A Man of Science and Engineering in Troubled Times Wandering in the Late Qing Dynasty

Chapter 137
In fact, women have always been able to enter the theater and perform.China has been dominated by women's music since ancient times, but it was only in the Qing Dynasty that women were banned from performing on stage under the pretext of being indecent.

Even during the Jiaqing period, Lang Baochen, editor and editor of the Imperial Academy, made a memorial and pointed out that it was indecent for women in the capital to go out of the theater.Emperor Jiaqing actually allowed it to be performed, and since then the theater has not sold female seats.

But now it's 1903, and foreigners have already hit the doorstep, and many regulations have been relaxed.After all, the wives of foreigners don't care about these inexplicable regulations.

Since this civilized tea garden is newly built, its layout is slightly different from many other theater tea gardens in Qianmen Inner Street.

Li Yu went to the tea garden with Lu Bicheng early, and Lu Bicheng paid special attention to how many women came to the theater.She found that although there were quite a few female seats upstairs, they were basically the wives and maidservants of dignitaries. It seemed that there were still fewer females among ordinary fanciers.

The two sat down at a table in the pool seat under the stage.

Xiao Er then ran over: "Do the two guests have theater tickets?"

Li Yu took out two seat tickets marked with a face value of one tael of silver: "Of course there are."

The price is very expensive, and it seems to be similar to listening to some concerts in later generations.

Of course, not all fares are so high. The simple "wall seat" against the wall at the back only costs 200 renminbi; and if it is the "balcony seat" upstairs, it costs 400 renminbi a seat.

Even compared with the same period, civilized tea gardens charge very high today. For ordinary theaters, it usually only costs [-] to [-] yuan to listen to a day, and some even provide free tea and fruits.

Xiaoer picked up the ticket and looked at it, but said: "Guest officer, in addition, you have to pay another 100 cash for the clerk and 40 cash for tea."

Li Yu asked: "Isn't there written on the face of the ticket 'no other expenses'? Why do you have to charge money?"

Xiao Er said: "Guest officer, after all, today is a famous actor on stage, and there are too many people watching the show, so I have no choice but to increase the ticket price, please understand."

Li Yu was also unwilling to talk nonsense with him, so he paid all the money.

Li Yu was easy to talk to, and many people who went to the theater complained again and again, and even someone wrote an article in the newspaper the next day to complain: "There is an additional fee, and the civilized tea garden is really uncivilized!"

Civilized tea gardens do intend to improve the current custom of collecting "tea capital" rather than "ticket prices" in tea gardens. Unfortunately, the owners of tea gardens do not yet understand the new management ideas and models.

This chaotic charging situation will continue for at least another two years.Around 1905, all tea gardens in Beijing gradually changed from "tea capital" to "ticket price", and gradually stabilized their charges.However, the tea gardens in Tianjin still use the long-standing old system of "tea capital".

After paying for the tea, Xiao Er quickly brought tea and melon seeds.

More and more people came, and many people had no seats and could only stand in the back row, but even so, their fare was 200 renminbi.

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 off the stage, and no one dared to sit there.

It wasn't until the troupe was about to get ready that a few people came in swaggeringly.

The owner of the tea garden greeted him immediately, bowed his head and bowed: "Lord Su, you are here!"

Prince Su Shanqi brought a 40-year-old concubine, and a [-]-year-old Japanese man wearing glasses, whom Li Yu bumped into that day.

Prince Su said, "Are you all ready?"

The garden owner bowed his head and said, "It's all good, just wait for the prince."

Several people sat down at the table in the best position, and the two behind them took a look at the table where Li Yu was, and walked over. One of them was Xu Shiying, the sixth-rank chief of the Ministry of Criminal Justice who had inquired about Lin Binghua's case.

Xu Shiying said politely to the other person: "Sit on Yi Daotai."

After the two sat down, Xu Shiying said to Li Yu, "Mr. Li Yu also likes to listen to opera?"

Li Yu said, "Just listen to what you want."

Yi Daotai asked in surprise, "So you are Li Yu?"

"I'm here," Li Yu asked, "Excuse me, sir?"

"I am Yi Shun Ding, under the command of Huguang Governor Zhang Zhitai."

It turned out to be Zhang Zhidong's staff, Li Yu said: "It's a pleasure to meet you."

In fact, Yi Shunding already has an official rank, but he has always regarded Zhang Zhidong as a mentor, and he said that he is Zhang Zhidong's subordinate when he meets 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 valued all kinds of Western talents, and he would definitely not "let go" of Li Yu.

Li Yu said: "That is my great honor."

