A generation of famous Wei Changsheng ‖ Li Gangming Diao Juemin

A generation of famous Wei Changsheng

Li Gangming Diao Juemin

In the seventh year of Qing Jiaqing (1802), on the banks of the Xiushui Bridge outside the zhicheng box in Jintang County, Sichuan Province, there was a huge tomb, and people from the south to the north called it "Huanggu Tomb", so that today, more than two hundred years later, some people do not know the real name of the person in the tomb, but most of them know that it is an "Imperial Gu".

This "Imperial Gu" is none other than Wei Changsheng, a generation of famous opera performers who have been famous and popular all over the world.

Wei Changsheng (1744-1802), courtesy name Wanqing, was a native of Jintang, Sichuan. Because he ranked third among his brothers and sisters, he was called Wei San. During the Qing Dynasty, few people knew his name, but many called him Wei San. Wei Changsheng is a master of Qin performing arts in the history of Chinese opera and the father of Sichuan opera. Together with Sichuan opera artists, he carried out artistic performance innovation on the Sichuan-Qin cavity, using the huqin in the Sichuan-Qin cavity, the moon qin vice- and using musical instruments such as zizi and gong na, changing some of the Kunzi to singing zizi or blowing the cavity, combining it with silk bamboo, and gradually forming a unique style of Sichuan-Qin cavity. When he was young, he went to Shaanxi with the Shaanxi class to learn the Qin Cavity, which integrated the artistic elements of Sichuan and Shaanxi, and gradually made his singing voice closer to the Sichuan opera bullet cavity.

The gift of "Imperial Aunt"

In the forty-fourth year of Qianlong (1779), Wei Changsheng entered Beijing again, compared with the previous performance in Beijing, this time he led Chen Yinguan and other apprentices to come again, which can be said to have done enough homework. He took the Qin Cavity Drama Class "Shuangqing Department" and performed with the play "Rolling Building", which won the reputation of thousands of empty alleys.

The "Yanlan Small Score" says: "Jingbanduo's high cavity, since Wei San's change of zi cavity, is all a sound of silence." It also said: "With the drama of "Rolling Building", the famous city moved, the audience reached more than a thousand, and the six major groups reduced their color... All the princes and nobles, even the words and walls, are all thrown thousands of heads. For a while, he didn't know Wei San, and he couldn't think of anyone. "His Hua dan drama is delicate, the lyrics are easy to understand, coupled with the tone of the voice is gentle and clear, the voice is charming, accompanied by the huqin, the moon qin, the silk bamboo, the complex music promotes the festival, and the voice is full of emotion. He created male Dan costumes, changed his head to comb the head of the water, patches, and created the technique of stepping on stilts, which showed the charm of women and women.

In the "Shuangqingbu" performance place of the Beijing Division Sichuan Guild Hall, every day the song and dance, the officials and nobles flocked endlessly. One day, two people with good temperament came from a private room in the guild hall, a man and a woman who wholeheartedly enjoyed Wei San's performance, and his gesture caused female viewers to sob.

These two were the emperor Qianlong of the dynasty and one of his concubines. The Qianlong Emperor and his concubine had a special personality, known as Heshuo. Xiao Gege was well-behaved and clever, and he was deeply pleased by the two people, and he regarded it as a pearl in his palm. Unexpectedly, half a year ago, the incense disappeared, and the imperial concubine was sad and depressed all the time. The Qianlong Emperor took Aifei out of the palace with his micro-clothes, one was to dispatch Aifei to be depressed, and the other was moved by Wei San's reputation, and came to the Sichuan Guild Hall to see Wei San's style. This Qianlong Emperor was also an elegant person, and he was also familiar with chess, piano, calligraphy, painting, lyrics and poetry. The two looked at the performance of the Princess of Liaobang on the stage, and felt more and more that this Princess of Liaobang was like heshuo Gege who had just passed away, and that her look was amazingly similar. At the end of the performance, the Qianlong Emperor summoned Wei San, who was immediately adopted by Concubine Ai as a Gege and made his "dry daughter". The next day, Wei Changsheng was ordered to disguise himself as a princess of Liao state and enter the palace to thank the emperor and the imperial concubine. After this, the people honored Wei Changsheng as "Wei Huanggu".

