A mouth of the way through the ages, hands waving millions of soldiers
——The dream-chasing road of Zhong Zhiyuan, the non-hereditary heir of Pingjiang shadow puppetry
(Zhong Zhiyuan shows homemade shadow puppet characters.) Photo by Zhou Lei)
Hunan Daily all-media reporter Xu Yaping Zhou Lei
Correspondent Chen Dexing
【Cultural Commentary】
Pingjiang shadow puppetry
Shadow puppetry is a unique and ancient folk art in China, which flowed into the Pingjiang River in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties. Pingjiang shadow puppet play with animal skin or cardboard made of character silhouette performance story, the performer must have a variety of skills such as beating, blowing, pulling, singing and making filmmakers, its role is divided into life, dan, net, end, ugly, genre has "South Road" and "North Road", the sound cavity has the difference between Qin Cavity and Qin Cavity. During the performance, two or three artists manipulate the filmmakers behind the illuminated curtain while singing the story with Pingjiang pop tunes, accompanied by percussion instruments and strings, with a strong local atmosphere. In 2012, Pingjiang Shadow Puppet Theatre was designated as a provincial intangible cultural heritage protection project.
【Watch Story】
Hang up the white screen, beat the gong and drum, reflect the world in the light and shadow, and tell the sadness and joy in the rap.
On the evening of December 11, a stage with an area of about 3 square meters was erected in the Jingfuyuan Temple of Qiaoxi Village, Nanjiang Town, Pingjiang County. Zhong Zhiyuan, the fifth generation of non-hereditary heirs of Pingjiang shadow puppetry, sat firmly on the stage and beat the drums with a sonorous sound, while the other two manipulated the shadow puppet figures and one played strings. There are only 3 people, but they play nearly 10 characters, singing the story with a strong local atmosphere, each character's voice is different, and the audience in front of the stage is amazed.
"One mouth to do all the things of the ages, and the hands wave a million soldiers", when so.
splendor
In Pingjiang, there is a folk custom that before the farmers are busy in the spring, the villagers will go to the temple to make a wish, praying for smooth wind and rain and abundant grain. In the autumn, the villagers will invite the shadow puppet troupe to celebrate and "return the wish".
At that time, as long as there was a shadow puppet performance, the villagers rushed to the theater with groups of three or five benches, and the children chased after me, so it was not lively. A shadow puppet show has not yet begun, and the theater is already full of people.
In 1967, Zhong Zhiyuan was born in Baishi Village, Sanyang Township, Pingjiang's "Shadow Drama Nest". He has loved shadow puppetry since he was a child, and as soon as he has a play to watch, he will go early to seize the front row position. He also likes to make his own paper shadows and play with them in the windows.
Due to his family's poverty, Zhong Zhiyuan dropped out of school and returned home after graduating from junior high school. "I was thinking about learning shadow puppetry." At the age of 18, he finally visited song Nancun, an old shadow puppet artist, when the master brought 3 apprentices, and he was the last to start.
What he didn't expect was that shadow puppetry wasn't as simple as he was playing shadow puppetry. Oh Na, Jing Hu, Zhong Nguyen, Gong And Drum... You can play and sing well, and you have to sing while playing and singing while manipulating shadow puppets. "The most bitter thing is not to practice, but to run, we call it 'walking box'." When he talks about more than 30 years ago, he still remembers it vividly. At that time, transportation was inconvenient, and the performance in the countryside could only be walked. Zhong Zhiyuan often carried two boxes of guys and followed his master through the townships. Once I went to Changshou Town to perform, I set off before dawn and walked nearly 60 kilometers. When I arrived, it was about 9 p.m., and the host's family had finished dinner.
Later, Song Nancun "withdrew from the jianghu", and Zhong Zhiyuan and his brother supported the portal and performed in the eight townships of Pingjiang. Because of the complete range of blowing, pulling, playing, singing and playing, the singing voice is prominent, and he is good at filmmaker production, Zhong Zhiyuan is known as "shadow drama maniac".
"At that time, the average worker's salary was 1.2 yuan a day, but a shadow puppet play could earn 9.5 yuan, and the average person could earn more than 3 yuan." At that time, we could sing more than 600 plays a year. Zhong Zhiyuan said that by singing shadow puppetry, he became the first person in the village to buy a bicycle, and later bought a house in the county seat.
plight
Life is like a play, and a play is like life. After starting a family, Zhong Zhiyuan made a pair of "burdens" by himself and performed independently from his brother. But in the early 1990s, television and movies became popular, and there were fewer and fewer audiences in front of the stage, and fewer and fewer people asked him to perform.
Zhong Zhiyuan was reluctant to play shadow puppetry, but had to think about the life of a large family, so he turned to working as an electrician, and only performed a few "oversinkable" in his spare time.
In 1999, Zhong Zhiyuan went to Henan with his father to work. Zhong Zhiyuan did not have the opportunity to sing shadow puppet plays again, but the flame in his heart was still not extinguished. He used his evenings to organize and write more than 100 scripts. At his home, the reporter saw a thick stack of books, although old, but well preserved, the text is neat and clear.
Three years later, his father fell ill, and Zhong Zhiyuan took him back to Pingjiang. "I still want to play shadow puppetry." In order to take better care of his father, he consulted with his wife, Lai Mai Hui, who was at home during the day and went out to play shadow puppetry at night; The wife works odd jobs outside during the day and comes home at night to take care of her. Such days lasted for 6 years.
