Liu Mingshan (oral), Xie Jiang, Zhu Zhanzong (finishing); Li Zijian has come to Bao for performances several times, and is very influential in the pear garden industry in our city, so I wrote this article to commemorate it.
Zhangjiakou City has been under the jurisdiction of Gushanggu County since the Qin and Han Dynasties. During the years of Ming Jiajing and Wanli, the upper and lower forts of Zhangjiakou were built successively. Every year in early spring and February, from the trading center in the fort stretches in all directions, the vehicles are lightly hung, the felt tents are lined up, and all kinds of commercial beaches are lined up one after another. Horses, camels, fat sheep, roe cattle, small felt blankets, animal skins, feathers, brocades, bottles, wine vessels, abound. Football games and acrobatic performances in the Central Plains also continued to spread to the borderlands, so Zhangjiakou City gradually became a northern trade center and a fur distribution center. As commerce and handicrafts became more prosperous, so did the theater industry. It is in this historical context that I came to Zhangjiakou.
My name is Liu Mingshan, and my stage name is May Immortal. It is originally from Xinkou Town, Xinxian County, Shanxi. His father's name is Liu Farong, and his stage name is "Cloud Shade Moon", and he is a well-known Jin opera artist in the north. In the eighteenth year of Guangxu, he was invited to Beijing to perform in the "Guangde Building", and was later recruited into the imperial palace by Cixi, and he showed a "double official" in a robe play, which was appreciated by "Lafayette". She personally rewarded my father with a phoenix crown and a python robe, and since then, the stage name of "Cloud Shade Moon" has been called Zhenjingshi. Just when my father was making a great show of his skills in the pear garden industry, due to the poor income of the artists in the old society, the large population of my family, and the increasing burden, my father became ill with anxiety and illness, and unfortunately died in his hometown on March 20, 1913, at the age of forty-four. Because my father had acted in the Zhangjiakou Daxin Courtyard in the seventeenth year of Guangxu before his death, the class leader at that time was a native of Puzhou, Shanxi. When my father performed at the DaxinYuan, he played with Xie Tianbao (Xiao Changhei), and also got acquainted with the four major flower-faced Meng Laihei, Wei Nanhei, Eight Hundred Black and Wusheng Wang Tianen (stage name "Moth") and others. Therefore, when my father was dying, he instructed my mother that after his death, he could let the children run to Zhangjiakou and rely on their friends to cultivate adults in the pear garden circle to continue their aspirations. In accordance with my father's will and the teachings of my loving mother, I was only fifteen years old at the time, that is, I came to Zhangjiakou at the end of October 1913 with my second brother Liu Baoshan (stage name Twelve Red), and first defected to Xiao Changhei Xie Tianbao and lived in Xiaoxinyuan. Soon after, he worshiped the "moth" Wang Tian'en as his teacher and lived in Changsheng Class. At that time, Li Zijian also lived in Changsheng Class, and since then we have begun to form art friends. He was only nineteen years old at the time, four years older than me, and had already made his debut in the pear garden circle of Zhangyuan, receiving a salary of fifty-five hangings a month, and I only started apprenticeships at that time, earning only a dozen hanging money a year. Changsheng class lived in the Qili Tea House in Zhangjiakou, and the class leader Wang Tianen, who was originally from Puzhou, Shanxi, sang Wusheng in his early years, and then stopped singing because of his broken voice. But his martial arts were very strong, and he jumped like a fly, so the masses took his "Fei En", and the harmonic sound of "Fei En" was called "Moth". Wang Tian'en and my father were brothers who prostrated themselves to their sons before they died. The artists of the old society paid special attention to the righteousness of the brothers, so Master Wang Tianen treated me like a father and son. Li Zijian was originally from Qi County, Shanxi, and it is said that in his early years he was a doll from the "100,000 class" in Qi County, Shanxi, so he had a deep foundation. He is often by nature, and his stage name is "Duoqing", also known as "Ermanqing", Gong qingyi. His brother's name was Chang Xinye, his stage name was "Manqing", and he was also a worker in Qingyi. In the 20th year of the Republic of China, when the "Shanxi Grand Theater" in Taiyuan was engaged in relief performances for the people affected by the flood disaster, I co-performed "Golden Beach" with "Da Manqing", I pretended to be the Xiaoyun King of the Northern Kingdom, he pretended to be the South China Sea Buddha, and created a plum blossom tune singing voice in the performance, which was well received by the theater industry.
