芳官·會唱戲的女孩·晨鐘暮鼓終其一生Fangguan, the Girl Who Could Sing Opera, Whose Life Ended in Morning Bells and Evening Drums Fangguan, the Girl Who Could Sing Opera, Whose Life Ended in Morning Bells and Evening Drums芳官·會唱戲的女孩·晨鐘暮鼓終其一生

中篇小說（117）Novella (117)

芳官原本不是賈府的人。她是從蘇州買來的小戲子，是當年元春省親時，賈府特意花重金採買進來的十二個會唱戲的女孩子之一。 那些女孩子年紀都不大，卻小小年紀就要在師傅的教導下學戲。吊嗓子、學身段、練舞步。 那不是一件容易的事， 其中之艱辛， 非常人可以忍受。 師傅可是沒有耐心， 做不對就打， 唱錯了就罵，用棍棒硬是逼迫她們，練出一身真本事，才可以上台演出。 練功苦， 只是一個方面， 比練功更殘酷的，是她們從小就被打上「戲子」的標籤， 成為專門被人觀看、任人玩弄、人人可以欺負， 卻又人人看不起的「玩意兒」， 而不是人。 在那個時代，戲子屬於下九流， 社會地位極低，很少有人真正把她們當 「人」看。 芳官在戲班裡唱的是「正旦」。那是一種端莊、柔媚、常常帶著幾分哀怨的正面女性角色。可在真正生活裡， 她和舞台上的形象完全不同，一點也不溫柔，嫵媚。 她生性活潑，性格潑辣，有什麼說什麼，性子像一團火。也正因如此，她到了怡紅院後，很快便成了寶玉喜歡的女孩之一。 寶玉對那些小戲子女孩，始終懷著一種很奇特的感情。別人看戲子，都視其為玩物，是唱曲兒逗樂的人；可寶玉卻總覺得，她們也是人，而且是很可憐的人。 她們中間的大多數， 都是窮苦人家的小孩， 從小就被父母賣到戲班學戲， 沒有人身自由。 在舞台上， 她們可以扮演各種角色， 帝王將相， 才子佳人， 風光無限。  可是下了台， 她們就什麼都不是，她們的主子可以任意玩弄她們， 欺辱她們， 處置她們。 因為她們是主子拿錢買來的， 在主子眼裡， 她們就是會說話的貨物， 而不是人。 

