Born in a family of pear gardens, he learned to play at the age of 8 and took the stage at the age of 11, and was active on stage for nearly half a century;
He has visited Japan, the Soviet Union, the United States, Europe and other countries to introduce Peking Opera to the world;
He created a unique performance system and became one of the three major performance systems in the world.
He is Mei Lanfang.
Some people say that time is the best forgetting agent, but after 60 years of walking, he still makes people remember.
We often ask: what kind of person is a star worthy of our constant pursuit, Mei Lanfang is.
Teenagers learn drama, and qi walk masters
"Grandmaster didn't reward you for eating"
In 1894, a boy was ushered in the mei family's old mansion on Li Tie's oblique street outside the front gate of Beijing.
You know, the two brothers of the Mei family, this is the only boy.
His family named him Mei Lan, and after learning art, he took the stage name Mei Lanfang.
The Mei family is a family of pear orchards.
Grandfather Mei Qiaoling is one of the "Thirteen Absolutes of Tongguang".
Thirteen is the thirteen founders of Huiban's transformation from singing Hui tunes and Kun lu to Peking Opera after entering Beijing, and they are all performance artists with extraordinary skills.
In modern parlance, it was the thirteenth most bullish man in the theater world at that time.
After Mei Qiaoling, the Mei family became the family of pear gardens, and her uncle and father entered the opera industry, and Mei Lanfang was no exception.
In her childhood, Mei Lanfang's appearance was not amazing and her speech was not outstanding.
At the age of eight, Mei Lanfang began to learn drama.
The family invited him to enlighten the brother of zhu Suyun, a young student, but he taught four tones for half a day and could not be caught.
After Mr. Zhu said, "Grandmaster didn't reward you with this bowl of rice to eat," he whisked up his sleeves and left, never to teach again.
Criticism is a stepping stone for the strivers, a wealth for the strong, and an abyss for the weak.
Mei Lanfang belongs to the former.
Mei Lanfang is 20 years old
Later, Mei Lanfang studied Qingyi from Wu Lingxian and worked harder than others.
In winter, Mei Lanfang practiced stilts and ran round fields on the ice in the courtyard, often slipping and getting up to practice again, so that the feet were blistered.
At the age of 11, Mei Lanfang took the stage for the first time and played the weaver girl in "The Secret Oath of the Hall of Eternal Life and Queqiao", which was a blockbuster.
For the experience of learning art in her youth, Mei Lanfang said very frankly: I am a clumsy learner, not full of genius, all rely on hard learning.
Since then, Mei Lanfang has changed from a teenager who "did not open his mind" to a young man with solid basic skills and clear speech.
No one can succeed casually, and all the beauty is a natural success after countless efforts.
As a good man, he acts like a gentleman
"Acting is OK, accompanying wine is not OK"
In October 1913, the 19-year-old Mei Lanfang came to Shanghai to perform, became famous in world war I, and became a hot actor.
Facing the bright lights of Shanghai, facing the applause after fame.
Mei Lanfang did not lose herself.
You know, at the end of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the people, the status of opera artists was still discriminated against.
Many famous "horns" can't help but live a life of red wine and greenery, quickly degenerate, and their acting careers are short-lived.
Mei Lanfang has been clean and self-sufficient from beginning to end.
He never smoked, drank, or colored.
For people with bad intentions, his answer is only eight words: acting is OK, accompanying wine is not.
In the end of life, it is all character.
Mei Lanfang performed stills from "Roselle" (1923)
The Mei family's family style is loyalty and filial piety, and in the word righteousness, Mei Lanfang acts like a gentleman.
In 1938, the Xia Sheng Drama School had no financial resources. For the survival of the school, student Liu Zhongqiu went to Shanghai to seek Mei Lanfang's help.
Mei Lanfang agreed, and he suggested that Liu Zhongqiu move the school to Shanghai.
After that, in order to raise school buildings and raise funds for running the school, Mei Lanfang ran around.
After the school started, I received a call from Mei's family: Mr. Mei's income from acting the day before yesterday was all given to your school, and the account had been settled, so please send someone to get the check immediately.
Mei Baochen, mei Lanfang's fourth son, recalled his father: I regard funding others as the most pleasant thing in my life.
Every new year, Mei Lanfang will organize a volunteer play, perform jointly with various classes of actors, and distribute the income to poor colleagues to let them spend the new year in peace.
