Classical juggling is a kind of Chinese magic. Magic in ancient China is called magic, juggling. Chinese magic has a history of about 3,000 years. It is the crystallization of the wisdom of the people and shows the beautiful fantasies and romantic spirit of human beings. Classical juggling highlights the strong national color and life atmosphere from the performance content and expression form, which is the condensation and display of the national spirit, and has a unique aesthetic value.
As early as the Xia Dynasty BC, magic was seen in court performances. During the Western Han Dynasty, Emperor Wu entertained foreign envoys with the performance of "Fish Dragon Manyan" (magic). During the Sui and Tang dynasties, court magic and folk magic developed hand in hand; in the Song Dynasty, there were many street entertainment venues of "Washe Goulan" and famous magic groups such as the Southern Song Dynasty "Yunji Society". The magic division of the Song Dynasty was exquisite, and three major systems of "technique, teasing, and hiding (coercion)" had been formed. Ancient color tricks (falling alive, hiding the disgusting class) are epoch-making magic created during this period.
In the Ming and Qing dynasties, magic mainly existed in the folk, and the performance was divided into two ways: "picking the ground" and "halling" (the artist was called to perform in the homes of the rich and noble). At the end of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the People's Republic, there were more fixed performance venues for jugglers in various places, such as Beijing Tianqiao, Tianjin's "Three Disregards", etc., and many famous jugglers emerged. During the Qing Dynasty, the first special work in China to record folk juggling, the Compilation of Goose Illusions, also appeared.
Due to historical reasons and differences in regional environment, coupled with the different factions of various artists, modern Chinese magic is clearly divided into two major factions, north and south.
Tianjin is the important town of Northern Magic and is a famous "magic nest" of Chinese acrobatics. Northern school magic, focusing on skills, paying attention to "making mouths", emphasizing the communication between actors and audiences, has a strong ability to adapt to the scene, and pays more attention to inheriting and retaining the traditional Chinese tricks. The trick comes from the folk and is active in the city. In the folk trick of "picking the ground" for a living, emphasis is placed on the actor's own techniques and skills, paying attention to the skills of "binding, binding, hiding, tucking, tearing, carrying, picking, and untangling", taking "entrainment and hiding" as the means, and "connecting with the mouth" (that is, changing while talking) as the performance characteristics.
The color products concocted by the "ancient color trick" were originally hidden in the actors, although everyone knows it, but the way of card life and support is very exquisite, and there are higher requirements for the physical fitness of the actors and the cooperation between the actors. Since the actors are surrounded by audiences when they "shake the ground", it is objectively required that classical juggling must be able to withstand the onlookers from all sides. Modern and Western magic mostly relies on the mechanism on the props, which can only be viewed head-on, and it is easy to abandon it from other angles.
In Tianjin, Beipai Magic has many masters and outstanding figures. Since the first generation of famous masters such as Zhang Baoqing, Zhu Liankui and Han Bingqian in the late Qing Dynasty taught art, masters have been born from generation to generation, and there have been generations of people.
At the end of the 19th century, Zhu Liankui, a famous magician of Tianjin Yang Liuqing, was highly skilled, and the magic troupe he led was famous at home and abroad. He was the first to bring classical Chinese juggling to the United States, and his brilliant performance caused the famous American magician William Robinson to ask him to teach him the art. Zhu Liankui's performance of the "ancient color trick" has triggered a boom in Americans competing to see the magic Chinese trick.
At the end of the Qing Dynasty, another famous Northern School juggling master in Tianjin was Han Bingqian. He was one of the most prestigious jugglers in the north of the mainland, and was often summoned to the Qing Palace to perform. He has performed in Indonesia, and after great success, he has organized tours in 19 countries such as Britain, France, Germany and Austria, which has made Chinese juggling have a wide impact overseas. His most proud protégé, Han Jingwen, has also performed in the Nanyang countries, and there are many innovative tricks in art.
In the Qing Dynasty, there was also a famous Tianjin juggling master Zhang Baoqing. He performed at the Qing court and served as the head of the art department. In the last years of the Qing Dynasty, Zhang Baoqing returned to Tianjin and performed tricks in the "Three Disregards", and the field was often surrounded by the audience. But in full view of everyone, although his performance is ever-changing, it is watertight and flawless. He has a unique skill, the original "three lights" in the ancient color trick was developed by him into "four lights", and cleverly mixed the "Seven Star Cup" into it. Among the disciples he taught, Luo Wentao, Mu Wenqing, Yan Wenjin, Liu Wenzhi, and Wang Wenshao had the most significant artistic achievements, known as the "Five Great Texts" in the field of magic tricks. Among them, Luo Wentao and Mu Wenqing are well-known at home and abroad.
Luo Wentao is an outstanding representative of Zhang's folk juggling. He has a deep foundation, a dashing performance, a clean and clean appearance, and in an instant, he can conjure up a porcelain plate full of fruits, a giant porcelain basin for live fish to play, a burning brazier, and an oleander peach blossom about five feet high, known as "Luo Mantai".
Mu Wenqing is also an extraordinary classical juggler. In 1926, he led the troupe to perform in Korea and Japan. In 1929, he once again led the troupe to perform in various countries in North and South America, and became famous all over the world, known as "Big Heaven One". His disciples Chen Yanan, Chen Yahua, Yang Xiaoting, etc. are all famous and accomplished, and they are all representative figures of the Northern School of Magic in the 1930s and 1960s. In particular, Yang Xiaoting, among Zhang Baoqing's disciples, has the most profound achievements in ancient color juggling, and has become the master of the Northern School magic that constantly changes and perfects modern Chinese juggling.
Mu Wenqing's disciples were numerous, comparable to those of Han Bingqian of the Northern Sect. They have made outstanding contributions to the cultivation of magic talents, the introduction, integration and reform of foreign magic, the enrichment and improvement of the basic techniques of Chinese magic, and the establishment of modern magic patterns.
An important inheritor of the Magic of the Northern School, there is also Wang Dianying, a famous magician of the Tianjin Acrobatic Troupe. Since childhood, he studied classical juggling with Tianjin jugglers Wang Wenshao and Yan Wenjin, and later learned magic from guo Bichen, an old artist. He took the stage at the age of 16, and his performance inherited the artistic style of northern magic. In his long-term artistic practice, he absorbed the strengths of many families, and later benefited from the guidance of the ancient color juggling masters Yu Dehai and Feng Shutian, and on the basis of inheriting the traditional ancient color juggling, he enriched the content of "loose pieces", "bead lamps" and "double braziers".
In the 1960s, he collaborated with the classical juggler Ma Guoliang and successfully staged "Plate Back" and "Changing the Stove", which won praise from inside and outside the industry. In his classical juggling performances, whether it is small tricks or large-scale performances, he often "connects with lip service", changes while talking, such as homely, eloquent, intimate and natural, similar to cross-talk, rendering the atmosphere with humorous, witty and funny language, communicating and interacting with the audience, and playing a role in the performance. His hand color performance, profound skills, skill, crisp, fast, handsome, quite acclaimed. At the beginning of the 21st century, Wang Dianying was getting older and rarer, and he still taught apprentice art and classical juggling.
The classical Chinese tricks that have spread abroad are regarded as classics by foreign magic circles and are reserved programs for many foreign magicians. Classical Chinese juggling is a strange flower in the treasure house of the world's magic.
(Courtesy of Tianjin Intangible Cultural Heritage Protection Center)
Editor-in-charge: Zhu Zhu