The weather was fine, and he decided to visit the family cemetery of Peking Opera master Mei Lanfang. After passing the Botanical Garden and climbing up the Xiangshan Road, turning right into Wat Pho West Road, to the west gate of the Botanical Garden 300 meters to the left, is the family tomb of Mr. Mei Lanfang.
Peking Opera master Mei Lanfang (picture from the Internet)
Mei Lanfang (1894.10.22-1961.8.8), also known as Lan Lan, also known as Heming, breast name skirt sister, character Qihua, stage name Lan Fang. A native of Beijing, his ancestral home is Taizhou, Jiangsu Province. Mei Lanfang was born in the Liyuan family, learned drama at the age of 8, learned Qingyi from Wu Lingxian at the age of 9, and took the stage at the age of 10. Later, he studied Hua Dan with Qin Zhifen and Hu Ergeng. In 1950, he became the president of the Peking Opera House of China, in 1951 he was the president of the China Academy of Opera, in 1953 he was the vice chairman of the Chinese Dramatists Association, and in 1959, he joined the Communist Party of China. On August 8, 1961, he died of illness in Beijing at the age of 67. In more than 50 years of stage life, Mei Lanfang has developed and improved the singing and performing arts of Peking Opera Danjiao, forming an artistic genre with a unique style, known as "Mei Pai". His representative works include "Noble Concubine Drunk", "Heavenly Girl Scattered Flowers", "Cosmic Front", "Fishing and Killing Family" and so on.
Entrance to the Mei Lanfang Family Tomb
The small hillside where Mei Lanfang's tomb is located is on the east side of Xiangshan Mountain, called Wanhua Mountain. It is said that the mountain got its name because there is a Niangniang Temple on the mountain, which is dedicated to a statue of a thousand flowers and meat fetuses, and the incense was flourished here in the late Qing Dynasty and the early Ming Dynasty, and later became known to everyone.
Mei Lanfang's epitaph
Mei Lanfang finally chose Wanhua Mountain as a cemetery for two reasons: one is good feng shui, the other is Mei Lanfang's word Qihua, and the word "Wanhua" and the word "Huahua" are consonant. So he bought 17 acres of hillside land in the vicinity as his family cemetery, personally hired someone to repair it, planted pines and cypresses around it as a wall, planted two dragon claw locust trees in the south, and built a "Yuxiangguan Villa" next to it.
Mei Lanfang family tomb area
Originally buried here was Mei Lanfang's first wife, Wang Minghua. After Mei Lanfang's death in 1961, she was buried here. In 1980, after the death of the second wife Fu Zhifang, she was also buried here.
Mei Lanfang Cemetery was designed by his fourth son, Mei Baochen
The cemetery is based on plum blossoms, the cemetery, Yongdao, tomb foundation and main tomb are all made of plum blossoms as the main pattern, and the Yongdao is embedded with a plum blossom pattern composed of gravel.
Mei Lanfang's tomb
The five petals of the tomb foundation made of white marble resemble a white plum blossom
"Mei Lanfang's Tomb" is a handwritten letter from his secretary Xu Ji
The tomb of Seven of Mr. May's relatives
The second floor behind the tombstone is a curved ramp with seven tombs distributed on it, namely Mei Lanfang's grandfather, uncle, father, aunt, father-in-law and other relatives.
Grandfather Mei Qiaoling, Gong Qingyi, is one of the famous "Thirteen Absolutes of Tongguang"
Uncle Mei Yutian is a "Huqin Holy Hand" who has been playing the piano for Mr. Tan Xinpei for a long time.
His father, Mei Zhufen, is also a Peking Opera master, Gong Qingyi and Hua Dan
The tomb of Mei Lanfang's aunt Qin Meishi
The tomb of Mei Lanfang's father-in-law Fossus
The tomb of the fourth son, Mei Baochen
Although born into a Peking opera family, Mei Baochen did not work in opera, he graduated from the Department of Civil Engineering of St. John's University in Shanghai and has been working as a senior engineer at the Beijing Architectural Design Institute. Because he was influenced by his family from an early age, he played a good huqin and was personally taught by Wang Shaoqing.
The tomb of the fifth son Mei Shaowu and his wife Tu Zhen
Mei Shaowu, formerly known as Mei Baozhen, is a famous translator in China, who died of illness in 2005 and was buried in the Mei family cemetery. After graduation, he worked as a translator in the Beijing Library and translated many excellent works such as "Selected Cases of Sherlock Holmes".
On both sides of the main tomb are two Peking opera artists, Mei Baoyue and Mei Baojiu
Mei Baoyue is the only daughter of Mr. Mei Lanfang and is regarded as a pearl in the palm of her hand, so she is named "Baoyue". In 1943, he inherited Li Guifen and learned to sing. Mei Baoyue's singing is standardized and exquisite, her voice is vigorous and mellow, her appearance is handsome and elegant, and her performance is delicate and rigorous. His repertoire includes: "Red Mane Horse", "Shiro Visits Mother" and so on.
The tomb of Mr. Mei Baojiu
Mei Baojiu is Mei Lanfang's ninth child and youngest, a descendant of Mei Pai art, who was the head of the Mei Lanfang Peking Opera Troupe of the Beijing Opera House. Mr. Mei Baojiu has devoted his life to the inheritance and development of Meipai art, which is of great importance to today's Peking Opera circle.
The stone fence has been damaged
The flower offerings were not cleaned up
This time visiting the tomb of Mr. Mei Lanfang's family, I found that the environment of the cemetery area was very worrying, and from time to time there were bursts of dog barking in the shed next to it, as if it was under construction. Tombstones and even the entire cemetery area need to be repaired and cleaned, and all kinds of garbage are everywhere around, and the sacrifices are not cleaned up.
How can such an environment allow Master Mei under the Nine Springs to rest in peace? We sincerely call on the management department to repair and renovate Mr. Mei's cemetery and environmental remediation at an early date.
A generation of masters slept here
Mr. Mei not only made outstanding contributions to the art of Peking Opera, but also had a beard and was unyielding to the obscenity of the Japanese Kou when the Japanese invaded China, lamenting that no one could stand out in the past hundred years, and the only person who could be honored as a master of art was Mr. Mei Lanfang!