Dear teacher, you have left us like this, walking as lightly as Bai Suzhen, and have been your disciple for 35 years, I still don't want to believe it. These days, when performing, suddenly looking back, you seem to be still looking at me on the side curtain, smiling, warm as ever; these days, when you rehearse the play, between turns, you seem to be still talking to me, one move and one style, all of your figure.
I remember that on the morning of June 28, the theater held a party member commendation meeting, and your voice trembled a little when you spoke. When Kuizhi and I sent you to the car, I couldn't help but say: Teacher, you are too tired today. You nodded: "I'm a little excited today. The headlights are far away, I look at you, I did not expect to say goodbye to this life. Yes, you often love to be excited, excited for art, excited for characters, excited for disciples, excited for the country. You love the world so much that you are so affectionate. Looking back at your life, it is like Bai Suzhen's life: there is confusion, there is surprise, there is pain, there is sweetness; and you use beauty, courage, forget-me-no-self, and affection, and you also walk like Bai Suzhen.
At Hebei Art School that year, you watched me act for the first time. At that time, I loved the role of Yunwen Yunwu and admired the actors who were unstoppable. After going to the Beijing People's Theater to see you perform "The Legend of the White Snake", I really admired it. In 1986, the Handan Peking Opera Troupe arranged "The Legend of the White Snake", invited you and Chun Xiaoshi's father to guide, and you immediately agreed to accept me to learn art. You followed the path of the China Academy of Performing Arts, from "swimming in the lake" to "falling tower" to help me re-locate. In the middle of summer in Handan, you teach drama for more than a month. You always speak so meticulously when you play, not a single look is spared; when you demonstrate, you are always so comfortable, your body, your singing voice, all in the play. At that time, you were really young, walking up the round field, the wind was under your feet, and the young me sighed in my heart, but I could not keep up with you.
Since then, "The Legend of the White Snake" has become a cannon fight scene for me to go out and perform. In 1998, in the graduate class of the China Academy of Performing Arts, you and your father rearranged me and Zhang Wei. In 2003, when I went to Australia to perform, you two always took the stage for me and Kuizhi all the way, and traveled with me. Later, when "The Legend of the White Snake" was filmed, your second elder insisted on the Huairou set, checked the performance, and kept improving. For 35 years, "The Legend of the White Snake" has achieved our master-apprentice relationship; it is also this play that has made me enter the door, open the trick, and learn to act.
I sometimes think, Master, you are too serious, you are always not satisfied, you are always thinking about the drama. Absorb, learn, improve, innovate, even if you have acted in the "Legend of the White Snake" for a lifetime, you will always be pondering and always improving. I know that even if you don't go on stage for many years, your heart has never left the stage, and you are spending your life walking into Bai Suzhen and walking into every character. And all this, I see in my eyes, remember in my heart.
You said: As long as you worship me, you must teach me. You dedicated the second half of your life to teaching, to us. But all the disciples and students, you have done a solid demonstration, without reservation, you have dug your heart out, you have worked hard, and you have exhausted your efforts. In 1989, I participated in the first TV Grand Prix, and before the competition, you gave me drama and advice in the guest house, and my heart was more anxious than mine. But as a judge, you never want to be selfish. Until after the game, the other judges exclaimed: XiuRong, you must say that Li Shengsu is your apprentice, and you can give higher scores! You just smiled and replied: Everything is as it should be. For 35 years, you have always taught us to be honest and learn drama in a down-to-earth manner; between words and deeds, we have understood the rules, taken the right path, and become people like you.
Every New Year's Festival, birthday, I often come to my home to accompany you. But you always say: Shengsu, you go to work with you; Shengsu, don't come to see me all the time; Shengsu, don't be too tired. During the epidemic last year, I sent some vegetables to your door every week, and every time I received something, you called me to shed tears. Teacher, you taught me acting, taught me skills, gave me artistic life, I feel sorry for you, filial piety to you, why should you be polite to me.
The other day, I went to the computer room to watch the new stage art film "The Legend of the White Snake" that I was editing, which also infused your hard work. It's going to be released in three months, and you didn't wait for it. In the past 35 years, this "Legend of the White Snake" has accompanied me to London, to Paris, to Sydney, to Italy, and she has already melted into me, melted into my blood, and melted into the hearts of thousands of Chinese and foreign audiences.
At this moment, you have drifted away and your soul has returned to heaven, and I know that you are only returning to heaven to practice. After a thousand years, you are full of affection, re-incarnate, the disciple will definitely meet you again, and then associate with you, and then accompany you to Emei to Jiangnan, the lake and the mountains are tourists.
Text: Li Shengsu