Li Zijian, who lost his father at an early age and his mother was widowed, Chang Xingye and Li Zijian both relied on a man named "Er Busy" to lead the play, bringing the two brothers to Zhangjiakou. Chang Xingye lived in the Shaoxin Courtyard, and the class leaders were Black Zhang Yuxi, a lion from Inner Mengsa County, and Chen Baolin, a yanqing man. Also in the class were Yu Doll (a native of Beijing, who was renamed from Peking Opera to Shanxi Zizi), Dong Yushan (a native of Xinxian County, Shanxi) and others. Li Zijian's nickname is "only son", which is said to have originally taken the meaning of "monopoly". "Second Busy" is more than thirty years older than him, we are all called "Second Master", and in the same year people called "Second Busy" "Second Class Master". In the Changsheng class, along with Li Zijian, there are also Erbaohong from Fenyang, Shanxi, and Lu Fengtong (stage name Ermaodan) from Xinxian County, Shanxi, all three of whom are first-class actors. Ermaodan and my father worshipped Sun Zhu'an (stage name Yizhimei) as a teacher from Puzhou, Shanxi, so I called Yizhi Meishi Uncle. Ermaodan personally taught me traditional items such as "three shangshang caravans", "bee counting", "loyalty to the country", and "shepherding pens". His specialty play is "three on the car". Although his voice was broken later, he was very delicate in his acting, and he was also very serious in passing on the drama with apprentices, so Ermaodan could also be said to be my teacher. Li Zijian's best plays are "FengtaiGuan", "Heroic Martyr", "Hundred Flowers and Dots", "Yin Soul Array", "Mu Guiying's Great Heavenly Gate Array" and other plays. He has both martial arts and martial arts in his performance Chinese, and his singing skills are good, so he became famous earlier. In addition, he also mastered many interesting little dramas, such as "cloth changing flowers", "picking jade bracelets" (he pretended to be Liu Matchmaker), "Wang Po scolded chickens" (pretended to be Wang Po), which was quite popular with the audience. It is said that Li Zijian's "Wang Po Scolding Chicken" came from the Sanyuan Dankou Middle School in Xujiazhuang, a suburb of Zhangjiakou City, after a famous artist in Shanxi (Sanyuan Dan was the same as my father), and the "scolding chicken" of floating on the water (Ermingdan) was taught by Li Zijian, from which we can see their teacher-inheritance relationship with each other.
At that time, when artists entered the drama class, they had to have the skills of "three books", "six clubs" and "twelve out". Li Zijian became famous because of his youth, and he is still relatively lacking in these aspects. Among his peers, there is a famous artist named Su Dayou, who is two years older than Li Zijian; his father's name is "Ten Mile Busy", and he is a famous old artist in Zhangjiakou City. "Ten Miles Busy" attaches great importance to rewarding the younger generations, he often gives Li Zijian drama, coupled with Zijian's humble and studious heart, so his artistic level improves rapidly. In October 1914, the two of us broke up and he went to Beijing.
Soon, Wang Tianen's Changsheng class went to perform in various places, such as the fire temple in xuanhua archway east on the sixteenth day of the first month, the Guanyin Temple in the south of Nanyingfang Road in Zhangjiakou on February 19, the First Eight in Shi'er Mountain in the first eight days of April, the Yingchengzi on April 18, the Grandma Temple in Baozi in April 28, the River Temple in Qiaodong and the Mawang Temple in Shengou in June, and the Circle on August 15. Sometimes he also goes to Sanlitun and Wash Marlin, Xuanhua Tongue Tree Camp, and Okura Gai to perform.
