Qiu Shengming: Guan Sushuang learns art

【Reprint】Guan Sushuang Xueyi (Qiu Shengming)

2021-02-22 08:58:37A-A+

Guan Sushuang, a famous Peking Opera performance artist whose ancestral home is Jiangling, Hubei Province, is a descendant of the Manchu Zhenghuang Banner people stationed in Jingzhou. Her original name was Guan Damao, and her father Guan Yongzhai was originally a Peking Opera flower face actor, but later changed his voice to drumming. Because of the many plays in Guan Father's belly, he became a famous drummer in Hankou Theater. In the early 1930s, Guan Damao played drums in the Dajing class of Hankou New Market, and Guan Damao fell in love with Peking Opera from an early age. But because singing is too hard and there is no social status, the father does not want his daughter to eat the bowl of acting, so he sends her to study. However, she was obsessed with the stage, and when she came back from school, she soaked in the drama class and practiced with her sisters for a long time. I have some skills.

In 1942, Dai Qixia, a famous Dan of Jiangnan Peking Opera, was invited by the big stage of Hankou New Market to come to Wuhan with her husband, Wang Yunwu of Jiangnan Wusheng. Dai Qixia learned art at the age of seven, took the stage at the age of nine, hung the head card Hua Dan at the age of thirteen, in addition to being good at Hua Dan and Dao Ma Dan, and could reverse the string of Xiaosheng and Wusheng, and performed in the Early Years in Singapore, known as "Nine-year-old Red". In 1935, at the age of 1935, dai Qixia returned to China and performed her first performance at the Shanghai Golden Theater, she won the praise of the audience with her flexible skills, eye waves and excellent stilt skills, and because she often acted like what she was like, she was praised by famous characters such as Qilin Tong and Xun Huisheng.

This year, Guan Damao was 13 years old, because she had been immersed in the drama class for many years, she already had some appreciation for the drama, and she admired Dai Qixia's several plays very much, and she had the idea of worshiping the teacher. So Guan Yongzhai asked a friend who sang flower faces to take his daughter to visit Dai Qixia and his wife, but Dai Qixia did not agree at first, only agreed to let her study with the group. After a year of tempering, Dai Qixia saw that this little girl could endure hardships and had understanding, so she decided to officially accept her as an apprentice, this year she was 4 years old. For the sake of prudence, Guan Yongzhai specially asked someone to deliberate, and gave Da Mao an official name called Partridge (in 1955, Zhou Enlai suggested that she be simplified to Su Shuang - reprint note), which has the meaning of phoenix spreading its wings. According to the rules of the pear garden, after worshiping the master, the apprentice should follow the master's surname, Guan Damao changed his name to Dai Sushuang, and wrote a contract, performed the worship ceremony, and from then on, he officially stepped into the Dai family's door and devoted himself to learning the art with the teacher. Every day before dawn, she got up and shouted, split her legs, ran round fields, played with knives and sticks, etc., and then hung her throat after noon, learned stage performance skills, and followed her master to play a ring and palace maid on the stage. In short, how Dai Qixia learned and how she taught this female disciple.

Dai Qixia was very strict with Guan Sushuang, and if she made the slightest mistake, she would be beaten. When she was in the first school, one day she was too tired from practicing and fell asleep sitting on the stage, And Dai Qixia got angry for a while and kicked her fiercely, which made her really hurt for several days. After fighting this, she learned her lesson and practiced more diligently. In the winter, she wears a single dress to practice walking on the stage, and in the summer, she practices relying on zigong by sweating.

Many years later, Dai Qixia still remembers her experience of teaching Guan Sushuang to learn art, and aroused her heartache and uneasiness, and deeply regretted that she should not have kicked a teenage child and punished him severely. In 1992, she was shocked to hear that Guan Sushuang had died in Kunming, and she was very sad, and she really longed to cry bitterly in front of the disciple's spirit, but Guan Shan blocked it, so she had to send a condolence telegram and call Guan Sushuang's family to express condolences.

