This year marks the 145th anniversary of the birth and 90th anniversary of the death of Mr. Cheng Zhaocai, the main founder of the drama. As a fellow Tangshan native, I remember Mr. Cheng Zhaocai and feel deep respect.
▲Statue of Cheng Zhaocai
Become a famous corner of the Lotus Flower in Jidong
On December 20, 1874, Cheng Zhaocai was born in Shengjiazhuang, Luan County, Tangshan (now part of Luannan County). His family was poor, and his father was a simple peasant who earned a living by doing long-term work. When Cheng Zhao was only 12 years old, he herded pigs for the rich man's family and did small work. He loves music, has no teacher of musical instruments, and at the age of 15 became the protagonist of the village's singing songs. He preferred to read, eavesdropping on Mr. Li's lectures outside the window of the village school, folding branches into pens, making paper with flat sand, and learning the "Hundred Family Names", "Three Character Classic" and "Thousand Character Text". In the future, when I grasped the empty space and read the book, I actually reached the level of proficiency in literature and ink. At that time, in jidong, "ten not idle", "singing songs", "lotus flowers" and other forms of music and art were very popular, and his cousin Cheng Zhaowen was a lotus flower fall artist, and every time he returned from outside, he would give him a little food from the folds. This was a great temptation for Cheng Zhao, and he decided to learn the lotus flower when he grew up.
The lotus flower fell from the Tang Dynasty Buddhist song, and the Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties have all recorded singing lotus falls. Initially a stand-up performance, it later developed into a two-person duet, and then slowly formed a folk drama with more than three people participating, performing some plays with simple plots, which were very popular with the people. In the 18th century, the lotus flower fell to Jidong, integrated into the local folk customs, and combined with the local folk art, forming a unique Jidong lotus flower fall based on the "LaoJiao'er" dialect.
In 1891, there was a great famine, and Cheng Zhaocai's parents and wife died one after another. Soon, he defected to the "two-in-one class" of Jin Kaifu in Luan County, studied Danjiao performance, and became a professional lotus artist. He was handsome in appearance and had a bright voice, and soon stood out and became famous. At that time, there was a superb performing artist among the Lotus Fall Artists, named Zhao Kuiheng, whose stage name was "Xi lai shun", and sang very popular. People thought that Cheng Zhaocai was comparable to him, so they gave him a stage name "Dong Lai Shun". In the autumn of 1894, the "two-in-one class" performed in The City, and Cheng Zhaocai performed brilliantly, and behaved decently, and the typhoon was decent, and his reputation spread throughout Jidong at once.
▲ Cheng Zhaocai manuscript
Start writing a new screenplay
Cheng Zhaocai was famous for singing lotus flowers, but through the practice of performance, he was not satisfied with this art form. He believes that this kind of drama is too few, and the plot is too simple, the audience is not addicted to watching, and the actors are not addicted to acting, and must be improved.
In 1900, he adapted the script "OolongYuan" for the first time and began his creative career.
After the autumn of 1907, he and the famous lotus fall artists ren Lianhui, Jin Juhua, Zhang Yuchen and others gathered at Zhang Deli's house in Wujiatuo, Luan County, to discuss how to improve the lotus fall. The script script, the basis of a play, if you want to play people, you must first have a good script. Everyone unanimously elected Cheng Zhaocai and Ren Lianhui to be responsible for writing the new script, and Cheng Zhaocai to be responsible for speaking (directing). At the same time, a reform plan was also formulated for stage arrangements, costume design, music accompaniment, etc., and responsible persons were designated. With his ingenuity and unique insight into the art of lotus fall, Cheng Zhaocai led everyone to carry out a drastic transformation of lotus fall from content to form.
The original Lotus Fall Repertoire, in order to cater to the vulgar psychology of some audiences, deliberately added some obscene pornographic performances to the singing, for these, Cheng Zhaocai they were completely eliminated. This not only eliminated the ban on performances by the government, but also improved the reputation of the drama class.
On the basis of maintaining the counterpart and dismantling the traditional singing voice of the opera, they also purposefully absorbed the modes and plates of Peking Opera, Hebei Zizi, Luanzhou Shadow Puppetry, and Le Ting Big Drum, and skillfully mixed these elements in the singing cavity of lotus flowers, thus forming a new singing cavity of "Big Mouth Drop", such as "AnBan", "Pointed Plate", "Stacking Board", "Loose Plate", "Matching Tune", "Sad Tone", "Crying Fan" and so on.
