□ Shen Zhiquan
If you ask: After the Spring Festival reunion dinner, what are you doing Chinese New Year's Eve night? I believe that most people now will answer without thinking: watch the CCTV Spring Festival Gala. If you ask again: more than 100 years ago, when there was no TV and no Spring Festival Gala, what were people doing Chinese New Year's Eve night? Perhaps most people can't answer for a while. In fact, I can't answer, but I know that several young folk music players in the Kunluo sitting choir class in Tao Village, Xuanping County (now part of Taoxi Town, Wuyi County) will definitely say: Go to LangJie!
What is LangJie ? The "wave" of "Langjie" has the meaning of "swinging" and "shopping" in the xuanfang dialect, and "langjie" can be interpreted as "swinging street" and "shopping", which is to put it bluntly as "walking on the street". However, the "wave street" in the mouth of the young people in Tao Village does not refer to wandering the streets with empty hands, but specifically refers to walking with national musical instruments while playing tunes in the streets and alleys.
Tao Village, since ancient times as xuanping town, is the political, economic and cultural center of the north of Xuanping County, with thousands of residents, Chinese New Year's Eve have the custom of sitting at night to watch the age. In a certain Chinese New Year's Eve at the end of the Qing Dynasty, after Chinese New Year's Eve dinner, Xu Fengao, Tao Yunfang and several other young people gathered in the Ruqin Hall to play folk music and make the New Year's Eve. Xu Feng'ao has loved Kunqu since childhood, once studied art in the Kunlu class opened by his uncle in Lanxi, and is good at playing musical instruments, and his friend Tao Yunfang in the same village also likes Kunqu opera and is good at playing flutes. The two had similar interests, and in the first year of Xuan reunification (1909), they contacted 19 friends to set up the Taocun Kunqu Sit-in Choir Class, named "Ruqintang", which was located in Xu Feng'ao's home. Tao Yunfang also opened an outdated sit-down choir class with her brother Tao Shechang and her son, and traveled all over the village and surrounding villages and towns, and even went up the river to sing by the West Lake in Hangzhou, which was well received by the audience.
Statue of Xu Feng'ao
The melodious bamboo performance in the Ruqin Hall attracts nearby residents to come and enjoy, and the children make fires on the side (Xuanping custom, Chinese New Year's Eve night in the middle hall to light up the Songming family house to render the festive atmosphere, implying the new year's prosperity), and the village also hears the sound of firecrackers from time to time. But in the second half of the night, the people dispersed, and the noise in the village returned to silence, which seemed very deserted. Therefore, Xu Feng'ao proposed: Instead of entertaining yourself at home, it is better to go to Langjie Street!
The proposal was approved by everyone, several people played musical instruments, one person gao Qingsong open torch led, the rest of the people played Kunqu opera songs in the streets and alleys of the village, causing many residents to push open the windows and doors along the way to watch. Langjie Street was born in Tao Village.
The next day, Xu Fengao and Tao Yunfang went to the street together, and the villagers gave a thumbs up to their wave street last night, some said that the melody was pleasant and beautiful to increase the peaceful atmosphere of the New Year, some said that the transition of the wave street after the noise felt not cold, some said that Chinese New Year's Eve entered the dreamland in the music of the wave street, and some said that there were always one or two fires or thefts in the past Chinese New Year's Eve night, and there was no more after the wave street this year... Xu Feng'ao and Tao Yunfang were very happy to hear this, and they couldn't imagine that their inadvertent move last night was so welcomed by the villagers.
Therefore, the two returned to the Ruqin Hall, discussed the Lantern Greeting Dragon Lantern and then engaged in Langjie, and reviewed and summarized last night's performance, believing that when the night was quiet, the tune of Langjie should avoid hot and noisy, but should pursue quiet and elegant, so as to bring the peace and tranquility of the festival to the villagers. The two then selected several gentle and lingering Kunqu opera pieces, and then integrated the melodious and beautiful time tones into them for processing, adapted them into the Langjie tune of ten songs such as "Wenlu", and then summoned the colleagues of the Kunqu opera sitting choir class to practice.