Having said that, Dai Qixia was actually out of a hard heart, hoping that her beloved disciple would become a talent as soon as possible. In the second year of worship, she asked Guan Sushuang to play for her, playing the small work of the second and third roads. When she mastered a certain basic skill, Dai Qixia taught her the drama she knew without reservation to this beloved disciple- not only teaching her Hua Dan drama, but also teaching her Dao Ma Dan, Xiao Sheng and Wu Sheng.

After teaching for a period of time, Dai Qixia saw that her disciples had a certain foundation, so she officially taught her to sing the head and two copies of "Rainbow Pass" to actively prepare her for her debut on stage. "Rainbow Pass" is a very artistic Danjiao play, which integrates singing, doing, reading and playing, and is a compulsory play with a pivotal position in the Danjiao line. The actors who played this play were all "one catch two", that is, the first half of the play of Mrs. Dongfang Shi starred in the second half of The Yahuan, and dai Qixia sang the first play in Shanghai after returning from Singapore that year was "Rainbow Pass". Dai Qixia taught patiently, and Guan Sushuang studied seriously. A few months later, the master thought that the disciples could perform, so he consulted with her husband Wang Yunwu and decided to let Guan Sushuang use this play to "shoot cannons", and the drama code was in the finale position. The so-called "cannon play" generally refers to the best play sung by an actor in the first three days of his first arrival in a certain place, but Guan Sushuang's "cannon play" has a different meaning, which is Dai Qixia's announcement to the audience that her apprentice can sing the protagonist.

On the day of the performance, in order to embolden the disciples, Dai Qixia personally went backstage to "set the stage" for her, so that she could be taken care of and prompted at any time. After the play was sung, Guan Sushuang did not make a single mistake, and the literary and martial arts dramas were all performed very well, and the audience in the audience responded with warm applause. Seeing the success of the disciple's performance, Dai Qixia was happier than anything else, and Guan Sushuang's family and relatives and friends who were sitting on the stage were even more smiling.

A "Rainbow Pass" made Guan Sushuang shine in Wuhan for the first time. Then Dai Qixia also played her other masterpieces "Xin An Yi".

Zhan Hongzhou", "Thief Immortal Grass", "Great British Festival", "Red Lady", "Zhou Yu Return to Heaven" and so on were carefully taught to the apprentices one by one. "Ten thousand tall buildings from the ground", all this laid a solid foundation for her later fame.

In 1945, the anti-Ri War entered its seventh year, and Dai Qixia and his wife fled to Xinyang, Henan province with Guan Sushuang. After the victory, he returned to Wuhan. In order to let her disciples be trained on the stage, for more than a year, Dai Qixia often let Guan Sushuang star in some plays such as Qingyi, Hua Dan, Xiaosheng, and Wusheng, such as "Qi Xie", "Erjin Palace", "Di Qing Zhao Qin", "Xin AnYi", "Tianba Baishan" and so on. Because she has a variety of Dan horns and raw horns have learned skills, so she plays Hua Dan delicate and delicate, sings in green clothes with deep affection, plays Xiaosheng as a gentleman, and plays a martial artist with amazing skills, which is well received by the audience.

In 1946, Guan Sushuang came to Shanghai with his teacher. At this time, not long after the restoration, people were still immersed in the joy of victory in the War of Resistance. The Shanghai opera scene is very prosperous, the north and south are full of famous characters, everyone shows the ability to look after the family, and good plays on the stage are repeated. In order to attract audiences, major theaters in Shanghai have competed to stage plays, such as "Burning Red Lotus Temple" and "Wild River Woman" on the Tiantou Stage, "Journey to the West" and "Tanuki Cat for Prince" on the big stage, "Blood Drops" and "Taiping Heavenly Kingdom" of the China Grand Theatre. The drama is equivalent to the current TV series, paying attention to the storyline, and emphasizing the set and actor stunts, interspersed with many wonderful martial arts scenes such as flying cornices and wall walking, high platform flipping and so on. And Dai Qixia and Guan Sushuang, who have a solid foundation in martial arts, have a unique advantage in this regard, and their performances on the Shanghai Grand Stage are "Hongbi Yuan" and "The Legend of the Shushan Swordsman", which won a round of applause, and for a time the two masters and apprentices can be described as dominating the shanghai beach.

