Puppet show is a special form of opera in which the performers operate puppet puppets to perform stories, with many types and intricate techniques. The story of the puppet as a performance prop first appears in the ancient book "Liezi TangWen": when King Mu of Zhou returned from kunlun mountains, he met a mysterious craftsman in the Bashu area, Yanshi. There is a strange figure with wood grain colors all over yanshi's side, and its movements and advances are very realistic. Yan Shi told King Mu of Zhou that this was a wooden armor art he had made. Mu Jia Yiling performed a song and dance in front of King Mu of Zhou, and the performance was very wonderful, and after it was over, it actually blinked at the concubines of King Mu of Zhou. King Mu of Zhou was furious when he saw this, and asked the guards around him to arrest Yan Shi and reprimanded: "I believe that you, the wooden armor man, believe that it is true, and you dare to deceive the Heavenly Son, find a real person to paste the wooden skin, and regard him as a miracle." ”
Marionette: Dan The pictures in this article are provided by the author
Marionette: Dan
Yan Shi hurriedly took apart the wooden armor yiling in front of everyone. King Zhou Mu looked at Yanshi's wooden armor and art was all made of wood, leather armor, glue paint and other materials, and only then did he admire Yanshi and sighed: "It is really incredible that the original artificial skills can reach the same level as the Creator of Heaven and Earth!" ”
In the Han Dynasty, China gave birth to puppet plays with complete forms of expression. Skilled performers manipulate puppet puppets who play a certain role, accompanied by songs, dances, dialogue and other artistic means, and perform dramatic stories in public. As the performing arts reached a high level of faux-and-true, puppet plays became a member of the "Han Bai Opera" family.
Quanzhou's marionette drama originated from the ancient hanging silk puppet play, which is a strange flower in the puppet play. The Qing Dynasty scholar Cai Hongru wrote in the "Records of the Standing Talks of Jinshui": "Carved wood is a man, draped with embroidery, pulled by silk, as if it were a life, called a puppet, so yun wood silk also." Quan people work best at this skill. ”
In the last year of the Western Jin Dynasty, the Central Plains Shi people moved south, and the Central Plains culture was reborn. Formed in Northern Qi, the hanging silk puppet show of the Tang and Song dynasties came to Quanzhou with the southward migration movement and became widely popular in southern Fujian. During the Song and Yuan Dynasties, Quanzhou was a region with both economic and cultural prosperity and development - frequent shipping, foreign ships, and the reputation of "shijing shizhou people" and "foreign merchants in the sound of rising seas". The inclusive cultural atmosphere makes religious sites from all over the world dotted throughout the ancient city. A wide variety of celebrations and red and white weddings require performances of hanging puppet shows.
The old people said that puppet shows were first honored to the heavens, and their importance was greater than that of human plays. The ancient custom clearly stipulates that "the front shed jiali and the back shed play". During the ceremonial celebration, the puppet show must be performed first and then other plays are opened, and the people who ask the puppet show are very courteous and respectful to the puppet master. These historical conditions have given the marionette show a fertile soil for the flourishing and pandemic in Quanzhou.
World Cultural Heritage Quanzhou
However, it wasn't until I performed at the Quanzhou Puppet Theater that I understood for the first time what these long accumulations meant.
The curtains hung down and the theater was pitch black. The southern tone rises, and the fixed melody of the Pear Garden Song brand is full of ancient rhyme. The southern drum and the brass boy rhythm is suddenly frustrated. In the shadows, the performer either smiles or raises his eyebrows, manipulates the hook cards in his hand, and the tone and moves are natural, and he is immersed in the world of drama without hesitation. He communicates with the puppets in front of the stage to create a wonderful drama with vivid colors.
The actor controls the hook cards
Repertoire "Youth Dream"
The reason why Quanzhou puppet show has a fake and real performance look, the key is that the performers accurately pull the line. Only a reasonable line position can make the puppet move according to demand.
The structure of the puppet is modeled on the human body, and all the parts related to the knot have basic line positions that can be controlled, and according to the different repertoire, several special special line positions will be added to the puppet to complete actions similar to bowing, writing, simulating speech and so on.