In 1919, our Changsheng class was invited to perform at the Xinghua Tea Garden in the south of the archway in Xuanhua City. In order to expand the influence of the troupe, we invited Li Zijian back from Beijing, and by this time he had officially changed from the surname Chang to li. Because after he arrived in Beijing, he worshiped Zhang Erkui, a famous actor from Hebei Zizi, as a teacher, and when he played with Li Cuifen, a famous actor of Hebei Zizi, he used the drama to communicate and establish a love relationship, and soon became a couple. Li Cuifen's father was a famous jewelry and jade merchant in Beijing, and the family had a wealth of ten thousand yuan, but there was no son on his lap, so Li Zijian entered the Li family as a son-in-law (commonly known as Zhao son-in-law), and officially changed his surname to Li. After Li Zijian and Li Cuifen came, they lived in WanheZhan in the east of Xuanhua Caoshi, when they already had a boy of more than two years old, with a breast named "Fu Gen'er", who grew up in a full garden and had a wide square garden, and this child was Li Shifang, one of the four little famous Dans who later became famous in the Peking Opera circle. It is said that Li Shifang was born on Tanshi Street in Saraqi City, Inner Mongolia, when his parents went out to perform. At that time, Changshengban paid a very high price for inviting Li Zijian and his wife. A person gives them six dollars a day, plus a dollar for vegetables. If they do not perform, one person a day will also provide one dollar, one pound of white noodles, and they will find three houses. At that time, I was already in charge of changsheng class. The main actors in the class are Lingling Sheng Zhou Fuqing, Xiao Erbao, Shi Lixiang, Jade Doll, and Yan Tiande (stage name Datou Hei), a native of Puzhou, Shanxi. The head of the theater was a martial artist of the former Qing Dynasty, a Xuanhua man, surnamed Wang, known as the King of Bow and Arrow. The "Xinghua Tea Garden" was originally built by the Flag People, and after the Qing Dynasty, it was managed by the Bow and Arrow King. My master Wang Tianen and the old monk Wu Dangjia of the Xuanhua Fire Temple are good friends and have a lot of friendship with each other, so they are eight dramas when they are written. Yihua City also has Yangyuan, Yaoxian, Datong, Qitai Guild Hall, There are Wanlongchang, Jihoucheng, Qianheyong, Daxing and other money shops, in addition to the Laoye Temple, Caishen Temple, etc., these places come to write plays, so the business is particularly prosperous, May 13 we also specially in Xuanhua West Street to play a lottery. Every day, each business name sends "platform items" to the drama class: generally ten pounds of meat, fifty pounds of noodles, a bundle of dried vermicelli, and a jar of wine. After the play, twenty people lined up for two tables. Sometimes the treasurer gives the reward money back. Once Wanlong Chang rewarded Xiao Erbao five hanging money, and other people also rewarded at least one hanging money, and the drama class was particularly prosperous.
After the Spring Festival, I remember that Li Zijian's father-in-law and mother-in-law also came from Beijing to Xuanhua to see their daughter and son-in-law. Zi Jian's father-in-law was elegant and dignified, talking extraordinary, and had the style of a rich businessman, and his mother-in-law was dressed as a flag bearer and was also quite personable. We treat them all as VIP guests. Li Zijian and Li Cuifen were quite innovative at the time, and they took the lead in Xuanhua to perform new plays on stage. I remember that the new dramas they performed included "One Dollar" and "Saw Bowl Nails", which reflected the Boxer Rebellion, as well as dramas such as "Huang Da's Savior", "Visiting Relatives' Homes", and "Examining Flowers by Caesarean Section", li cuifen played a positive danjiao, Li Zijian played a negative character, and the husband and wife cooperated with each other and complemented each other. At this time, Li Zijian's singing voice has been changed to the tone of Hebei Zizi. Every day, on behalf of the drama class, I invited Li Cuifen's master Zhang Erkui and Si Gu to Xuanhua Chaoyang Building for dinner. Three people spend two or three dollars for a meal, and the meal is quite impressive. The new play performed by Li Zijian and his wife in Xuanhua temporarily shook the ancient city of Shanggu, which is really a household name, and women and children are well-known. In addition, they also performed some traditional old plays in Xuanhua, such as: "Bee Meter", "Yutang Spring", "Bean Juice Meter", "Song Jinlan" and so on.
