The story of Yan Changgeng and Ma Jinfeng

Wei Jinchi/Wen

Yan Changgeng, also known as Xiao Geng (1895-1981), a famous male Dan actor, whose ancestral home is Chaohua Village, Chaohua Town, Xinmi City. He lost his father at an early age, and then moved with his mother to Jiehe Village in Pingmo Town, and at the age of 11, he entered the Dengfeng Jietou Han Lao Five Science Class to learn drama and work in Qingyi. In 1925, he performed on the Kaifeng National Stage and became famous in one fell swoop. Later, he successively performed in Dengfeng Popular Class, Xi'an Xiangyu Opera Society, Gongxian Tongjin Class, Mixian Primary Second Class, Taiyi Class, Cai Xian Opera Club and so on. He is good at acting in tragedies, combining true and false voices with natural decency, and is good at using nasal sounds, with high artistic literacy. Many famous Danjiao in Western Henan have been taught directly or indirectly by him and are known as the "Master Master of Yuxi Danjiao". His representative plays include "Selling Miao Lang", "Holding Pipa", "Peach Blossom An", "Liu Quanjin Gua", "Qingfeng Pavilion", etc., known as Yuxi "Mei Lanfang".

Don't look at Yan Changgeng as a man, once dressed, no one will see that he is a man. Singing, it is even more elegant and generous, and the words are real. He is also good at using nasal sounds to express the thoughts and feelings of the characters to enhance the sense of musical beauty. He played Fan Lihua in "Sword Splitting Yang Fan", and the two singing lines after seeing Yang Fan were: "Listening to him, I couldn't help but let go of my guts, and the two armies came out of the marshal of the leading soldiers, he called a Yang Fan ..." First he slowly sang out with a trembling and elastic tone, showing the complex mood of hate and love, and with the eyes and actions, and then dragged the long cavity with nasal sounds, euphemistic and subtle, with endless afterglow, the complex mood of Fan Lihua was vividly expressed.

Once, he played Qin Xianglian in "Holding the Pipa", and one of the scenes was when Qin Xianglian persuaded Chen Shimei to recognize one of his children, but Chen Shimei was indifferent. Qin Xianglian's singing section is "two eight plates" turning to "flowing water", telling her own unfortunate encounters. When Yan Changgeng sang, he sometimes raised his voice and was sad, sometimes intermittent, showing his grief and resentment into three points, and the audience also had a sense of liver and intestines. Even the actor who played Chen Shimei was deeply moved and couldn't help but burst into tears.

However, he never used vulgar performances to sensationalize. He often said: "The drama should be combined with the identity of the character, to play a 'love' word, to accurately express the mood and sorrow of the character." The identity of our line is low, and then singing dirty drama to make it ugly is even more despised. Singing is a high-stage indoctrination, which not only takes care of one's own honorary status, but also benefits the housekeeper (the audience). There is a plot in "Anti-Chang'an": Xu Wenming is taken to the city tower, Yang Guifei sits cross-legged in Xu Wenming's arms, and sings "You are not humble, you are not stupid, why are you wantonly anti-China", some actors in order to win the audience's applause, they use some vulgar actions to perform, making it ugly. However, this was not the case when Yan Changgeng played Yang Guifei, and he thought that this was Hu Lai. When he expressed Yang Guifei's love for Xu Wenming's mood, the same lyrics, singing into reason, sincere and sincere, the performance was dignified and generous, sincere and subtle, leaving the audience with a noble artistic enjoyment. Playing Yelü Hanyan in "Luoyang Bridge", he said that this young girl is a minority and will not observe "boudoir" like a Han family woman, but will obviously show that she loves Huayun. Therefore, the yerushalayim played by him is innocent and naïve, lively and cheerful, and is a very cute girl image.

Yan Changgeng is not only a good actor with outstanding skills, but also a good teacher who is tireless. He was not conservative, did not consider himself a famous actor, and whoever asked him for advice, he was enthusiastic about drama, and passed on his skills and stage experience to them without reservation. Yu opera performance artists Such as Ma Jinfeng and Chang Xiangyu have received a lot of lessons from him.

