#女儿国

[jianghuchild]

赵英俊让我看懂了女儿国 | How Zhao Yingjun Made The Kingdom of Women Make Sense

不知怎的，突然想起赵英俊的那首《女儿国》。这两天反复听，歌词也扒着反复琢磨。朋友们，我悟了！女儿国这个单元，我从小到大没看懂，但赵英俊让我看懂了。我以为的一厢情愿，原来是心意相通；我以为的她爱他逃，原来是惺惺相惜却不得不斩的一个“情”字。所以赵英俊是怎么用一首歌来重塑了我对女儿国、甚至对唐僧的认知呢？且待我娓娓道来。

（事先说好了，笔者从小长在国外，以下只是自己一些拙见，有哪些分析不对的欢迎交流。中文水平马马虎虎，不许欺负我哟～）

1）歌曲结构

这首歌给我个什么感觉呢，就是唐僧和女儿国国王在对唱，但好像又没有完全在对唱。整首哥没有传统的主歌、副歌，而是一男一女各唱各的。他们歌词不变，没有什么递进，只是一遍又一遍的诉说自己的困惑。这种结构不由让我产生一种很微妙的感觉，仿佛两人都各自困在一个不可逃离的循环当中。

赵英俊在《女儿国》里也很爱用对句，就是相声里常说的“天对地、雨对风”。列入：

任来世枯朽成灰 换今生与你相随

来世对今生、成灰对相随。（歌里还有更多的对句，到唐僧段挑几句细品一下。）这种细微的对照再加上整体的男女对唱，就让整首歌从大到小都散发着两个字：平行。唐僧与女儿国国王好像是平等而相互欣赏的知己，又像两条傍走却永不交集的河流。

男女声各自总共唱三遍，而只有最后一遍是一起唱。但即便一起唱也是交叉、平行，全程没有传统意义上的合唱。这也应证了他们即便心里有着对方，却奈何永远跨不过那道鸿沟。他注定要继续西行，而她也必须做她女儿国的国王。

2）女儿国国王的词

虽然歌里唐僧先唱，但我觉得还是先解读女生的歌词试试吧。倒不是说女儿国国王唱的这段没有深度，但感觉可能比较容易懂。要说女声这一段，最突出的应该就是那几句“x什么... ...”

说什么王权富贵 怕什么戒律清规 ... ... 念什么善恶慈悲 等什么望穿秋水

咱要往细了抠，光是每一句前面的动词都挺讲究的。两句点唐僧的话，一个用“怕”，一个用“念”。就好像她在说：或是你根本就不想西行，而是在害怕你那如来佛。你念的佛经，能渡世人，可渡不了你我。而前后两句又好似在说自己：我一身的王权富贵，到头来不还是困在这里苦等？与其等待望穿秋水的那一天，何不此时此刻，在一起？这也正映照了“远走高飞”和“换今生与你相随”那两句话。管他来时怎么样，我现在就要在一起。

（插句题外话，我估摸着这可以算chiastic structure吧？）

其实女儿国国王从来不是我想象中的强取豪夺。她早就看清自己的心，更看懂唐僧的情。两人也成了完美的对照：唐僧一心望成佛、渡世人，而国王甘愿放下已有的权利和来世的德行，追求当下的情欲。唐僧谨慎念佛，国王大胆追爱。二人没有对错，也注定不能长久。

3）唐僧的词

要说最让我对女儿国这个故事改观的词，那就是唐僧唱的这一段了。在我的脑海里，一直都是女儿国国王硬要留住唐僧，唐僧不情不愿。她好像跟那些想吃唐僧肉的妖魔鬼怪没什么区别，只是八十一难中的一难罢了。

世上安得两全法 不负如来不负卿

歌一开头就袒露了唐僧的纠结——再深一层，是不是也能读出一丝唐僧在心里把爱人和如来看得一样重的感觉？

反省凡心损梵行 从来如此莫聪明

这句可太厉害了。三重谐音看似没深度，其实是点破唐僧感情的关键。我得反省自己啊，我这肉体凡胎做不到放下七情六欲，达不到所谓的梵行，Brahmacharya。歌词通过谐音达成反差，刨开了唐僧即为凡人又为修行着的两难。第二句更是让这个人物彻底落地：唐僧又如何？不还是和你我一样？世上本就如此，金蝉转世也改变不了。

既生苦难我西行 何生红颜你倾城？ 如何抹去你身影？ 如同忘却我姓名

最后这四句真的是妙啊，可谓整首歌的核心。前两句引用了经典名言“既生瑜，何生亮”，也变相把国王与唐僧放在平等的台面上。这里的对句多少又有点古诗词的韵律——苦难对红颜、西行对倾城、抹去对忘却、身影对姓名。他们不是追求者与被追求者，而是可以面对面，势均力敌的知己。

