Su Sing Street in the old town of Yangzhou, east of Dingjiawan and west of Dujiang Road, is an east-west old street with a width of about 3 meters and a length of more than 200 meters. Near the old street, there was once a high-walled deep courtyard with a combination of corridors and buildings, and there are still some brick carved gate towers and ruins of broken temples, which can be seen to be prosperous.
The moving name "Su Sing" originated in the Kangqian period of the Qing Dynasty. The "Record of paintings" says: "The old Lang Hall of Su Sing Street in the city, the General Bureau of Pear Garden also." Each class enters the city before the lao lang hall to pray, which is called the hanging, followed by the singing at the Situ Temple, which is called hanging clothes. Therefore, the alley of Su Sing Street is inextricably linked to the history of ancient drama in China.
Yangzhou is prosperous because of salt, and those salt merchants are rich and elegant, and they also want to get ahead in culture, and when they are idle, they will raise drama classes and listen to operas. One is to receive the emperor's old son who frequently travels south, and the other is of course to enjoy himself.
During the Ming and Qing dynasties, Yangzhou salt merchants were rich in the world, and the most elegant leisure way for salt merchants was to watch dramas. As a result, Yangzhou has become the richest and most active place for opera. In the middle of the Qing Dynasty, yangzhou's local opera artists were always the main body of this huge and complex group. They were able to sing a variety of different kinds of opera voices at that time, making Yangzhou an exposition of national opera art. These different operas are first divided into two categories: "Yabu" and "Huabu". "Yabu" means elegant and elegant opera, specifically referring to Kun cavity, Kunqu opera, Kun opera, "Huabu" means flower miscellaneous impure opera, generally refers to all local dramas except Yabu. Such as Jing Cavity, Qin Cavity, Yiyang Cavity, Zizi Cavity, Luo Luo Cavity, Erhuang Tone and so on. These opera cavities come from all over the world, such as the folk cavity from southern Jiangsu, the Beijing cavity from Beijing, the Qin cavity from Shaanxi, and the Yiyang cavity from Jiangxi. Zi zi cavity is from Shanxi. Luo Luo cavity is from Hubei, and erhuang tone is from Anhui. And so on: The Yangzhou opera scene brings together such a rich collection of northern and southern operas in one city. It shows its extraordinary economic strength and cultural tolerance. In ancient China, in addition to the capital city. Perhaps no second city has gathered so many drama genres and opera artists like Yangzhou.
Until the republic of China, Su Singing Street was also the seat of the Liyuan General Bureau, the head office of the opera industry, and often opera artists came here to discuss the departure schedule, the repertoire of the performance, a body, two water sleeves, and a few folding plays.
The vicissitudes of the world, now Yangzhou's Su Singing Street is bustling away, just like many historical old streets left behind, the winding alleys are lonely and quiet, the old houses on both sides are mottled and old, and Su Singing Street can no longer hear the soft and sticky Wu Nong soft language, nor can it smell the melodious Kunqu singing voice. It's like a lively drama, the prosperity has dissipated the field, and the rest is deserted... Only the well bars on the street that have been deeply strangled by the well rope carry the memories of the passing years.