點擊查看大圖
Click to enlarge

曹雪芹在《紅樓夢》原著描述， 當時的情況是：「老太妃已薨，凡誥命等皆入朝隨班，按爵守制。敕諭天下，凡有爵之家，一年內不許筵宴音樂，庶民皆三月不許婚姻。」 用通俗的話講， 這段話的意思就是皇帝的老太妃死了， 所以一年內不許官宦人家演戲， 那些小戲子就無事可做， 賈府想做好事，善事， 放她們回家， 結果呢， 曹雪芹原著中是這樣寫的： 「將十二個女孩子叫來，當面細問，倒有一多半不願意回家的。也有說父母雖有，他只以賣我們姐妹為事，這一去還被他賣了； 也有說父母已亡，或被叔伯兄弟所賣的； 也有說無人可投的；也有說戀恩不捨的。所願去者止四五人。王夫人聽了，只得留下。 將去者四五人皆令其乾娘領回家去，單等他親生父母來領；將不願去者，分散在園中使喚。 賈母便留下文官自使，將正旦芳官指給了寶玉，小旦蕊官送了寶釵，小生藕官指給了黛玉，大花面葵官送了湘雲，小花面荳官送了寶琴，老外艾官指給了探春，尤氏便討了老旦茄官去。當下各得其所，就如那倦鳥出籠，每日園中戲遊。」 所以芳官是這樣進了寶玉住的怡紅院。 寶玉特別同情這些沒有人身自由的女孩子， 因為她們的悲慘遭遇， 就特別疼她們。 尤其是芳官，到了怡紅院後，孩童的自由天性徹底釋放， 簡直像一隻剛放進花園裡的小野貓。 她不懂規矩，也不願意守規矩。別的女孩見了管她們的乾娘婆子，多半低眉順眼，逆來順受， 可芳官卻不一樣，她敢於爭取自己的權力， 要求平等對待。 有一次，她因洗頭的事，和乾娘何婆子吵了一架。原來何婆子拿給她女兒洗頭剩下的髒水替她洗頭，芳官嫌惡心，不肯用。何婆子便罵她。  為了明瞭這件事的原委 ， 還是抄錄一段曹雪芹《紅樓夢》原著最為是好。 「芳官又跟了他乾娘去洗頭，他乾娘偏又先叫了他親女兒洗過才叫芳官洗。芳官見了這樣，便說他偏心：「把你女兒的剩水給我洗！我一個月的月錢都是你拿著，沾我的光不算，反倒給我剩東剩西的！」 她乾娘羞惱變成怒，便罵他：「不識抬舉的東西！怪不得人人都說戲子沒一個好纏的，憑你什麼好的，入了這一行，都弄壞了。這一點子小崽子也挑么挑六，鹹嘴淡舌，咬群的騾子似的！」，芳官和她的乾娘吵起來。 對這件事， 寶玉旗幟鮮明地站在芳官一邊。《紅樓夢》原著，是這樣寫的： 寶玉道：「怨不得芳官，自古說物不平則鳴。他失親少眷的在這裏，沒人照看。賺了他的錢，又作賤他，如何怪得！」 那時的芳官，應該覺得幸運，遇見了好人，為她做主。 寶玉也確實對她很好。不只是對她，對所有那些「小戲子」女孩，寶玉都有一種近乎天性的憐惜。他不把她們當下人，當玩物， 而是當作「女兒國」的一部分。 芳官性子活潑，膽子又大，常與寶玉說笑無忌。她甚至喝酒醉倒，就睡在寶玉身邊，也沒人太當回事。 因為在怡紅院裡，大家似乎都忘了外面的世界。那地方太像夢幻樂園。少男少女在一起，鳥語花香，笑語盈盈，寶玉天天沉浸其中，還真以為這就是真實世界， 大家可以一直這樣活著，永遠不長大，永遠不分離。 可芳官和寶玉其實都不知道，外面的世界，從來容不下這種夢幻樂園存在，尤其容不下「戲子」，可以和主子平起平坐。 在舞台上， 她們可以是帝王將相， 可以是才子佳人， 可是下了台， 卻連做「人」的起碼資格都沒有。唱得好時， 被人當作玩物追捧，而不是「人」；唱得不好，就更慘， 會像垃圾一樣被無情丟棄。 芳官是個性很強的女孩。她不像襲人懂得低頭，也不像平兒懂得周旋。她有一股當時「戲子」身上少見的骨氣，傲氣。 有一次，蕊官送她薔薇硝，作為主子的賈環硬要搶去。芳官不肯，竟和賈環當面吵起來。賈環雖不甚得寵，可畢竟是主子。旁人這時，多半會退讓。 可芳官偏不。她那股「不肯服人」的勁兒，寶玉最喜歡。可也正是這股勁兒，最後害了她。 因為賈府，終究不是怡紅院。怡紅院像一場春夢，而賈府，卻是一座真正的封建牢籠。 後來，抄檢大觀園開始了。王夫人終於下定決心，要整頓那些「教壞寶玉」的人。而戲子出身的芳官，自然首當其衝。在王夫人眼裡，這些出身戲子的女孩，輕狂、妖媚、不守規矩，她們就是勾引寶玉墮落的禍根。 於是，一場驅逐運動開始了。芳官被趕出怡紅院時，還很年輕。那時的她，大概還不真正明白，自己失去的是什麼。 她離開時，寶玉心裡極難受，可他依舊是什麼也做不了。這是《紅樓夢》中最殘酷的一件事。 曹雪芹留下的前八十回《紅樓夢》，沒有再交代芳官最後的命運。或許是還沒來得及寫。但是在那個時代，一個沒有任何地位的「小戲子女孩」，被趕出大觀園， 失去了一切保護， 能有什麼好下場。 寶玉愛那些女孩，也疼那些女孩，可他卻無法保護她們。晴雯如此，芳官也是如此。 根據高鶚續書一百二十回本《紅樓夢》，後來芳官被送進了水月庵。 從一個會唱戲、會說笑、會鬧脾氣的小女孩，忽然變成青燈古佛旁的一個小尼姑。可她根本不是能做尼姑的人，她太活潑，太愛熱鬧，也太愛人間。 她本來應該活在花叢裡，活在笑聲裡，活在戲台的燈火裡。可最後，她卻只能對著木魚與佛像，苦苦地熬下去。 她不會再唱戲了。也不會再有人像寶玉那樣疼她，護著她了。而那個曾經在怡紅院裡笑著、鬧著、連賈環都敢罵的小姑娘，也終於慢慢被這個世界磨沒了。 （未完待續）