Around the eighth day of the first lunar month and the fifteenth of February, the leather shops, tooth shops, and money shops in Xuanhua City all had to invite each other. During this period, each business name must invite guests to order a play, and finally the owner will give the reward. Most of the plays they ordered were traditional plays that expressed auspiciousness, such as "full bed wat", "loyal to the country" and so on. Every day during the performance, Tang Qinglin, the town guard of Xuanhua Town, also sent the army and the police to maintain order. The theater should be served with tobacco tea and melon seeds. Tang Qinglin's headquarters was located in Archway East Street in Xuanhua City. After February 15, our drama class went to the counties and townships to perform again, and Li Zijian's family returned to Beijing, and we broke up again. But the feeling of longing has not been forgotten for a day.
It wasn't until April 1924, when I was performing in Zhangjiakou, that Li Zijian came to Zhangjiakou from Shanxi again, and we met again for the third time. After Li Zijian came to Zhang, he performed in the DaxinYuan, and he also brought the famous Danjiao Suiyuan person Gao Genmei, whose stage name was Zi laixiang. Zi Lai Xiang's sons are named Gao Niangen, stage name Xiao Xiang Xiang, and are Li Zijian's apprentices, and they all perform in the Daxin Temple. Their main plays are "Picking Jade Bracelets", "Cloth for Flowers", "FengtaiGuan", "Heroic Heroes", "Hundred Flowers and Points", "Yin Soul Array" and other traditional plays. At this time, Li Zijian's skills had reached the level of pure fire and uniqueness. He made a net of five hundred and fifty dollars a year, and I had become the young boss of the Changsheng class, but I only earned three hundred twenty dollars a year: the salary was far less than his. When I was performing on the outer stage, in order to learn from each other, he personally watched my performances of "Lu Hua Ji" and "South Heavenly Gate". On the wild stage in Luxi outside the Main Lecture Gate, after I finished performing, he took the initiative to congratulate me on the stage and praised my unique work in the performing arts. Our friendship with each other has also grown stronger.
In 1925, Li Zijian and I both went to Xuanhua "Xinghua Tea Garden". He earned a salary of three yuan a day, and at this time Li Shifang had entered the drama school in Beijing, and studied drama with Mao Shilai, Zhang Junqiu, Song Dezhu, Yuan Shihai and others, and had already made his debut in the art world. I performed with Li Zijian in Xuanhua for a winter, and the famous actor who performed on the same stage at that time was Gai Tianhong (daimyo Li Jingyun). After coming to Zhang from Shanxi in 1913, he first performed in The Xiaoxinyuan, playing Liu Xiu in "Shangtiantai", Liu Bei in "Great Revenge", and Zhao Kuangyin in "Xia Hedong". Gai Tianhong is seven years older than me, and is known in Shanxi as "enema red" (Note: Another Guan Sheng, also known as Gai Tianhong, whose father is a native of Handan, has a meritorious name, and has a meritorious name, and has been an official in Shanxi. Twenty-three years older than Li Jingyun, he was an actor during the Guangxu years, and these two Gai Tianhong cannot be confused). In addition, there are old actors in Zhangjiakou and the chicken feather ugly with four lights. Li Zijian performed in the "Xinghua Tea Garden" for a winter, and left an indelible chapter in the history of pear gardens in Shanggu Ancient County. After February, the actors of our Changsheng class were going to perform again, and Li Zijian returned to Beijing again.
In 1926, the warlords were fighting, just as the folk proverb said: "The warlord comes, fights a war, and sings with a white face and a black face." Li Zijian and I could not stay in Beijing or Zhangjiakou any longer, so I consulted with Li Zijian's brother "Damanqing" Chang Xingye and Ma Wuhei (Taigu, Zhao Kejia, who was Moon Hei's nephew) to form a team and ran to Xibaotou together. Performed at the "Xinghua Tea House" on the south side of Front Street. When I performed in Baotou, I, Li Zijian, and Shui Shui floated during the anti-string drama "Cutting the Door" and "Sitting on the Building to Kill", which shook the whole city. Originally, we all sang Danjiao, but in "Chopper" I pretended to be Eight Kings Chitose, Drifting On the Water to play Rokuro, and Plum Jian dressed as Mugua. In the "sitting building" floating on the water Yan Po Xie, the front field by me to install Song Jiang, killing a Yuzi Jian dressed Song Jiang, very popular with the masses. The owner of the "Xinghua Tea House" in Baotou is named Lian Yinghe, a native of Xinxian County, Shanxi, who used to open a cloth shop in Baotou, and later changed to a theater. Soon after the performance, due to the inconvenience of transportation in Baotou at that time, the people's livelihood was withered, so the performance could not open the account until the end of July.
