Mao Zedong once said that Mei Lanfang was widely loved by the masses and was more famous than himself.
In 1931, Mei Lanfang was named "the first of China's four famous Dans", and was invited to perform in various countries in the world for many times, with footprints in Europe, North America and other places.
Once he performed abroad, he actually created the phenomenon of thousands of empty alleys, and even foreign companies have made some of his performances into movies.
Mei Lanfang's Meipai Peking Opera was sought after by opera fans, but what was even more admirable was his national integrity during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression.
During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Mei Lanfang was always unmoved by the threats and inducements of the Japanese, so she did not hesitate to get herself typhoid injections, preferring to self-harm rather than perform for the Japanese, and even once went on strike for 8 years, giving up the golden period of her career as a theater actor.
In the turbulent years, Mei Lanfang used her own forbearance and responsibility to compose a song of Peking Opera life.
No talented Plum Boy
Mei Lanfang was born in Beiping in 1894 during the Guangxu period, and his grandfather was the head of the Sixi class, and the "Sixi Class" was known as one of the four emblem classes in Beijing at that time, and his father was Peking Opera Danjiao, and his uncle was a Peking Opera violinist.
Born in a Peking Opera family, it is reasonable to say that Mei Lanfang should be gifted. But in fact, Mei Lanfang is not talented, from snacks to a lot of hardships, took a lot of detours, and his childhood is quite tortuous.
When he was 3 years old, his father died of illness, and when he was 6 years old, his grandfather also died. The Mei family fell into the middle of this family, and in order to make a living, they had to sell their old house and move to other places.
The children of poor families have long been in charge, and this statement has also been fulfilled in Mei Lanfang. At the age of 8, in order to maintain his life, he officially worshiped Wu Lingxian as a teacher and began to learn art.
Learning art is very hard, Mei Lanfang is in a hurry to get out of the teacher, so that he can earn money early to support his family, for this he is very diligent, getting up early all year round to practice basic skills.
Wu Lingxian received the favor of Mei Lanfang's grandfather in his early years, was very kind to Mei Lanfang, and taught him very seriously, hoping that he would introduce it earlier and get the drama to earn money.
Mei Lanfang said: "Mr. Wu believes that every piece of singing must be practiced dozens of times to have a solid foundation. "He inherited the character of the master's hard work, very hard.
However, Mei Lanfang's own conditions are not very good. His eyes are a little short-sighted, his eyelids droop, and he cries.
The actors sing, in addition to the singing section to be good, the expression on the face should also be in place. Just as the so-called finishing touch, the expression of eye emotions is crucial to the actor's performance, and even affects the future of the actor.
In order to make her performance more amazing, Mei Lanfang thought about raising pigeons herself. By staring at the pigeon, I corrected the problem of drooping eyelids, and my eyes became more flexible and vivid.
In addition, by directing the pigeons with a long bamboo pole, Mei Lanfang also exercised her arm strength, and she could easily hold up a heavy costume in her 50s, and the action was still flowing.
After three years of hard study and hard training, Mei Lanfang officially introduced singing at the age of 11, and with excellent basic skills, she soon came to prominence in Beijing.
Not only that, Mei Lanfang has joined "Xi Liancheng" since she was 13 years old, and in addition to singing to earn money, she also insists on improving herself.
He not only learned Qingyi opera from Wu Lingxian, but also learned Huadan opera from his uncle, uncle and other people, which also laid a solid foundation for Mei Lanfang to later change danjiao and create Mei Pai.
Famous Boss Mei
Through years of hard work, Mei Lanfang became one of the famous characters in Beijing before the age of 20, and was invited to Shanghai in 1931 to perform, including "Cai Lou Pei", "Yutang Spring", "Mu Ke Zhai" and so on.
In the First World War in Shanghai, Mei Lanfang became famous in one fell swoop, and was even praised as the "world's first Green Coat", and her fame was greatly enhanced. It is said that "Mei Lanfang studied opera in Beijing, and sang red in Shanghai".
Mei Lanfang also formed an indissoluble relationship with Shanghai, and even after Mei Lanfang was forced to leave Beijing after the Japanese invasion of China in 1931, his preferred place to settle was Shanghai.
Mei Lanfang's performance in Shanghai was reported by newspapers around the world, and he was invited to perform in various countries in the world, including Japan, Britain, the United States, the Soviet Union and other places.
His performance was even more full and packed. Mei Lanfang once went to the United States to perform, and even stayed for half a year, and was awarded a doctorate in literature by two schools in a row.
Not only that, many people also came to visit him, including the ambassadors of the United States, Spain, Sweden, etc., and even the Swedish crown prince and his wife also visited Mei Lanfang's residence when they visited China. There is also the famous Indian poet Tagore, who went to China to watch Mei Lanfang's performance and specially wrote a poem to give to Mei Lanfang.
Mei Lanfang can really be described as a prominent figure in the Peking Opera circle.
However, in that turbulent era, being famous was not necessarily a good thing, and like many masters in the Republic of China, Mei Lanfang also encountered great trouble after becoming popular.
And the person who caused this trouble was the Japanese aggressor.
Mr. Mei, who adheres to integrity
After the September 18 Incident, the Japanese invaded and occupied the three northeastern provinces and invited Mei Lanfang to sing a church meeting.
At that time, the Japanese had just won the battle, and the momentum was very arrogant. In the face of japanese invitations, ordinary people may be frightened and their legs are weak, and they are hard to go to the appointment.
However, in the face of the Shameless Act of the Japanese invasion of China, Mei Lanfang, who cherishes the great national righteousness, will definitely not be at their mercy.
