Huayu: Starting with Xiang Yu, the Hegemon of Western Chu

Jingming stood outside the curtain.

When he heard this, his heart skipped a beat.

He had just thought about it in his mind, along with Xiao Li, how he would act out this line of text.

He thought about it once.

The version he acted in was the one Xiao Li described: find a standing posture and stare into the distance.

He believed his performance was decent, and that the director would definitely approve his version.

but.

The details Liang Guanhua just mentioned—what was pressing on his shoulder, which foot was his center of gravity, whether his waist had been injured, the tightness of his clenched fingers, and what he was looking at in the distance through the snow—all these details are crucial.

He hadn't thought about it.

I didn't even think about one of them.

In all his years of acting, he has never added so much stuff to a single empty shot.

He knew someone was acting like that.

It was taught in books and explained by teachers, but he never practiced it that way himself.

Because he felt it was unnecessary.

If the audience can't tell, it's not in the script, and the director doesn't require it, then what's the point of adding these things?

Today he heard Luo Yifeng say something.

"Audiences can't tell the difference, but people in the industry can."

Jingming stood outside the curtain, pondering those words.

He's been in this industry for over a decade, worked on so many productions, and collaborated with many people in the industry, but he's never heard of any director or actor taking a single line of text so seriously.

Everyone just performs one take in roughly the same way, right?

Today, these two veteran actors and Director Luo are actually discussing an actor's shoulder in an empty shot.

Moreover, the discussion was very logical and insightful.

Moreover, the content of the discussion was added by Chen Mo himself.

It wasn't the director's request.

It wasn't written in the script.

It was Chen Mo who added it.

Jingming's belief that "Chen Mo just caught the wave" eased a little.

He stood outside the curtain and pondered for a while longer.

He mentally reenacted Chen Mo's scene.

This time, he tried to add details such as his shoulder pressing down on something, his weight on his right foot, and his fingers loosely gripping something.

He imagined himself wearing a pale white youth's casual clothes, standing under the eaves watching the snow.

He thought for thirty seconds.

Then he shook his head inwardly.

He couldn't do it.

It's not a problem with the details; he can imitate the details. The problem is that he can't imitate the "spirit" that comes from putting all those details together.

He has never put in the effort, not even in the past ten years.

Jingming sighed inwardly.

This kid seems to actually have something going for him?

He stood outside the curtain for about three minutes.

Suddenly, the curtain was lifted from the inside.

Luo Yifeng came out from inside, looked up and saw him, and was stunned for a moment.

"Jingming? When did you arrive?"

Jingming snapped out of his daze and quickly took two steps forward.

"Director Luo, I just arrived. The assistant director brought me over to say hello."

He shook hands, with both hands clasped, a gesture befitting a junior.

Luo Yifeng patted his arm: "You've come at the right time. Come in, let me introduce you to two senior figures."

Jingming followed Luo Yifeng into the surveillance booth.

Liang Guanhua and Wang Xueqi were both present.

Luo Yifeng pointed to the two: "Teacher Wang Xueqi, Teacher Liang Guanhua."

Jingming quickly stepped forward, clasped his hands in a very formal bow.

"Teacher Wang, Teacher Liang, this is my junior, Jingming. It's a pleasure to meet you both. Please give me your guidance."

The two veteran actors exchanged a glance.

Wang Xueqi: "Young man, you're well-behaved."

Liang Guanhua: "Yes, sensible."

Luo Yifeng smiled:

"Old Liang, this is the role I told you about, the one where he transitioned to playing Zhu Gaoxu."

Liang Guanhua: "I heard Lao Luo say that you should come to our group and hone your skills."

Jingming quickly said, "Thank you, Teacher Liang."

At that moment, there was some noise outside the monitoring shed.

Chen Mo walked over from that direction.

He had just finished filming that scene, his face still covered in makeup, and he was wearing a moon-white youth's casual outfit.

He walked to the entrance of the monitoring shed, saw a group of people standing there, and nodded politely.

"Director Luo, Teacher Wang, Teacher Liang."

He glanced at the unfamiliar Jing Ming.

Luo Yifeng said, "Xiao Chen, come here for a moment. This is Teacher Jingming, who plays Zhu Gaoxu."

Chen Mo stepped forward and bowed slightly: "Hello, Teacher Jing."

Jingming scrutinized him for two seconds.

It's not quite the same as what I saw on the monitor screen earlier.

The Chen Mo on the monitor is Zhu Zhanji at the age of sixteen.

The man in front of me, Chen Mo, is a twenty-four-year-old young man who is still wearing his usual youthful clothes.

But when Jingming looked at his face now, it was a completely different thing from what he had imagined an hour ago when he got off the bus.

He extended his hand: "Xiao Chen."

Chen Mo grasped it and said politely, "Teacher Jing."

After shaking hands, Jingming looked at Chen Mo.

Chen Mo nodded to him and turned to walk towards the dressing room.

Jingming stood there, watching Chen Mo's retreating figure.

Another thought popped into his mind.