Teenage grunts

Wei Changsheng's life is full of legends. In the ninth year of the Qianlong Dynasty (1774), a family surnamed Wei in Jintang Chengxiang Town, Sichuan Province, added another mouth, but the family was not happy. The sick father looked at the dilemma of the four walls of the family, helplessly supported the thin body to go out to work, and finally died of illness, and the livelihood of the family depended on the mother to find some odd jobs to maintain. When he was ten years old, his mother also died. Since then, Wei San has been wandering in the street wandering groups, picking up rags, eating "hundreds of meals", and preparing for the hardships and hardships of life. In order to eat mixed food, he also followed the folk opera team performing around Chengdu to learn the drama running field, although the agility was showy, but the skills did not grow.

At that time, the folk drama class ate "jianghu rice". It is inevitable to go south and north, and sometimes they are bullied by some local bandits. In order to survive, the people in the drama class joined the jianghu organization known as "Slurrers" in the Sichuan-Shaanxi area.

According to Yan Ruyu's "Border Defense of the Three Provinces", "Sichuan is fertile and easy to survive, and the unemployed people of the provinces gather among them and form friends." Its leader will be skilled and recommended by all. Choose the long forest deep valley, where people are not in the track, practice the art of fist, stick, knife and hammer, so his art is quite skilled. ”

This "grunt" is the early organizational form of the Jianghu Brotherhood of Elders, which began with the mountain bandits and displaced people in the Daba Mountain area, and then gradually extended to the counties and townships of the Chengdu Plain, and organized members with "chivalrous" and "righteous" orders. After Wei Changsheng joined a group of jianghu artists who joined the "Slurrer", he went to Shaanxi to meet a small Qin opera class and changed to Qin Cavity, thus gradually forming a unique form of Sichuan-Qin cavity singing.

Wei Changsheng and his party were exiled to Xi'an, people were strange, in order to seek a living, there must be a conflict of interests, in a fight with the merchants in the neighboring street, he beat the other side, had to "fear the crime" away, fled to Luohe, joined the tongzhou Yizi opera class. Life was once again difficult and difficult, forcing him to become more and more sophisticated in order to get ahead with his skills.

It is precisely such an unusual life encounter that has created him to dare to challenge the spirit of adventurous fighting, coupled with his narrow sense of pride, and has considerable organizational ability, ten years of grinding a sword, and gradually becoming famous in the eight hundred miles of Qin Chuan, which has laid a solid foundation for him to lead the drama class north to the Beijing Division and win the Central Plains in the future.

Famous Zhenjing Division

During the Qing Dynasty, the society was stable, the economy was relatively prosperous, the people lived and worked in peace and contentment, and local operas in various provinces prevailed. Drama classes from all over the world have entered Beijing to offer "pilgrimage", and at that time, the Beijing opera stage prevailed in the Kun cavity and the Beijing cavity, "the southern cavity is adjusted to the north, and the music of the four directions is prepared". At that time, opera was divided into two parts: "flower" and "elegant". "Yabu" refers specifically to the Kun Cavity, and "Huabu" refers to various local opera genres outside the Kun Cavity, including the Beijing Cavity. The "flower department" in the Pear Garden in Beijing is the most popular in the Beijing dialect, but the Kun cavity is gradually declining, and the royal opera class sings the Beijing dialect.

In the thirty-ninth year of the Qianlong Dynasty (1774), Wei Changsheng took the majestic wind of Qin Yunshu Stack and led the Qin Opera Class to enter the Beijing Division. The drama class is complete, the drama skills are solid, the script of the performance is full of life, and Wei Changsheng's original Western Qin cavity is good at conveying love, so it is a blockbuster. Xiao Tiedi Daoist's "Record of Seeing Flowers Under the Sun" once said: "Born in the thirty-ninth year of Qianlong (1774), he began in the capital, and became accustomed to his "Rolling Building", and the whole country was crazy. At that time, the imperial magnate Prince Shōmu Lian wrote in his "Miscellaneous Records of the Pavilion of the Shouting Pavilion. Zheng Ba( Zheng Ba) records: "Wei Changsheng entered the capital at noon, became famous as a capital master, and all the princes and nobles, and even the word wall powder department all threw thousands of heads, and for a while they could not recognize Wei San, and they could not think of anyone." ”

Contemporary calligrapher and painter Mr. Zhu Changxun's "Jin Tang Junxian Painting Collection" Wei Changsheng photo (courtesy of the author)