At the end of August, we went to Guisui (i.e. Hohhot) and performed at the "Banquet Art Academy". Here to play is Wang Taihe, a native of Xinkou Town, Xinxian County, Shanxi. When we performed in Guisui, in order to achieve a neat lineup and a popularity, we joined the class with the drama of the old courtyard in Zhangjiakou. Among them were Hong Yaochun, Yang Zhongwu, Yuan Yuansheng, Taiping Hong, Lion Black, and Seven Hundred Black. However, due to the chaos in Suiyuan society at that time, the drama class failed to perform for more than forty days, and Wang Taihe gave more than a hundred yuan to maintain everyone's life and solve the urgent need. Social reality has made some people see that there is not much oil and water in the drama class, and there are more than a hundred people in two shifts, and soon there are only more than seventy people left. Later, after the opening of the stage, because there were Li Zijian's brothers DaManqing, Yuan Yuansheng, and Taiping Hong, as well as HongBaozhen, the daughter of Hong Yaochun, and Xiao Jinxiang, a native of Fenyang, Shanxi, the sister of my brother Liu Yushan, the sister of liu yushan, the business was still called Xinglong. However, because there are many local miscellaneous troops, military discipline is very bad, and most of them watch dramas in vain and do not spend money. At the end of the performance, there was no way, so I had to borrow a thousand yuan from the local Xinxian people's traders and scatter the funds for the actors.
I had no choice but to go to Baotou with Chang Xingye, the grain bank, money bank, and tea shop in Baotou were all Shanxi people, and I played the main role with Chang Xingye when I performed, plus the support of Shanxi businessmen, so I suddenly sang red in Baotou. At that time, there was also an actor Hua Woman in Baotou, whose big name was Li Guilin, a Shanxi Right Jade person, whose parents died when she was a child, and was sold by li shunzi, the brother of the shaved head shop, to Fu Hong, the son of The Puzhou people, as a child adopted daughter-in-law, and later March Dan took her to the Xuandi Temple in Zuoyun City to play "handle style", and "Jin Lanhong" and "La Lingzi" both participated in Huairen Wu Ji zhou's drama class, and became famous in Fengzhen. Therefore, she was born, Dan, Net, End, ugly, all kinds of things, once played "Zhongbaoguo" She was originally a Dan character, but she played Yang Yanzhao, which was well received by the masses. Therefore, there is a local saying in the local folks: "The lucky fish can sing, and the plough will wave, which is not as good as the flower woman's play bag (that is, the meaning of more)". In addition, there are Wang Jinfeng, La Plougher, Jin Lanhong, and Yu Ersheng, and I have learned a lot of skills from them, learned from each other's strengths, and learned a lot of skills.
In the eighteenth year of the Republic of China, Suiyuan Province suffered a drought, God only thundered and did not rain, the red land was thousands of miles, there was no grass, the villagers sold their children and daughters, wandering around, who had the heart to go to the theater. We had no choice but to go back to Shanxi. It first performed in Xinxian County, and then moved to Daniudian Town in Yuanping County on April 18. One night I was finishing "Chicken Rack Mountain" with Moon Black, and when I returned to the store, I met Li Zijian. He also brought with him an actor who acted in a small play, named "Erzhu". I quickly asked the next person to prepare the meal, and the two of them shared their parting feelings. At the same time, I kept him here to perform. Later, the drama class was transferred to Yuanping, Qicun, Bule and other places to perform. There was a gentleman named Deng Hancheng in Qicun, who had served as a quartermaster under Gong Fukui in Datong and was quite influential in the local area. He breaded our play, sold tickets in Qicun for seven days, Li Zijian only opened guest shares, the first two performances by him, because of his appearance, the ticket price was greatly increased, Li Zijian here exposed the "Nine Curves Yellow River Array", "Xin'an Yi", "FengtaiGuan", a sensation in Xinzhou. The performance lasted until October, when he left Xinxian county and returned to his hometown of Qi county, Shanxi.