In order to avoid disasters, Mei Lanfang moved her family to Shanghai.
At the same time, Mei Lanfang also choreographed and participated in the anti-war drama to raise funds for the anti-war war, and Chen Zhenxian also wrote a letter to praise Mei Lanfang's behavior.
However, the Japanese did not let Mei Lanfang go, and ran to Shanghai to "invite" Mei Lanfang to act to publicize their "pseudo-kindness".
Mei Lanfang naturally did not come out, in order to avoid harassment by the Japanese, he simply brought his family to Hong Kong.
However, the good times did not last long, and soon the war burned to Hong Kong, and Mei Lanfang was distressed and began to worry that the Japanese would harass her again.
To this end, Mei Lanfang made a helpless decision, that is, to stop the performance, refuse all socializing, even Du Yuesheng went to Hong Kong to invite Mei Lanfang to sing, he resolutely refused, and even grew a beard.
Opera pays attention to makeup, Danjiao is a female character, and growing a beard is a big taboo for Danjiao! Mei Lanfang grew a beard, and she could no longer dress up as DanJiao to sing on stage.
As Mei Lanfang expected, the Japanese did come to the door again to invite him to sing, and said: "The beard can be cut off", for this Mei Lanfang can only find another way, and finally he thought of "pretending to be sick", in order to make himself high fever, he actually risked the risk of a broken throat and personally injected himself.
In 1941, Hong Kong fell, and Mei Lanfang returned to Shanghai the following year to settle down. Mei Lanfang originally sang opera to make a living, but after the boycott, there was no source of income, and he often received friends, and even preferred to pawn the things at home, but also insisted on taking responsibility.
To this end, Mei Lanfang could only make a living by writing calligraphy and painting, and even set up a calligraphy and painting exhibition to sell calligraphy and paintings. In fact, his calligraphy and painting achievements also laid the foundation for his Meipai innovation.
Many people know that Mei Lanfang is a master of Peking Opera, but they may not know that he is also a calligrapher and painter. His paintings are lifelike and his calligraphy is quiet and beautiful. When Mei Lanfang's works were auctioned in 2018, a calligraphy painting was as high as more than 3 million yuan.
As early as 1915, Mei Lanfang began to learn painting, and later asked famous painters such as Qi Baishi for painting techniques, and also integrated traditional calligraphy and painting into drama.
And his achievements in calligraphy and painting also helped him spend a long period of time off the show.
In 1945, after the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, Mei Lanfang was overjoyed, immediately shaved off her beard, resumed rehearsals, and prepared to perform to celebrate the victory of the Anti-Japanese War.
When Mei Lanfang performed at the Majestic Theater in Shanghai, as soon as he opened his mouth, the audience burst into tears, even crying out loud, and the applause was even earth-shattering, and it could not stop for a long time.
This is Mei Lanfang's first performance after 8 years.
Master Mei in awe of art
Mei Lanfang started from Qingyi and learned many types of roles such as Hua Dan and Dao Ma Dan. This way of learning actually originated from his grandfather Mei Qiaoling.
In the past, the Hui class divided Tsing Yi and Hua Dan very strictly, with Tsing Yi singing and Hua Dan heavy movements. Hua Dan can only play Hua Dan, and cannot sing Qingyi across "lines".
But Mei Qiaoling dared to break this traditional rule, and in addition to acting Hua Dan, she also learned Qingyi and other singing methods and developed comprehensively. Later, the new Danjiao type of flower shirt was developed, and mei Qiaoling also had a credit.
While learning different types of character singing and movements, Mei Lanfang also pays great attention to improving her acting skills from the performance methods of others.
Mei Lanfang once said that his artistic progress benefited from watching plays. After entering the xilian team at the age of 13, in addition to his own performance and study, he often waited in front of the stage, watched others perform, learned other people's movements, moves and singing methods, and kept them in mind.
Others regard watching drama as entertainment, but he regards watching drama as a way to continue learning, which can not only relax, but also hone his acting skills from it, which can be described as killing two birds with one stone. This method of watching drama and learning continued until he left Xi Liancheng.
One minute on stage, ten years offstage. For a glimpse of the stage, Mei Lanfang made a lot of efforts and painstaking efforts, which led to the later generation of grandmasters.
In addition to learning, Mei Lanfang is also constantly innovating.
As mentioned earlier, Mei Lanfang constantly learns calligraphy and painting, and in addition to studying, he also tries to integrate the art of calligraphy and painting into opera. For example, adding sets and lights on the stage, adding headdresses to Danjiao, etc., to reform and make the shape closer to the costume. This innovation attracts a large audience and makes people not tired of watching.
In the past, on the Peking Opera stage, Danjiao was not the protagonist. However, through Mei Lanfang's reform, the stage of Danjiao has become larger, the drama has increased, and it has gradually moved towards the road of "Shengdan Parallel", which has improved the influence of Peking Opera and made more people love Peking Opera.
Even today, when it comes to Peking Opera, the three words "Mei Lanfang" are inseparable names, and he has made immeasurable contributions to Chinese Peking Opera.
And Mei Lanfang's national integrity is also admirable.
In the turbulent era when everyone was self-protective, some people did not hesitate to succumb to the evil forces in order to be rich, glorious or alive, but in the face of the Japanese people's difficulties, Mei Lanfang always adhered to the national integrity.
On August 8, 1961, Mei Lanfang died of illness.
Although the master is gone, the art is always there, and the spirit is immortal!!!
The author | the head of the project
Editor-in-charge | Muyang