Liu Yingchun of Li Shifang's "Fenhe Bay"
Mei Lanfang ranked first in the "Four Famous Dans", and Li Shifang ranked first in the "Four Little Famous Dans". Li Shifang is quite similar to Mr. Mei on and off stage, and is known as "Little Mei Lanfang". Mei and Li are masters and apprentices, and there is a good story in the history of Pear Garden that "old plum harvests small plum".
There is a rough saying about the disciples in the Lingjie Sect. Generally who intends to learn art who first proposes, must take the initiative to go to the teacher's door to hand over the post. Mr. Buxing seniors rushed to find the juniors to say items, so that the ceremony was from outside (Beijing dialect, referring to the reverse order of reason). But there are exceptions.
Li Shifang of the Fulian Chengshe Primary Five Branch, Gongdan Jiao'er. Dressing up and singing and watching are all like that, which is quite similar to Mei Lanfang when she was a teenager. At that time, Guanghe Building (then known as "Dongguang", Guangde Building at the west entrance of Dashilar was called "Xiguang") was the "pit" of Fushe (that is, a fixed performance theater garden). After that, move to Huayuan Park in the mouth of the fresh fish). Li Shifang belongs to "Corey Red", fourteen or fifteen years old in "Dongguang" that is, very popular, has the reputation of "Little Mei Lanfang".
Stills from "Flower Field Mistake". Li Shifang (left) as Liu Yuyan and Mao Shilai (right) as Chunlan
Twenty-six years before Li Shifang's departure from the Department of The Republic of China (1937), Peiping's Liyan Bao held the "Chairman Tong Ling" election, with the Fushe Primary Five "Shi" Character Section and the Chinese Drama School "De" and "He" male students as candidates. Li Shifang won the championship with the highest number of votes. Three years later, liyan bao grabbed medicine according to the prescription and elected the "four small names", and Li Shifang won the first place (the last three ranks: Zhang Junqiu, Mao Shilai, and Song Dezhu). Subsequently, Li Shifang organized the "Chengfang Society" to hang the head card, and became a hit.
Twenty-five years before the Republic of China (1936), Mr. Mei Lanfang came from Shanghai to Beijing. Within a few days, Qi Rushan, Yao Yufu and Xu Lanyuan accompanied him to the Fushe. At this time, Fu Liancheng President Ye Chunshan had just passed away, and his eldest son Ye Longzhang took over as the head of the class, and the students below the fifth section of Fushe Primary School changed their posts and worshiped Ye Longzhang as a teacher. Because Ye Chunshan sat in the "Little Rong Chun Society" in his early years, and Yang Xiaolou and Cheng Jixian were brothers, Yang Longshou, the class leader of "Little Rong Chun", was Mr. Mei Lanfang's maternal grandfather, and Mr. Mei also took a class in the Fushe when he was thirteen or fourteen years old. In this way, Mei Lanfang and Ye Longzhang are the same generation.
After the greeting was over, Mr. Mei entered the main topic: "I heard that the disciple has a disciple, and they all say that he is Xiao Mei Lanfang, can you summon him to see him?" Ye Longzhang asked Li Shifang to come. When Mr. Mei saw it, he felt that he really looked a bit like himself, and the more he looked at it, the more he liked Li Shifang, who had a handsome eyebrow. He said to Ye Longzhang, "Can you see if you can let him sing twice?" Ye promised that tonight Hua Le would have his "Farewell", and the next day it was his "Drunken".
