Jin opera Lü Bu plays mink cicadas
As a representative of China's excellent traditional culture, the art of opera is broad and profound, and the style is unique. On the stage, ShengDanjing's ugly appearances are different and colorful, which gives people a beautiful feeling. This is not only the result of the acting innovation of successive generations of artists, but also related to the colorful opera costumes. In the pear garden world, there is a special term for costume and head face - line head. In order to express all kinds of characters and enhance the beauty of the performance, each major drama has a wide variety of costumes and accessories. They seem to be full of loopholes and contrary to historical facts, but they are strictly law-abiding and inherited throughout the ages, and they all follow China's unique aesthetic culture.
The head of the opera line seems to belong to the craft, which is the external packaging of the actors, but in fact, it reflects the integration of virtual reality, elegance and internal and external. It serves the entertainment of sound and color, is the carrier of skills, but can imitate the appearance, write the temperament, reflect everything with the soul, and show the unique aesthetic habits and life moods of the Chinese. Today, the protection and inheritance of the costume tradition of opera should be seen from the surface and the inside, with skills, clothes for drama, and the heart and beauty.
Suzhou Opera Museum
In order to express all kinds of characters and enhance the beauty of performance, each opera genre has a variety of lines and a large number of heads. Most of them are created according to the gender, identity and wearing of the characters, and can be roughly divided into three categories: costumes, shoes and hats, and accessories. In the pear garden world, there are dozens of commonly used costumes alone: python robes, official clothes, arrow clothes, horse coats, big leanings, eunuch clothes, bagua clothes, monk clothes, and military clothes are dresses or professional clothes worn on formal occasions; draperies, pleats, open ribs, shoulders, palace clothes, and tea clothes are various types of daily civilian clothes; monkey clothes, crane deer children's clothes, dog shapes, tiger shapes, etc. are used to play gods and monsters and animals. The corresponding shoes, hats and accessories are naturally dazzling and rich in meaning. Among them, the hairpin ring jewelry (also known as: head face) on the head of the female character is particularly elaborate, and its shape has more than 50 kinds of bubbles, tandem, hexagon, top flower, sideburns, side bats, partial phoenixes, beams, back pockets, etc., and the texture, color and collocation are more varied. Such a complex opera costume not only requires beautiful design and production, but also needs to correspond appropriately to various characters and effectively complement the performance skills. This is obviously not the strength of one person and the achievement of one day, but the result of continuous innovation and accumulation of successive generations of opera practitioners, and it is inseparable from the appreciation and screening of the audience. Therefore, in the self-contained and unique opera costume culture, what is reflected is the aesthetic characteristics and viewing orientation common to traditional Chinese art.
【Virtual and real compatible】
Most of the opera costumes are out of the needs of stage performance, and are exaggerated and fictionalized by artists to the characteristics of historical figures. However, the pear garden industry is also known as the golden rule of "better to wear through, not to wear wrong". This seems to contradict itself, but in fact it reflects the special virtual and real requirements of opera
Just as ancient Chinese painting pays attention to freehand and does not seek realism, virtuality is also a prominent artistic feature of opera. On the stage, there are few realistic and complex sets and props. A table and two chairs can refer to various scenes such as mountains, bridges, terraces, and wells. Most of the performances such as boating, opening doors, riding horses, and feeding chickens are also only compared and have no physical objects. Similarly, opera costumes have many places that go against the truth. For example, the costumes of traditional dramas do not strictly distinguish between the times, and most of them follow the style of clothes and hats of the Ming Dynasty. Liu Bang, Li Shimin and Zhu Yuanzhang could wear the same king hat. Most of the military generals of the past also wore helmets and leaned on their heads, and their appearance was basically the same. Sometimes in a play, the actors will even wear the clothes of several dynasties: "Shilang Visiting the Mother" is the story of the Northern Song Dynasty, but the Yang family will wear Ming-style official clothes, and the iron mirror princess will step on the bottom of the flower pot and wear a flag head, just like the dress of the Qing Dynasty concubines. This is almost a time-traveling mash-up, but the opera artists act naturally, without any sense of violation.
In terms of shape and style, opera costumes are also deliberately distanced from the normalcy of life. Traditional opera is mainly based on historical themes, and it is not difficult to imitate ancient dress with reference to historical materials such as portraits and biographies. However, the "strange costumes" such as ruyi crowns, overlord helmets, and large foreheads on the stage have not been examined in history. Some commonly used outfits are even more contrary to basic dress codes such as comfort, convenience, and cold protection. For example, most of the generals played by Wusheng and Dao Madan have four flags with streamers on their backs. This kind of attire is cumbersome, trivial and not conducive to concealment, and is tantamount to inserting a sign and selling a head on the battlefield. In fact, the ancient soldiers would only hang a small flag on their backs, mostly used to distinguish between the enemy and me and the bluff. In real life, there are no examples of two or three meters long water sleeves, three or four inches high thick bottom, and large belts hanging from the ground. This almost masochistic attire is clearly a serious obstacle to normal movement and sitting. It can be seen that most of the opera costumes are out of the needs of stage performances, which are exaggerated and fictionalized by artists on the characteristics of historical figures.