In 1929, when Mei Lanfang performed in Lanzhou, the local famine was raging, and many people had no food and clothing, mei Lanfang saw that Mei Lanfang set up several rice farms in Lanzhou to help the victims.
In 1961, after Mei Lanfang's death, his wife Fu Zhifang found a pile of loan documents in a paper bag when she was sorting out the relics, but Mei Lanfang never mentioned it to anyone.
Ancients Cloud: Gentleman, with thick virtue.
A person's character is good or bad, which determines the height of his life.
People with bad character, no matter how successful, are only temporary; only people with good character, conscience, honesty, and can stick to their hearts can truly achieve a career.
The family and the country are important, and there is affection and righteousness
"This man is truly a patriotic hero"
On September 18, 1931, Mei Lanfang performed "Cosmic Front" in Beijing's Zhonghe Garden.
Zhang Xueliang, commander of the Northeast Border Defense Command, had just recovered from his illness and brought nurses and guards to the scene to watch the play.
But in the middle of the performance, Zhang Xueliang hurriedly left the theater, and Mei Lanfang on the stage was stunned.
The next day, after reading the newspaper, I learned that the Japanese Kwantung Army blew up the South Manchuria Railway in Shenyang and captured the Northeast Army's garrison in Shenyang.
This recalls Mei Lanfang's childhood memories of the Eight-Power Alliance's invasion of Beijing.
In 1900, Mei Lanfang was only 6 years old and was a witness to the invasion of Beijing by the Eight-Power Alliance.
One day, the door was slammed, and Mei Lanfang opened the door, a fierce foreigner.
The young Mei Lanfang asked without fear: Why did you come again, four times.
Mei Lanfang said as she pushed Yanghou outward.
The foreign soldiers were on fire, and one pushed Mei Lanfang to the ground, and the foreign soldiers snatched the clock stored at home.
At this time, Mei Lanfang could only look at the foreigners indignantly, helpless.
His experiences as a child made him hate the invaders to the extreme.
Mei Lanfang, 12 years old
Seeing that the form of North China was not good, Mei Lanfang was famous, and his friends told him that the Japanese would probably call Mei Lanfang as an "inner court offering".
In order not to be used by the Japanese, he left Beijing, where he had lived and worked for twenty years, and moved his family to Shanghai.
In Shanghai, in order to encourage the enthusiasm of the War of Resistance, Mei Lanfang and her friends choreographed two plays, "Anti-Golden Soldier" and "Life and Death Hate", which greatly stimulated the patriotic enthusiasm of the people.
After the outbreak of the "July 7 Incident", the Japanese army occupied Shanghai.
They saw Mei Lanfang's influence and sent people to communicate with Mei Lanfang many times, hoping that he would stand up and say a few words and act for them, but Mei Lanfang refused again and again.
As he later recalled: When the War of Resistance Against Japan broke out, I hated the enemy, but I was only an opera actor, and I had no strength to contribute to the country, only to use the method of passive resistance to draw a clear line with Japan and hypocrisy, so I did everything possible to avoid acting and never take the stage.
During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Mei Lanfang had a beard and refused to perform on stage for the enemy Kou
However, on December 6, 1941, the Pacific War broke out and the Japanese army occupied Hong Kong.
In order to avoid the entanglement of the Japanese army, Mei Lanfang grew a beard.
In the face of a friend's questioning, he said: "The Japanese assume that they are unreasonable and insist that I come out to sing, so he will have to go to jail and kill my head." ”
Sure enough, not long after, the Japanese commander Sakai did ask Mei Lanfang to go out to sing, and so on, Mei Lanfang refused again and again on the grounds that she was older and had a beard.
After returning to Shanghai, another traitor asked Mei Lanfang to sing, saying that "as long as Boss Mei is willing to come out, a hundred gold bars will be sent to the palace immediately."
In this regard, Mei Lanfang was dismissive.
In order to escape the persecution of the Japanese army, Mei Lanfang did not hesitate to let the health doctor give herself an injection, and after the injection, Mei Lanfang launched a high fever.
The Japanese sent a military doctor to take the temperature, which was 42 degrees, and confirmed that Mei Lanfang was indeed seriously ill before giving up.
Refusing to perform for the Japanese pseudo- and long-term displacement, the life of the Mei family fell into difficulties.
But Mei Lanfang would rather sell her house in Beijing than perform for the Japanese.
