Author: Huang Minxue (Associate Professor, School of Arts, Shaoxing University of Arts and Sciences)
As a teenager, Jiao Yulu showed a musical talent. In his hometown of Zibo Boshan County, Shandong Province, the Sixth Senior Primary School Ya Band, he learned trumpet, erhu, especially good at erhu playing. In the eyes of his daughter Jiao Shouyun, "at that time, my father had some literary and artistic styles, he was very good at erhu, danced well, and was still an excellent baritone."
Jiao Yulu has a special love for red music, and on the way to the march, he led the singing of queue songs such as "Play Well" that was born in Laiwu Victory, which made the officers and men of the whole team burst with passion and morale greatly invigorated. He also starred in the red opera "Blood and Tears Vengeance", which is the same as the opera "White Haired Girl", playing Wang Dongcai, the son of a poor peasant.
One night in January 1948, the "Blood and Tears Revenge" rehearsed by the first squadron of the Huaihe Brigade was performed in Beibiaogang Village, Yanling County, Henan Province, and thousands of people from the adjacent ten miles and eight townships rushed to see the play. The plot originating from the dark reality of the Chinese countryside in the old society and the strong national style that came to the face deeply infected the audience, and the cries and roars of the audience became one.
Some commentators pointed out that the opera "White Haired Girl" and "Blood and Tears Feud" are widely popular and deeply influential, because they have chosen a form that is easy to accept that the masses are familiar with, which can naturally resonate with Jiao Yulu and the masses. According to Jiao Yulu's comrade-in-arms in the south and former secretary of the county party committee of Mixian County, Henan, Dong Zhaoheng recalled:
Comic strip "Jiao Yulu" Wang Wei et al. / compilation
Comic strip "Ma Lanhua" Sun Jianlin / painting
At that time, the brigade ran a marching express, and the editorial board asked me to talk to Comrade Jiao Yulu and ask him why he had performed this play so well. He said: "I am poor, and the tragic experience of Wang Renhou's family is my tragic experience." I would not have acted, but I can act without being taught, and if I say it is acting, it is better to say that I am accusing the old society. He added, "Old Dong, you know that this is a very important task of the Party, and I am a Communist Party member, so why don't I do it?" Even though I can't, I can learn it! As long as it is what the party needs me to do, I will overcome all difficulties to complete it. (Dong Zhaoheng: "Acting in the Drama of Good Life")
Later, when leading the land reform work in Daying District, Jiao Yulu also organized a literary and art propaganda team to guide everyone to rehearse "Blood and Tears Vengeance". "The mayor of Jiao District always took a huqin and came to the school from the village to guide him, he could play and sing, he could direct, and he would also be an actor." (Chen Zhenwang: "Fight Well to Fight Well") "Blood and Tears Vengeance" toured the villages in Daying District, completely reversing the situation of land reform work.
During his work in Pengdian District and Daying District, Jiao Yulu personally taught the local people and revolutionary cadres to sing revolutionary songs:
One day, he led me to Liu Gengshen's house and taught me to learn to sing the excerpt "North Wind Blowing" from "The White-Haired Girl". He patiently taught sentence by sentence, I studied carefully sentence by sentence, and without much effort, I could sing it in its entirety. From then on, I went to Jiao Yulu to learn to pull a plate and learn to sing revolutionary songs. "March of the Volunteer Army", "Three Disciplines and Eight Notes", "March of the Great Knife", etc. were all taught to me by Jiao Yulu. (Zhang Fuwu: "Versatile Instructor")
On a sunny morning, more than 300 teachers and students of the whole school gathered in the playground and asked the mayor of Jiao District to teach and sing the revolutionary song "Play Well", which is divided into four parts, and I will still sing it now: (the lyrics are omitted). Mayor Jiao said: "The song 'Fight Well' plays a huge role in uniting the people, educating the people, disintegrating the enemy, and inspiring the fighting spirit of the army and the people. "The mayor of Jiao District first wrote the lyrics on the blackboard, and then began to teach singing, he taught a sentence for teachers and students to follow and learn a sentence, and by the third time, he sang loudly, and the teachers and students sang quietly. On the fifth time, the teachers and students sang loudly, and the mayor of Jiao District sang quietly. We learned the song in one lesson, and the teachers and students were very happy. (Chen Zhenwang: "Play well to play well")
In 1950, Zhu Guangyao, a regimental officer of Caizhuang District in Weixian County, and Jiao Yulu trained together in the cadre training class of Chen Liu Special District for five months, "Every weekend, Jiao Yulu would play and sing to us "Nanniwan", "Dongfang Hong" and many excerpts from the opera "White Haired Girl"... Many students and I followed him to learn many revolutionary songs, such as "March of the Great Knife", "Unity is Strength", "Without the Communist Party, There Would Be No New China", etc. At a party, Jiao Yulu sang the opera "Blood and Tears of Vengeance" with infinite loyalty to the party and the people and with deep class bitter national hatred." (Zhu Guangyao: "Unforgettable Classmate Feelings") Jiao Yulu taught Zhao Zhongsan, a guard of the county party committee secretary Zhao Zhongsan, to sing the excerpt "The White-Haired Girl" excerpt "The North Wind Blows", and also taught him classic red songs such as "Three Major Disciplines and Eight Attentions", "International Song", "Big Knife Song", "Guerrilla Song", "Volunteer March" and other classic red songs (Mao Shigong: "Jiao Yulu taught me to read and write and sing").
