"I hope that the moon will fall and the rebirth lamp will be red again..." This is the chant of Du Liniang's sentence on the occasion of leaving the soul in "Peony Pavilion And Haunting". Today, sad news came out of the opera world. Zhang Jiqing, the most beautiful "Du Liniang" in the world, a famous Kunqu performance artist, a national first-class actor, and a representative inheritor of kunqu opera of the national intangible cultural heritage project, passed away at 12:56 on January 6, 2022 in Jinling at the age of 83.
Zhang Jiqing is the winner of the first Chinese Drama Performing Arts Award "Plum Blossom Award", and the Du Liniang she played is stunning, becoming a classic of a generation and the "most beautiful Du Liniang" in the hearts of countless people.
"Mr. Zhang Jiqing has been through the ages! The moonrise rebirth light is red again! "Danjiao matsuri, she is the most beautiful queen in my heart"... For a time, countless opera lovers and people in the industry were grief-stricken, and they wished that the heavens would open up all over the place and meet her again under the beautiful scenery of the good day.
She is the "first plum" in the country
He once took Kunqu opera out of the country
In the pear garden industry, Zhang Jiqing won a reputation for playing "Frightening Dreams" and "Dream Hunting" in "Peony Pavilion" and "Crazy Dream" in "Zhu Maichen's Divorce", so that the audience can see the soul flying out of the sky: "Zhang Sanmeng". Some people also call her "Queen of Kunqu Opera", and the plum blossom award, the highest award for drama, is set up because of her.
In 1983, at the invitation of "Drama Newspaper" and "Drama Series", she went to Beijing to perform "Three Dreams", and the theater masters on the stage were full of praise after watching it. Zhang Jiqing once told the Modern Express reporter, "At that time, there were no awards for actors in the country. In order to promote the prosperity of all kinds of drama in the country, the Chinese Drama Association decided to set up the opera 'Plum Blossom Award', and the experts gave me high scores, so I became the 'first plum' in the country. ”
Zhang Jiqing was also the first person in China to bring Kunqu opera overseas. Before the 1980s, peking opera martial arts were generally performed abroad, because there were many martial arts moves and few lines, and foreigners could understand them. Kunqu opera uses lines from 600 years ago, which is more difficult to understand. In 1980, Suzhou and the Italian city of Venice formed a sister city. Later, Venice invited Suzhou to perform, and the mayor of Venice personally ordered Zhang Jiqing. Because of the language problem, Zhang Jiqing has always worried that Italians can understand? But when the first performance ended, the applause was endless, and the curtain was thanked more than 10 times, and the audience still refused to leave.
The troupe is a one-man package
Practice 3 exercises a day to sing a good voice
Back in the 1930s, Zhang Jiqing was born in Wuqing Town (now Wuzhen) in Jiaxing, Zhejiang. At that time, Wuzhen was shrouded in the artillery fire of the War of Resistance Against Japan, but Zhang Jiqing, who had just been born, cried twice with a loud "singing voice", so that the family was forced to transfer their hiding place and evade the bomb attack.
In the scattered childhood, food and clothing are the biggest hopes. But when it comes to Kunqu opera, Zhang Jiqing feels that he is very lucky. When she was a child, she was in the tea house in Suzhou Town, holding her brother to watch her grandfather play the huqin. At the age of 14, because of her family's poverty, she was introduced to the Minfeng Su Opera Troupe. Zhang Jiqing once recalled this time in an interview with the Modern Express reporter: "At that time, managing tea, moving props, running dragon sets, pulling the curtain, etc. were all wrapped up by me. "When pulling the curtain, she always secretly watches the plot on the stage on the side of the stage, secretly imitating, because watching the drama is too fascinating, either pulling the curtain early or late, or even pulling backwards."
In 1954, Zhang Jiqing, who had long been immersed in opera, finally waited for the opportunity to learn opera, and was guided by You Caiyun, Zeng Changsheng and others, the elders of Kunqu opera. Later, the local government in Suzhou invited teachers from the "Chuan" generation to teach drama, and asked highly skilled martial arts teachers to teach gong. Zhang Jiqing was loved by the Kunqu master Yu Xihou because of his eagerness to learn. At that time, Yu Xihou stipulated that Zhang Jiqing must practice 3 gongs a day, 20 times a day, count and sing with matchsticks, and never end up with less than 20 sticks. Day after day, Zhang Jiqing finally practiced a wide, thick, crisp and bright voice.
"I don't want anything else, I just want to pass on kunqu opera"
In 2003, at the insistence of Bai Xianyong, Zhang Jiqing, who had always insisted on teaching only students and not accepting apprentices, made an exception and accepted three apprentices in one go: Shen Fengying, Gu Weiying and Tao Hongzhen of the Suzhou Kun Opera Troupe, and later accepted Shan Wen, an actor from the Kun Theater of Jiangsu Performing Arts Group, as an apprentice. In 2009, Zhang Jiqing taught 26 students in a young and middle-aged Kunqu opera actor study class held by the Ministry of Culture and was named the "Most Serious Teacher".
After struggling for Kunqu all her life, someone asked Zhang Jiqing what other wishes she had, and her answer was very simple: "There is no other wish, it is to take students!" In the past, my main responsibility was acting, and I concentrated on acting well; now my main responsibility is to be a teacher, and I teach drama well. I want nothing more than to pass on kunqu opera. ”
The Modern Express reporter learned that in recent years, Zhang Jiqing is still doing a lot of behind-the-scenes work, and many plays of the Kun Theater of Jiangsu Performing Arts Group have to ask her to "take the pulse". In 2019, her apprentice Shan Wen successfully picked "Plum", and the winning play was "Peony Pavilion" taught by Teacher Zhang Jiqing.
From youth to middle age
Zhang Jiqing used the most beautiful time to write Kunqu opera
In his later years he will spend his years with Kunqu opera
"Lingering" in another way
Her songs will always be in people's hearts
……
Master, all the way!
Source: Modern Express + (reporter Zhang Ran, Song Jingwei), Wen Wei Po