The master brother of the four masters and apprentices in "Journey to the West" is Sun Wukong, who is the most capable of the four people and has the highest status among the three apprentices. In fact, it is not only in the classical masterpieces, in real life, the master brother of the cross-talk industry, but also generally speaking, it is more than other disciples.
A cross-talk actor has many apprentices, the earliest introductory master brother, generally speaking, will get the master's earlier and more teaching, in the more emphasis on the traditional cross-talk industry, in the most respected among the disciples, great power, great responsibility.
It is precisely because of this difference that the industry generally looks up to the big apprentice, of course, there are many controversies caused by this.
01
The size of the apprentices of the cross-talk actors is not ranked by their age, but by the order of worship. Even if the actor who first worshiped Master was only a teenager, and then a middle-aged man in his thirties and forties came to worship, he still had to call the teenage actor Master Brother. This is the rule of crosstalk.
Master brother often means greater rights and obligations, and to set an example among the disciples. He is not necessarily the most well-known actor among the apprentices, but he is of the highest status. A more typical point is that the master brother can accept apprentices on behalf of the master, which is called Dai la master brother in the cross-talk line.
I once talked with Li Jindou's eldest apprentice, Teacher Liu Ying, who has a lot of views on the cross-talk tradition and is not accustomed to some of today's performances that break the rules, but he still has to follow the tradition, listen to the teachings of the old gentlemen, and cannot appear bad. Why? An important reason he gave himself was that he was a master brother. Others can go apostatical, but he can't.
02
It is reasonable to say that the ownership of the master brother is very clear, who worships the master first will be in the front, whether he is famous or not, but in the cross-talk industry with a strong atmosphere, there are still some people who break the rules. That is Hou Yaohua.
Hou Yaohua did not speak much about cross-talk, but because he was a descendant of Hou Baolin, he still entered the cross-talk gate and did not visit Chang Baohua until 2009. By that time, Chang Baohua had actually accepted many apprentices, including the eldest apprentice cattle herd, which had been accepted long ago in the eighties.
However, after Hou Yaohua worshiped Chang Baohua, on many occasions he regarded himself as Chang Baohua's big apprentice, because he was called the second master by his red miao, and no one in the industry really compared this. In addition, the cattle herd's career has entered a trough in those years, and it has not taken the initiative to fight for the name it deserves.
Then in 2018, Chang Baohua died, and it is reasonable to say that the person who presided over the ceremony at the memorial service site should be the master brother Niu Herd, but it was Hou Yaohua who appeared as a big apprentice on the day. Although the cattle were real masters, under such pressure, they did not even show up at the ceremony that day.
If it was to change someone else, this matter would not be established at all, but just because he was Hou Yaohua, this matter was flipped in the midst of constant acquiescence.
03
The master brother is a bit like the first born big brother in the traditional family, usually to set an example for the younger brothers and sisters, if the family changes, but also to assume the responsibility of the eldest brother like the father. It's just that in the actual situation, things are slightly complicated, such as the popularity of the master brother is not high enough, and the management of the master brothers is somewhat weak.
For example, among Hou Baolin's apprentices, Ma Ji is the most famous, but he is not Hou Baolin's big apprentice. Although the disciples respected the master brother, before Hou Baolin died, it was not the master brother who made the rules with him, but the most well-known apprentice Ma Ji. Of course, this matter also caused some controversy later.
04
Where there are people, there are rivers and lakes, and in the cross-talk industry where there are many people, the jianghu qi is even heavier.
By the way, Guo Degang's eldest apprentice was first He Yunwei, and then Yan Yunda, who came to the door, and now these two actors have left the Deyun Society for many years.
Today, among Guo Degang's disciples, the one who has been at the forefront of worshiping the master should be Zhang Yunlei.