唐僧的最后一句也狠狠的呼应了国王的最后一句：她愿今生相随，而他永世难忘。他们两个一样重情，只不过理念不同，对情的处理方式也不同。

一些总结

突然想到马东在《喜人奇妙夜》上说的一句话：“真正的经典就是经得起一遍又一遍的改编。”当时他点评的是四士同堂的sketch《八十一难》。在小品的最后，在为了帮沙僧而没能取到真经后，三藏道：“终一生渡世人，和终一世渡一人，为师觉得是一样的。”也正是这一句让整个作品升华。

以前我总觉得唐僧在西游记里是最没用的主角，不会打妖精还乱跑，动不动还爱念紧箍咒。可随着这些改编，也随着自己慢慢长大，我好像重新认识他了。他不是不懂情爱，而是为了求佛舍弃了自己的凡心。

顺便引用《鹤唳华亭》里的一句话：“相濡以沫，是佳事；相忘于江湖，是幸事”。可能唐僧也是这么想的吧。毕竟，世界上又有几个齐天大圣呢？大多数不还是在世间徘徊、自问“世上安得两全法”的我们吗？

其实自从听了《大王叫我来巡山》我就知道，赵英俊是个妙人。说起来又好笑又感伤，我这个人不怎么上微博，有一天却莫名其妙打开了页面，正好看到赵英俊当天去世的消息。赵英俊生前被质疑写口水歌，他却说，能让大家共鸣的口水歌才最难写，也是他追求的。我一直以为《女儿国》是首老歌，类似《天竺少女》一样的86版插曲。他在2017年写了一首放在86版西游记里都不违和的歌，句句是精华，更是以一己之力颠覆了我对女儿国和唐三藏的认知。

最后，赵英俊说他从小就喜欢下雨，在某个傍晚狂风暴雨，便是他来看咱们了。那就在下一个雨天，跟他唱一首口水歌吧。

[the-monkey-ruler]

The Land of Many Perfumes (1968) 女兒國

Director: He Menghua Screenwriter: Cheng Gang / Wang Buyi Starring: He Fan / Zhou Longzhang / Peng Peng / Li Xiangjun / Fang Ying / Liu Lianghua / Tian Chen / Li Hongzhu Genre: Mythology / Martial Arts / Comedy / Song and Dance Country/Region of Production: Hong Kong, China , Mainland China Language: Mandarin Chinese Date: 1968 Duration: 82 minutes Also known as: 女儿国 Type: Retelling

Summary:

Tang Monk (Fan He), Sun Wukong, Zhu Bajie, and Monk Sha traveled to the West to learn Buddhist scriptures and arrived at the Daughter Kingdom of the Western Liang Dynasty. The country was full of women, and the inheritance of the family line and the birth of children depended on the "Fetal Recruitment Spring". After drinking this spring water, one would You can get pregnant, but you can only give birth to a girl. I heard that Tang Monk was passing by for Buddhist scriptures, and the queen (Li Xiangjun) wanted to recruit Tang Monk as her consort for the princess (Fang Ying). The matter is discovered by the Scorpion Spirit and the Viper Spirit. The two demons have long wanted to eat the Tang Monk's flesh, and they want to find out the queen's intentions and want to profit from it...

Source: https://chinesemov.com/1968/The-Land-of-Many-Perfumes

Link: https://nunuyingyuan.tk/movie/23463

[999-roses]

here's a... ship? trope? Thing. that I don't 100% get but find fascinating. full respect for folks out ther making art and content, and generally engaging in this... genre. trope.

【和尚的爱情】 [The Romantic Love of Monks]

Monks. The Chinese Buddhism flavor of monks, where they shave off all hair, denounce worldly possessions and family ties, and join a monastery. Specifically, these guys are committed to celibacy. Yeah on a logical level I'm like yeah, ok, this is a particular flavor of star-crossed lovers trope. But, I still, I.. it's too wacky funny to me. I.. I can't with the shiny cue-ball heads, PLEASE.

and there's. so much gorgeous art created. for this. uh genre? (Unfortunately it's typically m monk x f lead, and my limited exposure has yet to bring monk-flavored BL to my attention. I'm 100% certain it exists out there though.)

