He is a truly respected elder, a respected artist who has dedicated his life to the stage, one of the best inheritors of the Hao school of Peking Opera, and the founder of the Yuan School of Peking Opera. He is the well-deserved true master of Peking Opera - Yuan Shihai.
Yuan Shihai
<h1>Fans</h1>
Yuan Shihai was born in Beijing in 1916, the family of five brothers and sisters, he is the youngest, his parents named him Ruilin, the nickname is Xiao San'er, so he was later called "Yuan Sanye" by many friends.
Due to the large population of the family, his father became tired and sick, and yuan Shihai died when he was less than two years old, and later the family relied on his mother and eldest sister to do needlework for people to survive.
Yuan Shihai (right) and Li Shifang
Despite the hardships of life, Yuan Shihai, who grew up under the protection of his mother and older siblings, still had a carefree childhood. In addition to helping his mother to send work, the most common thing he did was to go to the Tianqiao Theater Garden to listen to the play.
He has seen "Spinning Cotton" by The Song Stage Pony Five, and also seen Cai Lianqing's "Saw Bowl Ding" and "Chun A's Clan" on the Kuihua Stage, whether it is Yang Xiaolou, Wang Youchen, or Yu Shuyan, Chen Delin, Xun Huisheng, as long as it is a performance of famous characters, he will watch it. In order to be able to listen to the play, Yuan Shihai can be said to be racking his brains, either following the uncle who pulled the carriage to the pear garden to go backstage, or following the neighbors who sold tea in the box of the Peking Opera Theater in the "Chengnan Amusement Park" to enter in advance and listen to the play in a different way.
Old photo of Yuan Shihai
Because he loves to listen to drama, he also got acquainted with the second son of the famous flower-faced Qiu Guixian (Qiu Shengrong), and the two small drama fans listened to the drama together all day long. Sometimes they mixed in from the entrance of the opera garden with their young age, sometimes they climbed over the back wall of the South Amusement Park together, sneaked into the theater garden along the edge of the pool, and as long as they entered the big fence, they would jump back and forth in several theater gardens, which was called an expert in listening to the rubbing.
After the play was dispersed, they went home together, and Yuan Shihai and Qiu Shengrong also had to comment on who acted well, which places performed the most wonderfully, and which places did not act well. Even when I arrived at the door, I was reluctant to stop commenting, but also stood there to talk about "enough", and made an appointment for the time and place to meet tomorrow to watch the play.
"Nine Curves yellow river array" Zhao Gongming
Slowly, the two people were no longer satisfied with listening to the play and commenting on the play, they ran to the big locust tree in the Xingsheng Temple Hospital, Qiu Shengrong took his father's old beard, Yuan Shihai took the broken whip that the uncle had rushed to the car, and the gong and drum were chanted in his mouth, and the two people ran the round field, or walked in all directions, one sentence in the east and one sentence in the west, attracting adults and children to surround a large circle.
After each performance, the two people's faces were covered with a layer of mud, not to mention, full of sweat flowing down their cheeks, flowing into black marks, the buttons of their clothes were lost, their pockets were torn, and the toe of their shoes were worn out, like a mud monkey. Whenever she saw Yuan Shihai's embarrassment, her mother always had to sigh: "Alas! You, the child, have sung the opera as a mad demon, and it seems that you have to send you to learn drama. ”
<h1>Learn the arts</h1>
The first time Yuan Shihai learned drama from a teacher, it was purely a mistake.
"Overlord Farewell" Xiang Yu
He went to listen to the play, often crossing Cherry Street and passing by the Pear Garden Guild. One day when he walked there, he heard the sound of playing with rattan sticks inside, and when he went inside, he saw that it was the famous Wu Erhua Xu Deyi teaching the handle, and he was reluctant to leave, standing there and watching. From then on, he came every day when the time came, the more he looked, the more fascinated he became, he bowed first, called "teacher", stood next to him, and looked intently.
Xu Deyi found that Yuan Shihai looked so intently, so he asked him: "Are you willing to learn?" Yuan Shihai quickly replied that he was willing, and Xu Deyi let him play twice to show himself. Yuan Shihai imitated the play and took up the gun dance a few times. Xu Deyi saw that it was really like that, so he took him in.
In this way, Yuan Shihai did not spend money, did not burn incense, prostrated his head, and worshiped the first famous teacher. Since that day, he has practiced with Xu Deyi every day, and also met Zhu Guifang (famous Wudan) and Wu Yanheng (who sang Lao Sheng at that time, and later changed to Wu Sheng) who practiced together.
"Will Be Harmonious" is incorruptible
Yuan Shihai's first appearance on the stage was also a coincidence.
Once, Shang Xiaoyun and Wang Youchen sang "Fenhe Bay" in "Zhonghe Garden", and there was no child to play Xue Dingshan. Wu Caixia (Wu Yanheng's father), an old actress in Qingyi, introduced Yuan Shihai's past. He was not yet 9 years old that year, and his first appearance was a lot of color. After the show, he also got a dollar.
It was also that time on stage that Yuan Shihai realized that if he wanted to help his mother reduce his burden, the only way out was to learn drama.