Ma Jinfeng was born in 1922 in Cao County, Shandong Province, a poor artist family, his original surname was Cui, his nickname was Ginny, and he learned to sing Hebei Zizi with his father at the age of 6. In 1930, when he begged to Kaifeng, he worshiped the famous actor Ma Shuangzhi as a teacher and changed to Yu opera. At the age of 9, he was sold to the Kaifeng LuDian Yuan Drama Class, renamed Lu Jinfeng, and renamed Ma Jinfeng after being redeemed.

She officially debuted on stage at the age of 14, and her performances include "Old Zhengdong", "Luo Huan Kneeling Building", "Flower Gun" and so on. In 1931, she came to Xinmi and went to Chaohua Taiyi's new class to act, at this time Yan Changgeng was also acting in this drama class, and Ma Jinfeng began to learn to sing Yuxi tunes from Yan Changgeng. Around 1940, Yan Changgeng taught Ma Jinfeng plays such as "Mu Guiying Hanging Commander", "Butterfly Cup", and "Great Sacrifice Pile". It was not until 1941 that Ma Jinfeng and others went to Anhui to perform for the first time and formed a troupe, and the two were separated. Ma Jinfeng's stunt tear skills, nasal tone changing qigong, etc., were learned from Yan Changgeng.

In 1956, the first opera performance of Henan Province was held in Zhengzhou. At this time, Yan Changgeng was acting in the New Miyu Theater Troupe, and Ma Jinfeng was acting in Luoyang, and they both came to Zhengzhou to participate in the show and reunited. Ma Jinfeng sang "Second Degree Plum", and when the characters in the play should shed tears, Ma Jinfeng could not shed tears and was very anxious. There was also an audience in the audience: "You see she can't cry, like laughing!" ”

After the break, Ma Jinfeng asked Yan Changgeng how to shed tears. Yan Changgeng said: "Acting, you can't just sing well, but also express the true feelings of the characters in the play." You shed tears without emotion, how can you move the audience? Ma Jinfeng realized that he had not yet fully entered the role, and there was still a shyness. Then, Yan Changgeng analyzed the mood of the character Chen Xingyuan in the play at this moment, and inspired her: "Think about the sad things you have been sold, I'm afraid you will also cry!" After the teacher reminded him like this, Ma Jinfeng's tears really poured out. At the same time, I realized that only by going deep into the characters and breathing with the characters in the play and sharing the fate can we tear up.

The next day, Ma Jinfeng performed "Erdu Mei" again, acting to the place where tears should be shed, she was sad for the unfortunate encounter of the character Chen Xingyuan in the play, remembering her own life, she couldn't help but feel sad from it, and she really cried. As soon as she moved her true feelings, the audience also cried, on and off the stage, crying together, and even the drum master was infected and cried. In this way, the play can no longer be sung, and the play has to be temporarily changed. Seeing this scene, Yan Changgeng couldn't cry and laugh, and blamed himself: "They all blame me, just talk about the ability to cry, and didn't tell the child clearly how to put away the tears." ”

Afterwards, Yan Changgeng gave Ma Jinfeng a lesson in tears. He said: "With the 'tear glands', you also have the personal feelings of the characters in the play, and you have to learn to control yourself." When a tear or two has rolled out, don't think about it anymore, stop the grief. Being able to stop the tears at a critical moment is called art, and it is kung fu. Then, he also gave Ma Jinfeng a demonstration, tears can not be contained, send and receive freely. Ma Jinfeng practiced hard and finally mastered this skill. She used this skill when she played cheng qi grandma jin dian in "Flower Fight Dynasty" and Jiang Guizhi Nanying nostalgia in "Flower Gun Edge". At that time, the magazine "China Yu Opera" published the story.

Time flies, and the years fly by. In the blink of an eye, more than 60 years have passed, and Mr. Yan Changgeng died of illness in 1981, and nearly 40 years have passed. However, the spirit of the old artists who are approachable, modest and prudent, selfless, and united and enterprising is still passed on as a beautiful talk.