Zhong Zhiyuan took 3 apprentices, but they all changed careers and left one after another. He thought about taking in disciples again, but he couldn't do it. "Now any line of work is more profitable than shadow puppetry, and no one wants to learn it." Although Zhong Zhiyuan regretted it, he had no choice.
"I supported him, just a little distressed, he said that writing scripts at night is more inspired, often staying up until two or three in the morning." Li Maihui told reporters that in 1989, the couple met and fell in love because of shadow puppetry, which became the strongest reliance on each other in those difficult years.
"Shadow puppetry spreads positive energy, and I hope more people can be affected." Zhong Zhiyuan said that there was a mother-in-law and daughter-in-law who had a bad relationship, and after watching his performance of "October Pregnancy" together, they resolved the contradiction. To this day, the old woman will send an old hen to Zhong Zhiyuan every New Year.
freshman
The balcony of Zhong Zhiyuan's house is crowded with all kinds of small objects. "There are reeds for whistles, shadows that are not colored, and some materials for shadow puppetry." Zhong Zhiyuan took out dozens of shadow puppet characters from a wooden box, "This is the character in my new play "Golden Sixteen Twos" created this year in conjunction with the red story of Pingjiang, and I also went to Beijing to participate in the celebration of the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China. ”
In 2012, Pingjiang shadow puppetry was approved as a provincial intangible cultural heritage project, and Pingjiang County established a shadow puppet theater association, and Zhong Zhiyuan's drama life turned a new page.
Liang Ruihai, director of the Pingjiang County Cultural Center, approached Zhong Zhiyuan and hoped that he would bring more apprentices. "Pingjiang shadow puppetry has always been passed on to men and not to women, but now men go out to work and work..." Zhong Zhiyuan wanted to stop talking. Liang Ruihai proposed: "As long as you are willing to pass on this culture, female apprentices can also bring it." ”
In 2017, Pingjiang County gathered more than 30 old shadow puppet artists in the county to recruit apprentices for the society. Liu Peony, Wei Sijuan, Deng Manman and other 5 people successively entered Zhong Zhiyuan's door. "There are so many things to learn, we don't have a special practice ground, we can only practice in the evening in open places such as parks." Liu Peony said, "I was one of the first apprentices, and I studied for 4 years before I dared to perform officially. ”
In 2018, Zhong Zhiyuan was rated as the representative inheritor of Pingjiang shadow puppetry Yueyang Municipal Level. On July 14 of the same year, Pingjiang Shiniuzhai Immortal Valley Light and Shadow World and Shadow Art Museum opened. For the first time, Pingjiang Shadow Puppet Theatre has a fixed exhibition venue in the scenic spot, which exudes unique charm to tourists from all over the world.
"I've always wanted to create something that keeps pace with the times, and often record videos and audios to spread on platforms such as K songs and vibrato for the whole people." Zhong Zhiyuan said that his newly compiled historical shadow puppet play "Leaving the Troubles" has been broadcast on CCTV twice, and the story of his inheritance of shadow puppet plays has also been broadcast on CCTV's "Heroes Everywhere" column. Zhong Zhiyuan also led his apprentices to set up Pingjiang County Shadow People Into the Victory Culture Communication Co., Ltd., created a Pingjiang Shadow Puppet Theater Inheritance Base in Pingjiang County Bridge Middle School, and regularly organized gong and gong training, so that Pingjiang Shadow Puppet Play could enter the campus.
During the epidemic prevention and control period last year, Zhong Zhiyuan painted masks and nurse hats on the shadow puppet characters, wrote and directed himself, and created a large number of works to popularize epidemic prevention knowledge for the public and publicize the grass-roots epidemic prevention work. He called his children to help, first using his mobile phone to record gongs and drums, shoot videos, and then edit the sound and video and transmit them to the network platform, which was extremely popular.
"Now the development trend is getting better and better, with an average of more than 20 performances per month. I am very motivated and hope to make Pingjiang shadow puppetry on a bigger stage. Zhong Zhiyuan took out a throat lozenge from his pocket and ate it, and took Liu Peony to perform a shadow puppet singing segment on the spot. Although he is 55 years old, he seems to be the fledgling, enthusiastic boy when he was 18 years old.
【Expert Message】
Times
Sing the new story of the times
Associate Professor Li Yan of Hunan Normal University
The famous historian Gu Jiegang classified Hunan shadow opera as one of the seven major genres of film and opera in China, and Pingjiang shadow puppetry, as a branch of Hunan shadow opera, has always been a unique and ritualistic folk performance art form with ritual characteristics that has been inherited for a long time in Hunan and has important historical and cultural value. Pingjiang Shadow Puppet Theatre uses manipulative puppet images and dramatic expression techniques to sing legends and historical stories with a unique Pingjiang "Oh Na Cavity" tune, which is an important bearer of folk culture in the Dongting Lake area.
The new generation of inheritors represented by Zhong Zhiyuan have advanced with the times and boldly innovated in this non-genetic inheritance protection, creating shadow puppet plays on the themes of poverty alleviation and pingjiang red stories, and have made gratifying achievements. Zhong Zhiyuan also often goes to the countryside to perform, focusing on training outstanding students, looking for new inheritors for Pingjiang shadow puppetry, which has a great impact on the protection, inheritance, innovation and development of Pingjiang shadow puppetry.