At the opening of the 8th Tianjin Xiangsheng Festival, more than 100 cross-talk actors from Tianjin, including Jiang Kun, Feng Gong, Li Jindou, Miao Fu and Wang Yuebo, as well as Tianjin's Yin Xiaoxiao, Wei Wenliang, Wei Wenhua, Li Boxiang, Chang Baofeng, Tian Lihe, Liu Junjie, Zhao Jinsheng and other cross-talk actors gathered in Qianxiangyi. Among them, there is a 92-year-old old artist, who is the oldest living in the cross-talk industry today, and is also one of the old artists of the highest generation, his name is Yang Baozhang.
Yang Baozhang was born in 1925 in Fengqiu County, Henan Province, his real name is Yang Yungui. He was the first generation of cross-talk actors in Henan Province, when Tao Xiangjiu, a famous scholar of the Beijing school of cross-talk and book critics, ran to Kaifeng and took Yang Baozhang as an apprentice. Before Yang Baozhang, there were no formal cross-talk actors with portals in Henan.
(Yang Baozhang)
However, the origin of cross-talk and commentary is in Kaifeng. Lu Xun wrote in the "History of Chinese Novels": "Song Dubian, the people's material Kangfu, there are many things to play, there are miscellaneous tricks among the dealers, there are 'talking', practitioners are called 'talkers'... Although the matter of speaking, although the speaker has his own ingenuity and arises at any time, there is still a base for relying on, which is for the 'script'. ”
The "speaking" of Kaifeng in the Song Dynasty is clearly the source of modern commentary, "the speaker has his own ingenuity, at any time, and there is still a base to rely on", which is the combination of script and hanging, which can also be regarded as the originator of the chanting art form such as cross-talk. The famous "Qingming River Map" also paints the bustling scene of kaifeng street market.
Kaifeng has one of the most prosperous places - Daxiangguo Temple. In the twenty-first year of The Qing Daoguang (1841), the Yellow River flooded Kaifeng, and the building of the Great Xiangguo Temple was seriously damaged, and since then, this thousand-year-old temple has collapsed, gradually forming a juggling market, and achieving another prosperity.
Because the Great Xiangguo Temple is no longer a temple, there is no gate and courtyard wall, only one archway, casually entering and leaving, people coming and going, bustling. Drum books, Henan pendants, zizi, three strings, storytelling, cross-talk, double reed, Shandong fast book, juggling, shadow puppetry, slingshot, wrestling, playing handle selling art, selling powerful pills, divination and counting and other folk artists, three religions and nine streams of stars gathered, all kinds of snack vendors also gathered here, the degree of liveliness is no less than Beijing Tianqiao, Tianjin Nanshi San.
Yang Baozhang went to school at the age of 9, but he often skipped school to listen to cross-talk at the Great Xiangguo Temple. At that time, the most famous person who performed cross-talk at the Great Xiangguo Temple was Zhang Jieyao. Zhang Jieyao is nicknamed "Zhang Fool", and his greatest achievement is to sort out the three cross-talks of "Guan Gong Zhan Qin Qiong", "Luo Cheng Playing Sable Cicada", and "Zhang Fei Playing Yan Song". In Kaifeng, Zhang Jieyao lived at the China Hostel in Partridge City and spoke cross-talk at the Xiangguo Temple's "Tibetan Scripture Building"
Yang Baozhang's father was a bamboo craftsman. After graduating from primary school, Yang Baozhang learned crafts from his father, but he was still obsessed with crosstalk, he met several friends who loved crosstalk, often listened to crosstalk together, and later several people pooled their money to set up a cross-talk field in the four barracks of Nankai Nanguan to sell art. But jianghu artists have a set of skills to attract the audience, the spring ceremony is called "round sticky", not everyone says that cross-talk is listened to, Yang Baozhang and others simply can not attract the audience.
At this time, the famous cross-talk artist Tao Xiangjiu came to Kaifeng Xiangguo Temple to perform. Tao Xiangjiu studied art from his brother Tao Xiangru (Zhang Shouchen's partner in his heyday) and later studied under Guo Ruilin (Guo Rongqi's father). He has sold art in Beijing, Tianjin, Kaifeng, Jinan, Nanjing and other places, and his best skills are the eight sticks "Song Jingang Baobao", "Zhang Guangtai" and Shan Huo's "Oil Poetry" and "Lifting The Bar Shop".