Yue opera "Detective" water sleeve
However, the pear garden industry is also known as the golden rule of "better to wear it than to wear it wrong": clothing can be worn, and it is taboo to wear it and violate the rules. Sometimes, for a hairpin, a certain trick error, the old worker can not tolerate. This seems too contradictory, but in fact it reflects the special virtual requirements of opera. The costume regardless of dynasty is a freehand sketch that blurs some common and unimportant introductions. This allows the audience to quickly understand the identity of the characters, and greatly reduces the cost of the costumes of the drama class. When it is necessary to express the personality, quality or special situation of a specific character, the sloppiness of the dress will directly affect the lyrical, intentional and conveying effects. This contrast between fiction and reality is similar to carefully depicting grass worms with a pen in a large freehand painting of flowers and birds.
Taking Peking Opera as an example, the texture of the head face worn by Dan Jiao is often a reflection of the character's family situation. Diancui is designed to show the magnificence of royal and official eunuchs; rhinestones are mostly used for small families of jasper or ordinary women; silver nails are symbols of poor women or filial piety. When performing "June Snow Dharma Field", Dou E not only had to remove all the jewelry of the hairpin ring, but also had to wear a hood. Because, the handsome appearance at this time not only does not match the image of the death row prisoner who is about to be beheaded, but also hinders the emotional resonance of the audience. Another example: although the flag head and the bottom of the flower pot are not the special costumes of the Characters of the Qing Dynasty, they are only used to represent the women of Fanbang. The shoulder is a sign of a subordinate such as a servant and a servant woman. Male flower arrangements on the sideburns indicate their temperament. The civil officials of the past were basically double-winged black yarn and complement court clothes, but the shape of the hat wings was very exquisite: square and pointed were the distinction between loyalty and adultery, and round wings and peach-shaped wings were the exclusive use of ugly behavior. In fact, what is constructed by the combination of virtual reality and clothing is a special set of language symbols. It, like the face and body, serves the stylized performance system of opera.
The Palace Museum has a blue satin plate gold embroidered bat peach with money grain nails wide piece Bagua clothes
【Appreciation of Elegance and Customs】
The deep integration with grassroots culture and folk customs makes the art of opera full of elements of folk culture, which directly affects the aesthetic characteristics of character dress. However, the opera costumes are not all red and green, full of earthy flavor. Some of them are as elegant and refined as high-end crafts
Originally born in the countryside and performed on the temple platform, opera also carries the function of entertaining the gods while entertaining people. The deep integration with grassroots culture and folk customs makes this art full of elements of folk culture. This is not only reflected in the plot content and spiritual theme, but also directly affects the aesthetic characteristics of the character's dress. In terms of color, although the costumes are colorful and colorful, they strictly follow the traditional Chinese concept: yellow represents the royal, purple shows wealth, red sets off the festive, and black is used for the cold door. Danjiao has a trade named "Qingyi", because Wang Baojun, Liu Yingchun, Luo Shi and other women wear green and black coats to show that they are willing to be poor and abide by the way of women. When the senior artists performed "Three Churches Trial", they also deliberately let all the characters on the stage wear red clothes and use "full of red" to please the auspicious. In terms of patterns, dragons, phoenixes, lions, tigers, eight immortals and eight treasures, Fulu Shouxi, and pine crane bat butterflies are commonly used on costumes to reflect the identity, habits and situations of the characters. Because they are also in line with the existing regulations and imagination of folklore.
Following the old customs of the world, artists even have a reverence for the behavior of certain characters. For example, Guan Yu is regarded as a martial saint in the folk and has mythological overtones. Therefore, in the past, before wearing his costume, the actor had to fast, bathe, worship the dragon knife, and put an old man in the bun to show that people and gods are different. Another example: Lingjie prefers to call a pleat embroidered with patches of various colors "rich and noble clothes" and is extremely cherished. Because, it is dedicated to the temporary decline of the students, the future Tengda, but also the meaning of blessing the prosperity of the drama class. Sometimes, the costume of the opera is not directly related to the stage image, but has to be subordinated to the audience's usual aesthetic habits. Among them, the white costume in particular can not be worn indiscriminately: "The white cloth filial piety robe is a realistic mourning dress." Therefore, the rules in the drama class, the actor must give another sum of money when he wears this, which is called black money, but he is not allowed to wear it in the church. In short, white pleats are not allowed to be worn by poor and small households, and they are not allowed to wear them during the mourning period. Nowadays, some people wear it, and they cannot criticize him except for the word 'layman'" (Qi Rushan: "National Drama in the Past Fifty Years"). These conventional rules are the products of the interaction of the audience, which further highlights the aesthetic characteristics of the popular and popular opera.