Yi Shunding said: "Now that he has just resumed work after the new year, Taiwan is busy with railway affairs. When he finishes his work, I think you should receive the invitation card."

"Railway? Luhan Railway?" Li Yu asked.

"Yes," Yi Shunding said, "Now the main line of the railway has been repaired a lot, but several bridges have not been completed."

Li Yu nodded, "It is naturally more difficult to build a bridge."

The construction of the Luhan Railway began five years ago. At that time, Zhang Zhidong felt that countries such as Britain and France were too strong, so he contracted the construction by a Belgian company that "has no ambitions in China." The money for the road construction was also borrowed from the Belgian company.

The price is that the loan period will be 30 years, and all traffic management rights will be controlled by the Belgian company.

When I met Zhan Tianyou to build the Xiling Railway before, he also used part of the Luhan Railway that had already been repaired.

Yi Shunding never thought it was a big deal to build roads and bridges. He said: "What's the problem? Foreigners know everything, and I leave it to them. These are just troublesome things. It's so convenient to buy them with money."

Li Yu was stunned, but this was the thinking of many people at the time, and even Li Hongzhang's main idea was to buy, buy, buy.But it's really not easy to talk about them, so after thinking about it, I don't want to continue talking about it.

At this time Li Yu heard Prince Su Shanqi in front of him say to the Japanese: "Mr. Kawashima, have you heard opera?"

Li Yu was surprised, Mr. Kawashima?

Thinking back on the age in history again, among the Japanese who have come to China at present, the surname is Kawashima, who else can there be besides Kawashima Yoshiko’s adoptive father Kawashima Naniwa!
And Kawashima Yoshiko's biological father is one of the Qin hat kings in front of him, Prince Su Shanqi, the grandson of Hauge IX.

Naniwa Kawashima said: "Of course I have heard opera, and I also love Chinese opera. One day, I hope to bring opera to Japan."

Prince Su Shanqi said: "In the future, if Mr. Kawashima builds a theater in Japan, I will definitely go and see it."

"Naturally, the prince is proficient in opera, and it would be great to have your guidance." Naniwa Kawashima said.

When Prince Su Shanqi heard Chuan Dao's praise, he said directly without shame: "I can't say I'm proficient, but I'm afraid there are not many people who know opera better than me."

Naniwa Kawashima said: "Of course! It is said that in the entire Beijing city, Su Wang's Mansion is the place with the most operas. 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 said with a smile: "Come to my house again in the future, and let you see my skills."

Li Yu felt a little helpless, these princes only knew how to eat, drink and have fun all day long, and they competed to see who could sing better, and whose starling could talk better.

Kawashima Naniwa just followed his words: "I must appreciate it!"

After the death of the Qing Dynasty, Prince Su joined the Zongsha Party and sought help from Japan for restoration, so he adopted his daughter Xianyu to his sworn brother Naniwa Kawashima, that is, The famous Yoshiko Kawashima.

It's just that he never expected that not long after his death, 17-year-old Yoshiko Kawashima was defiled by her adoptive father Naniwa Kawashima.

What is even more unexpected is that even so, Yoshiko Kawashima became a loyal spy of the Japanese.

But these are later stories.

Prince Su's concubine said: "You can't be a little decent? How can a prince go on stage and sing?"

"Ma'am is right." Prince Su did not refute her.

Yi Shunding from behind saw it, and said curiously: "Your Majesty's Fujin really dares to say it."

Xu Shiying explained to him: "Sifu Jin Zhang Jia's family is the most favored in Su Wang's mansion now. If you want to find Wang Ye for anything in the future, it will be better to find her than anyone else."

This is pointing out the way, Yi Shunding hastily cupped his hands and said: "Thank you brother Xu for letting me know."

After hearing what the two said, Li Yu felt even more incredible.

He had seen the introduction about Yoshiko Kawashima before, she was too famous after all.Yoshiko Kawashima's biological mother is the Sifu Jin Zhang Jiashi of Prince Su in front of him.

Speaking of it, there are many shady things in the feudal palace.

Zhang Jiashi was originally just a maid bought by Su Wangfu from the suburbs of Beijing. Her real name was Miss Lan.When she was a girl, she was defiled by Prince Su's son... Later, when she was 15 years old, she was adopted by Prince Su as the fourth wife.Then it was terrible, a series of ten children were born to Prince Su, and the first daughter was Yoshiko Kawashima.

Unexpectedly, Yoshiko Kawashima's biological father, biological mother, and adoptive father were all here today.