The way this kid walks is completely different from how he looked at the snow earlier.

Jingming shook his head.

We need to really put in the effort for this performance.

Chen Mo returned to his room around 6 p.m.

He didn't go to the cafeteria; he got his own food and brought it back to eat by himself, going over the details of the scene from the daytime as he ate.

After finishing his meal, he put down his bowl without rushing to clean up.

He pulled a thick book from his desk.

This is what he brought back from Yanjing. The cover is already frayed from being turned over, and there are four characters written on the cover: The Veritable Records of Emperor Xuanzong of Ming.

He opened it.

I started reading it in the twenty-second year of the Yongle reign.

In July of the twenty-second year of the Yongle reign, Zhu Di died in Yumu River.

Just these few words.

Historical records describe Zhu Di's death very briefly.

An emperor who spent his life waging war died on the way back from his fifth northern expedition. The place where he died was called Yumuchuan, which is near Duolun County in Inner Mongolia today.

At that time, Zhu Zhanji was overseeing the country in Nanjing. He was the grandson of the crown prince, while Zhu Gaochi was the crown prince.

When Zhu Di died, the first person to announce the funeral was the eunuch Ma Yun. Fearing chaos in the capital, Ma Yun hid Zhu Di's body in a carriage and delivered meals to the corpse every day until they returned to the capital.

The account in the "True Record" is very simple, but Chen Mo paused when he read this part.

He mentally reenacted the scene.

An old eunuch delivered a bowl of rice to a corpse every day for half a month.

This scene had a profound impact on Chen Mo.

This dedication to "delivering something to an empty place every day" is connected to the scene where Zhu Zhanji was sixteen years old, where he played the role of "watching snow under the eaves".

The delivery person knew the food was empty, but he still delivered it.

The person watching the snow knows that there is a distance ahead, but he still wants to look.

This state of "doing it even though you know it won't lead to anything" was something that many people in the Ming Dynasty shared.

Chen Mo wrote a single character on the page with his pen:

"wait."

Then he wrote a line of smaller text next to it:

"From the age of sixteen to twenty-seven, Zhu Zhanji devoted himself to writing this character."

He continued reading.

In August of the twenty-second year of the Yongle reign, Crown Prince Zhu Gaochi officially ascended the throne, adopting the reign title Hongxi.

Emperor Hongxi reigned for ten months before dying.

Chen Mo stopped reading here.

He then pushed the timeline back a bit.

Zhu Gaochi was suppressed by his father Zhu Di for more than 20 years throughout his life.

When he was the crown prince, he lived in constant fear of being deposed.

His father died, and he finally became emperor. He reigned for ten months before dying.

Chen Mo thought to himself: This is the release of pent-up energy that has been building up for twenty years.

You can't just throw yourself away like that.

The person collapses when they lose their body.

He wrote another line:

Zhu Gaochi: He held on for twenty years, relaxed for ten months, and then collapsed.

After he finished writing, he looked at the line of text and thought for a while.

Tomorrow, Mr. Liang's play about the Imperial Seal will depict the moment Zhu Gaochi just received the Imperial Seal.

Shouldn't you be happy the moment you receive the imperial seal?

According to theatrical conventions, this is something to be happy about.

But according to the logic of this real person, the moment Zhu Gaochi obtained the imperial seal, he should have been in a state of releasing all the pent-up energy he had held back for twenty years.

It's not happiness.

The joy was superficial; beneath it all was the fact that this was the first time someone who hadn't dared to relax in twenty years had dared to let their guard down.

What does this moment of "daring to relax a little" look like?

Chen Mo couldn't imagine it.

He himself had no such experience.

He thought for a while, then simply closed the book.

It doesn't matter if he can't come up with something like this; he can just go to the venue tomorrow to watch Mr. Liang perform.

Old Liang is 62 years old, and he has this kind of thing in his body.

Chen Mo silently hummed in agreement.

That's why he went to the scene.

Watching a play about the Imperial Seal is more than just watching a play.

It's about watching how an old actor pulls out the kind of thing he's "held on for a lifetime" from his body.

He needs to remember this.

When he plays Zhu Zhanji ascending the throne, he must have this kind of thing in his body.

He closed the book and placed it on the corner of the table.

I got up and went to fetch water to wash my face.

After washing his face, he sat leaning against the headboard for a while, not thinking about the play, but thinking about something else.

He remembered the Shandong cabbage that Grandma Liu had given him.

He didn't finish the cabbage before he left; he froze half of it in the refrigerator.

He figured that on the day he finished filming the scene with the jade seal, he would go back to Yanjing and stew that cabbage.

Grandma Liu said that her daughter brought her grandson over that day, and if she happened to be there, she would ask Grandma Liu to make some dumplings.

Thinking about it this way, Chen Mo felt particularly comfortable.

He grabbed the "Veritable Records of Emperor Xuanzong of Ming" from the table, put it under his head as a pillow, and fell asleep.

That's all for today.

Tomorrow, I'll see Mr. Liang.