Peking Opera, Dapeng Yi, Chen Shen Collection
However, the opera costumes are not all red and green, full of earthy flavor. Some of them are as elegant and refined as high-end crafts. Since the Ming and Qing dynasties, court dramas have flourished, and official eunuchs have become popular in maintaining their families. The support and participation of royal nobles and literati and scholars gradually took on another style of slang drama. Today, the Forbidden City has more than 8,000 costumes in its collection. Although its categories and styles are similar to those of the people, the materials and processes produced are very different. Precious fabrics such as brocade and satin are used in large quantities, and jade, precious stones, pearls, and screws are also inlaid. A piece of monkey leaning (dedicated to Sun Wukong) is on an apricot-yellow satin and is also spelled out with leopard skin to form a pattern of animal faces. On these costumes, the silk and embroidery are not only delicate and elegant, but also exquisitely shaded and compositional, thus constituting a gorgeous and luxurious but harmonious and unified stage style.
In addition, due to the assistance of the intellectual class, the cultural accomplishment of artists has been significantly improved. He consulted Wu Changshuo, Qi Baishi and other art masters, and let some famous characters become proficient in pen and ink Danqing. The cooperation between the lingjie and the literati, opera and calligraphy and painting, further promoted the elegance of stage dress. Especially in the costumes of Jingkun, the pursuit of light colors, simple composition, and harmony is becoming increasingly prominent. Not only have there been an increase in patterns that conform to the interests of the literati, such as the three friends of the year, orchid autumn chrysanthemum, and "one tiger" calligraphy, but also the unobtrusive color schemes such as lake blue, green gray, and bean paste. In search of a strange and coordinated color combination, Mei Lanfang insisted on painting and cultivating morning glory all year round. He wrote in "Forty Years of Stage Life": "Actors without aesthetic concepts will make irreconcilable color problems in their dress, so they will also affect the personality of the characters in the play, and damage the atmosphere on the stage." I have cultivated my common sense in this area by raising flowers and painting, and I have invisibly gained something." By observing the ancient paintings of ladies, opera performers also invented new costumes such as ancient costume heads and buns. When shaping chang'e, dai yu and other characters, Mei Lanfang wears very little head, but is chic and elegant. This kind of painting-in-play, individually different costumes not only enhance the style of stage presentation, but also help personalized performances.
The Palace Museum has a collection of apricot yellow satin monkeys leaning on
【Writing the heart in shape】
Only when it is combined with performances, serving characters, and setting off situations can the value of the line be truly revealed. Opera is not simply a juggling of showmanship, but also a lofty artistic realm. In addition to shaping the shape and matching the acting skills, the more important role of the opera costume lies in lyricism and writing the heart
Due to the wide variety of opera costumes and exquisite dressing, in the past, in the "Seven Branches" of Pear Garden, there were three departments of drama costumes, costumes and helmets specializing in this. However, the status of these practitioners in the industry is not high, and they are often regarded as "heels", almost serving the actor's retinue. This shows that even if the costumes and heads are exquisitely materialized and exquisitely made, they are only static objects after all. It is not the core artistic element of opera, nor is it the main object of appreciation of the audience. Only when it is combined with performances, serving characters, and setting off situations can the value of the line be truly revealed. In fact, many unique performances of opera must be assisted by costumes. For example, the step is an important program to highlight the gender characteristics of the character. In order to amplify the different physical beauty of men and women, the foothold and power point of birth and dan walking are very different. But this most basic skill must also rely on the shape and texture of the shoe. If you let Tsing Yi wear high boots, outstanding artists will also have a hard time walking. In order to express the pace of ancient women's three-inch golden lotus, the artist also invented a special stilt shoe to present the Chinese toe dance. Some Pear Garden Kung Fu are even directly named after costumes: Lingzi Gong, Hat Wing Gong, Water Sleeve Gong, Shot by the Flag, Kicking the Big Belt, Throwing Helmets, etc. It can be seen that the costume mainly presents not static beauty, but the basis and tool for actors to highlight dynamic beauty.