In order to do a good job in propaganda and agitation, Jiao Yulu compiled the revolutionary principles and the party's principles and policies into slips of the tongue, ballads, allegro books, etc., and carried out propaganda and education to the masses in the language of the masses and in the form of the people, "which played an irreplaceable role in the Communist Party's efforts to win over the masses and propagate policies." (Jiao Shouyun: "My Father Jiao Yulu") At the inaugural meeting of the Pengdian District People's Government in Weishi County, Henan, Jiao Yulu compiled a red song:
On the fourteenth day of the first month, the Pengdian District Department was established. Tell everyone to know that there are grievances and enmity to repay.
Jiao Yulu established a Baotian brigade in the local area, and used songs to call on the toiling masses to love Chairman Mao and the Communist Party and actively participate in the struggle for land reform:
Chairman Mao, the Communist Party, led the people to liberation. He divided the land and grain, and wore new clothes. Pulling aside the dark clouds to see the sun, the poor look forward to the Communist Party. Fight the landlords, divide the land, and the poor live a good life.
He also compiled a "Gun Song" to explain to the masses the revolutionary truth that "power comes out of the barrel of a gun":
The barrel of the gun is a treasure, the revolution is indispensable, relying on it to seize the seal handle, the bandits are defeated; The barrel of the gun is a treasure, and it is resolute to hold it well, and by relying on it it it is turned over, and the counter-revolution is overthrown.
Reporter Feng Jian was deeply impressed by Jiao Yulu's literary and artistic potential and talent when he was interviewed in Jiao Yulu's hometown, saying that if he did not enter politics, he would become an excellent literary and artistic worker. It is precisely under the subtle influence of red music that this literary and artistic youth who accompanied the People's Liberation Army to the south unreservedly dedicated his outstanding artistic talents to the masses of the people in a different way.
There is such a detail in the long newsletter "The Example of the County Party Secretary - Jiao Yulu": On a snowy day, Jiao Yulu took several young comrades to the countryside to visit the poor and ask questions, "stepping on the snow, while walking, while singing "Nanniwan"" . According to Xu Zhendong, who has worked with Jiao Yulu for a long time, in addition to singing dramas, Jiao Yulu can also sing many kinds of dramas such as Erquan, Peking Opera, Lü Opera, Yu Opera, etc., and La Erhu also has a certain foundation. He said: The reason why he brought erhu is that music is a weapon of propaganda and education that the masses like to hear, are lively, and have a strong appeal; Second, we can use music to enliven the emotions of comrades, enrich the life of going to the countryside, and invigorate the enthusiasm for work; The third is to practice regularly and continuously, which can improve musical skills and better serve everyone. He also specially compiled a song to deal with the "three harms", from the significance and determination of the "three harms" to the specific methods of controlling sand, water, and alkali, which were explained one by one in an easy-to-understand manner, and was praised as "one of the masterpieces of serving the people with all their hearts and blood."
Jiao Yulu also asked the young cadres of the county Youth League Committee to take the lead in learning to sing, "to be vigorous and not to be lifeless," and taught the Lankao County militia to sing "Three Major Disciplines and Eight Points of Attention." He also used his early experience of performing red operas to encourage Lankao County cadres to let go of their hands and feet and bravely practice:
As soon as I arrived in Henan, the rural areas were preparing to carry out land reform, and the masses were very difficult to mobilize, so they made up dramas and propaganda. I have also acted in dramas, I have acted in "Blood and Tears Vengeance", and in "The White Haired Girl" I have been Yang Bailao. As long as you play the masses with class feelings, you will cry bitterly... So let's delve into it! (Ren Yanfang: Jiao Yulu in My Eyes: Interview Notes from 1965 to 1966)
Red music is also a living material for Jiao Yulu's ideological education of his children, according to Jiao Shouyun's recollection:
He took us to watch the children's drama "Ma Lanhua" and taught us to sing: Ma LanHua Ma Lanhua, the wind and rain are not afraid, the industrious people are talking, please blossom immediately. Take us to the movie "Red Child", and sing the theme song "We Are the Successors of Communism" with us (the memory here is wrong, this song is the theme song of the movie "Hero Little Eight Road", and the theme song of the movie "Red Child" is "The Song of the Communist Children's Group"). Educating us to cherish grain, he often took us to sing "I am a grain of rice": I am a grain of rice, growing in the field, how difficult it is for the peasant uncle to plant me. In my memory, this time is the most beautiful. It has been decades since my father left us, and the six of us brothers and sisters have worked diligently and honestly in whatever position they are in, and our influence on us has been lasting. (Jiao Shouyun: "My Father Jiao Yulu")
This year marks the centenary of Jiao Yulu's birth. At that time, jiao Yulu's hand-planted "Jiao Tong" was already like a pavilion. The red music that Jiao Yulu has performed and taught and sung has transformed into a red gene that will never fade together with his spirit, condensing the majestic power to realize the great dream of national rejuvenation and ushering in a new era of thousands of acres of clarity.
Guangming Daily ( 2022-08-05 edition 16)
Source: Guangming Network - Guangming Daily