Anyway here's some popular media renditions of this, er, genre-trope. Please pray for my soul as I descend:

From Journey to the West, Tang Monk/Queen of the Kingdom of Women (西游记 - 唐僧/女儿国国王) (my rating: famous and classic, but there's something off about every rendition I've seen)

the 3rd installment of the HK Monkey King film series basically circles around shipping 唐三藏 with 女儿国国王. The Chinese movie title is 西游记：女儿国. There's some re-imagining/writing revisions from the source material, Journey to the West. The AMVs are spicy and the music is fire, and holy heck does the script/director want them to get together. The movie is corny, 孙悟空 is downright unhinged, the cg parts are too much, the pacing/tone is all over the place... a lot of this movie is weird. It's got mixed reviews but all the youtube comments love it idk.

ok but also... that second poster/playbill 💀🤣 (the text at the top is a pun on 好运来 -> 好孕来) (to explain: the mpreg is canon in the og jttw, if you drink the waters from 母亲河 you get pregnant. That concept gave me nightmares as a child.)

and here's a wonderful cover/mix by JJ Lin. The original song 女儿情 appears in 1986 Journey to the West :

the song is POV the Queen of the Kingdom of Women in full pining mode for Tang monk. And the mix-insert of 菊花台? Seamless lyric inclusion. chef's kiss. I think someone else singing an arrangement based off of JJ's made it into the 女儿国 movie mentioned earlier.

2. Green Snake/Fahai (青蛇/法海) (my rating: based)

There's the recurring retelling insisting on pairing Green Snake with the Fahai, the Buddhist monk that traps her sister White Snake in the pagoda in the traditional telling of 白蛇传. Here's a fan AMV on youtube & a fan AMV on bilibili. Both take clips are from the 1993 HK movie 青蛇. Honestly? This is the ship I endorse the most and have the least issues with (love 妖x人/妖x仙 dynamics but also in some retellings 法海 is also 妖). Regardless, the 1993 film is a masterpiece, I wholeheartedly recommend a watch (and in Canto if you can find the original audio. I don't like the mandarin dub's audio mixing).

3. Faithful to Buddha, Faithful to You (不负如来不负卿). (my rating: cursed) UMMM this one is wonky with age and time travel making it questionably problematic so uh, you're warned.

This story started off as a webnovel and later got a live action series (afaik live action isn't finished?). For some unknown reason I watched it when the first season was airing... and... Forget that whole "getting together with a sworn-to-celibacy monk" thing being taboo, now we're time traveling and meeting said monk when he's 13 to become his tutor, and a few months later in your time, you time travel again to when he's 26. (FMC doesn't have feelings for him until she meets him when he's an adult but. Girl. This is still too weird okay?)

4. 少林降魔 Vanquishing the Demon (2020) (my rating: spicy [purely based on seeing an AMV])

this movie is solidly xianxia, and it looks pretty enough I'll watch it eventually. But, waow, this AMV clip. I think it made me understand how this genre!trope fits solidly into hopeless romantic/star-crossed lovers territory.

I'm probably missing a bunch of other pieces of media there's a looot of AMVs with clips from either CG donghua or video game cinematics but UM yeah hello. I didn't know this was such a thing. I'm not explicitly out there searching for BL monks okay *old man hacking cough* but I hadn't really found any... yet. The end result of my dive is... I guess I now find monks just a little sexier now, FML

[younv1]

操幼女

[the-monkey-ruler]

Daughter Kingdom (1927) 女儿国

Director: Li Pingqian / Qiu Qixiang Screenwriter: Qiu Qixiang Starring: Chen Yumei / Ni Hongyan Country/Region of Production: Mainland China Also known as: Journey to the West: The Kingdom of Daughters / 女兒國 / 西游记之女儿国 Type: Retelling

Summary:

Monk Tang, Sun Wukong, Zhu Bajie, and Monk Sha traveled to the West to learn Buddhist scriptures and arrived at the land of women in the Western Liang Dynasty. The country was full of women, and the inheritance of the family line and the birth of children depended on the "Fetal Recruitment Spring". Drinking this spring water can lead to pregnancy, but they can only give birth to girls. After hearing that Tang Monk was passing by for Buddhist scriptures, the queen asked Tang Monk to be her husband. The matter was discovered by the Scorpion Spirit, and the two demons also wanted to marry Tang Seng, to find out the queen's intentions, and to rob Tang Seng...

Source: https://movie.douban.com/subject/26413257/

Link: N/A

[the-monkey-ruler]

Women's Kingdom (2024) 西游记女儿国

Director: Huang Zuquan

Screenwriter: Wang Zhuoting

Starring: Hou Minghao / Ao Quan / Bailu / Zeng Li / Peng Yu / more...

