear (see) the age, gender, status, personality and psychology of each role; Secondly, the language of Thunderstorm has a strong lyrical flavor-its language comes from the heart of the characters, with a strong emotional color, and the lines on some occasions (such as Zhou Chong's lines on Sifeng's ideal future in the third act) are lyric poems without branches. Thunderstorm, with its dynamic and exquisite language, fully shows the charm of drama, the art of speaking. It has appeared on thousands of stages with various appearances, and has been interpreted and interpreted by different people with deep affection, which has pushed China's drama to the most sensational peak in history.
In p>1931, when the September 18th Incident broke out, students in Tsinghua University organized anti-Japanese propaganda teams, with Cao Yu as the propaganda team leader. In the early morning of October 12 this year, he and his classmates from the propaganda team took a train to Baoding to publicize. On the train, they met a burly man named Zhao, a worker of Changxindian Iron Works. He was full of praise for the students' anti-Japanese actions, saying: Japanese occupation of the three northeastern provinces of our country is like cutting a piece of meat on our country. Mother hurts and is sad. Whoever cuts my mother's flesh will fight with him! Cao Yu admired the worker's big brother's patriotism from the heart. He remembered the drama Thunderstorm he was conceiving, and a distinctive character gradually became clear in his mind.
Cao Yu led the Tsinghua University Anti-Japanese Propaganda Team to conduct anti-Japanese propaganda in Baoding Yude Middle School, and performed dramas such as The Moon Rises. This drama, which describes the people in the Songhua River in Northeast China covering the anti-Japanese armed members crossing the river, was warmly welcomed by teachers and students. There is an iron factory near Yude Middle School. Cao Yu has a discussion with the workers in the factory. The simple image and vivid language of the workers and the worker named Zhao whom Cao Yu met in the car merged into Lu Dahai in Thunderstorm. How many days and nights, in the western language reading room of Tsinghua University Library and by the river in tsinghua campus, Cao Yu was fascinated by the creation of Thunderstorm. After several attempts to figure out the idea and six months of engrossing in writing, Cao Yu finally finished the original creation of Thunderstorm. Based on the society of China around 1925, this play describes the tragedy of a bourgeois family with strong feudal color. It was August 1933, and Cao Yu was about to graduate from Tsinghua University and was hired to teach in Baoding Yude Middle School.
During his stay in Yude Middle School, he perfected the script at last. Yude Middle School is a complete middle school founded by Chen Youyun, a member of the League, on the basis of the original public higher primary school hall in Nao, Zhili in November 197. In 1917, it added preparatory classes for studying in France, such as work-study programs, and in 1931, it added advanced general courses. There are about 2 classes in the whole school, with more than 1, students. The school requires science teachers to teach in English, so that students can reach the pre-university level when they graduate. In this way, English classes are quite important. Cao Yu was employed as an English teacher in Yude Middle School, teaching students courses such as Lin Yutang's Enlightened English Reader, English Classics and English Essays. Before he went to Yude Middle School to teach, he sent the script of Thunderstorm to Literature Quarterly. A "Thunderstorm" made him struggle to conceive for nearly five years, painstakingly writing for half a year, and five drafts were changed. After writing, he handed the script to his classmate Jin Yi in Nankai Middle School. Jin Yi and Ba Jin * * * are both responsible for soliciting contributions for the Literary Quarterly, which is edited by Zheng Zhenduo. Jin Yi is very honest. He thinks Cao Yu is his good friend, so he has no nerve to recommend the script of Thunderstorm to the editor-in-chief. The manuscript has been kept in the drawer of his desk. During this period, Cao Yu has been devoted to teaching in Yude Middle School, but he has never let go of his beloved drama creation. So, six months later, he was admitted to Tsinghua University for further study with excellent results. Until he left Yude Middle School, his Thunderstorm still sank into the sea.
One day in July, 1934, Jin Yi and Ba Jin talked about soliciting contributions for the Literary Quarterly. Ba Jin said: We should pay attention to the newcomers in the literary world, and the soliciting contributions should be wider. Jin in order to give Cao Yu's Thunderstorm to Ba Jin. Ba Jin was deeply moved when he finished reading that night. He recommended the script to Zheng Zhenduo, the editor-in-chief, and published it in the third issue of Literary Quarterly. Soon after, the new drama performance of Chinese students was staged in Tokyo, Japan, and the Japanese translation of Thunderstorm was released by Tokyo Kanda Yiqiao Education Center, which became a best seller. Lu Xun was very excited when he read the Japanese translation of Thunderstorm. He told visiting American journalist Si Nuo that the best dramatists in China are Guo Moruo, Tian Han, Hong Shen and a new left-wing dramatist, Cao Yu. After watching the performance of Thunderstorm in Tokyo, Guo Moruo personally prefaced the Japanese version of Thunderstorm, saying that Thunderstorm is indeed a rare and excellent masterpiece. From this, Cao Yu jumped from an unknown young man to a superstar in China.