In the play "Xiao Shami Goes Down the Mountain", Xiao Shami obeys the master's orders to go down the mountain to change the fate. Wind and rain came on the way, lightning and thunder. In order to avoid the suffering of wind and rain, Xiao Shami hurriedly knocked on the prayer, hoping to ask the Buddha for protection. Who knows, due to the lack of concentration in chanting on weekdays, it is even more turbulent in the midst of impatience, and there are many mistakes. The wind became more and more intense, the rain became more urgent, and Xiao Shami stumbled and suffered a lot. The program is lively and funny, witty and vivid, especially showing the various exquisite gaits of the panic on the wind and rain road of Xiao Shami, which is interesting and breathtaking. Xiao Shami's movements are witty and humorous, and her body has many exaggerated movements of falling and running. The facial movements are also cute, making people completely forget that someone is operating behind it.
Repertoire "Little Shami Goes Down the Mountain"
In the play "Youth Dream", the actor can accurately strip and dance the puppet layer by layer by lifting the thread, interpreting the story of an old woman returning to youth in her dream. The reason why the puppet can complete many complex actions is because its "nerve center" hook card (the hanging silk puppet's hand-held cable board) is fascinating between the hooks and drops of the actor's fingers.
The actor's gestures
The so-called "one minute on stage, ten years offstage", a qualified puppeteer must complete at least ten years of study and training to stand on stage. In ancient times, they were hidden behind the stage, only the cash and puppets could be seen, and now they stand generously on the open stage, allowing the audience to worship the artist's technique and spirit.
Marionette Dan
Puppet shows are divided into four major trades: "life, dan, purity, and miscellaneous". In the drama of Zhong Kui's drunkenness, although Zhong Kui won the first place in the temple examination, he looked ugly. Emperor Tang chose people by their appearance and refused to be admitted, and Zhong Kui committed suicide in anger and was named an exorcism god by Yan Jun. However, the demons were full of demons, and the slaughter was endless, and Zhong Kui was very depressed and borrowed wine to pour sorrow. However, in the midst of tincture, he never forgot his sacred mission, and still threw himself into the eternal battle of exorcising demons and killing demons and helping to correct and dispel evil.
Look closely at the puppet's head and feel that it is the soul of the character - the combination of age, identity, and personality. Zhong Kui wears a red official hat, his face is painted, his eyes are bright and energetic, and his black beard interprets his roughness just right. The carver pays attention to the skeletal shape and muscle tissue of the face, and the lines of the knife and axe chisel reflect Zhong Kui's brave character. In order to highlight the exaggeration of the character's expression or to match some special performance needs, the head is hidden and moved, and Zhong Kui's mouth, lips, eyes, and cheeks can move with the progression of dialogue and rhythm with the suspension of the wire, which makes some of Zhong Kui's drinking sections look real and convincing.
Repertoire "Zhong Kui Drunk"
The torso of the puppet, called the cage belly. Craftsmen refer to the physiological structures of the human body, such as chest and back, waist and abdomen, hips and hips, and repeatedly study them. The old gufari used bamboo scorn to weave a bamboo cage, making two parts of the upper abdomen and lower abdomen connected with cloth pieces, and then adding embroidery to the torso skin and clothing.
After the cage belly is made, it is threaded with yarn along the symmetrical position on both sides of the neck socket, and the "rabbit ear" button is tied as an interface to tie the nail wire of the puppet head.
The limbs of the puppet are divided into parts such as "hand", "hand tie" and "hemp rope foot", and the process of each component section is self-contained. Taking the hand as an example, most of the puppets on the stage today are active and mobile. Sheng Dan can hold a pen, and Wu Sheng can compare to a sword. Zhong Kui in the play, under the control of the suspension, can not only hold the wine jug with both hands to drink, but also control the wine glass with one hand, and pour the wine from the wine jug into the wine glass with the other hand and sip it carefully.
At the end of the play, the applause of the audience was given to all the skilled craftsmen before and after the stage, and also to this national intangible cultural heritage.