If the Peking opera people are also a special part of Chinese intellectuals, then the social changes and life destinies experienced by Yan Jupeng and his children seem to reflect some commonalities in this special intellectual group.
The first four mustaches
In the Peking Opera circle, there is the so-called theory of the four major susans before and after.
Around the 1920s, the history of Peking Opera produced the four major students represented by "Yu, Yan, Gao, and Ma". Namely: Yu Shuyan, Yan Jupeng, Gao Qingkui, Ma Lianliang. Later, Gao Qingkui withdrew from the performance stage due to the collapse of his voice, and Yu and Yan died in the 1940s, and the term "Four Great Su sheng" immediately changed, and the titles of "Ma, Tan, Yang, and Xi" became widely popular among the people. Namely: Ma Lianliang, Tan Fuying, Yang Baosen, Xi Xiaobo. Together with the four famous Dans (Mei Lanfang, Shang Xiaoyun, Cheng Yanqiu, and Xun Huisheng), they witnessed the heyday of Chinese Peking Opera art.
The Yan Jupeng family, one of the first four major students, has influenced the history of the development of Peking Opera art and their tortuous fate, which is really touching.
Yan Jupeng's Peking Opera art, which is a school of its own, was recognized as a fact in the Peking Opera circles during the Republic of China period.
Tan Xiaopei and Yan Jupeng
Among the first four major students, this declining nobleman from the Manchu Qing Dynasty may be called the highest level of culture. He is also the only Peking Opera artist among the top four students to go to the sea halfway by a famous ticket. Among the Manchu nobles, there were many people who were keen on Peking Opera, and they constituted the main body of the Peking Opera box office in Beijing in the late Qing Dynasty and early Ming Dynasty. Famous ticket holders such as the owner of the Red Bean Pavilion (Pu Dong), devoted themselves to learning the art of Tan Xinpei, with extraordinary achievements, and the level was far above many well-known artists of the Tan School at that time. Later scholars of the Tan School, including Yu Shuyan and Yan Jupeng, once paid tribute to their disciples and asked for advice on the art of the Tan School.
Mr. Yan Jupeng's inkblot (line banner)
Yan Ju Peng Xing Shu Seven Words Lian
It was in this case that Yan Jupeng became obsessed with the art of Peking Opera.
After Yan Jupeng went to the sea, he first sang the original Tan Pai singing voice, with both form and god, and only a wonderful portrait, so he became famous on the stage in Beijing. Even during the performance, the sign of "Tan Pai Zhenzong" was hung up to the descendants of the Tan clan who were not skilled in learning (Tan Xinpei's son Tan Xiaopei, a male brother, could hardly bear the heavy responsibility of inheriting the Tan Sect before the rise of his son Fuying. Therefore, after Tan Fuying became famous, there was once such a cartoon, Tan Xiaopei sandwiched between Tan Xinpei and Tan Fuying, looking left and right, saying to Tan Xinpei: "Your son is not as good as my son", and then to Tan Fuying: "Your father is not as good as my father." "People think it's a joke. ) creates tremendous pressure.
However, the good times did not last long, Yan Jupeng's voice changed, and he could no longer continue to sing the singing voice of Tan Pai's rhyme. So Yan Jupeng boldly reformed, using the sound conditions after his voice changed, combined with his extraordinary knowledge of phonology, to create a ups and downs, rhythmic speech. The speech sounds gentle and clear, but if you taste it carefully, you can find that each word conforms to the law of rhyme (the insider is called the word does not fall. Therefore, it can be said that it is self-made and leads the way, and the Yan school has thus become a sect and has made indelible contributions to the development of the Peking Opera genre art.
However, this sound cavity with fresh charm is not understood and appreciated by most audiences.
Because Yan Jupeng's singing was different from most of the actors at that time, especially compared with Ma Lianliang's popular and fluent Ma Pai singing voice, it was very different, so it was called Yan's strange voice by the audience. Yan Ju pengzhi was not popular with the audience at that time, and it was entirely for this reason. Judging from the effect of the performances of Peking opera actors at that time, if Mei Lanfang's performance was often full (that is, the audience's attendance rate was 100%), and Ma Lianliang's attendance rate was 90%, then Yan Jupeng's performance was often hovering around 40%.
Once, Yan Jupeng and his daughter Yan Huizhu (Mei Lanfang's proud disciple) performed on the same stage, and the audience attendance suddenly increased. Yan Jupeng said to his daughter, I Yan Jupeng's art is still appreciated.
Yan Huizhu understood in her heart, laughing but not answering.