Cheng Zhaocai accumulated more than ten years of creative experience, and worked closely with Ren Lianhui to adapt and create scripts such as "Confession of Golden Fan", "June Snow", "Horse Widow Opening Shop", "Qin Xuemei Hanging Filial Piety", "Liu Ling Drunk" and other scripts, so that the birth, Dan, net, and ugly stereotypes were fixed, and the vocal accompaniment was also fixed. They performed in Wujiatuo for five consecutive days and five nights, "in front of the stage, there were a sea of people, and tens of thousands of heads were moving." Immediately set up a Qingchun class, from Luanzhou to sing into Yongping Province, and then into Tangshan, the song was called "Tangshan Dakou Luozi" and "Pinglu Zi", which was popular all over Jingdong.
When the Xinhai Revolution broke out in 1911, Cheng Zhaocai was influenced by the democratic trend of thought and created plays borrowed from ancient metaphors such as "Flowers as Media", "Du Shiniang", "Wang Shaoan Catching Boats", and "Selling Oil Lang Monopoly on Flowers". These plays were deeply loved by the audience, accelerated the development of the commentary, and sang into Tianjin.
▲ Stills of "Yang Sanjie's Complaint"
Created "Yang Sanjie's Complaint" and commented on the development of the drama
In 1919, the "May Fourth" patriotic movement took place, which dealt a heavy blow to the feudal forces, and the consciousness of pursuing democracy and freedom and opposing feudal etiquette became more and more deeply rooted in the hearts of the people. In the autumn of that year, Cheng Zhaocai performed in Harbin, and a fellow villager went to visit the troupe and told the story of the landlord of Dianzi Village (now part of Luannan County) in Luan county, Gao Zhanying's uncle and sister-in-law, who committed adultery and murdered his wife, and the peasant daughter Yang Sanjie, who was not afraid of the officials and gentry, and went through great hardships to file a complaint for the second sister. Cheng Zhaocai felt that this was a very good theme, if it was put on the stage, not only could it have a great box office value, but also played a role in punishing evil and promoting good, so he began to write the script "Shoot Gao Zhanying". Someone advised him: Brother don't write this, they are all villagers who are in the countryside, saying that no one is good or inappropriate, and everyone next to them must take revenge. Cheng Zhaocai laughed but did not answer, took advantage of the opportunity to go home for the New Year, went to the county court and the home of the person concerned to conduct a detailed interview, and on the basis of mastering a large amount of materials, he created many characters with distinct personalities headed by Yang Sanjie.
"Shoot Gao Zhanying" premiered at the Tianjin Police World Drama Society, Jin Kaifang as Yang Sanjie, Zhang Youtai as Yang Mother, Wang Fengchi as Gao Zhanying, Yue Mingzhu as Pei, Hou Tiantai as Gao Qizi, Chen Tieru as Fei... The cast is neat and the acting skills are very good. In order to perform this fashion drama well and learn from life, in addition to thinking about shaping the character, they also took a lot of pains in makeup. They make special wigs, tied to their heads and mixed with real hair to comb into buns and braids, very realistic.
"Shoot Gao Zhanying" is based on real people and real events, and most of the characters in the play also use real names. After the success of the performance of the Police Drama Club, other theater clubs competed to perform, and soon spread throughout the country. The story in the play is well known and plays a good role in publicity. Later, Cheng Zhaocai made many revisions and named it "Yang Sanjie's Complaint". Although this drama is not the first modern drama of the commentary, it is the earliest modern drama that has achieved success since the formation of the commentary, objectively and truly reflecting the social reality, inspiring the deaf and the profound influence. "Yang Sanjie's Complaint" has been performed for many years, laying the foundation for the standardization of drama criticism and the establishment of drama to reflect the modern life style.
In 1923, Cheng Zhaocai led the Warning World Drama Society to enter Tianjin again, taking the meaning of "commenting on the past and discussing the present", and officially named "Pingxiang Big Mouth Falling Son" as Commentary. Cheng Zhaocai's script creation kept up with the times, and he also wrote popular works such as "Shooting the Camel Dragon" and "Ahn Jung-geun Assassinating Itō Hirobumi", which powerfully sang the harmony of the times.
On February 8, 1929, Cheng Zhaocai died of illness in Shengjiazhuang at the age of 55. Mr. Mei Lanfang commented on him: "The flower we see today blooming so lushly is inseparable from Mr. Cheng's hard work, and it is worth respecting and commemorating a predecessor like Mr. Cheng who is loyal to art and has creative achievements. ”
In 1957, the China Drama Publishing House published the Selected Plays of Cheng Zhaocai, which included more than 130 plays he compiled and created during his lifetime.
If Shakespeare's works broadly and profoundly reflect the British society of the 16th and 17th centuries and represent the literary achievements of the European Renaissance, then Mr. Cheng created a great drama while also broadly and profoundly reflecting the life of his time, which can be called "Shakespeare of the East".
(Liu Zhenguang/Article published in the 13th edition of Yanzhao Metropolis Daily on July 1, 2019)