Who are the ancestors and gods of shadow play?

Long, long ago, in Luanzhou, east of Hebei Province, China, there was a big gabunzi. His head was strangely ugly and his face was pockmarked. He has a long arm and a short arm, and his family is poor. There is an old mother in her 70 s who needs his care. He can't get a wife until she is in her 40 s..

However, despite his poverty, Dagaban is kind-hearted and a dutiful son. He also devotes himself to kowtowing to the Buddha, visiting temples and burning incense in front of every Buddha. One year, Guanyin Bodhisattva from the South China Sea came to the Luanhe River in the east of Hebei Province to persuade people to do good. Seeing that Guanyin knew that Dagabantou was a good man, she planned to help him, so she turned into a white-haired old woman and came to Gabbantou and asked, "Young man, do you want a better life?" Da Jiaben said, "My grandmother, can I not think about it?" But I'm stupid, thick and incompetent. How can I live well? "The old woman said," aren't you good at singing? Just play the leather man! Is it not good to persuade people to do good? " "What trick?" "Carve a donkey skin into a human figure, paint it, hang it with a thread, sing and play, teach people how to do good, and feed your mother well!" "I'm ugly and afraid of meeting people. In addition, if I sing a man, I won't laugh people to death if I sing a woman. " "That's not afraid. Set up a table, set up a window in front and surround it with cloth. People can only see the shadow play from the outside, but they can't see you. Isn't the voice very thin when singing women? " After that, Guanyin showed her true colors, and Gabener realized that she had met the Bodhisattva and quickly bowed down. From then on, Dagabantou began to sing donkey shadow play. Slowly, the shadow play has developed from one person singing and one person playing to many people, and there is also a division of labor. The playing method was changed from hanging with rope to playing with thin wire and straw sticks, and it was also equipped with musical instruments.

This is the origin of the legendary Luanzhou shadow play. It is said that until later, some folk shadow puppetry artists had a big extra head in their boxes, which was half as high as that of ordinary shadow puppetry, as the grandfathers holding shadow puppetry boxes!

In Henan Mall and other places, a young son of Li Shimin of Emperor Taizong was worshipped as a drama god, also known as "Lao Lang God".

Every time an artist leaves the box, seals the box and starts a performance, he must present the image of a five-or six-year-old child with big ears at the top or at the front desk. Then wash your hands and face, burn incense and paper, and pay three visits and nine knocks. What's going on here? It turned out that when the Tang King ascended the throne, the court congratulated him, and all the civil and military generals rehearsed and sang, and the concubines in the harem also cut paper and made movies. Because women are not convenient to show their faces, they hang gauze candles instead of shadows. After watching it, King Tang said that this film is very elegant and can give the world a wish to worship God. Since then, shadow play has been introduced to the people and is called "wishing play".

However, later, because the little prince was fascinated by the theater, he slept in the theater box one day and was suffocated. When the king of Tang was sad, he was named the old lang god of the theater, which was worshipped by artists.

Of course, this is just a legendary story. In fact, people often regard artists who have made outstanding contributions to the innovation and development of shadow play in history as ancestors or pioneers, such as Huang in Ming Dynasty and Jie Changchun in Qing Dynasty.

It was during the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty that a baby was born in Angezhuang, north of Luanzhou City, Hebei Province, and his parents named him Huang.

Huang was born in a scholarly family. As long as he can remember, there have been piano, chess, calligraphy and painting in the room, and there is a banner on the wall that says, "If you want to know the past and present, you must read the Five Classics." The teaching of the elderly at home is inseparable from the argument that "everything is inferior, only reading is high".

So when Huang was very young, he took Yan Zhenqing, a calligrapher in the Tang Dynasty, as his motto:

It's time for men to make up their minds. Teenagers only know how to play, but don't know how to study hard. When they are old, they regret why they didn't know how to study hard when they were young.

Huang juvenile, intelligent in qualification and superior in intelligence. The teacher doesn't teach enough courses in class for him to learn. So whenever he has time, he reads some miscellaneous books such as stories and novels. His stomach is full of many stories. He plays with his friends after dinner, so it is always necessary for him to speak two paragraphs.

