Brief introduction of traditional crosstalk

Traditional cross talk is gradually formed in a long historical stage, which absorbs all kinds of art and life nutrition. Like all folk literature, traditional cross talk has its characteristics of collectivity, oral, variability and inheritance. Generally, there are no professional authors and no fixed literary background. It often goes through the practice of countless artists, the selection and comparison of the audience, and finally becomes a mature work. Therefore, the number of traditional crosstalk preserved is not accurate. It is said that there are more than 600 pieces, but only about 300 pieces were recorded as manuscripts after liberation. The contents of these more than 300 paragraphs are repeated or similar to each other, and the techniques are similar.

Works based on real life are the backbone of traditional cross talk. This is because crosstalk is an ironic art, which must reflect the life that the masses are familiar with and care about, and ask and answer questions that the masses care about and resonate with. Therefore, looking at more than 300 traditional works, it is not difficult to find the track of social development and change in China in the past hundred years. It is actually a genre painting of social life. For example, most of the early crosstalk works were aimed at corrupt officials and feudal warlords, among which the corruption of the government, the greed of officials, the arrogance and vanity of warlords were the important ideological characteristics of these works. After the Opium War, China became a semi-feudal and semi-colonial society. Crosstalk spreads at the bottom of the city. The works of this period focus on exposing people's abnormal psychology in a deformed society, such as the bad habit of flattery, extortion, intrigue, and leading a drunken life, which forms a bizarre portrayal of society. During the Japanese Puppet and Kuomintang rule in China, China was a pile of rotten garbage. Crosstalk is circulated among citizens, and the historical disasters brought to China by imperialism, feudal forces and bureaucratic capitalism are often reflected through the description of their lives. This is a society where people are in poverty and instability. China is a dying corpse, and the stench in the cross talk reflects the incurable disease of old China.

There are many works based on folk jokes in traditional cross talk, and most of them have undergone positive transformation, cutting out those things in the original natural state, often combining with the local social life at that time. For example, stupid satire is often typical of county officials, and its purpose is to reflect those corrupt officials in real life in a tortuous way. The satire on selfishness and meanness is often combined with the world situation in real life, revealing the social essence of no official, no greed and no business. False satire is built on the cold world of deception and deception. For example, the jokes in "Impatience" and "Burning Tail" are intended to describe the personality characteristics of two people, namely, people who are impatient and slow-tempered. One is that you don't worry when you burn clothes, and the other is that you suddenly get angry when you see the slow behavior. But in the stand-up comedy "Three Dangers a Day", these two kinds of people are used as clues. Focus on writing a greedy county magistrate to find these two kinds of people (and another kind of person who likes to take advantage of small things) to serve his personal interests. When he found these people, he was hit in the foot at once; He was given a job in a hurry and was thrown into the river as a result; The slow children helped him, and as a result, they fell into the well; I feel bad about buying a coffin for him, buying a big one and stealing a small one ... This kind of plot transformation and sublimation of the theme all reflect the people's hatred of the ruler in real life in a tortuous way, and the irony and practical significance are more prominent.

Legends about literati are also a kind of folk literature. Most of them are based on history, and there is often no evidence. Their plots and characters are often reshaped by the public. But once it is absorbed into cross talk, it is given a more exaggerated color, with almost no historical basis, only a recreated artistic image. Confucius, for example, has a story of "Confucius and Caisang Niang" in folklore, describing his embarrassment in Chen Jueliang, while in cross talk, Confucius becomes a more embarrassing figure. "Eating Yuanxiao" laughed at how he changed a penny into ten pence. He not only ate Yuanxiao shamelessly, but also put on a gentle look. Confucius in cross talk is similar to a rogue in life, which reflects the views of the masses on this most holy teacher. In Barge Shop, he was tongue-tied about all kinds of questions raised by an ordinary bartender, which showed that the sage was not so clever.

The material of cultural classics is often absorbed by cross talk. They are not only expounded and explained, but also often exaggerated and distorted. Such as Batch Liaozhai, Batch Three Kingdoms, Three Character Classics, Four Books, etc. These works are skillfully introduced by means of crooked interpretation and misinterpretation, with the purpose of joking, reflecting the author's astute and wise eyes, and often laughing at those who don't pretend to understand. The Three Character Classics and Four Books of Lisao also reflect people's contempt for these rigid classics.