In 1934, the twenty-third year of the Republic of China, I met with Li Zijian again in Taiyuan. At that time, Li Zijian, Li Cuifen, Zhang Yuxi and my second brother Liu Baoshan wrapped up my drama spots. At that time, the main actors in the class were Xuanhua Ren False Erbao, Golden Pillar, Eighteen Red Li Songshan and other protagonists. The venue of the daily performance is the "Shanxi Grand Theater" in Taiyuan City. The manager of the hospital is a Tianjin native surnamed Yang. The hospital also plays dumb movies during the day. Later, because I went to Jining to pick up a famous actor who specialized in Guan Gong, Gai Lianzhong, I stayed in the "Fuqing Tea Garden" on the West Second Road of Jining Bridge to perform. At that time, there were many famous actors there, such as blush, Pingwang black, new blood, tiger head sheng, seventeen sheng, knife red, belly peeling lamb, a fish and so on. The troupe consists of three locals, Tao Chunyuan, Wusheng Zhang Fulian, and Gambler Bald Gen'er. I performed six plays in six days, "Ertang Shezi", "Zhang Gong Rushing Son", "Three Niang Godson", "Picking Up Ten Thousand Gold", "Chopping Judge", and "Butterfly Cup". In Jining sang red at once. Later, Wang Taihe (Zi Maosan) sent a telegram again to ask me to return to Suiyuan. His opera class was brought to Baotou by me, and he managed Peking Opera in Suiyuan.
In the fourteenth year of the Republic of China, Li Zijian came to Baotou from Beijing again, and we were able to meet again. He stayed with my group when he came. At that time, there was a kiln in Baotou Pingkang that was rented to the troupe, and Li Zijian lived there. Li Cuifen lived in the Tianshengkui grocery store. Because this grocery store is headed by a female treasurer, known as "Boss Qiao", this person is charming, good at socializing, and is originally from Shanxi. She and Li Cuifen are kowtow sisters. Grocery stores specialize in kerosene, wax, and gas lamps. It was very convenient for Li Cuifen to live there.
At that time, the most popular figure in the Baotou opera scene was Wang Yushan, a rising star in the Jin opera circle and a Wutai person in Shanxi, whose stage name was Floating on the Water, also known as Ermingdan. When he was a child, he entered the drama class of the wenyou class master of Chengxian County, worshiped Zhengtang Dan as a teacher, and later became famous. At that time, he was only twenty-six years old, fifteen years younger than Zijian. There is a saying in Shanxi hometown: "Wutai has produced two treasures, one is Yan Xishan and the other is floating on the water." Ning told Yan Xishan not to sit, nor to float on the water and not to sing. "The height of his prestige among the masses is evident here. In addition to his singing and composing, the water drift was also because he used a high-level violinist, and the person who gave him a huhu was a native of Nanguan, Xinxian County, whose stage name was "Five Devils", and the compatriots said: "The Hu Hu of the Five Devils can talk". The five devils were four or five years older than me, but unfortunately, although he was highly skilled, he was stained by his addiction to smoking, damaged his health, and left the human world prematurely.
Another characteristic of water rafting is that he is open-minded and studious, and is good at taking the strengths of each family. The ancients yun "the sea and the river are hundreds of rivers, and there is tolerance is great" is indeed the most reasonable saying. He not only humbly learned the performing arts of Tsing Yi from me, but also humbly learned the skills of Dao Ma Dan from Li Zijian. This time, Li Zijian personally taught the traditional repertoire with unique styles such as "Stone Buddha Mouth", "Stealing Silver Pot", "Scolding Chicken" and so on to the floating water in Baotou. This makes the artistic level of floating on water reach a higher level.
