What is the historical background of Liu Qiang?

During Jiaqing period of Qing Dynasty, a foreigner from Wang Xing settled in Shawo Village, Ren Zhao Town, on the north bank of Xiaogu River in pingdu city, Shandong Province, and made a living by singing and operating handicrafts. He is called Master Wang.

In the process of singing and apprenticeship, Master Wang combined the popular local folk tunes "Girl Plan", "Velvet Flower Tune" and "Running Elbow Drum" with some popular folk fairy tales and rural folk songs to create rhymes and sing from village to village for a living.

Because of its beautiful melody, clear meaning, easy to learn and understand, it is deeply loved by the masses and has been studied by young people in our village and neighboring villages. Trumpeters and blind people who make a living by playing and singing are more like a duck to water and eager to try. For a time, this tune was popular in the four townships and eight miles.

Because Master Wang's main singing form was "going from village to village", it was called "cross-door tune" at that time. During festivals and temple fairs, folk artists gather around tables and chairs in groups of five or seven. They sang with simple musical instruments and the audience sat together. This kind of singing is called "food stool" by the people.

Master Wang devoted himself to teaching students and imparting skills in his later years. However, because he had no music at that time, his disciples could only sing along with the master, but could not have a meeting, so he was called "Liu Qiang" by the masses.

Sun Zengji, Sun Chuanfu, Wang and others, the second generation descendants of the master Wang, thought it was immoral and took the melodious characteristics of the tune and named it "Liu Qiang" with the homonym of the word "Liu".

By chance, Master Wang accepted Sun Zengji as an apprentice. Sun Zengji is slender and clever. Moreover, he devoted himself to learning from Master Wang and reached the level of infatuation.

Once Sun Zengji went to fetch water, because Liu Qiang was all in his mind, he picked up two dung baskets and left. When he reached the well, he realized that he had made a mistake, which showed that he had special intentions.

As a representative of the second generation of Liuqiang art, Sun Zengji not only inherited the artistic achievements handed down by Master Wang, but also processed Liuqiang art with other folk artists in the performance practice of "putting stools on the street", enriched all kinds of tunes sung by Liuqiang, and began to use it as an accompaniment instrument, so that Liuqiang, a new drama, was continuously promoted.

Later, Liu Qiang absorbed and integrated the essence of other operas in the process of performing "food stool" in the village paddock for a long time, and gradually improved and matured. Around 1900, Sun Zengji, Wang and others, the second generation descendants of Master Wang, rented costumes at Guancun Theater in Guxian Town, and put Liu Qiang on the stage for the first time.

At this point, Liu Qiang, a folk opera art, has finally developed into a complete and unique local opera through the efforts of two generations of folk artists, such as Master Wang, Sun Zengji, Wang and Sun Chuanfu, for more than 100 years, and was born out of the singing form of "vegetable stool".

After Liu Qiang came to power, he was deeply welcomed by the masses with his strong local flavor and distinctive artistic characteristics. With the troupe performing in criss-crossing villages, Liu Qiang's art spread rapidly in Pingdu and Jimo.

Many villages have also set up Liu Qiang Troupe, which is dominated by professional troupes and supplemented by folk troupes. It has promoted the popularization and improvement of Liu Qiang art and made this brand-new local opera an important folk stage art popular in Jiaodong.

During the performance, Sun Zengji, Wang and others comprehensively processed and arranged the repertoire taught by the master, and constantly increased the repertoire to meet the needs of business performances. During this period, Wang accepted Liu Bangjun and Ma Dechang as disciples.

Both of them are gifted and talented. They can sing Beijing Opera, Pingju Opera, Bangzi Opera and Qiang Mao Opera, which has played a decisive role in enriching Liu Qiang's singing and performances. They are the representatives of the third generation of Liu Qiang's art.

Liu Bangjun is an artist whose stage name is "Liu Ling"; Gong Danjiao of Liu Dechang, whose stage name is "Liu Man", is as famous as Liu Hongshi, whose stage name is Liu Xiao in Jimo, and Liu, whose stage name is Liu Sen. Together, she is called Liu Qiang's "Four Lius" and enjoys a high reputation in the four townships.

Professional Liu Qiang theatrical troupes are active all over Jiaodong, and a large number of Liu Qiang artists with high artistic attainments have emerged. These professional troupes sometimes perform Liu Qiang alone, and sometimes Liu Qiang performs with Peking Opera, Bangzi and Qiang Mao Opera, which creates conditions for Liu Qiang to learn from other operas.