Huang's other hobby is watching shadow play. At that time, no matter where Li Sanhe and Wucun sang shadow play, he was indispensable. He would accompany him to the end every day. Therefore, he soon became a famous "shadow plaster" in the village.

Interests and hobbies make them good friends. Every day when I come home from school, the two of them are together, flipping pictures and hooking people up.

As soon as the lights were turned on at night, they crowded in front of the window, playing and singing, attracting all the children in the yard to watch. In this way, after years of study, they have also become masters of poetry, painting and shadow play.

Huang is charming and handsome. Later, he passed the state and government exams, entered the official school for further study, and became a student, also known as a scholar.

This is also the first threshold for ancient literati to become officials. If you succeed in the scientific research and get the title of scholar, you can be a big official or a glorified ancestor. However, Huang happened to be unlucky. He made several scientific expeditions, but he finally fell into the trap.

1579, Huang failed in the government test again. This made him disheartened and depressed. He thought, "Maybe this is fate, providence!" " Forget it, he takes his sunny road, and I take my wooden bridge. "

Since then, Huang's dream of being the top scholar and glorifying his ancestors has been completely shattered. But he felt that staying at home from now on would not only waste pen and ink, but also make people laugh. After much deliberation, he finally decided to fly away!

As soon as Huang came out of Shanhaiguan, he heard that it was a fertile black land. The folk customs here are simple and rich in products. I think, with my knowledge and extraordinary talent, traveling abroad for a few years will not only be a problem, but also make a fortune or return home in clothes!

So, Huang took some simple things and started his trip to Kanto. He traveled at night and experienced many difficulties and obstacles. Sometimes the mountain is horizontal, and sometimes the waves are scary, which makes him daunting.

Whenever this happens, I secretly encourage myself in my heart. Tang Priest arrived in Tianzhu after numerous hardships of life and death. He lived to be 17 years old and accomplished the feat of learning from the west. Still grit your teeth and stick to it!

So, he started his trip to Kanto again, challenging his fate and fighting death.

"Maodian crows on the moon, and people are full of Banqiao frost." In this way, Huang continued to move forward with his perseverance. However, it is not far from Shanhaiguan, and there is not much money left at home. To persist in this aimless travel, it is imperative to solve the problem of traveling all the way. For this matter, he was also psychologically prepared before leaving. So, I started my study tour and became a busker. Every time he goes to a state capital or a big town, he gives lectures to students preparing for scientific research, or gives classes to primary school students.

Sometimes in the evening when the wind is clear and the moon is bright, or on the threshing floor and in the middle of the street, he sings a few shadow plays to the villagers, which is very popular with the masses and is often invited to stay. Sometimes ten days or eight days, sometimes a month or two.

If he occasionally meets a place with a college, he will stay longer. Because of the frustration in the examination room and the hardships of the long journey, he needs to rest for a few days. In addition, most of the academies are built in cultural scenic spots or mountains and rivers.

There are not only many books, columns and columns in the academy, but also a strong cultural atmosphere. It is a good place to exercise yourself. Besides, in the academy, you can enjoy the spring flowers, prolong the autumn moon, adjust your body and mind, climb mountains and relax, and you can also travel around the mountains and watch scenic spots, increase your knowledge and motivate yourself.

Through contact with people, Huang gradually gained a deeper understanding of the folk customs, literature and art, ethnic religions and human history in Northeast China, which created extremely favorable conditions for him to integrate into society and develop himself in the future.

As the saying goes, "There is no calendar day in the mountains, and the years are unknown when it comes to winter and summer", so Huang stopped while walking, and I don't know how many mountains and rivers I crossed, and finally arrived in Shenyang. In order to support my family and make a living, I found a job as a teacher in the city.

But after a long time, he often thought of his hometown shadow play, which he was fascinated by since he was a child, so he began to perform shadow play in his spare time and began to sing shadow play.

Later, when he saw that people here loved watching shadow play, he was very interested in it, so he set up a museum to teach students, held shadow play classes and sang shadow play, and gradually became a famous local pear master.

However, in the performance practice, I deeply felt the shadow of Huang's past tradition. Because of its rough shape, simple plot and mixed language, it can't adapt to the aesthetic habits of local people in many ways, so he decided to completely transform the shadow play. Therefore, while opening a museum to teach students, he reformed and innovated the shadow play.

