＂Three Wan Li in Chang ‘an＂： the history of the rise and fall of the Tang Dynasty, and the love of Chang ‘an and Wan Li.

On July 8, another brand-new masterpiece of light-chasing animation landed in the "summer file" in 2023 on time, adding another cornerstone to the road of the rise of the country. Unlike the previous series of films "The White Snake Universe" and "The Goddess Universe", "Three Wan Li in Chang ‘an" pays more attention to historical facts. With the narrative strategy of the intersection of reality and reality, the multi-dimensional characters and tang style’s aesthetic style, the creative team wrote the epic of the rise and fall of the Tang Dynasty and splashed ink to describe the feelings of Chang ‘an and Wan Li.

Narrative strategy of the intersection of reality and reality

The story of Three Wan Li in Chang ‘an begins in the border area with crisis after An Shi Rebellion. At that time, Cheng Yuanzhen, a military supervisor, proved Gao Shi’s loyalty and patriotism and led him to recall his life with Li Bai. At this point, the main plot is unfolded in the poem "Mochow has no confidant in the road ahead, and no one in the world knows Jun". The ancient and the present, the virtual and the real together constructed the history of the Tang Dynasty from prosperity to decline, and the truth, falsehood and all kinds of changes during this period were also free for later generations to comment. This arrangement not only gives the audience a sense of participation, but also adds to the legend of the film.

The sense of intersection between reality and fiction in Three Wan Li in Chang ‘an mainly stems from its unique perspective of recollection and narration. The film adopts the narrative mode of "two male masters", traces back his life with Li Bai through the mouth of high comfort in his later years, and takes the friendship between them as an opportunity to explain the history of the Tang Dynasty from prosperity to decline. The third-person narrative perspective gives the film a kind of alienation effect. The audience stared at Tang Shi and the Tang people from the sidelines, writing legendary epics for the Tang Dynasty and legendary poems for Li Bai. As a narrator, Gao Shi is pragmatic and "grounded". Unlike Li Bai, he does not talk about the heavenly palace, immortals and Taoism, but tries to describe those real and substantial things as much as possible. Therefore, the film highlights the importance of narrative space. From the microscopic point of view, Chang ‘an Three Wan Li adopts repetitive narrative techniques, presenting the same space in different situations for many times, and showing the historical process of the rise and fall of the Tang Dynasty and the transition of the characters’ emotions. In the film, Gao Shi went back to Liangyuan three times, went to the Yellow Crane Tower three times, went to Chang ‘an three times and went to Yangzhou two times. Every time he went and left, he was closely related to Li Bai and the progress of the times. "Born in Sri Lanka, grew up in Sri Lanka, died in Sri Lanka, and was remembered in Sri Lanka. His soul is full of qi, and there are those who die." As a place where Gao Shi grew up, Liangyuan is a spiritual place for Gao Shi to find himself and improve himself. However, the quiet years of Liangyuan were always disturbed by Li Bai, and his fame and downfall constantly stirred Gao Shi’s heart, thus pulling him out of Liangyuan. Or enjoy the prosperity of the Ming dynasty in the prosperous Tang dynasty, or sigh the choppy waves in the underground of the Tang dynasty.In the end, Gao Shi saw the brilliance of poetry in the prosperous Tang Dynasty and knew his ambition to serve the country. Seeing the women dancing on the high shelf in the smoke of war, I clearly felt the compassion of the people of Tang Dynasty in prosperous Chang ‘an. Seeing that Li Bai regards grief as nothing, cherishes a sincere and open-minded life, and determines the natural way that belongs to the mountains and rivers. From a macro perspective, Three Wan Li in Chang ‘an creates a dual narrative space in which memories and reality coexist, and integrates narrative time and narrative space, thus sketching the flow curve of time and depicting a colorful picture of history. In the meantime, the tension between Yin and Yang in the prosperous time of Chang ‘an converged into a narrative clue, and the decline of Daoming in the prosperous Tang Dynasty was closely related to the reasons such as the view of the gate, the prime minister in power and the loss of talented people. The film does not show cause and effect, but it is full of logic, which seems unexpected and reasonable.