Fangguan was not originally a member of the Jia household. She was a young opera girl bought from Suzhou, one of the twelve girls who could perform opera and whom the Jia family had purchased at great expense for Yuan Chun’s imperial visit. Those girls were all still very young, yet at such a young age they already had to study opera under their masters. They had to train their voices, learn stage movements, and practice dance steps. It was no easy thing. The hardship involved was more than ordinary people could endure. Their masters had no patience. If they moved wrongly, they were beaten; if they sang a note incorrectly, they were scolded. With sticks and blows, they were forced to acquire real skill before they could appear onstage. The suffering of training was only one part of it. Even more cruel than the training was the fact that, from childhood, they were branded with the label of “opera girls.” They became “playthings” specially meant to be watched, toyed with, bullied by anyone, and looked down upon by everyone. They were not treated as human beings. In that era, opera performers belonged to the lowest ranks of society. Their social status was extremely low, and very few people truly regarded them as “people.” In the troupe, Fangguan sang the role of zhengdan. This was a proper female role, dignified, gentle, and often carrying a trace of sorrow. Yet in real life, she was completely different from the figure she played onstage. She was not gentle or charming at all. She was lively by nature, fiery in temperament, and said whatever came into her mind. Her character was like a ball of fire. Precisely because of this, after she arrived at the Yihong Courtyard, she soon became one of the girls Baoyu liked. Baoyu always felt a very strange kind of affection toward those young opera girls. Others saw opera girls as playthings, people who sang songs and amused their masters. But Baoyu always felt that they, too, were human beings, and very pitiful human beings at that. Most of them were children from poor families. From a young age, they had been sold by their parents to opera troupes to study performance, and they had no personal freedom. Onstage, they could play all kinds of roles: emperors and generals, talented scholars and beautiful ladies, figures of endless splendor. But once they stepped off the stage, they were nothing. Their masters could toy with them, humiliate them, and dispose of them at will. Because they had been bought with money, in the eyes of their masters they were merely goods that could speak, not human beings.