As the saying goes, three points of spring scenery are good to draw, but a period of sadness is hard to draw. Although Huang knows the biggest shortcomings of traditional shadow play: rough modeling, simple carving and incomplete business, it is difficult to express complex social life and people's deep feelings.

However, there are hundreds of plays in shadow play, and these plays are mostly based on historical stories, anecdotes and legends, involving people from all walks of life. There are emperors and generals, talented people and beautiful women, businessmen and nobles, literati, farmers and businessmen, wizards and immortals, monks and nuns, swordsmen, immortals and ghosts.

As far as people's thoughts and feelings are concerned, there are joys and sorrows, joys and sorrows, and secular desires. In addition, there are mountains and rivers, birds, animals, insects and fish, furniture and other things. In short, flying in the sky, running on the ground and swimming in the water are all kinds of strange things.

Therefore, it is not easy to completely transform the traditional shadow play. Take the materials used to carve shadows as an example. This seemingly simple problem has become an obstacle to Huang's political reform, and it has repeatedly failed.

Later, a student named Pei saw her husband cutting paper there all day and failed many times, all because it was not durable. So the whimsical use of sheepskin to shave hair and blood, according to paper-cut scissors, really durable.

This incident made Huang feel at a loss. He feels that it is not enough to transform traditional shadow play by just a few people. So, he invited his old friends from his hometown, Cao and others, to join his performance creation team in Shen. They performed and reformed.

They refined the division of labor and divided the characters in the film into raw, small, bearded, big, ugly, demon and so on. The materials for carving shadow puppets have been reformed, from cardboard to sheepskin, and then to donkey skin.

The size of shadow play has been reduced, and the original size of shadow play has been reduced from more than 60 centimeters to about 30 centimeters. It is manipulated by slender and smooth sorghum stalks. Luanzhou is commonly known as the "arrow shaft", so it has always been known as the "arrow shaft king" in the shadow play industry.

In singing, Huang absorbed the beautiful singing of the brothers' play and the local perfection in the shadow play: the loyal minister carved the right image, the wicked carved the ugly shape, and the young apprentice carved the plain face, representing the gentleman and the chaste daughter; Thick eyebrows, round eyes, carved face and fleshy face symbolize bullies; People who grin and have white circles in their eyes represent snobbish or humorous people.

After such a rich innovation, the typical aesthetic effect of Luanzhou film has been formed, namely, "reaching to the sky, the eyebrow line is tall, the eyebrow tip is bent and recovered and connected with the slender phoenix eye, the cherry mouth is small, the chin is pointed, the face is divided into five parts, and the bag is divided into seven parts".

The content of the film is elegant, popular and healthy. It satirizes the present with history and criticizes the disadvantages of the present, thus achieving the purpose of saving the world, inspiring people's wisdom and entertaining education.

In music singing, Huang absorbed the dialect slang of Luanzhou dialect, the authentic Laoxier dialect of Luanxian county and the peddling of folk songs, thus forming a strong regional feature, and the real Luanzhou shadow play was born. Huang is also recognized as the originator of Luanzhou Shadow Play.

Later, with the continuous renewal and development of artists from generation to generation, it evolved into a large-scale folk art drama that popularized the three northeastern provinces, Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei, Henan and other northern regions.

Xie Changchun was born in Tongzhi period of Qing Dynasty. He is gifted and intelligent. /kloc-began to learn Taoist shadow play at the age of 0/0. /kloc-when he was 0/2 years old, he went north to perform in Ningxia Dawang Coconut House with his master uncle. As usual, his uncle sang in the foreground and Xie Changchun played gongs in the background.

One night, Jie Changchun was sleepy when he knocked gong, so he dozed off. The gong stopped playing and the music was out of tune.

This makes Uncle Tang San, who has always been strict about art, very angry. He grabbed the board, got to know Changchun a few times, and scolded, "I don't know what's so important, but you dare to take a nap when you sing it to Wang Ye!"

Moreover, after the play was over, his uncle severely reprimanded him for knowing Changchun and punished him. Since then, Jie Changchun, who has a strong self-esteem, has made up his mind to surpass Master in acting, "start as soon as possible" and become an independent portal.