The highlight of the film lies in its accurate grasp of narrative rhythm. First of all, the plot of the film is properly arranged. Although The Three Wan Li in Chang ‘an tells the story of the decline of the Tang Dynasty, it focuses on the growth and friendship between Gao Shi and Li Bai, and almost ignores the important events in court, only talking about the border difficulties directly related to Gao Shi. This arrangement shows the relationship between the times and people to the fullest. Secondly, the sad and happy narrative rhythm of the film also fully mobilized the audience’s emotions, which better served the narrative theme of the film: there are gorgeous chapters in prosperous times and heroes in troubled times. Generally speaking, the film presents two narrative themes, which emphasize the individual’s way of seeking the way and praise the inheritance of the article. On the one hand, Chang ‘an is a treasure-house for aspiring people to display their ambitions, and people represented by Gao Shi intend to go to Chang ‘an with lofty aspirations. However, the so-called "Three Wan Li" is actually a distant horizon. The prosperity and peace are like a dream bubble, and the decline of Chang ‘an is only in the morning and evening, which is very helpless. However, being a courtier, you should be loyal to what the king entrusts, and eventually retreat from the enemy. After the king’s affairs in the world, he filled himself with innocence, but he returned to heaven and earth, looking between mountains and rivers and poems, seeing heaven and earth, seeing all beings, seeing himself, finding his own way, doing his own way, and showing his way with articles. On the other hand, Chang ‘an, as the accommodation of famous poems of Tang Dynasty, shows the prosperity of Tang Dynasty. At the end of the film, Gao Shi embraced "The Collection of the Heroes of the River Yue" and played the "Chang ‘an" flying flower order with his entourage, depicting the people and things, history and events behind the "Chang ‘an" poem.道与法，诉说着“文章千古事，得失寸心知”的真谛。也正因此，影片传递出一种悲情，这种悲，既是情绪之悲，即大时代下人物身不由己的宿命之悲；更是情感之悲，即反抗宿命而寻求自我的悲壮；还是情怀之悲，即兼具人道主义与人文关怀的悲悯。这种悲怆掩藏在乐观主义与豁达心境之下，并随着长安的故事层层递进，圈圈晕染而开，最终在文与道的和谐图谱中化为人文关怀，给人以温情之感。于是，故事寥寥几笔道出一众盛唐名人的悲惨结局；将杜甫置放在“春风得意马蹄疾，一日看尽长安花”的静好岁月中；让李白肩比彩云，同仙鹤归，在声声猿啼间，踏轻舟拍绿浪，乐辞白帝城。

Multi-dimensional characters

The reason why "Chang ‘an Three Wan Li" scored more than 8 points in Douban on the second day of its release lies in the pluralistic and three-dimensional characters created by the film. The film depicts the decline of the prosperous Tang Dynasty with memories of Gao Shi’s later years. With the development of his friendship with Li Bai, those figures who left a strong impression on the elegant charm of the Tang Dynasty appeared one by one, and embellished the paintings of the Tang Dynasty with scattered perspective, each interpreting his own anecdotes. In this way, "Three Wan Li in Chang ‘an" is like a picture of the Qingming Riverside only belonging to the Tang Dynasty. This scattered perspective style of creation endows the film with a synchronic sense, and Zhang Xu, He Zhizhang, Wu Daozi, Wang Wei, Du Fu and others gather together to show the prosperity of the Tang Dynasty. But the tragic ending of all the characters without exception once again highlights the historicity of the film. This can’t help but make people sigh. As long as poetry is there, Chang ‘an will be there. Even though time is fleeting, the ups and downs are common in the state, and Hua Zhang looks like water flowing from the east. With the help of media such as pen, ink, paper and inkstone, history will not be forgotten, and civilization will continue to last forever.

