In the garden outside the rehearsal hall of the Shaanxi Provincial Opera Research Institute, the highest hall of shaanxi opera, there is a tall bronze statue with several strong words engraved on the granite base: "People's Artist - Ma Jianling". On the statue, a "beautiful bearded man" is wearing a coat, holding a cane, staring ahead, looking resolute and wise. He is the famous playwright Mr. Ma Jianling.
<h1>Jian Ling's metaphor shows that he has soared in art</h1>
On an extremely cold winter night in November 2017, a large-scale opera party to commemorate the 110th anniversary of Ma Jianling's birth was held at the Shaanxi Provincial Academy of Opera, because there were many winners of the "Plum Blossom Award" who performed, and this performance was difficult to find. Many fans of the play came from all directions, gathered inside and outside the academy theater, talking about the classic plays created and adapted by Ma Jianling and still performed so far, and admiration was born.
In 1907, Ma Jianling was born in a poor family in Mizhi, northern Shaanxi, his father was a rural teacher, he was dismissed for ideological progress; his brother did underground work in the party, and he was heroic and righteous because of traitors, such a family created a very special atmosphere for Ma Jianling's growth. His name is Fei Diao, Jian Ling is his word, Du Fu has a poem "He Dang has wings, fly to the front of the fall", Jian Ling not only shows a soaring ambition, but also coincides with his future career in theater: plumes are mostly used in theatrical characters, and the small students with two plumes inserted in their heads often dress handsome, strong and heroic.
Ma Jianling was admitted to Yulin Middle School at the age of 17, stayed on to teach four years later, and joined the Communist Party of China at the age of 20. He knew musical instruments, was especially good at storytelling, often took students to rehearse ideologically progressive plays, and was soon targeted by Kuomintang agents and almost arrested, so he had to flee northern Shaanxi to replace his brother Ma Yuncheng and enter Peking University. The following year, he took the opportunity to return to Xi'an to visit his sick brother, watched new plays performed by many classes such as Yi Folk Society, and greatly admired the performances of Wang Tianmin, Li Zhengmin, Su Zhemin, Geng Shanmin and other famous characters, and since then he has developed a strong interest in drama.
Ma Jianling grew from a progressive young man to a generation of drama masters, mainly in several aspects: first, rice fat and northern Shaanxi, folk rap and opera art soil is rich, so that he has been nourished by art since he was a child; second, he has carefully studied philosophy, the "Book of Poetry", and Song Ciyuanqu at Peking University, which laid a solid literary foundation for his opera creation; third, he walked in northern Shaanxi and studied in Beijing, and then he was forced to go to Hebei to teach because of life, and in the life of running around and stormy, he was in extensive contact with society. I understood the sufferings of the people and understood the general direction of drama creation.
During her studies at Peking University, Ma Jianling often went to the theater to watch plays, and Mei Lanfang, Cheng Yanqiu, Xun Huisheng, Shang Xiaoyun and other performing artists watched all the plays. At that time, his economy was very difficult, once in order to buy a ticket for the play, he actually became his own cotton robe in the cold winter, which was known to his classmates, and everyone pooled their money to redeem the cotton robe.
<h1>"Blood and Tears" has been sung for nearly 80 years as a classic</h1>
After the outbreak of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Ma Jianling returned to northern Shaanxi to teach at Yan'an Normal School and set up a local drama troupe, serving as a screenwriter and director herself. During this period, he created a number of dramas and Qin Cavity, which greatly encouraged the people's enthusiasm for resisting Japan, among which qin cavity "Chinese Soul" has been performed for a long time and has become his representative work. Subsequently, at the initiative of Mao Zedong, Ma Jianling, together with the poet Ke Zhongping, established the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region People's Theater Troupe (the predecessor of the Shaanxi Provincial Opera Research Institute).
For modern people, Ma Jianling's name is quite unfamiliar, but when it comes to the dramatic works he has created, it is really thunderous, and fans are familiar with it. Take "Blood and Tears Vengeance", which can be called a classic of modern Qin opera, this play tells the difficult experience of a poor peasant family from Henan to the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region, in which a singing of "The granddaughter is sad with her hands, and the two children have no mother..." Has a bitter and desolate voice, and is full of grief and indignation, which has been passed down to this day. The Meido drama "Twelve Sickles" depicts the story of Wang Er, Guilan and his wife, young blacksmiths in the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region, who rushed to fight twelve scythes all night to support the production of the troops. There is only one scene in the whole play, two characters, and the story structure is simple, but it leaves the audience with a sense of concentrated plot, simple characters, and clear themes. In addition, Ma Jianling's "One Road", "Poor People Hate", "Everyone Likes", "Defend peace", "Cha Lu Tiao" and other Qin and Meido dramas, the lyrics are real and simple, and the atmosphere of life is rich, which greatly encourages the people's anti-Japanese enthusiasm and has become a "red classic" that has been sung for nearly 80 years.