Gene: Costume

Country/Region of Production: Mainland China

Language: Mandarin Chinese

Also known as: Journey to the West Daughter Country / 女儿国            

Type: Reimagining

Summary:

The specific number of episodes of the play has not yet been determined 

The Daughter Country has been hidden in the mountains since ancient times and is unknown to outsiders. The whole country is full of graceful, young and beautiful women. Jiang Liuer, a kind-hearted and cute boy who likes to transform into monsters, in order to save the woman in her dream who made her heart ache even though her image was blurred, embarked on a thrilling journey to her daughter's country alone. On the way, he encounters a domineering monster catcher Wushuang with high martial arts skills, the two broke into the daughter country together.

At this moment, The Great Sage the Demon King who was trapped at the foot of Wuzhi Mountain, Old Zhu who is the owner of the Fengyue place, and Old Sha, the straightforward and honest river demon at the bottom of the Liusha River, gathered in Daughter Country with different purposes. Since then, Jiang Liu'er and others have been involved in the internal and external troubles of Daughter Country.

Source: http://chinesemov.com/tv/2020/Womens-Kingdom.html

Link: N/A

[the-monkey-ruler]

The Legend of Lady (2024) 女儿国前传

Director: Wang Kai / Yang Haiting Starring: Yao Xingtong / Zhu Tingbei / An Hu / Cao Yucheng Genre: Action / Romance Country/Region of Production: Mainland China Language: Mandarin Chinese Date: 2024-01-07 (Mainland China) Duration: 86 minutes Type: Reimanging

Summary:

This film tells the story of Queen Lingyun of the Daughter Kingdom, who fell in love with the innocent Jiang Yunxuan after being possessed by the nine-tailed fox demon Hua Yuan, and saved each other. This film explores the desires of human nature. By telling the story of a fox demon who uses various means to seduce and succeed, it shows the greedy desires of most people. Jiang Yunxuan in the play shows an innocent image of a man who remains unmoved despite all kinds of temptations. Jiang Yunxuan's soul was not bewitched by the fox demon, but fell in love with the true and kind-hearted Lingyun, showing the beautiful emotions between people without greed and desire.

At the end, Jiang Yunxuan did not hesitate to sacrifice his life in order to save Lingyun. This fearless spirit of sacrifice is worthy of our praise, and it is a reflection of the beautiful side of human nature. In the film, Jiang Yunxuan's spiritual state of being free of distracting thoughts, pure and simple, and free of evil desires is the result of spiritual practice that many of us pursue throughout our lives. But in fact, this is our nature, but most people fail to resist the temptation and lose their purest nature.

Source: https://mov-20.chinesemov.com/2024/The-Legend-of-Lady

Link: N/A

[the-monkey-ruler]

The Monkey King 3: The Kingdom of Women (2018) 西遊記女兒國

Director: Cheng Baorui Screenwriter: Wen Ning Starring: Aaron Kwok / Feng Shaofeng / Zhao Liying / Xiao Shenyang / Luo Ziyi / Lin Chiling / Gigi Leung / Liu Tao / Sun Yihan / Yuan Qiongdan / Pan Binlong / Chen Yali / Shi Shi Genre: Comedy / Romance / Fantasy Country/Region of Production: Mainland China/Hong Kong, China Language: Mandarin Chinese Date: 2018-02-16 (Mainland China) Duration: 116 minutes Also known as: Journey to the West: Kingdom of Women / Journey to the West: Kingdom of Women / The Monkey King 3: Kingdom of Women / 西游记·女儿国 IMDb: tt6466464 Type: Retelling

Summary:

Sun Wukong (Aaron Kwok), Tang Sanzang (Feng Shaofeng), Zhu Bajie (Xiaoshenyang) and Sha Wujing (Him Law) – inadvertently enter the Womanland of Western Liang because they angered the river god, they accidentally entered the female realm of Xiliang, a nation populated by women raised to believe that men are fatally deceptive in matters of the heart. After breaking into it, everyone discovered that there were only women in this country, and there had been no men here since the founding of the country. Moreover, the country has an ancestral motto that regards men as natural enemies. Love nevertheless blossoms between Tang Sanzang and the Womanland's young queen (Zhao Liying), even though her royal preceptor (Gigi Leung) is hell-bent on sentencing the men to death. As Sun Wukong, Zhu Bajie and Sha Wujing search for a way out of this nation surrounded by a vast magical net, it soon transpires, conveniently, that romantic love is the only key to opening the gate.

There is also a prophecy in the classics, indicating that one day, a monk from the East will break into it with a monkey, a pig, and a little blue man and the day they arrive is when the Daughter Kingdom will be destroyed.

Source: https://chinesemov.com/2018/The-Monkey-King-3

Link: https://sflix.to/watch-movie/free-the-monkey-king-3-hd-16532.2519338