In the Pear Garden of the Beijing Division, a "Wei whirlwind" was blown vigorously, causing the "Yabu" Kun Cavity to decline even more, and even the "Huabu" Beijing Cavity was greatly reduced in color, and even "put the old version of the Beijing Cavity in the High Pavilion" ("Yanlan Xiaopu"). Wei Changsheng, as an outstanding representative of the "Flower Department" in the history of opera, has since been in the annals of history. The famous Japanese opera historian Masao Aoki also praised Wei Changsheng in the "History of Chinese Opera in the Modern Era" as "a genius who has opened up a new era in the Dan color world and a magician who has achieved realism." He said, "Overseas Xian knows that there is Wei San." ”

Wei Changsheng's capital became popular, and he also accumulated countless funds, and his courageous deeds of fighting righteousness and heroism made posterity look up to him. Whenever he encountered a person in need of help, he often gave generously to help others tide over the difficulties. There was a high-ranking person in Chuanchi who was trapped in the Capital Inn due to illness, and Wei Changsheng immediately sent charcoal in the snow after knowing this, and then he was sent back to Sichuan to Renzhi County, Huayang, Chengdu Province. A few years later, Wei Changsheng was escorted back to Sichuan because of the incident, and Gaozhi County specially invited him to Chengdu to gather together, and thanked him for his kindness in saving him.

At that time, a great talent in Chuanchu also had many friendships with him in the capital. This person was the official WaiLang, Li Tiaoyuan, a scholar of Hanlin University from Luojiang who had just returned to Beijing from Guangdong Province. Li Qiaoyuan is an opera theorist, and as early as during his tenure as a scholar in Guangdong, he completed two monographs on opera theory, "Yucun Qu dialect" and "Yucun Drama". As for Wei Changsheng chuanzhong, who was a fellow countryman, he naturally paid more attention to it, mixed feelings, and his mood was contradictory. This was detailed in his later "Poetry of the Rain Village": "Recently, the Pear Garden of the Beijing Division is superior to Chuandan, and people have almost no idea why Su Yi ... The most important author is Jin Tang Wei Changsheng, and his disciple Chen Yinguan is second, almost as the famous Zhenjing Master. As soon as "Rolling Building" came out, Howell and the scholar were also intoxicated. Other miscellaneous dramas are nothing more than scientific and obscene, and the viewer is blocked for a while. And the six major departments of the Jingzhong Wangfu, Cuiqing, Dacheng, Yuqing, Yuqing, and Baohe, almost no one cares, and they can really be the long-term rest. Nong Yin Qiu, forbidden to enter the class, its wind began to rest... Yu is called Wei San as a figurine, can be called the Wild Fox Sect Leader, hurt! ”

From this, it is not difficult to see that Li Qiaoyuan was worried about Wei Changsheng's performance in Beijing opera, and the famous "Hua" and "Ya" disputes in history finally ended with the defeat of "Huabu". Wei Changsheng changed his singing to the Jing Opera Class to teach the drama, and wei Changsheng was trapped and had to leave Beijing.

Yiyang Yangzhou

After the reputation of the capital, the imperial etiquette was finally impacted, and the other six major departments were mostly imperial dignitaries, who regarded Kunyi and Jingxiang as orthodox, and Wei Changsheng's Chuan Qin cavity as an evil door. In the fifty years of Qianlong (1785), the court was commanded by infantry to five cities to show the Sichuan-Qin cavity to prohibit the performance, "the general order to change the Kun and Yi two chambers, if unwilling, listen to their other physiology." If he or she does not obey the evil, he shall be handed over to the yamen for punishment and deported back to his home. ("Cases of the Great Qing Dynasty"). Wei Changsheng had no choice but to sing zhonglie's indoctrination dramas of rebuking treachery and stubbornness, such as "Iron Lotus" and "Fragrant Lotus Jun", but it was still the same as before, and the charm was perfect, showing his profound artistic attainments.