Feng Zikai commented on Mei Lanfang: This person is really a patriotic hero.
Art has no borders, but artists have their own homeland.
At any time, artists who do not forget the nation and the country are the artists who deserve our respect and the stars who are most worthy of pursuit.
Virtue and art are both xinxin, and the square becomes a big horn
In that era, Mei Lanfang was the biggest top stream, but the star with the least temper.
Everywhere Mei Lanfang went, she was welcomed by people.
For everyone, whether it is an apprentice, a steward, or a violinist, Mei Lanfang has always been kind and pleasant.
In 1952, Mei Lanfang performed "Dragon and Phoenix Chengxiang" in Qingdao, and the little eunuch's line was: The empress dowager has a purpose, and invites the county lord to go to the chapel.
Under a nervous tone, the little eunuch said: The empress dowager has a will, and invites niangniang to go to the chapel.
The audience immediately cheered.
After the show, the actor who played the eunuch felt very sorry for Mei Lanfang, but Mei Lanfang comforted him and said: Don't be sad, the next time you play again, the little eunuch or you play, you will not be wrong.
For ordinary actors and faces, he is even more dedicated to his own apprentices.
After Ding Zhiyun took Mei Lanfang as a teacher, in order to demonstrate to her, Mei Lanfang personally demonstrated the opera movements again and again, exhausted and breathless, still not caring.
Ding Zhiyun later sang at the Lanxin Theater, and Mei Lanfang went to see the play every time.
Once he was recognized, many people gathered around him to ask for autographs, and afterwards Mei Lanfang said uneasily: This is not good, I affected her to sing.
Whether it is to be his apprentice or his friend, it is comfortable to get along with Mei Lanfang.
Mei Lanfang is with friends, and the third on the right is Mei Lanfang
The era in which Mei Lanfang lived was an era of great social change.
Peking opera is a veteran repertoire, Mei Lanfang thought: is it to follow the path of the older artists to take the traditional performance step by step, or to follow the path of the Shanghai school and try to do a little new fashion drama and costume new drama?
Mei Lanfang chose the latter.
"I don't want to stand still in this old circle and be bound by him again."
At the risk of failure, Mei Lanfang began to create a new drama.
Since then, he has created 16 new costume plays.
In the exploration of new plays, "A Wisp of Hemp" is the most satisfactory to Mei Lanfang.
"A Wisp of Hemp" exposes the dangers of feudal arranged marriages.
During the performance in Tianjin, the Wan and Yi families had a marriage contract, but later Yi Gongzi fell ill, and the two families did not dissolve the marriage contract.
Later, after Miss Wan watched "A Wisp of Hemp", she went home and cried bitterly and decided to quit the marriage.
In her long-term study of Peking Opera, Mei Lanfang has formed a performance system.
From April 1919 to February 1960, Mei Lanfang traveled to Japan three times, visited the Soviet Union four times, and performed in the United States, and everywhere he went, he introduced Peking Opera to foreigners.
The famous dramatist Huang Zuolin listed Mei Lanfang, along with Stanislavsky of the Soviet Union and Brecht of Germany, as the representative of the world's three major drama systems, and believed that Mei Lanfang's drama system was the most vivid and rich drama system among the three major drama systems.
After the founding of the People's Republic of China, Mei Lanfang was appointed as the president of the China Academy of Performing Arts.
He performed for workers and peasants, and he couldn't help but sigh: My audience circle has expanded by dozens or hundreds of times compared with the past.
Until the age of sixty-five, he was still active on the stage, performing one wonderful play after another for the world.
Mei Lanfang and film master Chaplin
In 1961, Mei Lanfang passed away unexpectedly.
The song is not over, people are far away.
He learned to act at the age of 8, appeared on stage at the age of 11, and lived for 67 years.
On the stage, he sang the oldest opera, and offstage, he experienced the most rapid changes, and in his heart, he insisted on the purest heart.
Just like his name, mei qijie, lan of high purity, eternal fragrance.
Resources:
"The Song Is Not Over: The Mei Lanfang Family"
Forty Years of Stage Life: Mei Lanfang's Memoirs
【Copyright Notice】The author of this article is Wei Wuji, a new media person, the founder of a cultural company, the author of best-selling books, the main business of entrepreneurship, amateur writing, publishing books, playing collections, exchanging poetry books and collections.