"Wild Boar Forest" Lu Zhishen
At the end of December 1927, 11-year-old Yuan Shihai found a guarantor to sign the "Guan Shu" and entered the Fulian Chengke class, mainly studying for old students. At the age of 13, he changed his studies to flower faces. In the science class, it is common for students to be beaten, and when practicing, the teacher always holds a rattan or bamboo board in his hand to see which lazy learns to go off the sample, and raises the board to hit a few times.
Yuan Shihai every morning at five o'clock, first take the top and then practice blanket exercises, flip tiger jump, shuttlecock, small flip. After they have finished practicing martial arts, they still have to practice literature, first learn to read words, speak clearly, read the wrong words, the teacher will take a chopstick in the student's mouth to stir, sometimes stirred until the mouth bleeds.
Even if it was so bitter, Yuan Shihai never wanted to give up, because only by learning good drama could his mother no longer be poor, the creditor would no longer force debts, and his sister would not die of illness because she was poor and could not be cured.
Yuan Shihai plays Zhang Fei
Because he was not from the Liyuan family, Yuan Shihai, who had a weak foundation, often took advantage of the night to quietly go to the backyard to practice private exercises. During the day, he watched the play that the teacher taught others to rehearse, and at night he secretly practiced it, three times five times, eight times ten times, and practiced tirelessly until he was familiar with it. No one corrected his body movements, so he used the shadow cast by the moonlight to see and change it himself.
Three years later, Yuan Shihai studied nearly a hundred plays in Fulian Cheng's class, and was able to play dozens of characters of different ages, different identities, and different personalities, and became the backbone of the class at the age of only 14. Because Hao Shouchen learned too much, he was also called "Little Bridge Red" by the audience.
<h1>Inheritance</h1>
In 1935, Yuan Shihai was released.
When following Li Shengzao's brother to perform Mr. Hao Shouchen's "Heroes on Qingmei Boiled Wine", Yuan Shihai was a hit. After Mr. Hao heard about it, he asked his son Hao Deyuan to see how Yuan Shihai was acting. After Hao Deyuan went back, he said to Hao Shouchen: "This apprentice you have to receive, and if you don't, you have to receive it, it's too similar, one move and one style, every recitation is learned like you." ”
At that time, Yuan Shihai gradually gained some fame in the society, so he was introduced by Mr. Ma Fulu, and a solemn ceremony was held at the end of 1940, and finally Mr. Hao Shouchen was worshipped as a teacher. At that time, more than 300 people attended the worship meeting, and the Peking Opera circle was highly praised.
Yuan Shihai (right) and Hao Shouchen
Hao Shouchen excitedly said to Yuan Shihai: "I am very happy, young people should be studious and self-motivated, I am old, I have withdrawn from the stage, this art is what I spent more than half a lifetime to get, I am willing to pay you, pass it on, whether you can pick it up, it depends on whether you are really careful." 'Work to the natural success', this is also a meeting gift given to you by the teacher! ”
Yuan Shihai plays Dou Erdun
After visiting the teacher, Yuan Shihai once regarded "restoring" Hao Shouchen's performance as the highest criterion. During one exercise, Hao Shouchen asked Yuan Shihai, "Is there something wrong with your leg?" Yuan Shihai replied, "No." The teacher asked him to kick his legs and "chop the mud", although Yuan Shihai did not understand why the teacher asked for this, he still did it honestly.
Yuan Shihai, who usually pays great attention to practicing leg exercises, rotates his left and right legs and kicks a few times, and he can easily kick to the brain door. When "chopping mud", he can also jump up lightly and flexibly, suspend one leg, and "stomp" steadily with the other foot.
Yuan Shihai plays Li Kui
"Your legs are good, and your 'stomping mud' is quite tall and stable." Why are you kicking your legs so short that you can't jump up when you 'stomp on the mud'? Hao Shouchen asked. I was thinking..." Yuan Shihai didn't say it, replacing the words with a smile. Hao Shouchen smiled and said, "You want to say that you are learning from me, right?" Yuan Shihai nodded in acknowledgement.
"You learn from my strengths. I'm almost 60 years old, how can my legs get to the brain door with a kick? Besides, my martial arts foundation is not very good, and I can only kick like this. You worship me, of course you have to learn from me, but what you learn from me, this is a big thing, you must be clear. You learn everything from me, you learn no worse, you don't have to learn anything worse, and you will never learn like me. You're not me! Remember, you can't crush me into me, but you have to crush me into you! Again! These few words influenced Yuan Shihai's entire artistic career.
Cao Cao of the Heroes of the Crowd
Under the cultivation of Teacher Hao Shouchen, Yuan Shihai's artistic progress was impressive, and he became popular all over the country in his thirties, and was known as "Living Cao Cao", "Living Li Kui", "Living Zhang Fei" and so on.
Not only that, Yuan Shihai also developed and improved Hao Pai in years of performance, enriched his own performance style, his voice was thick and round and his feelings were strong, forming Yuan Pai, and like a teacher, he taught his skills to students without reservation.
"Red Lantern" Hatoyama, this is the last time 87-year-old Yuan Shihai appeared on stage
Throughout the development of Peking Opera in China, there are very few artists like Mr. Yuan Shihai who can still perform on stage at the age of 87. In his wife's words, Yuan Shihai had no hobbies in his life, so he studied how to sing and act on the "tofu block (square carpet on the stage)".