"You come from nowhere, from the people. Where are you going? Go to the people..." The "people's consciousness" in the song of the people's theater troupe makes Ma Jianling's creation close to the earth and communicates with the people, and his works convey the voice of the life of the people at the bottom, which triggers the emotional interaction between the military and the people in the entire Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region and even all the liberated areas.
Ma Jianling is not only a prolific modern drama writer, but also an expert in creating historical dramas and adapting traditional plays. From 1942 to 1948, the opera works he wrote and adapted included more than ten works, such as "Fishing and Killing The Family", "Huluyu", "Wang Zuo's Broken Arm", "Return to Jingzhou", "Chopping Horse Rumors", "Golden Beach", "Anti-Xuzhou", "Eight Sledgehammers", "Gu Dajie", "Fish Belly Mountain", "Wu Yuan's Escape", etc. These plays have a touching plot, vivid language, and full of characters, and have been widely performed in the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region and in various anti-Japanese base areas, which have had a far-reaching impact; Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai, Zhu De, and others have watched some of the performances of the plays and given enthusiastic support and encouragement; Ma Jianling has also been awarded the title of "Artist of the Masses of the People" by the Government of the Border Region.
<h1>Talking about art, "the audience doesn't buy it and nothing is top."</h1>
After the founding of the People's Republic of China, Ma Jianling served as the president of the Northwest Xiqu Research Institute (now the Shaanxi Provincial Xiqu Research Institute), at which time his creations changed from modern drama to historical drama. In the vast areas of Shaanxi, especially in the countryside, traditional dramas can be described as long-lasting, and the characters, plots and performances of previous actors have made theater fans enjoy it. Adapting traditional plays, how to retain the essence and remove its dross, is a matter that requires great caution, and the master often "turns decay into magic" while maintaining its original taste.
The Shaanxi countryside describes the woman as charming, often calling her like "Hu Fenglian", and when it comes to the young man Shuai, he praises him as "Tian Yuchuan", two well-known theatrical characters in Shaanxi, from the classic Qin opera "You Guishan". "You Gui Shan", formerly known as "Butterfly Cup", was premiered in 1932 by the Xi'an Yi Folk Society in Beiping. In 1952, Ma Jianling adapted two "Butterfly Cups" into one "You Gui Shan", to rough and refined, so that the plot is compact, the character image is conveyed, and the script won the script award at the first national opera observation and performance conference. At that observation meeting, Xiao Ruolan, an 18-year-old Dan actor of Xi'an Yi Folk Society, became famous for starring in the role of Hu Fenglian in "You Gui Shan". And "You Gui Shan" and "Hidden Boat" compromised in "the ear listens to the two more four points on the upper floor, and the boat is difficult to damage my Hu Nu Fenglian..." The euphemistic and delicate singing section has become a representative singing section of the Xiao School, showing the romantic beauty of Ma Jianling's poetic and picturesque play. Successful adaptations such as "You Gui Shan", as well as traditional dramas such as "Four Soldiers", "Taipingzhuang", "You Xihu", "Dou E'er", "Orphan of Zhao", etc., for decades, these plays have been performed without fading, achieving Ma Jianling and many famous Qin characters.
Whether it is a modern drama or an adaptation of a traditional drama, why are the Qin cavity, meido, and bowl cavity launched by Ma Jianling's hand so popular with the masses and have become a peak that is difficult for future generations to surpass? Some experts believe that the most valuable experience left by Ma Jianling's creative practice is that opera must take the road of popularization, not only to oppose vulgarity, but also to oppose blind elegance. According to some veteran actors of the Provincial Academy of Opera, every time Ma Jianling finished writing the script, he first took it to the cooks to read, and if these people did not understand or dislike it, he would revise it repeatedly until they nodded...
Chen Yan, a famous playwright, believes that Ma Jianling is not only a leader in art, but also an excellent manager who knows how to do it. "He took over the banner of the People's Theater Troupe from Ke Zhongping in 1941, and in 1949 led the troupe to be transferred to Xi'an, and although he held many important positions at that time, he always believed that only 'solid and down-to-earth drama was the profession', so he even gave up higher positions for promotion."