In the fifty-third year of Qianlong (1788), Wei Changsheng led a large number of opera troupes to leave Beijing and come to Yangzhou. Yangzhou, which was known as "Yang Yi Yi Yi Er" in ancient times, is a good place in Jiangnan. Here salt transport and water transport are prosperous, merchants and merchants gather, the people are rich, and natural opera is flourishing. Far from the capital, the "flower" opera is flourishing, and the Qin cavity, the Geyang cavity, the Zizi cavity, the Luoluo cavity, and the second reed tune are all in a variety of colors. Yanyun Yushi Yilinghe and Tusi Afeng aimed to set up a special agency in Yangzhou to revise the opera scripts, and compiled and printed a series of "Qu Hai" series of opera scripts, including more than a thousand kinds of opera scripts in various places.

Stills of Wei Changsheng's costume in the Tuojiang Cultural Museum (courtesy of the author)

Wei Changsheng, who was praised by Li Tiaoyuan, a talented man in Shu, as the "Master of the Wild Fox Sect", once again blew up the "Wei Whirlwind" in Yangzhou, and was regarded as a guest by Jiang Heting, a huge rich merchant in Yangzhou City. According to the "Yangzhou Painting Record", "Sichuan Wei San'er, the number changsheng, the year forty, came to the county town to throw jianghe pavilion, acted out (Chuntai class), and gave thousands of gold." Taste the boating on the lake, smell the wind for a while, the prostitutes are exhausted, the paddles are hit, and the lake water is chaotic. The immortals behave freely and have a desolate attitude. Opera theorist Jiao Xun gave a poem to Wei Changsheng: "The song is intoxicating, even if there is money, it is not light", and it is appreciated.

Artists from various drama genres from neighboring provinces and cities flocked to Yangzhou to see Wei San's style. The crowd not only watched his performance in the Chuntai class, but also asked him to teach his skills. The Suzhou opera class also specially invited him to Suzhou, the birthplace of Kunqu Opera, to teach him his original skills of "seesaw work" and "combing water head patches". His artistic wonder of "being good at conveying affection and moving listening" nourishes the soil of pear gardens in the north and south of the great river; his newly created Western Qin cavity has played a catalytic role in the art of Peking Opera a hundred years later. Famous characters from all over Jiangnan have also come to learn from Wei Changsheng, such as Hao Tianxiu, a famous Dan in Anqing, who has studied script skills such as "Rolling Building" and "Send Pillows". Jiao Xun's "Huabu Nong tan" narrates: "Since the western Shu Wei San'er, advocating obscene and contemptuous words, the generations of Fan Ba and Hao Tianxiu in the city well have turned to imitate and infected the countryside." "It can be seen that Wei Changsheng's artistic influence in the Jiangnan area."

Benefit mulberry

In the fifty-seventh year of Qianlong (1792), Wei Changsheng was again framed by the enemy and sent back to his hometown. This time back in Sichuan, he purchased a garden near the current Chengdu East Yard, living in Sichuan for ten years. He was close to Sichuan opera artists, and many artists were also his brothers who learned to sing Sichuan opera when he was young, they lived together, performed together, and played a foundational role in the formation and development of the "five chambers in one" of Sichuan opera, calling him "the father of Sichuan opera" worthy of the name.

At about the same time, Li Tiaoyuan was allowed to return to his hometown after being unjustly imprisoned for being wrongfully imprisoned for "yellow boxes" . Wei Changsheng sent a letter to meet in jintang. The capital met, and now they meet in their hometown, and the two are both sighing. Li Tiaoyuan commented on Wei Changsheng with poetry:

The wei king was a passenger on the ship, and he bid farewell to Yanjing for a long time. Suddenly, the Jin official letter came from Xiushui City. The praise of the king leopard is good, and the name of the wild fox is curved. The value of the year is expensive, and the gold paper is not light.

Fu Fan He Ping Uncle, Shi Zhu Zhang Liu Lang. A lifetime of flowers at the bottom of the life, three days to sit in the incense. The wig is cloudy and greasy, and the head is wrapped in gold. "Yanlan" who composed the score, the name of the solo temple Qunfang.

Li Tiaoyuan lamented that Wei San's color art singing was excellent in those years, and his reputation was like the sun in the sky, but now he no longer looks ahead; at the same time, he also made a pertinent comment on Wei Changsheng's opera achievements; he not only looked back on the exchanges in the Beijing Sichuan Guild Hall in those years, but also implied his ardent expectations for Wei to promote Sichuan opera.