Three Wan Li in Chang ‘an also created two extremely three-dimensional characters, Li Bai and Gao Shi, which are intertextual with history and basically meet the aesthetic expectations of the audience. Li Bai is the "ceiling" of the romantic poets in the Tang Dynasty. His poems are fantastic and magnificent, and he is the image of a fallen immortal who is detached from the six realms in the eyes of the world. Different from previous cognition, Li Bai in the film is a little more "popular". He has pride in his heart, and will be ashamed of himself because of Cui Hao’s "Climbing the Yellow Crane Tower", and he is determined to write a good poem in Yangzhou; He has a stubborn temper, and together with Pei Twelve, he robbed Zhezhi dancers. He is confused and confused, and will ask Meng Haoran for the answer to whether he is adopted by wife or not; He may even make mistakes, indulge in drinking and forget the agreement with his friends. However, this complex image also highlights the contradiction of Li Bai from the side. He has a soul born and a heart to join the world. He hopes to show his ambition, but he can only wander between poetry and wine. Therefore, after he lived in seclusion in Lushan Mountain, he went out to write poems for Yongwang at his request. The design of this plot presents the arrogant Li Bai who can sing "Go out laughing in the sky" and the helpless Li Bai who can whisper "Don’t you see, how lovely locks in bright mirrors in high chambers, though silken-black at morning, have changed by night to snow" in history to the audience. Compared with Li Bai, Gao Shi’s characterization is more stylized. He was born in a humble background, inarticulate, and not a scholar, but hard work became his label, so he grew into a military commander who was independent and regained Chang ‘an.On Gao Shi’s body, the growth arc is shining. However, standing on the long river of history and looking at Gao Shi, he is just one of the sentient beings. In the film, he is more portrayed as a middleman. Standing in the middle of Chang ‘an history, he was the only one who saw prosperous Chang ‘an and ruins Chang ‘an. Standing in the middle of the development of poetry, he has a heart-to-heart relationship with Li Bai, a "poetic immortal", and with Du Fu, a poet who connects the elegant posture of Tang poetry with the documentary tendency of Tang poetry. In fact, Li Bai and Gao Shi are both similar and different. They met when they were young and had a good yearning for Chang ‘an, but since Yangzhou, they have embarked on their own paths. Nature, karma, Li Bai and Gao Shi seek different ways and do different things. The film puts the conflict between romanticism and historicism in the foreground, and once again hangs the issue of birth and accession to the WTO between the two people and the audience. At the same time, it also gives its own answer: the narrative of retiring from Tubo with high fitness and courage and the ending of traveling around the world with "The Collection of Heroes of the River Yue" make the birth and accession to the WTO reach a settlement, that is, the gentleman should take it for granted, as written in Li Bai’s "The Chivalrous Man", and "he can go to the WTO and hide his fame." In the film, Li Bai personally said that "Chivalrous Journey" was made according to Gao Shi’s image, which also showed Li Bai’s heart of joining the WTO. However, under the shadow of the times, Li Bai’s fate has long been doomed, and fatalism has cast a sadness on Li Bai. It is also in this situation that Gao Shi’s resistance to fate is even more tragic.Compassion for others is also more powerful.

Full of tang style’s aesthetic style.

"Three Wan Li in Chang ‘an" takes everyone back to the historical process of the Tang Dynasty from prosperity to decline with the help of Gao Shi’s mouth. Its memories began in the prosperous Tang Dynasty and ended in the late Tang Dynasty. The film shows the national aesthetics of the Tang Dynasty fashion.

When you first watch this film, the audience will be shocked by the elegant posture and unruly state of the weather in the prosperous Tang Dynasty. Zhang Xu and He Zhizhang in the Four Scholars of Wu Zhong, who are famous for their madness, associate with wine all day long, and their "cursive" works are also abandoned with their hearts, without the worldly turbidity of the world of mortals. Similar to the sense of emphasizing lines in calligraphy, Wu Daozi, the representative of the peak of Tang painting, also pursues to outline the charm of people and things with a few lines. He once said, "Everyone is close to expectation, but I am detached from painting. Everyone is attached to iconicity, and I am detached from vulgarity." It is true that the characters he painted have a round brushwork and the clothes are fluttering in the wind. This style of "Wu Dai Dangfeng" shows the character of the people in the prosperous Tang Dynasty to the fullest. In order to let the public better understand this style, ink painting is inserted from time to time in the film, which gives the picture enough sense of blank space, fully mobilizes the imagination of the audience, and makes it look white in the air and has its charm. Apart from painting and calligraphy, poetry is the label of the Tang Dynasty. Among them, Li Bai’s works are the pinnacle of the prosperous Tang Dynasty, and his romantic style is full of fairy tales and divorced from the secular world, which is the most typical representative of the prosperous Tang Dynasty.