In April of the 24th year of the Republic of China, he performed at the Luzu Temple in Baotou, when the border city was bustling with water ripples and green grass, and the green mountains were already in the season of spring flowers, and the mighty Yellow River was also flooded with spring floods. In this season of birds and flowers, the celebrities in the Jin opera circle are full of talents and rarely long and salty, so this performance has added scenery to Baotou City. The robe play is a "Hundred Flowers Princess" performed by Li Zijian and Water Drift, the first half is performed by Water Drift, and the second half is performed by Li Zijian. It is really two peaks facing each other, each showing the wind. Li Zijian also brought many new drama books, such as: "One Dollar", "Visiting Relatives", "Yellow Dog Savior", "Saw Bowl Nails", "Broken Belly Test Flower" (Liver Flower), etc. His actions have blown a little drama innovation to the border grassland city. I have performed a new drama "Broken Belly Flower Examination" with Li Zijian and Water Drifter. Zi Jian dressed as a trial judge, I pretended to be the daughter of my aunt's family, the daughter of my aunt's family who was floating on the water, Meng Changrong dressed as a clown, and Li Dianjia played Xiaosheng. The performance was very loud, and the cheers were endless. At this time, Li Shifang had already performed on stage in Beijing, and he often learned a lot of skills from Mei Lanfang, Ma Lianliang and other masters, and had already initially shown the posture of "blue out of blue". Li Zijian and his wife soon returned to Beijing, and our troupe began to run on the outer stage again, performing in Dengkou, Anbei, Guyang and other places.
In the twenty-fifth year of the Republic of China, I went to Baotou to live in the qianjie Hou Rushan, Hou Linshan, and Hou Junshan (Li Tianshun's bearded brother-in-law, the baotou people) team. The main actors in the class are Li Xiaoxia, Hou Junshan's wife Hou Yuxiang, who is Shi Lixiang's apprentice. Later, Hou Junshan invited Li Zijian to the class to give plays to the young actors, and sometimes he also demonstratively put on some performances, pretending to be Xiao Dan and raw characters. In February of the 27th year of the Republic of China, Li Zijian came to Baotou again and had a play with Li Meihong, a native of Shuo County, and his daughter May Plum, Moon Black and DewDrops. He returned to Beijing soon after. At this time, Li Shifang had already become famous in the art world and became one of the four famous celebrities. Li Zijian's father-in-law is a rich man with a family of thousands of people, so Li Cuifen and Li Zijian have stopped singing and only enjoyed qingfu at home.
In July 1947, because I led my daughter Liu Yucia to Beijing to see a doctor, I stayed at the home of Li Zijian in Beijing's Peicai Hutong, and when Zijian was out, Li Cuifen warmly welcomed our father and daughter. He has a living room, a room, and three rooms, and a special car, and all living matters are managed by Li Cuifen's third uncle, who has left the world because of the plane crash at that time, so we are reluctant to mention this matter, for fear of causing Li Cuifen's sadness. My brother Liu Baoshan bought a set of clothes for Li Shifang in his early years, and Li Cuifen still remembered it when she talked about it. After staying for a few days, in order to welcome us, Cuifen set up a special family banquet to entertain me and Jade Cicada. Those who attended the banquet remembered Song Dezhu, the violinist who played erhu for Shifang before his death, and the small mushroom Chang Baokun. Because Little Mushroom and Li Shifang are kowtow brothers who worship the shogun. This table is more sumptuous. When I was parting, she also gave me a fan with Li Shifang's inscription poem, the content of which was to the effect of "worship Mei Lanfang as a teacher, and become famous and proud". It is a pity that such a precious relic has been lost, and it is guilty to think about.
After I returned to Zhang, I invited the water to float from the troupe of the three troops of Eyou in Baotou City and performed at the Yumin Grand Theater in Zhangjiakou City. Soon Li Zijian came to Zhang from Beijing and lived in Zhao Buqiao's home. He often came to my house for dinner, and they were more intimate with each other. Li Zijian also copied and taught my daughter Liu Yucia the skills of traditional repertoire such as "Hitting The Golden Branch" and "Princess of Hundred Flowers" with full enthusiasm, so the growth of Yu cicada, old friend Li Zijian spent a lot of painstaking efforts.