Chen Yan believes that the core of Mr. Ma Jianling's management is to "bring people together first". This view of talent not only "puts together a pile" of many opera elites in the five provinces and regions in the northwest, but also attracts the famous Chinese painters Cai Hezhou and Cai Heting brothers from far away in Fujian to "paint the set" for the troupe. The second is that "the audience does not buy it and does not top anything." This is not only a creative guiding ideology, but also a market management concept. The third is the "spirit of one vegetable". The so-called "one dish" means that the performance of a play should have centripetal force, co-force and coordination like a complete cabbage, which is the fundamental experience of Mr. Ma Jianling to obtain a double harvest of creation and management. Coupled with his true love of drama, understanding of drama, and the feelings and spirit of playing with life nutrition, he finally brought a "local opera troupe" of "more than a dozen people, seven or eight guns" to the artistic highland of "the highest school in Northwest Qin" that integrates research, teaching and demonstration performance.
<h1>Chang'an experiences life and talks about art with Liu Qing</h1>
Life is the source of Ma Jianling's drama creation, and it is also the basis for him to realize the "likeness and dissimilarity" on the modern drama stage.
Wu De, a famous Qin performance artist, recalled that in the 1950s, in order to draw more creative materials from life, Mr. Ma Jianling was willing to live in Jiali Village in Chang'an County, about 30 kilometers away from Xi'an City, as a creative base for him and the theater cast and crew to live deeply for a long time. "He takes us deep into the countryside to experience life, bringing the performance class of modern drama to real life." He asked us to make friends with the peasants extensively, and to record at any time what we saw or interesting people and things as materials and materials for creation, and at the same time it was also an assignment, and if necessary, he personally checked them. At that time, the rural conditions were difficult, in order to improve the food of the cast members, once President Ma Jianling took out his own writing fee and asked people to go to the Xi'an Restaurant to buy a basket of waxed beef and send it to Jiali Village, which made everyone very moved.
Wu De still remembers that President Ma Jianling lived in a simplely repaired broken kiln in Jiali Village, 20 meters from the kiln gate is a gushing river, the river is clear, fish and shrimp swim, and the verdant Zhongnan Mountain is close at hand. Dean Ma also asked people to plant some peach trees and almond trees in the courtyard, and he was very satisfied with this creative environment. Not far from here, it is the living base of the famous writer Liu Qing to write the "History of Entrepreneurship", Huangfu Village, Chang'an County. Liu Qing was also one of the cultural instructors of the early Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region People's Theater Troupe, and Ma Jianling had stirred spoons in a pot, and they were old comrades and comrades-in-arms who did not say anything. At that time, Ma Jianling and Liu Qing often met in Chang'an to talk about literature and art.
In 1965, the last year of Ma Jianling's life, this year, the Xiqu Research Institute rehearsed the Meihu opera "Lei Feng", and the famous opera artist Jiao Ruixia who participated in the performance clearly remembered that Mr. Ma Jianling, who was seriously ill and tired, was lying on a bare bed in the rehearsal hall, watching the actors rehearse the play. There is a scene where Lei Feng, who is sick and hospitalized, despite the nurse's persuasion, has to go to the fire, just when everyone is struggling with how to deal with this scene, Ma Jianling, who is lying on the bed board, suddenly stands up, takes a few steps to the window, jumps from a window more than 1 meter high in front of him, gives the actors a demonstration, completely forgets his body, everyone present is stunned, and then Mao Sai suddenly opens.
In 2006, the year before Ma Jianling's centenary birthday, the Provincial Academy of Opera decided to erect a statue of him to perpetuate his artistic style. Almost spontaneously, nearly a hundred artists and managers donated money. After Ma Jianling's former literary secretary and famous director Chen Jianyi heard about it, he took the lead in generously donating 10,000 yuan, and the famous performance artist Li Ruifang donated 20,000 yuan. After the statue was completed, several generations of artists of the institute rushed to watch, and some people sighed: "The old dean will never go away." Today, more than ten years later, many of the plays created and adapted by Mr. Ma Jianling are still circulating in the northwest land, and generation after generation of actors have shaped the roles in his scripts and practiced the duty of high-stage indoctrination, which is the power of art.
(Source: Xi'an Evening News, July 10, 2018)