Cao Yu's history as an audience of civilized drama began with his mother's (stepmother's) arms.
Cao Yu's father, Wan Dezun, studied in Tokyo NCO School in the late Qing Dynasty, and returned to China with Yan Xishan in early 199. Before the Revolution of 1911 (1916), he served as secretary of Li Yuanhong. After the founding of the Republic of China, he was awarded the rank of Lieutenant General, and served as the commander of Xuanhua Prefecture and commander of Chahar. Mother Xue was born in a merchant's family and died of puerperal fever three days after giving birth to Jiabao. Cao Yu once said: "I lost my mother when I was a child, and I was very lonely in my heart." Xue Yongnan, Xue's sister, became Jiabao's stepmother and always regarded Jiabao as her own flesh and blood, and she was childless for life. Cao Yu's stepmother likes going to the theatre. Since he was a child, he has watched many Beijing operas, local operas and civilized operas with his stepmother.
Cao Yu is an amateur actor who loves American TV series, but his history as an amateur actor began long before the appearance of American TV series. In 1915, 5-year-old Cao Yu was a tutor by his cousin Liu Qike, read poems by heart, and began to act and make up plays with his classmates, but he didn't go to a formal primary school. In 192, he finished his private school study, entered Tianjin Yinhao "Chinese-English Translation Institute" to study English, and began to get in touch with the works of foreign writers such as Shakespeare. As a movement, "Love American TV" appeared after 1921.
In p>1922, he entered the second grade of Nankai Middle School and became lifelong friends with Jin Yi (Zhang Fangxu). In 1923, he began to be keen on new literary works, especially Lu Xun's Scream and Guo Moruo's Goddess, but he admitted that "The Diary of a Madman was not understood at that time" and Goddess made his blood boil. In 1925, at the age of 15, Cao Yu officially joined the activities of Nankai Middle School Literature Association and Nankai New Troupe (one of the earliest troupes in China's drama industry, founded in 199 by Yen Hsiu and Zhang Boling, the founders of Nankai School, and Zhou Enlai was an active member), and began his acting career.
In p>1926, the novel "Where to Wake Up from Drinking Tonight" was serialized in Xuanbei, the supplement of Tianjin Yongbao, and the pseudonym "Cao Yu" was used for the first time. Later, he published many poems, essays and Mo Bosang's translated novels in Nankai Weekly and Guowen Weekly. His poems "At the end of April, I bid farewell to a beautiful pedestrian" and "Nanfengqu" are influenced by Guo Moruo's Goddess. In 1927, he also participated in rehearsals of plays by Ding Xilin, Tian Han and Ibsen.
Cao Yu, as a writer under the influence of the left-wing drama movement, although it happened after 1934, in 1928, after Cao Yu became the drama editor of Biweekly in Nankai, he began to conceive Thunderstorm. His father wanted him to be a doctor, but he was not admitted to Union Medical College twice. In the summer of the same year, after graduating from Nankai Middle School with honors, Cao Yu was promoted to the Political Department of Nankai University without examination, but he was not interested in the course of political economy. In the summer of 193, he made a special trip to Beijing to apply for Tsinghua University. In September, Cao Yu was transferred to Tsinghua University with eight students, and enrolled in the second year of the Department of Western Literature. He dabbled extensively in western literature, especially drama literature, and often went to see Peking Opera with Ba Jin and Jin Yi after school. At the end of the year, he became the editor of Tsinghua Weekly with Qian Zhongshu and others.
In p>1933, 23-year-old Cao Yu began to write and conceive a five-year-long play Thunderstorm and a graduation thesis on Ibsen. Cao Yu took the exam to study in Tsinghua University and was not admitted. After graduation, I went to Baoding Mingde Middle School as an English teacher. I returned to Beijing after my illness at the end of the year, and returned to Tsinghua Research Institute after my illness, specializing in drama research. In January 1934, the Literary Quarterly, edited by Zheng Zhenduo and edited by Ba Jin and Jin Yi, was founded. After Ba Jin saw Thunderstorm in Jin Yi's place, he advocated its immediate publication. In July, Thunderstorm was published in the third issue of Volume I of the Literary Quarterly. At that time, it did not attract the attention of Chinese people, but attracted the praise of China students studying in Japan. In 1935, it was translated into Japanese by Xing Zhenduo, a Japanese student of Imperial Business University in Tokyo, and premiered by the Chinese Drama Friendship Association of the Students' Troupe in China in the lecture hall of Kanda Bridge in Tokyo on April 27th. After reading it, Guo Moruo immediately wrote "Thunderstorm about Cao Yu", which was greatly appreciated. On August 17th, it made its first domestic performance (and the third performance of the play) in the Lone Song Troupe of Tianjin Normal School, which immediately caused a sensation. Liu Xiwei (Li Jianwu), a famous Beijing-style dramatist and critic, published an article "Thunderstorm", saying that it was "a drama with a cast of people, a long drama with great nature".