For the production industry, high-end, gorgeous clothing may not be applicable, and sometimes it will help. For example, in 1924, Du Yuesheng's ticket play "Serial Set" replaced the pompoms on Huang Tianba's luo hat with glittering rhinestones. The weight that he didn't want to weigh too much made him unable to lift his head. Ma Lianliang also tried to use velvet as an official coat to enhance the texture, but found that this matte fabric would stick to the hips (old beard). Cheng Yanqiu also instructed Xin Fengxia on how to use water sleeves: "This kind of soft silk material is not GOOD, there is no weight, the size is too long and not good." You are such a small kun horn, it is not suitable for such a long, water sleeves should be spun with large silk, have weight, and are easy to shake" ("Memoirs of New Fengxia"). Some costumes, despite the cheap materials, have become rare treasures for actors. Opera performances pay attention to "singing and doing fights", and the high load of physical expenditure often makes people sweat. The embroidered and satin costumes cannot withstand the soaking and washing of water. Therefore, during performances, celebrities often wear a dress (bamboo cloth) woven with thin bamboo pipes. Although it is not beautiful, it is breathable and sweatproof, and wearing it can protect the head from sweat staining and corrosion. The fat jacket is only sewn with white cloth and filled with cotton, but it is an indispensable lining for the net performance, so as to highlight the hero's heroic spirit and burly posture.
The Palace Museum's green pigment crepe crepe hat
However, serving skill is still not the full function of the line. Opera is not simply a juggling of showmanship, but a more lofty artistic realm. Zong Baihua once defined the word realm in this way: "Transform the real scene into the virtual realm, create the image as a symbol, and make the highest human soul concretize and incarnate" ("The Birth of Chinese Artistic Conception"). Most of China's traditional arts pursue ethereal and ethereal artistic conceptions, emphasizing the movement of the spirit, the transformation of the virtual into reality, the fusion of scenes, and the birth of the heart. On the surface, they depict the beauty of famous mountains and rivers, flowers, birds, fish and insects, and narrate strange and moving things in ancient and modern China and abroad. But through external objects, what the creator is really trying to present is his own subjective world. Its spiritual height, inner perception, and personality cultivation are often the keys to determining the artistic level. Therefore, in addition to shaping the shape and matching the acting skills, the more important role of the opera costume is also lyrical and heart-writing.
On the stage, most of the costumed characters sewed a piece of white silk outside the sleeves of their clothes, known as "water sleeves". In fact, although the Tang costume and Hanfu are wide and the sleeves are fat, they do not have the habit of embellishing the sleeves with silk. This kind of attire is not to restore the truth of history, but to fit the function of "long-sleeved good dance". The Preface to Mao's Poems reads: "Emotions are in the middle and form in words, words are insufficient, so sigh, sighs are insufficient, so eternal songs are insufficient, and do not know the foot of the dance of the hand." For expressing emotions, dance is the most intuitive and real way besides language and singing. Opera performances are known for their dancing of everyday movements. With the waving of the long sleeves, the actor's arms are extended, and the movements on the stage are more eye-catching. And in order to enhance the function of lyrical expression, the previous artists summed up ten techniques of water sleeves: "hook, pick, support, rush, dial, lift, dust, fling, hit, shake". If they are connected and interspersed, they can be ever-changing and mysterious. In addition, opera costumes such as plumes, hat wings, and large belts have also evolved relatively independent performance stunts, because they are also able to move and dance, and there is a possibility of borrowing things to express their feelings.
These opera dances derived from costumes do not simply pursue complexity and difficulty. On the contrary, the pear garden industry has always scorned the fluttering wings and dancing sleeves that deviate from the plot, and scorned them as "spilling dog blood". Because, blindly showing off skills not only can not reflect the temperament, but even damage the appearance of the character. For example, each genre has a character with a long pheasant tail. However, in the case of King Wushu of Jin, Li Keyong, etc., Lingzi mainly played the role of referring to the identity of foreign races. The sharp swing and shaking obviously does not match his old, weighty identity. Only when showing young and innocent characters, performances such as playing with the wings and spinning the wings can be appropriate. Moreover, the clever Lingzi Gong should go beyond the functions of speech and singing, and achieve the effect of winning the sound with silence. In "The Gathering of Heroes", Zhou Yu is jealous of Kong Ming's wisdom, but he wants to pretend to be generous and calm, so the trembling of the pheasant tail on his head is the expression of his heart. Sweeping the faces of others with a feather is a non-verbal expression that tries to seduce. Only when used for Lü Bu to play with the mink cicada can the flirtatiousness and lustfulness of the prodigal son be fully displayed. This kind of performance also reflects the characteristics of traditional Chinese aesthetics of conveying the spirit through objects and writing the heart in shape, and also provides conditions for the inner expression of the creator.
Suzhou Opera Museum collects Kunqu opera heads
Author: Guan Erdong (Associate Professor, Hangzhou Normal University)
Editor: Fan Xin
Planner: Fan Xin
Editor-in-Charge: Shao Ling
*Wenhui exclusive manuscript, please indicate the source when reprinting.