At that time, most of Liu Qiang's artists were poor farmers. Therefore, when local gentry or officials organize class performances, most of them make money, buy costumes and hire actors to form a troupe to perform in four towns and villages.

Later, Zhou Xiangshan hired Liu Dechang, Liu Bangjun, Su Wanxi, Chen Chunxiang, Li Hong Xi and others to form a troupe, specializing in Liu Qiang, which lasted for 4 years and played in Pingdu and Jimo.

Taking Cuile as the East, Wang Huishan, the second generation successor of Liu Qiang, started a class, which lasted for 4 years. The troupe performed in Pingdu, Jimo, Laiyang and Yexian.

After a year of autumn, the whole village of Chengzi Village in Huibu Town raised funds to write the scripts of Liu Man and Liu Xiao, and the village set up a big stage in the early 1970s. At that time, there were about 20 people in the troupe, who sang for four days, and the audiences in four townships were scrambling to see it, which was unprecedented.

Later, Zhang Binqing of Pingdu took the lead in moving eastward, bought costumes and invited four famous people of Liu Qiang, namely Liu Dechang, Liu Bangjun, Liu Hongshi and Liu, to form a "Sixi" troupe in Liu Qiang. Zhang, Guan Zhenmin, Yuan Xiulian and others. Also reported to the class. The troupe lasted for 5 years and performed all over Jiaodong.

This time, because most of the class are well-known actors, there are many roles and professions, and the activities such as performance rehearsal are relatively stable. Therefore, the rapid improvement of artistic level is the fiery stage of artistic development and improvement after Liu Qiang took office.

There is a joke circulating in many places in Pingdu:

Liu Xiao and Liu Man got on the stage, and the eldest sister-in-law ran out with a pillow. She fell into the melon field and held it in her arms.

It shows that the "Sixi" class was really loved by the masses at that time.

After the establishment of the "Sixi" class, the four townships performed in a mobile way. New Year's Festival, mountain party and slack season are active in rural areas, and they enter towns when they are busy.

In the meantime. A group of people led by Liu Zhalian and Guan Zhenmin entered Qingdao and resumed their activities in the form of "food stools". I brought a group of apprentices and trained a group of audiences.

Sun Zengji, the second generation descendant of Liu Qiang, was unable to perform on stage in his later years. He returned to Shawo Village, Ren Zhao Town, where Liu Qiang was born, and organized a children's troupe to teach Liu Qiang art, among which Sun Zengji's disciples were Sun, Sun Chuanbao, Sun Wubao, Sun Zenghu and Sun Zengzhi.

Located in the village boxing room, the troupe is active all year round and performs in four towns and villages on weekends and festivals. In the performance, stilts, juggling and sometimes "stools" are mixed together.

Because the children in Shawo Village practice martial arts, stilts and juggling with real swords and guns, the four townships are famous. When he performed on stage, he also changed Liu Qiang's tradition of specializing in literature and drama and added some martial arts dramas. Among them, Sun Zenghu was the famous "Beijing Opera Blues".

At that time, they went to perform in other places, about 20 people. There are mats on the stage "in their early thirties" and "in their early fifties", wooden shelves covered with boards, and advertisements in drama newspapers, which are very imposing. Most of the performances are Liu Qiang's traditional plays, including Four Classics and Eight Stories. Supplemented by other well-known plays.

Among them, Ugly Dan, played by Sun Zenghu, and Hua Dan, played by Sun Dehai, in the play Ramming, showed the scene that the evil mother-in-law abused her daughter-in-law and forced her daughter-in-law to push the mill. The donkey pulled on the stage is dressed up by actors with props, and the performance is realistic. The two actors have a solid foundation and sing well. When the plot is humorous, it makes people laugh, and when it is sad, it makes people cry. Therefore, every performance is "returned" at the request of the audience.

Once after the play was finished in Pucheng, Sun Zenghu, who played the evil mother-in-law, didn't want to have him when serving food, saying that his heart was too "cruel".

Sun Zenghu is superb in martial arts and is good at performing martial arts dramas. He is famous in Dongxiang, Pingdu and Jimo Xixiang. At that time, Jimo had a well-off family, took a fancy to him and wanted to betroth his daughter to him. At that time, Sun Zenghu sang back a handsome wife and became a beautiful talk.

Pingdu and Jimo face each other across the river, so there are many marriages in history. Sun Wubao, an artist from Shawo Liu Qiang, settled down as a son-in-law in Lujiazhuang, Jimo, and also brought Liu Qiang's art there. This greatly promoted the spread of Liu Qiang.