點擊查看大圖
Click to enlarge

Cao Xueqin describes the situation in the original Dream of the Red Chamber as follows: “The Grand Imperial Consort had passed away. All titled ladies were required to enter court and attend in order of rank while observing mourning according to their titles. An imperial edict was sent throughout the realm: all titled households were forbidden to hold banquets or musical entertainments for one year, and commoners were forbidden to marry for three months.” In plain words, this meant that because the emperor’s Grand Imperial Consort had died, official households were not allowed to stage performances for a year. The young opera girls therefore had nothing to do. The Jia household wanted to perform a good deed, an act of charity, by sending them home. And what happened? Cao Xueqin writes in the original text: “They called the twelve girls over and questioned them face to face. It turned out that more than half of them did not wish to return home. Some said that although their parents were still alive, those parents had only ever made a business of selling us sisters, and if they went back, they would only be sold again; some said their parents had already died, or that they had been sold by uncles, elder brothers, or younger brothers; some said they had no one to turn to; others said they could not bear to leave because of the kindness they had received. In the end, only four or five wished to go. When Lady Wang heard this, she had no choice but to keep the rest. The four or five who wished to leave were all ordered to be taken back by their godmothers and to wait until their own parents came to collect them. Those who did not wish to go were scattered throughout the garden to serve. Grandmother Jia kept Wenguan for her own use. She assigned Fangguan, who played the zhengdan role, to Baoyu; Ruiguan, who played the xiaodan role, to Baochai; Ouguan, who played young male roles, to Daiyu; Kuiguan, who played the dahualian role, to Xiangyun; Douguan, who played the xiaohualian role, to Baoqin; and Aiguan, who played old male roles, to Tanchun. Lady You requested the old female-role player Jiaguan for herself. Thus each found her place, like weary birds released from a cage, and every day they played and wandered in the garden.” This was how Fangguan entered the Yihong Courtyard where Baoyu lived. Baoyu felt special sympathy for these girls who had no personal freedom. Because of their tragic experiences, he felt especially tender toward them. Fangguan in particular, after she came to the Yihong Courtyard, seemed to have the free nature of a child completely released. She was simply like a little wildcat newly let loose into a garden. She did not understand rules, nor was she willing to obey them. When other girls saw the godmother-servants who managed them, most lowered their brows, followed orders meekly, and endured whatever came. But Fangguan was different. She dared to fight for her own rights and demand to be treated equally. Once, because of the matter of washing her hair, she quarreled with her godmother, Granny He. It turned out that Granny He had used the dirty water left after washing her own daughter’s hair to wash Fangguan’s. Fangguan found it disgusting and refused to use it. Granny He then cursed her. To understand the whole affair clearly, it is best to copy a passage from Cao Xueqin’s original Dream of the Red Chamber. “Fangguan had gone with her godmother to wash her hair. Her godmother insisted on letting her own daughter wash first before allowing Fangguan to wash. Seeing this, Fangguan said she was being partial: ‘You give me the leftover water from washing your daughter’s hair! You take my monthly allowance every month, living off what belongs to me, and that is not enough? You still give me leftovers and scraps!’ Her godmother’s embarrassment turned into anger, and she cursed her: ‘You ungrateful thing! No wonder everyone says there is not a single opera girl who is easy to deal with. No matter how good someone is, once she enters this profession, she goes bad. Even a little brat like you has become picky and quarrelsome, talking with a salty mouth and a bland tongue, like a mule that bites the herd!’ Fangguan and her godmother began to quarrel.” In this matter, Baoyu clearly and firmly stood on Fangguan’s side. The original Dream of the Red Chamber writes it this way: Baoyu said, “No wonder Fangguan complains. Since ancient times it has been said that when something is unfair, it cries out. She is here without parents or close kin, with no one to look after her. You earn money from her and then mistreat her. How can you blame her?” At that time, Fangguan must have felt fortunate that she had met a good person, someone willing to stand up for her. Baoyu did indeed treat her very well. Not only her, but all those “little opera girls” stirred in Baoyu an almost natural pity. He did not regard them as servants or playthings, but as part of his “kingdom of girls.” Fangguan was lively by nature and bold in temperament. She often joked and chatted freely with Baoyu without restraint. She even once became drunk and fell asleep beside Baoyu, and no one thought too much of it. Because in the Yihong Courtyard, everyone seemed to have forgotten the outside world. That place was too much like a dreamlike paradise. Young boys and girls were together amid birdsong and flowers, with bright laughter all around. Baoyu spent every day immersed in it, truly believing this was the real world, and that everyone could go on living like this forever, never growing up, never parting. But neither Fangguan nor Baoyu truly knew that the outside world would never tolerate the existence of such a dreamlike paradise. Above all, it would never tolerate “opera girls” standing on equal footing with their masters. Onstage, they could be emperors and generals, talented scholars and beautiful ladies. But once they stepped off the stage, they did not even possess the most basic qualification to be treated as “people.” When they sang well, they were praised and admired as playthings, not as human beings. When they sang badly, things became even worse: they could be thrown away without mercy, like garbage. Fangguan was a girl with a very strong personality. She was not like Xiren, who knew how to lower her head, nor like Ping’er, who knew how to maneuver through difficult situations. She possessed a kind of integrity and pride rarely seen in an opera girl of that time. Once, Ruiguan gave her some rose-scented powder, and Jia Huan, as one of the masters, insisted on seizing it from her. Fangguan refused, and actually quarreled with Jia Huan to his face. Although Jia Huan was not especially favored, he was still a master. In such a situation, most people would have yielded. But Fangguan would not. That refusal to submit was precisely what Baoyu loved most about her. Yet it was also this very trait that finally harmed her. Because the Jia household was, after all, not the Yihong Courtyard. The Yihong Courtyard was like a spring dream, but the Jia household was a true feudal prison. Later, the search of the Grand View Garden began. Lady Wang finally made up her mind to discipline those who were “corrupting Baoyu.” Fangguan, born from the world of opera performers, naturally became one of the first targets. In Lady Wang’s eyes, these girls from the opera world were frivolous, seductive, and unruly. They were the root of the evil that lured Baoyu into moral decline. And so, a campaign of expulsion began. When Fangguan was driven out of the Yihong Courtyard, she was still very young. At that time, she probably did not yet truly understand what she had lost. When she left, Baoyu’s heart was filled with pain. But still, there was nothing he could do. This is one of the cruelest things in Dream of the Red Chamber. In the first eighty chapters of Dream of the Red Chamber left by Cao Xueqin, Fangguan’s final fate is not explained. Perhaps he had simply not yet had time to write it. But in that era, what good ending could there be for a “little opera girl” with no status at all, driven out of the Grand View Garden and stripped of every protection? Baoyu loved those girls and cherished those girls, but he could not protect them. It was so with Qingwen, and it was so with Fangguan. According to Gao E’s 120-chapter continuation of Dream of the Red Chamber, Fangguan was later sent to Shuiyue Nunnery. From a little girl who could sing opera, joke, laugh, and lose her temper, she suddenly became a young nun beside the green lamp and the ancient Buddha. But she was never someone who could truly be a nun. She was too lively, too fond of excitement, and too full of love for the human world. She should have lived among flowers, amid laughter, beneath the lights of the opera stage. But in the end, she could only face the wooden fish and the Buddha’s image, enduring her days in bitterness. She would never sing opera again. Nor would there ever again be someone like Baoyu to cherish her and protect her. And that little girl who had once laughed and made trouble in the Yihong Courtyard, who had even dared to scold Jia Huan, was finally, little by little, worn away by this world. (To be continued)