Shortly after his return to Sichuan, Gaozhi County, who had been sponsored by him in the capital to take the examination and is now a special visitor in Huayang County, Chengdu Province, came to visit, first, to thank him for his rescue grace that year, and second, to hope that he could make some achievements for the revitalization of Chengdu opera. Wei Changsheng then submitted the declaration of the Sichuan opera people to build the "Lao Lang Temple" to Kochi County. Soon after the approval was issued, the temple site was selected in the north of Huaxingzheng Street in Chengdu, with an east-west length of 570 city feet and a north-south length of 300 city feet. The "Lao Lang Temple" led by Wei Changsheng imitates the architectural style of the Suzhou Pear Garden Guild, and the ancestors of the Pear Garden, Tang Ming Emperor and Yi Yi Lao Lang, are molded inside. "Lao Lang Temple" was rebuilt into "Yuelai" tea garden at the end of the Qing Dynasty, rebuilt after the founding of New China, named "Jinjiang Theater", and now "Chengdu Sichuan Opera Art Center". In the past two hundred years, it has carried the joy of generations of Sichuan opera lovers, and has become a sacred place for Sichuan opera art.

Chengdu Jinjiang Theater (Photo by Pengzhou Xianshi)

After the completion of the "Lao Lang Temple", Wei Changsheng once performed his best play here, namely "Han Zhenlie" (Sichuan opera "Wang Zhaojun"). At this time, Wei Changsheng was nearly fifty years old, but due to his good maintenance, his appearance was still youthful and radiant. After watching it, Li Tiaoyuan praised: "Recently, I saw Wei San perform the drama of "Han Zhenlie", and his voice was real and made people want to shed tears. Then sweep away the lead Hua, Gu Yu is also a good disciple of pear garden. The "Gemini Constellation" of the Sichuan art world in the Qing Dynasty cherished each other, and has been passed down as a good story by posterity.

Martyrdom

In the fifth year of Qing Jiaqing (1800), Wei Changsheng left Sichuan for Beijing. At the age of 57, he starred in Qin operas such as "Fragrant Lotus Skewers", "Roasting Fire", and "Big Trouble selling the Golden Tent" in the "Three Qingbu", and his performance on the field was still meticulous, and his martial arts were even more pure steps.

The martyrs are in their twilight years, and their hearts are not yet strong. Three years of hard work on the stage also caused him heart failure. In the seventh year of Jiaqing (1802), Wei Changsheng went down after performing "Cousin Sister-in-law's Back Doll", and he was angry on the spot.

Xiao Tiedi Daoren was a loyal fan of Wei Changsheng, and after the death of a generation of famous people, he sincerely mourned:

Heroes and children are both at the same time, and they are old and hard-hearted. Around the fingers softly combined with just a hundred refinements, hitting the bear hand is jade fiber.

Overseas Xianzhi has Wei San, and the Qing Dynasty is famous for broadcasting in the south of the River. The ghost travels to Jinzhou Road, knowing who he is to get rid of himself.

Wei Chang was also quite rich after he became famous, but he was indifferent to money, generous and charitable, helping the needy, and enthusiastic about public welfare, and by the time of his death, he had little spare capital. The Miscellaneous Records of the Shouting Pavilion record: "The poor are unable to be buried, and those who benefit from it, in order to understand their affairs, must first return to the coffin." ”

After Wei Changsheng died in the capital, his apprentice Chen Yinguan and other plain cars and white horses were sent back to Sichuan on coffins and buried by the Embroidery Water Bridge in Jintang City.

Wei Changsheng spent his whole life as a drama, and he also truly tested that drama like life. His opera art has built an immortal monument, indicating that he has continued to move forward from the artist.

About the Author

Li Gangming, a native of Wufengxi, Jintang, Sichuan, is a member of the Communist Party of China, a director of the Sichuan Literary and Art Communication Promotion Association, and a member of the Chengdu Writers Association. He has been in the army for four years, ran a factory for business after retiring, and is now engaged in local grassroots management and cultural work. I saw the text during the walk, and many articles were scattered in newspapers and magazines across the country.

Diao Juemin, member of Sichuan Intangible Cultural Heritage Protection Association, director of Sichuan Literary and Art Communication Promotion Association, member of Chengdu Historical Society, specially invited researcher of Jintang Cultural and Historical Committee, member of Jintang County Intangible Cultural Heritage Expert Evaluation Team, Tianfu Border City. Executive Editor of Wufengxi Newspaper.