In "Hongbi Yuan", master Dai Qixia played the heroine Hua Bilian who had the world's best martial arts. In the scene "Hua Bilian sneaking into the room", Dai Qixia, dressed in big red pants, a cape over her shoulders, and a waist hook hanging ring, flew down from the third floor opposite the stage and flew to the stage through the audience's head. This trapezeman stunt made the audience first hold their breath, followed by a storm of applause. In the scene of "Pingshan Hall Fight", a small ring is set up on the stage, and the ring has two tables high, one square, which can accommodate two people fighting. Dai Qixia's flower Bilian steel wire rope flyer went up, fought with the opponent, and then flew down the ring with a big tendon, and the excellent martial arts made the audience crazy. In "The Legend of the Swordsman of Shu Mountain", the disciple Guan Sushuang also showed her skills, she played a righteous heroine in this play, "cutting the devil", she flew down from the air, her feet landed on the ground and began to fight, the monsters flew up with one gun, she picked up the l6 guns with one gun, and the monsters caught the guns separately, and the scene was dazzling.

Dai Qixia's master and apprentice also performed some stage plays at that time, which caused a great sensation among the audience. In order to attract the audience, the Shanghai Golden Grand Theater specially hired Dai Qixia to star in a number of consecutive stage plays "Seven Swords and Thirteen Heroes", and posted posters promoting Dai Qixia by "Wei Zhen Art Garden", and the publishing department also issued bookmarks with Dai Qixia's stills as the content. Guan Sushuang was hired by Hunan to pick up the big beams in the Changsha Grand Theater, and the three-day cannon play "Big Joint Lie", "Red Lady", and "Dragon and Phoenix Chengxiang" were all the tricks that Dai Shi taught her, so that the audience could see the eyebrows fly and dance.

In 1948, the 20-year-old Guan Sushuang studied for six years and became a teacher in Changsha, Hunan Province, and restored the original surname of Guan. After leaving school, Guan Sushuang was invited to Kunming by Cao Baisheng, the head of the Yunnan Grand Theater, and Dai Qixia organized a ninety-member QixiaGuo Troupe to go to Taiwan at the end of the year to ×, and the master and apprentice have never seen each other again.

Although Guan Shan was blocked and could not be heard for many years, neither of them forgot the love of teachers and students for six years, especially Guan Sushuang, and always remembered the grace of Teacher Dai's teachings in those years. When she was alive, she often said to people: "Teacher Dai treated me like her own daughter, and unreservedly passed on my heart orally to me, so that I could use it for the rest of my life." Thinking about the source of drinking water, I will never forget the teaching of Teacher Dai to me in my lifetime, and since I was an apprentice, she has always been the central figure of my inner world. ”

Although Guan Sushuang did not see her beloved teacher Dai for more than 40 years before her death, 11 years after her death, she was continued by her disciple, Zhan Lijun, a famous dan of the Guizhou Peking Opera Troupe- in October 2003, Zhan Lijun went to Taipei City, × Province, Taiwan to perform, and after Chongyang Festival learned that the Taipei Municipal authorities were going to organize a charity performance for the elderly, she actively participated in the performance of "Heavenly Girl Scattered Flowers" for the elderly, and what she did not expect was that her grandmother Dai Qixia also participated in this charity performance, starring in "Red Lady" in the big axis play. The handsome grandmother on the stage plays the teenage little red lady, one move and one style can not see that she is already an 85-year-old old man, her voice is round, her hands are flexible, her knees and arms are stretched freely, just like a little daughter's mood, and she said that she knelt on her knees, raised her hands, and threw her feet, still so moving, showing her big horn style and solid skills everywhere. After the performance, when Zhan Lijun took a group photo with Master Dai, she said to Her Grandmother with a happy face: "When Teacher Guan was alive, she showed us stills from Plays such as "Hongmei Pavilion" on stilts, and told us that whoever was blessed to see Grandma Dai's wonderful performance should be on my body, not only did I see the wonderful performance of Master And Grandma, but also had the honor of performing on the same stage with Grandma Shi, and continued the 'drama' and 'love affair' of the three generations of teachers and apprentices."