Original title: Two Stories of Fifteen Strings: A Comedy Opera and a Tragic Novel
□ Cheng Jishan
"Fifteen Strings" is a well-known opera work that is well known to women and children. It reflects the story of the butcher You Hulu who borrowed the book. On the fifteenth day of the gold medal, Yu returned drunk at night; the gambler Lou Ashu killed You in an attempt to make money, and framed You's adopted daughter Su Shujuan and a passerby shopkeeper Xiong Youlan; the magistrate of Wuxi was too stubborn and sentenced Su and Xiong to death. Kuang Zhong, the prefect of Suzhou, discovered something suspicious when he was ordered to supervise the execution. He went to the prison late at night and met with Zhou Chen, the governor of Yingtian, to ask for a suspension of punishment and a retrial. Kuang personally went to the scene to investigate, and disguised himself to conduct private visits to obtain evidence, catch the real culprit, and redress the injustice. In this story, although the innocent Su and Xiong suffered all kinds of torture in the world, their lives were saved after meeting Kuang Zhong, an extremely wise and upright official; and finally, with the help of Kuang Zhong, Su and Xiong were able to save their lives. Also tied the knot. Therefore, it is probably not an exaggeration to say that "Fifteen Strings" is a comedy.
At the same time, in the collection of novels "Awakening Words: Fifteen Jokes Turn into Misfortunes" edited by Feng Menglong, the protagonist of the story is not as lucky as Su and Xiong in the drama. During the Southern Song Dynasty, Liu Gui of Jian'an City and his wife Wang had no heirs, so they took Sister Chen as their concubine. One day, Liu Gui and his wife went to the home of his father-in-law Wang Yuan. Wang Yuanwai gave Liu Gui fifteen guan of money to open a firewood and rice shop to earn some money to live. On the way back, Liu Gui met an old acquaintance who was a broker and asked him for advice on his business experience. The two of them had a few drinks by the way. Since Mrs. Wang failed to return home with Liu Gui, only Sister Chen was at home when Liu Gui arrived. Liu Gui, while drunk, jokingly pawned Sister Chen for fifteen coins. When Second Sister Chen saw that Liu Guizhen had taken back fifteen coins, she believed it to be true. When Liu Gui was asleep after drinking and was about to go home, she told her parents that she met Cui Ning on the way and the two of them hurried on together. Liu Gui was killed in his sleep and his fifteen pieces of money were robbed. Just like in the drama, everyone happened to find fifteen coins from Cui Ning's body. Therefore, Chen and Cui were sent to official positions by Liu Gui's neighbors. Lin'an Prefecture heard that there was a murder, and did not allow Chen and Cui to defend themselves at all and concluded that they killed Liu Gui for adultery. However, Chen and Cui could not withstand the torture and had to surrender. The Fu Yin folded the document and played it in the court. He made a detailed report, issued the imperial edict, and beheaded Chen and Cui one by one. A year later, Wang Yuanwai was worried that his daughter would be too poor as a widow, so he sent someone to take his daughter Wang home. On the way, she was robbed by a robber, and Wang became Mrs. Yazhai. Later, the robbers robbed several owners of large fortunes, and the family became rich. Wang then persuaded the robber to change his ways and do good, and the robber also changed his mind. One day while sitting at home, the robbers told Wang what had happened when they robbed Liu Gui of his money and led to the murder of Chen and Cui. Wang knew that her original husband had been killed by this bandit, so when she found an opportunity, she went to Lin'an Mansion to complain. The case finally came to light, the robber was sentenced to beheading, and the original interrogator lost his love after being released from prison, and reduced his position to serve the people.
In this story, although the injustice of Chen and Cui finally came to light because the original culprit was found, people cannot be resurrected after death. Therefore, the story of the fifteen chapters in the novel is a complete tragedy. Different from the unjust cases in most other public case dramas and novels, in the two fifteen-story stories, there is no plot of officials taking bribes and bending the law. The reason why innocent unjust cases appear is precisely because the things in the cases are too serious. It was a coincidence: all those who were wronged were a man and a woman who were traveling together, and the man had exactly the same amount of money as the victim who was robbed, which affected the judgment of the judicial officials. The author believes that although Kuang Zhong did exist in history, in other stories, Kuang Zhong also told the story of a "dead child" - Kuang Zhong could hear the cry of a child who was drowned by his mother just after birth, and thus solved a story. case. In literary and artistic works, Kuang Zhong's wisdom has far exceeded that of ordinary people and even beyond the level that human wisdom can reach, so he is called "Kang Qingtian". Therefore, in the opera, it is a coincidence that Su and Xiong met "Kang Qingtian". In the novel, there are many doubts about the case itself, but Chen and Cui failed to meet judicial officials who were beyond the wisdom of ordinary people, resulting in the tragedy of two innocent souls.Moreover, the reason why the original culprit was exposed and Chen and Cui were able to avenge their injustice is also very coincidental: if the person who robbed Wang as Mrs. Yazhai was not the original culprit in this case, and if the original culprit did not tell Wang the truth about that year, I am afraid that Chen The unjust case of , Cui and two people will be difficult to deal with and will never come forward.
As an integral part of social culture, the author believes that literature and art require people to enjoy spiritual pleasure from comedy works in which evil people are rewarded and justice is upheld when appreciating literary and artistic works. But at the same time, it is more Tragedies are needed to reflect the real social phenomena, so that people can deeply introspect and reflect on the culture and system that caused social tragedies, so as to reduce or prevent similar tragedies from happening in the future. For example, although litigation involves major issues of human freedom and life, judicial officials should be appointed by wise people, but at the same time it should also be noted that judicial officials who can achieve the extreme wisdom of Kuang Zhong are, after all, Therefore, in terms of preventing unjust imprisonment, we cannot just place our hope in the "blue sky" that is far beyond the wisdom of ordinary people, but should explore and build on the wisdom that the vast majority of judicial officials can achieve, how to prevent the defendant from being unjustly accused. Litigation system. In this sense, our society not only needs a "blue sky" like Kuang Zhong, but it also needs to explore and improve the construction of a litigation and prison system that can prevent unjust cases.
(Author’s unit: People’s Court of Zhengding County, Hebei Province) (Cheng Jishan)
(People’s Court Newspaper)