Because Xie Changchun is brilliant and gifted, he has superhuman understanding and memory of Taoist shadow play art. As long as he listens to the master sing once, he can recite all the scripts, lyrics and tricks of the shadow play. So in less than two years, he can recite all the plays sung by the master.

One night, Wang Ye personally learned about the family drama "Shi Jingtang worships the sword". According to the past practice, Xie Changchun and his other disciples set up the stage backstage, prepared the filmmakers, and then invited the master at the front desk to start the show. However, that night, when Xie Changchun and his colleagues set all the tables and cleaned them up, the eldest prince had arrived, but he had not seen the master yet.

"Go and play with the master!" Other disciples said anxiously.

"It's too late to scream, let me sing!" Xie Changchun said confidently.

"You? You must know that if you can't sing well in the king, you will be beheaded! " Other disciples all advised.

"I sing very well, just cheer me up."

After Jie Changchun finished speaking, he stepped onto the front desk with a little preparation, cleared his throat and sang this traditional historical drama. His voice is loud and mellow, combining rigidity with softness, speaking clearly, enunciating clearly, his voice is full of emotion, the shadow play is lively and lively, and he sings to the emotional place with tears in his eyes.

In addition, people in the background are afraid of making mistakes and try their best to make drum music natural and harmonious. Therefore, Xie Changchun's performance attracted all the audience, including the big prince, and won bursts of applause, so that the big prince kept praising while watching: "I didn't expect this little solution to sing better than the old one!"

Besides, I had smoked enough foreign cigarettes, and Master Xie, a heavy smoker, waited for a long time, and his disciples didn't come to invite me. Finally, when he arrived, gongs, drums and bands all rang, and the play had been on for a long time!

Master Lao Xie rushed to the theater, heard and witnessed my nephew's Taoist singing and shadow play, and felt that his skills had far surpassed his own. He sighed and said, "This is really the nature of God!"

Not long after, the teacher Fu Jie handed over the singing front desk to Jie Changchun, who was still childlike, and he closed his career and went back to his hometown to support the elderly. In this way, 10-year-old Xie Changchun "started his career" in Dawangyefu, Ningxia.

The eldest prince of Ningxia was deeply attracted by Jie Changchun's acting skills and invited him to perform at his home many times. I also gave him a movie box, a pair of crystal glasses and a mink coat, which was the highest reward for his singing.

In the early years of Tongzhi, Jie Changchun went to Dingbian, Shaanxi, joined the local troupe and continued to sing shadow play. During his artistic career in Shaanxi, he contacted many folk troupes and artists, and his artistic attainments have been greatly improved. He makes friends with artists and pays attention to absorbing local artistic nutrition.

At the same time, he also introduced many excellent performance techniques of the shadow play in Huan county to the local area, which made the shadow play art of the two places integrate in many aspects. Coupled with his superb song selection skills and singing skills, he was soon regarded as a master by artists.

In his long-term artistic practice, Xie Changchun sang everywhere with a shadow play class and devoted himself to the innovation of Taoist singing and shadow play skills.

The musical instruments and vocals of Taoist shadow play have been reformed successively, and the huqin has been changed from two strings to four strings, and instruments such as small suona and water bang have been added; In singing, it absorbed the characteristics of other operas and folk songs, and created some new skills and singing methods, which made the Taoist shadow play more colorful and artistic.

At the same time, Xie Changchun also adapted and transplanted many Taoist shadow plays according to historical stories and other plays, such as Loyalty, Filial Piety and Righteousness, Sunshine Tower, Dragon Horse, Bitter Sacrifice, Good and Evil, Jiuhuashan, etc. These outstanding plays have always been the reserved plays of Taoist shadow plays in Longdong.

In addition, Xie Changchun also attached great importance to the cultivation of artists, and he absorbed many apprentices to impart skills. Among them, Jing Nailiang, Du, Han and Wei Guocheng are the most famous, and they are called the four disciples of Xie.

Under his teaching and influence, talents came forth in large numbers, and Longdong Road shadow play entered a prosperous period, which greatly promoted the development of shadow play.