Lang Street is in progress Tu Xuewen /photo
At the Lantern Festival, after the noisy and fierce dragon-welcoming lights ended, the unfinished people gradually dispersed and went home to prepare for sleep. At this time, Xu Feng'ao and Tao Yunfang appeared with their well-trained Langjie team: everyone was wearing robes and top hats, one was leading the way with a high gauze lamp, one was carrying a gong and drum on his shoulder for the musicians to strike, the drummer was directed, the silk bamboo players followed close behind, and there were people carrying lanterns on the left and right to follow the illumination. The performance is based on the main performance of the bamboo flute, accompanied by erhu, three strings and other silk string instruments, the plate drum, flat drum, bamboo pole, bumping bell pressure plate, and the combination of small gong, Su gong and sub-cymbal to make embellished light blows. The tune is based on ten pieces of music such as "Wenlu" and "Flower Arrangement and Drinking" as a set, and the cycle is repeated and played uninterruptedly in the process. In the middle of the night, when the full moon is empty, the team of LangJie street walks the streets and alleys, the gentle and elegant music echoes in the courtyards of the streets and alleys, and the people in the ancient town either push the window to watch, or lie in bed to listen, all of them are obsessed with it and revel in it.
Lang Street, a cannon fire in Tao Village. Since then, every year Chinese New Year's Eve and Lantern Night, Lang Street has become the most popular finale program for the people of Tao Village. Later, Langjie Street slowly evolved into a folk activity unique to Tao Village. In the 1960s and 1970s, although Langjie was interrupted for more than ten years, occasionally three or five Kunqu lovers went to the street to surf the street several times. Because of this, after the reform and opening up, the lang street of Tao Village was able to shoot out and sprout new shoots, and it was re-active in the streets and alleys of Chinese New Year's Eve and Lantern Festival. Unfortunately, the ten Langjie Liantong song plates that Xu Fengao and Xu Yunfang processed and adapted that year only retained the three song cards of "Wenlu", "Flower Arrangement and Drinking" and "XiaoLing" that were translated into simple scores by Tao Yuexuan. However, it is because of these three songs that Langjie has retained the original taste of that year, and sent peace and blessings to the villagers of Tao Village on the night of Chinese New Year's Eve and Lantern Festival, and also attracted the attention of the higher cultural departments. Langjie Street, as a folk activity exclusive to Tao Village, has been publicized and reported by various media at all levels, including Hong Kong SunSHINE TV, and has been included in the list of Jinhua Municipal Intangible Cultural Heritage. This may be something that Xu Fengao and Tao Yunfang, the founders of Langjie, did not expect.
Taocun Street Lang Street statue Yan Xihua / photo
If Xu Feng'ao and Tao Yunfang knew underground, as Kunqu lovers, perhaps even more gratifying is that the folk instrumental music played by Langjie has been included in the "Zhejiang Volume of Chinese Folk Instrumental Music Integration", and the word "Langjie" is included in the Kunqu Dictionary as a "Qushe Jargon": "Langjie, one of the activities of the Kunqu opera choir, means to play Kunqu on the street or on the road, while walking, playing, and singing. For example, the folk customs of Xuanping, Zhejiang, the Lantern Festival, three days and three nights to greet the gods, dance dragon lanterns, fish lanterns, and choirs also participate in blowing, passing through towns and villages. Surprisingly, after the lantern festival, people went back to sleep, more quietly, the moon was empty, and the choir began to wave the street, playing a variety of elegant Kunqu opera tunes, cards, and even singing a few paragraphs. It is often played that several pieces of the Kunqu opera "Sifan" have been processed and entangled, and the gentle music echoes between the deep courtyards of the streets and the valleys of the countryside, gradually leading people to sweet dreams. Although the interpretation is suspected of dragging mud and water, it is pointed out that this is "one of the activities of the Kunqu opera choir" and "the old folk custom of Xuanping in Zhejiang", and the tune played is made of Kunqu opera, and the Langjie street is carried out at the time of "more tranquility" after the "lantern festival", which coincides with the Langjie customs of Tao Village.
In recent years, the mass literary and art workers of the Wuyi County Cultural Center have also put "Langjie" on the stage, while Wu Zhongwen and Fu Hongfei have composed lyrics and composers together, and co-created a song of "Langjie", the lyrics of which are:
A bamboo flute, two strings,
Three or five entertainers broke through the hazy moonlight.
Blowing and plucking, step by step,
Sing all the way to the joy of the Lantern Festival.
The town pushed open the doors and windows,
Listen to this melodious music for three days.
A yarn lamp, two bamboos,
Three-five more wave street frequently spread An Yi peaceful.
Rustic slang, full of fun,
A little legend of flower arrangement and drinking.
The town is mesmerized,
Fall asleep to the years of Guotai Min'an.
About author: Shen Zhiquan, professor, has published or published more than 2 million words of novels, essays, essays, monographs, and currently lives in Hangzhou.
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