Prince Su said to Naniwa Kawashima: "I know that Mr. Kawashima is here today. In order to express my gratitude to you for your hard work as the Chief Superintendent of the Beijing Police Department, I specially invited Yang Xiaolou, a popular Tongqing class in Beijing, to perform. He is a gift to the Queen Mother." He has been praised for acting."

Naniwa Kawashima sat upright: "Such excellent art should be appreciated with all your heart."

Prince Su still just sat carelessly, eating melon seeds and listening to the opera.

Yang Xiaolou sang very well in today's opera, but unfortunately Li Yu didn't understand opera, but the big guys around couldn't stop applauding, and the atmosphere was really full.

Yi Shunding suddenly said with emotion: "When will the actress be on stage, so that I can become a real Baoyu. I will be happy just thinking about raising a few beautiful actresses who can sing and play at home."

Xu Shiying smiled and said: "Yidaotai is really unique. I heard that you were a monk at the beginning, and you also brought two beautiful concubines with you."

Yi Shunding has always been proud of this, and laughed loudly: "What's the point of becoming a monk without the company of beautiful women?"

Since then, the master has really pursued several great actresses in the early years of the Republic of China many times, and even wrote very, very difficult poems.It's too much, the kind that will be blocked if you write it out.

The key point was that Liu Xikui, the king of the actor world who received the poem at that time, was still a big girl, and he couldn't laugh or cry when he saw this kind of vulgar poem.

Xu Shiying also said: "If you want an actress to appear on stage, it may be more difficult than building a railway bridge."

"It's difficult!" Yi Shunding also sighed, "After all, foreigners can learn things, how can it compare with our vast knowledge."

Yi Shunding was conceited and smart when he was young, and claimed to be the descendant of Zhang Mengjin, a great talent in the Ming Dynasty.

Lu Bicheng listened to them for a long time, and he was a monk with his beautiful concubine, and he was not enterprising and supercilious. He really couldn't stand it anymore: "If you think it's easy, sir, you can try it yourself. Don't imitate the predecessors and mislead the country."

Yi Shunding looked at Lu Bicheng: "Little lady has a sharp mouth, so don't talk nonsense if you haven't read the book. No, it's not a question of whether to read or not, it's better to learn what is female virtue first."

Lu Bicheng said disdainfully: "Women are probably not worse than men in studying."

Yi Shunding Fangfo heard the funniest joke: "Stop joking! Most women are too stupid and can't turn their heads. Even if it is reading, how many books can they understand?"

"Women are stupid, so are you smart?" Lu Bicheng asked.

Yi Shunding proudly said: "I'm afraid there are not many people who are smarter than me."

Seeing his appearance, Li Yu was also very unhappy, so he whispered to Lu Bicheng, "Didn't Mr. Yan Fu just teach you a few logic problems today, and you test him."

Lu Bicheng smiled knowingly and understood what Li Yu meant, so he said to Yi Shunding, "Do you dare to be smarter than anyone?"

Yi Shunding was not afraid at all, and asked, "How do you compare?"

Lu Bicheng said, "I'll give you a logical thinking question, the test is whether your brain is smart enough or not."

"Hey! You dare to give me a question, you can do it! I can tell you in advance, don't ask yourself." Yi Shunding is quite conceited about his intelligence, mainly because he looks down on women and doesn't think they can understand. What knowledge.

Lu Bicheng said: "Listen up! The title is like this, five extremely clever and 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. [-], No. [-], No. [-], and No. [-]. The first pirate proposes a distribution plan, and then everyone votes together. Only when more than half of the people agree can it be adopted, otherwise he will be thrown into the sea. Then it is his turn The next pirate comes up with a proposal. The question is who will benefit the most and how much gold can he get?"

After Yi Shunding finished listening, he opened his mouth and said, "Of course it's the last one! As for gold coins, I haven't figured it out yet."

Lu Bicheng smiled and said, "You don't need to think about it anymore, you have already answered wrong."

Yi Shunding refused to accept: "How could it be wrong?"

Lu Bicheng also imitated him and proudly said: "I advise you to go back and think about it carefully. If you really can't think of it, please tell me again. You will not be more stupid than a woman like me, right?"

Yi Shunding felt that he couldn't understand the train of thought for a while, so he said, "Okay! I can explain this question to you tomorrow."

"You don't need to be so fast, you will win in three days." Lu Bicheng said.

Xu Shiying also looked amused: "Yidaotai, don't lose."

After being so excited, Yi Shunding became more energetic: "You all just wait and see."

Li Yu secretly smiled in his heart, yes, just wait and see.

(End of this chapter)