The Tang Dynasty was an inclusive era, and harmony without diversity and eclecticism created prosperity. In the film, there are only dances, such as zhezhi dance and Hu Ji. The film also inherits the inclusiveness of the Tang Dynasty, and combines the cultures of poetry, calligraphy, dancing, painting and wine to visualize poems, which not only brings dramatic spectacle to the audience, but also tries to reproduce the mood and feelings of the characters at that time. Take the scene of Li Bai entering Taoism and drinking with Cenfuzi and Dan Qiusheng as an example. When Li Bai’s officialdom was frustrated and Confucianism could not be broken, he decided to enter Taoism. Although Li Bai was extremely depressed as a whole, his pride and immortal spirit accumulated in the prosperous Tang Dynasty still enabled him to create a masterpiece "Coming into Wine". The film incarnates the poem, which makes "Brewmaster" Li Bai see the distance of the temple in the colorful chaos and sigh the sorrow of life, but after tasting the wine, he is impressively open-minded and returns to sincerity. At this time, he is like Zhuangzi wandering freely, seeing through the secular world, and seeing Kun Peng soaring up to the Nine Wan Li and reaching the realm of being selfless, the God-man being useless and the saint being nameless.

The Tang Dynasty is an era of poetry. If we talk about the Tang Dynasty, we must talk about poetry. Three Wan Li in Chang ‘an presents the essence of Tang poetry in art and spirit respectively. One is image aesthetics. "The English of the text is fascinating, and there are shows and hidden ones, and those who are hidden are also important outside the text; The show is also the one who is the best in the article. " The film uses a large number of image symbols bearing emotion, which are grouped at a specific moment, so that it can be upgraded to artistic conception, so that the audience and the protagonist can be isomorphic, and the blank space can be seen in a limited picture, so that they can feel what they feel, think what they think, realize what they understand and appreciate the long aftertaste. Three Wan Li in Chang ‘an is in harmony with form, and images abound. For example, the bright moon in the cup, which refers to Gao Shi and Li Bai’s confused mood, makes the audience feel the helplessness of the two; Knowing An Lushan’s rebellious heart and trying to save Guo Ziyi, the red plum blooming in the snow represents Li Gao’s indomitable patriotic ambition and sincere loyalty to the monarch; The cranes in the air always around Li Bai set off Li Bai’s unrestrained and free mind in this life; In the war-torn Chang ‘an, the woman dancing on the high shelf can’t help but make people cry. Chang ‘an, a prosperous city, is ablaze in the morning and evening, and seems to be in ruins. The sadness is beyond words. The second is the spirit of poetry. On the one hand, the spirit of poetry is embodied in "everyone can write poetry". Even Gao Shi, who is born with defects, can make a famous sentence of "half of our men at the front were killed, but the other half are living, and still at the camp beautiful girls dance for them and sing".The poem boards that can be seen everywhere in the Yellow Crane Tower and the frontier fortress also show the flourishing state of poetry in the Tang Dynasty. On the other hand, the poetic spirit is isomorphic with Li Bai’s wild, free from vulgarity, optimism and open-mindedness. The film starts from "Everyone in the world knows the monarch" and ends with the flying flowers in Chang ‘an, which integrates poetry into the history of Chang ‘an’s rise and fall, and shows the infinite vitality of poetry.

In the Tang dynasty, people had the joy of being an official, but also the sadness of losing their ambition; There are joys of fame and sorrows of inaction; There are joys of making friends and sorrows of loneliness, and people’s joys and sorrows are like the moon’s full moon. Although the film does not express feelings directly, it shows feelings everywhere in the narrative. Its main line is to start from questioning friendship, love for national conditions and loyalty to the monarch, and to prove the truth of friendship and express the sorrow of the times in the promotion and development of memory and history. Based on the present situation and reviewing the development history of Chinese civilization, Chang ‘an Three Wan Li is undoubtedly another masterpiece of creative transformation and innovative development of Chinese excellent traditional culture. The "universe of Tang poetry" created by it strongly demonstrates the cultural self-confidence of the Chinese nation, and highlights the enterprising spirit of the Chinese nation to be upright and not conservative, and to respect the ancient and not retro. Because "Three Wan Li in Chang ‘an" has stirred people’s hearts for a long time, we are even more convinced that in the future, Guo Man will continue to exert his efforts to promote national aesthetics, produce more masterpieces, and promote the high-quality development of "China Animation School". (Author: Zhang Jingwu, a professor and doctoral supervisor at School of Communication, Fujian Normal University; Wang Wen, a graduate student majoring in drama, film and television, School of Communication, Fujian Normal University)