For the audience of "The Bitter Ancient Puppets Are Long", the appearance of "Menghualu" can be described as dazzling.

It effectively provides a kind of beauty of cultural imagination about the Song Dynasty.

This kind of beauty closely follows the beginnings and turns of the characters' destiny, which is even more fascinating.

The play tells the love and entrepreneurial stories of Zhao Paner, Sun Sanniang and Song Yinzhang, three "sisters who ride the wind and waves" first in Qiantang and then in Tokyo, the capital of the Northern Song Dynasty.

The lives of the three sisters are all "turbulent": Zhao Pan'er was not admitted to the low-ranking status because her father was impeached, and then she escaped due to the redemption of her father's former club. She saved the scholar Ouyang Xu and fell in love with each other and made a marriage contract. Ouyang Xu wanted to abandon Zhao Pan'er after high school. And married Gao Guan’s daughter; Sun Sanniang, who kills pigs to make money to support her family, has a “Meng’s heart” and wants to raise her son into an adult, but her husband divorced her, and her young son also betrayed her; Song Yinzhang, a pipa master, is a musician. , who wanted to break away from his humble status and change his fate, but was played by Zhou She.

These three women formed an "invincible trio" under the coercion of fate. During the process of "Jing drifting" in the capital of the Northern Song Dynasty, they broke out of the big scenes of life.

The three sisters first "liquidated" Ouyang Xu's repentance of marriage, and then operated a half-masked teahouse and a restaurant Yonganlou, which was a great success.

Zhao Pan'er and Gu Qianfan, the "Living Yanluo" of the Imperial City Division, have gone through hardships to develop a true love.

Love plus entrepreneurship, whether it is the Northern Song Dynasty or the present, is a hot topic that attracts attention.

Under the delicate narrative, the stories of the three sisters entering and leaving the folk, rivers and lakes, the government and the royal family are more readable.

　　The story of "Meng Hualu" was born out of Guan Hanqing's "Zhao Paner Fengyue Saves the Wind and Dust", which tells about women's self-redemption, self-growth and self-improvement.

As the soul of the three sisters, Zhao Pan'er went from Ouyang Xu, who went to Tokyo to seek explanations from Ouyang Xu, who had repented of her marriage, to being driven out of Tokyo by Ouyang Xu who colluded with the government, and then returned to Tokyo under Gu Qianfan's aggressive approach to deal with all kinds of people. She manages the teahouse and restaurant well; in terms of sisterhood, she acts as the backbone, and considers everything for Sun Sanniang and Song Yinzhang. After the quagmire of his past, after several hesitations and twists, he came together with Gu Qianfan.

The whole play ends when Zhao Paner exclaims in front of the emperor that "people who are cheap are not necessarily cheap." He implores to spread kindness, so that musicians, craftsmen, and servants of officials and private servants will no longer suffer from low status. This is the righteousness of saving the world.

Zhao Paner reflects the growth of the characters from herself and her sisters, and then to the world.

　　"Menghualu" provides a dream-making mechanism for costume dramas, that is, it carefully displays the charm and experience of beauty in the rich cultural imagination.

In recent years, as traditional culture is viewed from the perspective of creative transformation and innovative development, costume dramas have drawn more and more attention to the aesthetic presentation of cultural imagination.

Under the suspenseful narrative rhythm, "Twelve Hours of Chang'an" effectively integrates rich traditional culture. From snacks and clothing to Miyagi and 108 Square, they all carry out cultural imagination.

"Menghualu" is another innovative innovation in the construction of cultural imagination.

There are many "famous scenes" in the cultural imagination of "Menghualu".

For example, in the opening, in Qiantang Teahouse, with Zhao Paner, Sun Sanniang and Gu Qianfan appearing one after another, refreshments such as bean fruit, peach blossom fruit, and Zhao Paner's graceful posture of holding a pot and adding basil drink, showing the beauty of Jiangnan culture like flowing water; Zhao Paner fought tea with the bosses of Chatang Lane, and showed meticulous display of tea dramas and tea utensils, especially Zhao Paner's wonderful performance of "using the technique of flicking the strings, the tea cups play the three layers of Yangguan", which is amazing. The beauty of culture; at the mysterious Huayue Banquet in Yongan Tower, the beauty of cultural imagination constructed by "a pot of wine, two paintings, three poems, and twelve famous dishes" is amazing.

In particular, the fantasy paintings show Zhang Xuan's famous paintings "Dancing" and Zhou Fang's famous paintings "Ladies with Hairpins" through dance. One can't help but think of Henan Satellite TV's popular "Tang Palace Banquet" and other series of traditional Excellent works of creative transformation and innovative development of culture are surprising.

And all these cultural imaginations are integrated with the narrative without any sense of disobedience.

Constructing the beauty of cultural imagination with heart is the concentrated expression of the pursuit of excellence in "Menghualu".

　　What's interesting about "Meng Hualu" is its modest comedy style.

Starting from the comedy scene and sound effects of Zhao Paner, Sun Sanniang and officers and soldiers fighting in Zhao's Teahouse, the comedy style has been developed all the way.

Chi Pan, who is known as "the head of the twelve lines of the capital", Chen Lian, who followed Gu Qianfan from Qiantang to the Imperial City Division, and Du Changfeng, who made a lot of jokes because of myopia, are all very predictable and funny.

At the same time, they have distinct personalities, which can be said to be different from each other.

　　As an online drama that has sparked a wave of drama chasing, "Meng Hualu" has further strengthened the importance of cultural character in the innovative development of costume dramas.

It can be expected that telling good stories in a carefully constructed cultural beauty will become an important direction for costume dramas to break through the mold.

　　(Author: Kang Wei, Editor-in-Chief of China Art Newspaper)