A few days after watching the play, Mr. Mei visited Fushe for the second time, one was to thank Ye Longzhang, and the other was to see Li Shifang. Three days later, Qi Rushan, Yao Yufu and Li Chunlin (the grand manager of the Mei Opera Troupe) came to the Rich Society again. Qi Rushan directly pointed out his intentions: "Mei Qihua wants to hold a ceremony to receive Shifang as an apprentice, what do you think?" "In the past, there were rules in the lingjie, and the disciples of the class did not like to worship others as teachers during the period of sitting in the department, and only called other famous characters Mr. or teachers, and could not prostrate themselves and worship others, and there was no restriction after leaving the department. Ye Longzhang was difficult to answer for a moment. Qi Rushan saw that Ye was noncommittal, so he made a high argument, from Mr. Mei's fame and status, artistic achievements, the relationship between Mei Ye and the two families, the glory of the rich society, to such a rare cloud. Ye replied, "I will be allowed to study and consult with other old gentlemen before replying." ”
Subsequently, Ye Longzhang consulted with Xiao Changhua and several other old gentlemen, and Mr. Xiao and others unanimously expressed their approval. Ye Longzhang thought that since this was the case, he agreed. However, it is not a bad thing to put forward the condition that a few disciples with a good career should be taken to worship Mei together, and it is not a bad thing for a few more people to learn from Mr. Mei. The message was sent to Qi Rushan, and Qi told Mei again, and Mr. Mei quickly agreed. In this way, Li Shifang, Mao Shilai, Li Yuanfang, Liu Yuantong, and Zhang Shixiao all worshiped Mr. Mei. On the day of the feast, hundreds of people from all walks of life gathered in Beijing and hundreds of people from all walks of life gathered at the National Opera Society, and the grand event was unprecedented. The next day, Mei and Qi came back to Fushe to take a group photo with all the teachers and students. Since then, Mr. Mei has performed 40 consecutive performances in Beijing, and each performance has a special box, which is observed by Ye Longzhang and five disciples.
With Mei Lanfang's status, he visited the door three times to receive an apprentice, and such a Zhou Zhang was not only rare in the industry, but also seemed to be unique.
After the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, Mr. Mei shaved his head and reappeared on the stage. In order to praise the beloved disciple Shifang, at the end of the thirty-fifth year of the Republic of China (1946), he posted "Golden Mountain Temple" in Shanghai with "Broken Bridge", Mei's White Lady, Shifang's Qing'er. Li Shifang's appearance, singing voice, and typhoon resemble a teacher. The two grandfathers and sons exchanged bodies on the stage, one left and one right, and the cooperation was tightly seamless, which was wonderful, so that the color sound was bursting. Shanghai opera fans were hooked. Who thought that this had become Li Shifang's masterpiece.
The Iron Mirror Princess of Li Shifang's "Visiting Mother"
A month later, as the Spring Festival approached, ShiFang's wife was close to giving birth, and he was returning to Beijing. However, I could not buy a plane ticket several times, and I was in a hurry. Xie Hongwen, the wife of Yang Baosen, saw that he was in such a hurry, so she was kind and gave up her plane ticket to Li Shifang. Li Shifang was overjoyed, and after thanking him very much, he was escorted to the airport by Zhang Shengli's brother. Unexpectedly, the plane crashed near Zhoucun in Shandong Province, and all the people on board were killed. When Mr. Mei first heard the letter, his heart was very anxious and he did not want to believe it. Several phone calls were made to Let Zhang Shengli and Yuan Shihai, who were in Shanghai at the time, verify in detail how Shifang was. When the news was confirmed, Mr. Mei suppressed the grief and sent Zhang Shengli to identify the body. When Sheng Li returned, he only said the three words "too miserable" and cried. Yuan Shihai suppressed his tears, shook Zhang Shengli's shoulder vigorously, and shouted: "Say it clearly, say it clearly, you really see it?" Say! Zhang Shengli was full of tears and choked up: "Shifang's whole body is scorched black, and even one sleeve can see that it is Shifang, that is his plaid shirt." ”
Li Shifang is good in shape, god and appearance, and a table of talents. I usually like to wear a suit, and I often wear a striped shirt inside. Because Zhang Shengli sent Shifang on board, only he knew the clothes that Shifang wore at the end, and it was difficult for others to recognize them. A generation of artists was martyred and shook the country. Mr. May was so grief-stricken that he could not take the stage. He had hardly returned to the play before, but this time he really couldn't hold on, returning to the play for three days and not seeing guests behind closed doors.
Later, Mr. Mei presided over the memorial service of Li Shifang at the Tongxiang Association in Shanghai. Yuan Shihai delivered a eulogy for the family representative (Li Shifang and Yuan Shihai are very good, the third brother with an open mouth is long and the third brother is short), and Mei Lanfang personally delivered a eulogy. Mr. Mei likes Li Shifang the most and is quite proud of Shifang, but it turns out that the white-haired person sends the black-haired person. Shi Fang was 25 years old.