Zhang Jiqing: Li Niang is away from the soul

Zhang Jiqing (1939-2022) Jiangsu, Kunqu opera actor

Kunqu master Zhang Jiqing last appeared on stage in October 2018, sharing the stage with his disciple Shan Wen in the soap robe of "Peony Pavilion And Garden". At that time, Zhang Jiqing was already eighty years old, and his makeup could not cover the wrinkles on his face, but the singing voice was still delicate and delicate, and the starting and turning did not leak.

Talking about Kunqu opera can't get around "Peony Pavilion", naturally it is impossible to avoid Zhang Jiqing, who is extremely outstanding in singing "Peony Pavilion". The two folds of "Frightening Dream" and "Dream Hunting", together with "Crazy Dream" in "Rotten Keshan", are Zhang Jiqing's best folding plays, and she is also called "Zhang Sanmeng" by critics and fans. "It's not that I personally have any special talent, but kunqu opera has too deep accumulation." In September 2021, Zhang Jiqing told the media.

Zhang Jiqing, formerly known as Zhang Yiqing, was born in Suzhou in 1939, and his grandfather and mother were both Sutan artists. At the age of 14, Zhang Jiqing became a formal student of the Minfeng Su Opera Troupe, and the following year, the troupe hired You Caiyun, a famous actor in Kunqu opera in the late Qing Dynasty, to teach, and Zhang Jiqing was able to officially begin to study Kunqu opera.

In those years, the development of Kunqu opera was at a critical juncture. During the decline of Kunqu opera during the Republic of China, famous dans like You Caiyun, who taught Mei Lanfang, also had no livelihood and were forced to set up food stalls in the street market to make a living. In 1956, the Zhejiang Guofeng Su Opera Troupe brought "Fifteen Guan" to Beijing to perform, performing 47 performances in 47 days, which was praised by Zhou Enlai as "a successful classic in adapting classical scripts".

Kunqu opera came back to life, and Zhang Jiqing also took advantage of the situation, and in the same year transferred to the Jiangsu Sukun Opera Troupe (now Suzhou Kun Theater in Jiangsu Province), and the following year he cooperated with the kunqu master Yu Zhenfei on the same stage "The Legend of the White Snake and the Broken Bridge". In 1984, Zhang Jiqing won the first prize of the first Chinese Drama Plum Blossom Award, and the literary critic Feng Mu commented that she said: "I have not seen any actor who has performed the character as clearly as she is, but also implicit, implicit, rich, simple, both very rigorous, and the use of many difficult formulas of Kunqu opera is very accurate and very free." ”

For these praises, Zhang Jiqing is very humble. "I'm a stupid person, and I only do one thing in my life, which is acting." Every time she performed, she went backstage three hours in advance to make up and wrap her head, she was afraid of distraction, and she hardly spoke before the play, and almost did not sit, "because it is difficult to iron the clothes, sitting for a long time will wrinkle." ”

In 2003, Zhang Jiqing was the art director of Bai Xianyong's youth version of "Peony Pavilion". She personally checks almost every performance. In May 2005, while directing rehearsals at the Great Hall of the People in Nanjing, Zhang Jiqing accidentally stepped on the air and fell, resulting in a fracture of the femur neck, but even so, she participated in subsequent tours. "Someone asked me if I had any wishes, and I said I didn't have any wishes, just to take students... I want nothing more than to pass on kunqu opera. After more than sixty years, Zhang Jiqing still remembers the scene when he first ran the pier with You Caiyun. A group of people took lime-laden hand-cranked boats, carried their own boxes, and ran from dock to dock. Zhang Jiqing did not know whether the troupe would give You Caiyun living expenses, but remembered that everyone could eat a full meal after each performance. "So we people, ah, are not squeamish until now."

On January 6, 2022, Zhang Jiqing died of illness in Nanjing. The farewell ceremony was not open to the public, according to the on-site media, the farewell was a fold of "Peony Pavilion • Leaving the Soul". "Worship the moon and the empty hall, the clouds are embraced, and the bones are cold and afraid of becoming autumn dreams." What in the world seems to be passionate? The whole heartache of the broken soul. ”