Old Shen Liao: Why did Tan Yuanshou refuse to sing "Sha Jiabang" again?

Old Mr. Tan Yuanshou left, but he left a "fan".

As we all know, one of the eight model plays in the Cultural Revolution was "Sha Jiabang" pioneered by the Beijing Peking Opera Troupe, and the main actor of this play was Tan Yuanshou. He played the number one male protagonist in the play, Guo Jianguang, and created a heroic image of a grassroots commander of the New Fourth Army. The play was rehearsed several times, and the heroine Ah Qingyi changed multiple actors, from Zhao Yanxia and Liu Xiurong, until the film was filmed to Hong Xuefei. And the role of Guo Jianguang has never changed others for several years, Tan Yuanshou alone in the end, it can be seen that this role is none other than him, from the stage image to the singing voice and the characteristics of reading white, Tan Yuanshou and Guo Jianguang are integrated.

With the end of the Cultural Revolution, the model plays withdrew from the stage, which was logical. But soon "Sha JiaBang" quietly entered people's sight. In the 1980s and 1990s, several model plays were staged on the commercial performance stage. Some of the main actors of the model dramas of that year broke the silence, telling the experience of rehearsal in that year, arousing the interest of the audience, and even Qian Haoliang appeared on TV and sang excerpts from "Red Lantern".

People's eyes naturally turned to Tan Yuanshou. As far as I can remember, in 1981, a troupe of Beijing Peking Opera House performed "Ludang Tinder" to commemorate the party's birthday, starring Tan Yuanshou, Zhao Yanxia, Ma Changli, Zhou Hetong and other original members. The performance brochure mentions the process of the production of this play, but there is no mention of "Sha Jia Bang", which has the meaning of cutting off from "Sha Jia Bang", which shows that the model play in the early 1980s was still a "forbidden area", and "Ludang Tinder" was still on the stage as an ordinary modern play.

In the mid-to-late 1980s, various theaters and troupes set off a boom in rearranging "modern revolutionary Peking Opera" (that is, model dramas), and some of the leading actors of the model plays of that year saw that the wind direction had changed, took the opportunity to talk about the experience of rehearsal at that time, rubbed enough heat, and earned enough popularity. Fans naturally hope that Mr. Tan can re-show Guo Jianguang's image. But what was surprising was that Tan Yuanshou refused to go out of the mountain again. In a program of "Phoenix Satellite TV" in Hong Kong, he said categorically, "Sha Jiabang" I will never sing, not a word. At that time, Tan Yuanshou, who was in good health, refused all invitations, and sang "Dingjun Mountain" and "Zhan Taiping", that is, he did not sing "Sha Jiabang", he could not sing a fragment, and he did not sing how much money he gave! The old man's temper is really big, and no one can beat him. Therefore, when the Beijing Opera House rearranged "Sha Jiabang", it was impossible to do the original team, and the role of Guo Jianguang could only be performed by Tan Xiaozeng and Tan Zhengyan's father and son, and later Yang Shaopeng and Wang Jinzhong also sang.

Why did Tan Yuanshou refuse to repeat "Sha Jiabang"? Years later, he himself had made an explanation. At the "Tan Yuanshou Stage Art 80th Anniversary Commemorative Meeting" held in 2015, Mr. Tan Lao mentioned "Sha Jiabang" very rarely. He said: In the era of acting in modern dramas, Sister Zhao Yanxia led me and Ma Changli, Liu Xiurong, Hong Xuefei, Zhou Hetong, and Wan Yiying to create and perform "Sha Jiabang", and I have performed 40 times in a row, which is a peak in my art, tempering me, improving my artistic level, and making full preparations for the later restoration of traditional drama.

Not long ago, Tan Yuanshou was interviewed on Beijing Television and also talked about why he no longer played the sensitive topic of "Sha Jiabang". He said that he did his best to create the role of Guo Jianguang, and this play was also very popular, and he was not wrong! What puzzled him was why he himself was subjected to ten months of unfair treatment under quarantine after the defeat of the Gang of Four, and no one has yet explained it. It turned out that there was still such a big knot in Tan Lao's heart, and he could only express his dissatisfaction by refusing to perform.

Tan Yuanshou said that in the era of acting in modern dramas, Zhao Yanxia's elder sister led us to create and perform "Sha Jiabang". From this, I think of the scene of Zhao Yanxia rehearsing a model play described in her memoir "Self-contained, Zhao Yanxia", which shows people the real creative environment they were in in that era. As actors, acting is a vocation, and actors practice their kung fu and dedicate the best things to the audience. But in the "era of acting in modern dramas", everything has changed, the kung fu and toys they have practiced for decades have lost their meaning with the banning of old plays, and under great political pressure, they have learned everything from scratch, regardless of personal interests, they must sing the new plays well in order to make progress, which is like dancing in shackles. Tan Yuanshou and Zhao Yanxia are in the same environment, and their mood is generally the same. Just like Master Ma Lianliang, who was deprived of the right to sing old dramas, it was fortunate to be able to get the opportunity to play Zheng Laowan in "Cuckoo Mountain". Later, even this opportunity was not given, and in 1966 he was completely expelled from the Beijing Peking Opera Troupe and died at the end of that year.

Tan Lao once wrote that his performance of "Sha Jiabang" was "fully prepared for the later restoration of traditional drama." This shows the different weights of traditional drama and model drama in his heart. Although "Sha Jiabang" is good, it is not a root, the root is still a traditional old drama, and Tan Men's play "Dingjun Mountain" is his representative work. He is proud not of "Sha Jiabang" but of being able to sing "Playing Gold Bricks" at the age of 60.

Qian Haoliang also said something similar, he did not think that "The Red Lantern" is his masterpiece, he said that he was most proud of "Vazidu", he may also have the intention of avoiding suspicion. The author has seen his play in the Chang'an Theater for more than six years, objectively speaking, watching his "Vazidu" is more enjoyable than watching "Red Lantern", which is dawusheng.

Tan Yuanshou's refusal to re-perform "Sha JiaBang", which seems to be a small talk in the pear garden industry, actually reveals a serious but never-paid attention to topic, that is, do Peking Opera actors really like to engage in modern drama from the heart?

In fact, Master Mei Lanfang answered this question before he died, and Mei Lanfang, who first tried modern drama (then called fashion drama), finally gave up trying, because he believed that the Peking Opera performance program was created to adapt to traditional costume drama, and these programs were not suitable for modern drama and had to be started from scratch. After Mei Lanfang's opinion was denied, the voices that did not approve of modern drama disappeared. It is no wonder that in the political atmosphere of the sixties, acting in modern drama is a manifestation of progress, which actor does not pursue progress? Even Mr. Tan Fuying, who insists on Tan Men's own drama, wants to play a small role in modern drama.

Tan Yuanshou sang "Sha Jiabang" in his prime, and at the age of 60, he would rather dedicate "Playing Gold Bricks" to the audience, which tumbled and tumbled and was heavy on kung fu, but resolutely stopped singing a sentence "Chaoxia reflected on Yangcheng Lake...". What does this peculiar phenomenon illustrate? This shows that he does not like model plays in his bones, even if it is "Sha Jiabang" that he sings red. It was only in his later years that he had no scruples and expressed it in the form of refusal to perform. This is probably the distorted inner world of an actor.