Zhao Buqiao is a native of Xugou, Shanxi, who sang Wusheng first. His first woman, Bai Cuilan, died prematurely due to illness, and married Xiao Guifang, who was born with a horn, and did not divorce Xiao Guifang, so she hooked up with Niu Guiying in the name of her hometown and later married. Therefore, Zhao Buqiao gradually developed into a hegemon in the pear garden circle (suppressed by the government during the second liberation). In the middle of 1947 and 1948, Zhao Buqiao invited Zhang Junqiu, Yuan Shihai, Gao Yuqian and other famous actors to perform in Zhangjiakou through Li Zijian's relationship. Li Zijian also personally gave Niu Guiying a play at Zhao Buqiao's home, and in terms of voicing words and pronunciation, he taught Niu Guiying a lot of unique kung fu, and Niu Guiying's singing voice was round and clear, which was inseparable from Li Zijian's enthusiastic help.
Later, my second brother Liu Baoshan, Shui Shui, Jin Linghei and others, through the introduction of Li Zijian, performed at the Beijing Auspicious Grand Theater, so that Shanxi Zizi could take root and spread in the ancient city of Beijing.
From 1947 to 1948, the drama circle of Zhangjiakou City invited famous actors Xi Cailian and Xiao Mushroom to perform in the "Zhongzheng Hall" in Shangbao for more than a month through the introduction of Li Zijian, and still left a deep impression in the minds of the people of Shancheng.
At that time, the pseudo-mayor of Zhangjiakou under fu Zuoyi's occupation was Qin Fengchuan, whose original name was Qin Yuan, who was originally from Suiyuanfeng Town, graduated from Xuanhua No. 1 Middle School in his early years, and later studied in Japan and Germany. In January 1949, he accompanied General Fu in the Uprising in Beijing, and after liberation, he served as the director of the Inner Mongolia Department of Education and the director of the Museum of Literature and History. Qin Fengchuan established a Northwest Drama School in Zhangjiakou City, located in the Zhongzheng Hall of Zhangjiakou City. He asked Li Zijian to serve as the principal of the school and the manager of Zhongzhengtang. The teaching staff of Northwest Drama School was very strong, and at that time, there were Nan Dingyin, Tian Yuelou, Zhang Shaochi and so on. There are more than 100 students in the school, and because they have been guided by famous teachers, many of them have become good talents in the theater industry. For example, Yuan Xiqing (DanJiao, performed in Zhuolu, died last year, party member), Wang Ai, Zhong Guizhi, Guo Xiyuan, He Xizhu, Ma Xilan, Mi Xizhi (whose lover is The famous Actor Guo Meiying of Taiyuan), etc., are all famous characters cultivated by the Northwest Drama School.
In 1947, Li Zijian, Zhao Buqiao, Niu Guiying and others arrived in Beijing. After August 15, 1948, Zhao Buqiao and Niu Guiying invited Li Zijian to play cards and drink alcohol for several days, but due to overwork, on August 17, Zijian suddenly suffered a cerebral hemorrhage and died suddenly at the age of fifty-five. After Zijian's death, thanks to the generous help of Li Shifang's little brothers, he was properly buried. Zi Jian devoted his life to the cause of pear orchards, and it was a pity that he could not see the moving scene of a hundred flowers blooming after the founding of New China. Widow Li Cuifen, who was cared for by the party and the state after liberation, died of illness in 1955. Before her death, Li Shifang married Yao Baolian, the daughter of Yao Yufu, a violinist in the Peking Opera world. With three daughters, the little girl was brought to Taiwan by Li Zijian's daughter Li Bilan, a famous actor in the Jin opera industry. The eldest daughter now works in Beijing and the second daughter is in Taiyuan. In short, looking at Li Zijian's life, it can be said: "There are many achievements in the art world, and the peach and plum fragrance are planted by hand." "His contribution to the cause of Jin opera is indelible.
His disciples and descendants in Taiwan should not forget the legacy of his masters and ancestors, return to the motherland as soon as possible, return to their roots, make new contributions to the cause of drama in New China, win glory for the country, and also win glory for Mr. Li Zijian and Mr. Li Shifang! It's for hope.
Source: "Selected Materials of Baotou Literature and History (Series 13)", original title :"Memories of Li Zijian, a famous Jin opera singer)
Data collation: Huang Xiang, screen name "Yinshan Worm", Secretary General of Baotou Local Culture Research Center, Director of Baotou Jiuyuan Museum, Vice President of Baotou Cooking and Catering Hotel Industry Association. Read thousands of books, travel thousands of miles, taste all kinds of tastes.
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