繁體中文
唐滌生（1917年6月18日—1959年9月15日），原名唐康年，香港粵劇劇作家，籍貫廣東香山（今珠海市唐家灣）。據唐氏遺孀鄭孟霞所說，他於1917年6月18日出生，在吉林省寧安縣出生成長；亦有學者推斷他大概在上海出生，直至1935年才回到廣東中山上學。他年少時在中山縣翠亨村紀念中學唸書，曾獲選為學生會主席，主持學生運動、推動反對專制治校的「護校運動」和號召學生及鄉民支持抗日。1937年初他再到上海，先後入讀白鶴美術專科學校及滬江大學，並加入「湖光劇團」，活躍於京劇、話劇和電影圈中。1937年夏天因日軍侵華被逼輟學，南下香港，找到堂姐唐雪卿，加入唐雪卿和丈夫薛覺先創辦的「覺先聲男女劇團」任抄曲員及實習生，隨麥嘯霞、南海十三郎、馮志芬等人學習寫戲。不久他寫成第一部粵劇作品《江城解語花》，由「小生王」白駒榮主演，從此展開編劇生涯。1956年，任劍輝與白雪仙成立「仙鳳鳴劇團」，聘唐滌生為駐團編劇；同年6月，他嘅《紅樓夢》由仙鳳鳴首演，任劍輝、白雪仙、梁醒波、梅綺等擔綱。他為仙鳳鳴改編十多部元雜劇同明清傳奇，寫成《紅樓夢》、《牡丹亭驚夢》、《蝶影紅梨記》、《帝女花》、《紫釵記》、《再世紅梅記》、《九天玄女》等著名劇目，作品風靡一時，影響遠及東南亞同美洲。其中《帝女花》於1957年6月首演，他借鑒清代黃燮清嘅同名傳奇，重寫長平公主同駙馬周世顯喺「甲申之變」中嘅故事，其中《香夭》一折至今仍係粵劇最膾炙人口嘅唱段之一；《紫釵記》則改編自明代湯顯祖同名劇作，1957年8月喺利舞台首演。由於辭藻秀麗、深入描寫人物情感，自創風格，終成一代宗師。除粵劇之外，他亦為電影編劇同執導，其劇作屢被搬上銀幕，例如《一年一度燕歸來》就分別有1953年嘅時裝版同1958年嘅古裝版。他一生撰寫粵劇劇本逾四百四十個，其中七十多個曾改編成電影，並曾為芳艷芬、新馬師曾等名伶編劇，後輩多受其影響。早喺1951年，佢為芳艷芬編導電影《紅菱血》上下集，市場同口碑俱佳，令芳艷芬成為影劇雙棲嘅紅星。1959年9月14日晚，其新作《再世紅梅記》首演期間，唐滌生突發腦出血，延至9月15日逝世，終年42歲。唐滌生嘅離世被視為香港粵劇黃金年代嘅一大損失，佢嘅劇本至今仍係各大劇團嘅常演劇目。他嘅劇本文辭雅俗共賞，既保留粵劇傳統，又注入話劇同電影嘅敘事技巧。佢創作嘅最後三年先後寫成《帝女花》、《紫釵記》、《再世紅梅記》等傳世之作，被視為粵劇劇本嘅高峰。
English
Tong Tik-sang (18 June 1917 – 15 September 1959), born Tong Hong-nin, was a Hong Kong playwright for Cantonese opera, of Xiangshan (now Tangjiawan in Zhuhai) ancestry. According to his widow, Cheng Mang-ha, he was born on 18 June 1917 and grew up in Ning'an, Jilin, though scholars believe he was probably born in Shanghai and only returned to Zhongshan for school in 1935. As a student at the memorial school in Cuiheng village he was elected student council chairman, led student movements against authoritarian school governance and rallied students and villagers to support resistance against Japan. In early 1937 he went to Shanghai, studied at the Baihe art college and Hujiang University, and joined a theatre troupe active in Beijing opera, spoken drama and film. Forced to leave his studies when Japan invaded, he went south to Hong Kong, found his cousin Tong Suet-hing and joined the troupe she ran with her husband Sit Kok-sin as a music copyist and trainee, learning playwriting from masters such as Mak Siu-ha, Nam Hoi Sap Sam-long and Fung Chi-fan. He soon wrote his first Cantonese opera, which starred the celebrated male lead Pak Ke-rong, and so began his career as a playwright. In 1956, when Yam Kim-fai and Pak Suet-sin founded the Sin Fung Ming troupe, they hired him as resident playwright; for them he wrote classics including an adaptation of Dream of the Red Chamber, The Peony Pavilion, Butterfly and Red Pear Blossom, The Princess Cheung Ping, The Purple Hairpin, The Reincarnation of Lady Plum Blossom and The Ninth Heaven Mystic Maiden. Besides opera he also wrote and directed films. His elegant language and deep portrayal of emotion made him the genre's master, and he wrote more than four hundred opera scripts, over seventy of which were adapted for film, also writing for stars such as Fong Yim-fun and Sun Ma Sze-tsang. On the night of 14 September 1959, during the premiere of his new work The Reincarnation of Lady Plum Blossom, he suffered a cerebral haemorrhage and died the next day, aged 42.
