Zhu Shaowen’s life experience

When he was young, he learned to sing Peking Opera Harlequin, once performed in the Song Zhucheng Class, and later changed to the stage of painted faces. Zhu Shao had a profound knowledge of literature. Because he saw the corruption of officials in the Qing Dynasty, he decided not to take the imperial examination and made a living by teaching, writing and singing operas. He is good at writing martial arts dramas and has created plays such as "Nengren Temple" and "Badana". In the early years of Tongzhi in the Qing Dynasty, due to successive years of "national mourning", the imperial court banned costumes on stage in theaters and no playing of musical instruments. As a result, many opera artists were forced to change careers. Zhu Shaowen also lost his job and became a street performer. He went to major temple fairs and overpasses in Beijing to explain the meaning of words and tell jokes to the audience. The props he brought with him were very simple, only a broom, two bamboo boards and a bag of white sandstone fine flour. Engraved on the bamboo board are two lines: "If you are full of articles, don't be afraid of poverty, but if you have five cars of history books, you will be poor." This is the origin of his stage name.

Before every performance, Zhu Shaowen first draws a large circle as the venue, and then uses the ground as paper, using white powder sand to sprinkle words on the ground. He often outlines the words "Fu" and "Shou" that are about two feet tall. , "tiger" double hook, and also creatively sang "Taiping Lyrics" while sprinkling the characters to attract the audience. Later, he accepted apprentices such as "Poor Youben" and "Poor Yougen", and often took one or two apprentices to perform a joke together. In this way, he gradually created stand-up cross talk and three-person cross talk. In the book "Du Men Hui Zuan" published in 1872, there is a poem on bamboo branches about not being afraid of poverty: "White sand spreads words to make a living, and people want to ask for money and make jokes; disciples even say that the poor have good foundation, and the master and disciple are also worthy of praise." ."