Sure enough, after Yan Huizhu left, when Yan Jupeng performed again, the theater was snubbed in front of the door again, and the door was full of birds. Yan Jupeng was depressed all his life, the evening scene was desolate, and finally he was depressed. When he was dying, he said to his children: "When people call my yan's singing voice a strange cavity, in fact, my new cavity is based on profound knowledge of rhyme, and posterity will one day understand my painstaking efforts to create a new cavity." ”
Compared with the bumpy fate of Yan Jupeng's life, the experience of his daughter Yan Huizhu may be more lamentable.
Red makeup tears of wisdom beads
Born in a Pear Garden family, she has loved the art of Peking Opera since she was a child, and she is more fascinated by the style of Master Mei Lanfang. More because of the relationship between the world, I got what I wanted, and I learned the art under Master Mei Lanfang, and I was deeply loved and carefully taught by Master Mei. Yan Huizhu is exceptionally intelligent, and the essence of Master Mei's art can be learned as soon as he learns it. Moreover, she pursues the realm of both form and god, not only learning mei in voice cavity and body shape, but also deliberately pursuing similarities with Mei Lanfang in terms of performance costumes, hairstyles, and hair accessories.
It is said that every time Mei Lanfang has a new costume to buy, or buys a new piece of jewelry, Yan Huizhu must buy the same one. At the time, everyone also recognized that Yan Huizhu was the most brilliant of all Mei Lanfang's disciples. Therefore, as soon as Yan Huizhu performed in Shanghai, she was quickly warmly welcomed by the audience.
Especially during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Mei Lanfang grew a beard and bid farewell to the stage, and the audience simply regarded Yan Huizhu as a substitute for Master Mei, and every time there was a performance, it was often full. Yan Huizhu thus became a new star on the beach, wearing a mink coat, staying in a star-rated hotel, and entering and exiting high-end social occasions for drunken gold fans.
In his later years, Master Mei filmed "Peony Pavilion And Dream of Visiting the Garden", which was played by Yan Huizhu as Ya Gui Chunxiang. This play has also become one of the few classic plays left by Yan Huizhu that can often be watched.
At the time when the mountain rain was about to come, Yan Huizhu dressed herself up one night, and her style was shining. After a sumptuous dinner at a frequented restaurant, he returned home and ended his artistic life with a white Aya. Calmly, he drew an end to his life in an extraordinarily elegant way.
He was only 47 years old.
The fate of Yan's other descendants was not particularly flat either.
Yan Shaopeng, Zhang Shaolou and his son Yan Xingpeng
Yan Jupeng's son, Yan Shaopeng, stayed at the Qingdao Peking Opera House for decades. As a disciple of Ma Lianliang, Yan Shaopeng specialized in the Ma Sect, and did not have much experience in the performance of the art of the Yan Sect. Not as good as Mrs. Zhang Shaolou.
Yan Shaopeng "Su Wu Shepherd"
Fortunately, The son Yan Xingpeng, whom Mr. and Mrs. Yan Shaopeng have painstakingly cultivated, has made the art of the Yan school shine on the Stage of Peking Opera in China again, and with a song "Cao Cao and Yang Xiu", it has laid the foundation of the New Yan School. Yan Jupeng knew about it underground, and it seemed that he could also look at it.
"Cao Cao and Yang Xiu" won the first international award Shang Changrong and Yan Xingpeng
It's just a pity that the beach is huge,
Can't tolerate a friend?
Yan Jupeng, Yan Huizhu and Yan Xingpeng have three generations of grandchildren
Yan Xingpeng entered the Shanghai Peking Opera House in 1984 and is committed to the development of the art of speech, because of his roots and strong strength, he is loved by many audience fans. But it is strange that when the Peking Opera business was in full swing, he left the Shanghai Peking Opera House in 1992 and settled in the United States. After he left the art of Peking Opera, the art of the Yan school suffered a heavy loss.
After Yan Xingpeng left the Peking Opera stage, he did not stop singing. In 2004, 2005, 2007 and 2010, Yan Xingpeng also sang at New Year's galas and Peking Opera events. Fans thought he was coming back, but unfortunately, since 2010, Yan Xingpeng didn't seem to have sung Peking Opera in public.
Yan Shaopeng and Zhang Shaolou
Yan Xingpeng's mother, Zhang Shaolou, is an outstanding inheritor of Yanpai art, a famous Peking Opera performing artist and educator. He died in the United States on September 12, 2014, at the age of 90.
Mr. Zhang Shaolou buried his bones in a foreign land,
It seems that Yan Xingpeng will not come back!
Yan Xingpeng "Wolong Hanging Filial Piety"