(Yang Baozhang, Guo Degang, Jin Wensheng)
In the 1930s, Tao Xiangjiu opened the mountain gate in Beijing to accept the eldest disciple Guo Baoshan, who later cooperated with the famous Sun Shaolin at the Shandong Chenguang Tea Society. In the 1940s, Tao Xiangjiu took in his second disciple Wang Benhui (Wang Baojue) in Shijiazhuang. Subsequently, Tao Xiangjiu took Wang Baojue to Kaifeng, Henan Province, to perform stand-up comedy "Borrowing Fire", "Little Immortal", "Eating lanterns", "Three Character Classic", "Spring League" and "Geographical Map" at the Daxiangguo Temple.
Yang Baozhang and the others went to Mr. Tao and asked to visit him. Tao Xiangjiu saw that these children were sincere and persistent, so he agreed to accept them as disciples and give them stage names, all of which were of the Baozi generation: Xu Shijie was Xu Baoyu, Qin Shuang was Qin Baoqi, Yang Yungui was Yang Baozhang, Wang Junqing was Wang Baozhen, and Ma Zhenhuan was Ma Baolu.
Among the several division brothers, Yang Baozhang learned the most seriously. The old artist's apprentices are all taught by oral transmission, and the apprentices must listen with their ears and remember with their hearts. Yang Baozhang started by saying tongue twisters and practicing every day from morning to night. He likes to play "Wen Wei" cross-talk, and slowly learned "Xie Xue", "Su Dongpo Three Eat Fish", "Man Han Dou", "Little Immortal", "Five Elements Poem", "Article Society", "Confucius Eats lantern" and other passages.
(Yang Baozhang, Li Lishan)
In the 1950s, Yang Baozhang performed in Kaifeng and became famous with "A Letter of Condolence". Later, he went to Nangangzi in Jinan to pick up the ground. At that time, the most famous in Jinan was the Chenguang Tea Society, and Yuan Peilou, a cross-talk actor of the Chenguang Tea Society, invited Yang Baozhang to perform at the Chenguang Tea Society, but the brothers who swept the ground together did not let go, and in the end, they did not make the trip. Later, Yang Baozhang went to Beijing again, and on the overpass, Baisha wrote "Kaifeng Xiangsheng".
In the 1970s and 1980s, Yang Baozhang accompanied the Huainan Cultural and Labor Troupe to perform in Jiangsu, Anhui, Shanghai and other places, and successively performed with the famous cross-talk artists Li Shouzeng, Gao Guiqing, Zhang Jieyao, Lai Zhenhua, Hou Baolin, Liu Baorui and so on. In 1993, he recorded 20 episodes of the long-form stand-up "The Legend of Liu Luoguo" on Henan Television Station, and later recorded the traditional cross-talk "Cobbler Beckoning", "Husband and Wife Joke", "Talking about Drama" and "Xueyu Opera" on Tianjin Television Station.
Yang Baozhang and Guo Degang also have a fate. Yang Baozhang and Hou Baolin were a generation, and Guo Degang called him a master. In 2006, Guo Degang and his master Hou Yaowen performed in Zhengzhou, and Yang Baozhang listened to Guo Degang's cross-talk for the first time on the spot, and the two chatted very speculatively backstage.
(Shi Shengjie, Shi Fukuan, Yang Baozhang, Li Jiacun, etc.)
In 2006, at the 10th anniversary celebration of Deyun Society, 82-year-old Yang Baozhang made a special trip to Beijing to perform a 20-minute long "Zhucheng Water Village". In 2010, the Kaifeng Municipal Ququ Association held a "68 years of art, 86th birthday celebration" for Yang Baozhang, Yu Qian represented Guo Degang to participate, Yang Baozhang said a piece of "The Story of the Ghost". Not long after, Guo Degang came to Zhengzhou, and after arriving, he first went to Kaifeng to pick up Yang Baozhang, who told Guo Degang a long stand-up comedy "Red Apricot Out of the Wall" and "Cobbler Beckoning" and "Luo Cheng Playing Sable Cicada".
Yang Baozhang celebrated his 90th birthday, and Guo Degang and Yu Qian went to Kaifeng again to wish him a happy birthday. Guo Degang specially painted a painting for Mr. Yang Baozhang. At the celebration of the 20th anniversary of the establishment of deyun society, Guo Degang invited Mr. Yang Baozhang to Beijing and performed on the same stage with four old artists, Jin Wensheng, Li Wenshan and Xie Tianshun, which was passed down as a good story. (Text: He Yuxin)
(Guo Degang donated yang Baozhang)