In September, 1934, she was invited to Tianjin to teach in Hebei Women's Normal College. In May, 1936, encouraged and urged by Ba Jin and others, he began to write Sunrise, giving classes to female teachers during the day and burying his head in writing at night. From June to September, he began to be serialized in the first to fourth issues of Wenji Monthly. In 1936, before Cao Yu had written his second work Sunrise, Thunderstorm was published as the first collection of Cao Yu's plays by Shanghai Cultural Life Publishing House presided over by Ba Jin. Therefore, Sunrise is not only Ba Jin's expectation, but also attracts wide attention in the literary world. After the publication of Sunrise, presided over by Xiao Gan, the supplement of Tianjin Ta Kung Pao Literature and Art invited almost all the people of various schools in the literary world at that time, including Mao Dun, Ba Jin, Ye Shengtao, Shen Congwen, Jin Yi, Li Guangtian, Zhu Guangqian, Yang Gang, Huang Mei and Xie Dick, the head of the department of western literature in yenching university, for two collective discussions, which were unprecedented. As a play, it is the first time in the history of China's drama and even China's modern literature that the whole critics are so quick and so exciting. In August, 1936, at the invitation of Yu Shangyuan, president of the National Drama School, he went to Nanjing to teach plays, western drama and modern drama and drama criticism. In November, he directed the drama "Gilded" in Nanjing. From April to August, 1937, Yuan Ye was serialized in Wencong, the first volume edited by Jin Yi.
in early p>1938, he moved to Chongqing with the drama school. In October, the cooperation with Song Zhi adapted The Story of the Whole People (the original play was the story of the collective creation of Song Zhi, Chen Huangmei, Luo Feng and Shu Qun), which was premiered that month and caused a sensation in Chongqing. In the spring of 1939, he moved to Jiang 'an with the school. During the summer vacation, I created Metamorphosis. In the late summer, he went to Kunming to direct Yuan Ye and Black Word 28 (that is, The General Mobilization of the People). In the early winter, the teachers and students of the drama school went to Chongqing to perform "Metamorphosis", and Chiang Kai-shek ordered the performance to be banned. In the autumn of 194, he began to write Peking Man, which was premiered the following year. In early 1942, he resigned from the teaching position of drama school, and in the summer, he went to Tangjiatuo, Chongqing to create and adapt Ba Jin's Home. In August, 1943, in preparation for the creation of the historical drama Li Bai and Du Fu, I traveled to the northwest with my friends. After returning to Chongqing, I created the Bridge, which showed the contradiction between national capitalists and bureaucratic capitalists in the rear area. In 1946, Lao She and he were invited by the State Council to give lectures in the United States via Shanghai, and met with the famous German playwright Brecht twice. After returning to Shanghai in 1947, he joined Shanghai Wenhua Film Company as a director and wrote a screenplay "Sunny Days", which was directed by himself. At the end of 1948, I went to Hong Kong. At the beginning of 1949, it was arranged by the underground party in China to go to Peiping via Yantai.
in July, 1949, he participated in the first literary congress. In 195, he served as vice president of the Central Academy of Drama. In 1951, he edited Selected Works of Cao Yu, and made a lot of revisions to Thunderstorm, Sunrise and Peking Man. In the same year, he served as the editorial board of Script and People's Literature. In June, 1952, Beijing People's Art Theatre (a national theater specializing in drama) was established as its president. In the same year, I collected materials for the creation of a script "Clear Sky" with the theme of ideological transformation of an intellectual. I started writing in 1954, and won the first prize for script, director and performance in the "First National Drama Watch and Performance" in 1956. In April 1956, he joined the China Producer Party. In 196, he collaborated with Mei Qian and Yu Shizhi to create a historical drama "Sleeping on the Salary and Taste the Courage" (later renamed "Brave Sword"), and asked Shen Congwen about some historical issues in the drama. Shen Congwen wrote back to describe in detail the various social conditions in wuyue during the Warring States Period, and then put forward suggestions for revision. In August 1962, he began to write Wang Zhaojun during his vacation in Beidaihe. During the Cultural Revolution, he was punished successively, and kept a reception room in Beijing People's Art Troupe and dormitory. In 1973, Zhou Enlai, Premier of the State Council, asked him personally and was assigned to work in Beijing Repertory Theatre. Participated in the Fourth National People's Congress in 1975. In 1978, Beijing Repertory Theatre was restored to its original name of "Beijing People's Art Theatre" and served as the dean again. In August of the same year, he went to Xinjiang to create Wang Zhaojun and finished the first draft.