Father Chen's indissoluble relationship with Kunqu can be traced back to the influence of the Yu father and son of the Kunqu family.
Chen Congzhou and Yu Zhenfei in Yu Garden
"The gardens of China's past were inseparable from the living feelings of people at that time, and Kunqu opera was an integral part of the content of the garden." --Chen Congzhou
The frivolous dust, the ruler saw the long brown thin bamboo flute, somehow no longer hanging on the door of the "Zi Room", but the teenager me, my father played the flute in front of the window in his spare time, my mother bent down to wash and dry clothes across the wall, and the vague figure of the husband playing the flute in the side ear could not be erased from memory. For many years, I have been looking for a puzzle that I once wondered: what made my father, in the extreme pain of losing his wife and son, still tirelessly "run errands", "channel the hall", "nosy" and "eventful" for Kunqu Opera? His seal of "taking the garden as the home, taking the qu to entrust the life", the mantra of "idle song management, old spring stone", and the more than thirty Kunqu beautiful texts remind me that my father in his later years still has unfinished business to complete: a neglected gardening link, that is, "the garden is inseparable from Gu Qu, only poetic and picturesque, and forget the taste of music". If you lose this heavy pawn, you will not be able to see it.
Friendship in the teacher and confidant
The indissoluble relationship between his father and Kunqu opera can be traced back to the influence of the Yu father and son of the Kunqu family. The first attempt was when he listened to Mr. Yu Sulu's old man's record "Ci Chao" at the age of his hair, and he didn't understand it half-understood, but the lingering sound introduced his young mind into the poetic Chinese garden. I was fascinated by Kunqu opera during the period of studying literature and history at the Shanghai School of Zhijiang University, when as long as I practiced Hu Shanyuan's song selection course during the day, I could go to the theater with Teacher Hu at night to watch the wonderful performances of Shen Chuanzhi, Zhang Chuanfang and other actors of the chuanzi generation. Master Hu generously bought tickets for the students to watch the play, and also took him to Zhang Chuanfang's house to listen to Pei Yin carefully compose music. He also became friends with Shen Chuanzhi, Zheng Chuanjian, Hua Chuanhong, and Zhu Chuanming, and humbly learned music from Shen Chuanzhi.
When he was a teenager, his father listened to the records that Mr. Yu Zhenfei had poured when he first appeared in his twenties, and the chicks were clear and gentle, looking forward to one day seeing his on-stage style. In the early 1940s, when I was studying in Shanghai, I finally had the opportunity to see Yu Zhenfei and Cheng Yanqiu's "Odd Double Society" in the theater, and my father deducted a copper plate from the original small pocket food expenses to buy the cheapest back seat side ticket. After entering the research garden, he unexpectedly experienced the close connection between gardening and Kunqu opera from the songs, expressions, artistic conceptions and charms in Mr. Yu's "Peony Pavilion" and "Dream in the Garden".
Promotional photo of "Peony Pavilion" by Cheng Yanqiu and Yu Zhenfei (1937)
His father was known for his elderly Mr. Yu Zhenfei, and they later became close friends. His father believed that the older generation of artists Mei Lanfang, Yu Zhenfei and Cheng Yanqiu could become a generation of masters, and their success was taken from the poetry and painting outside of opera, and a large number of cultural cultivations that blended good music and learning. Yu Lao's performance of "Peony Pavilion And Garden" seems to be placed in the Xieshui Pavilion of the Jiangnan Garden Hall, and the lyrics of "the inadequacy of the view is dispatched by him" is the inexhaustible essence of Chinese gardens.
People refer to Kunqu opera as an orchid, elegant and dark incense; the ideological basis for his father to become friends with Yu Lao and mathematician Mr. Su Buqing is the communication of arts and sciences, he wants to implant orchids in Tongji University of Science and Engineering, which is exactly what Yu Lao thinks, they began to perform architectural Kunqu lectures, you come and go, complement each other. In the 1950s, Yu Zhenfei and Yan Huizhu took the lead in bringing Hua Wenyi and others to Tongji to perform, and the couple's joint performance of "Piano Pick" is still unforgettable for the older generation of Tongji people. Principal Yu Zhenfei also invited Chen Congzhou to go to the Kunqu class of the Shanghai Opera School to give a lecture on Chinese gardens. Father clearly explained the connection between the garden and the Kunqu opera, and he said "next to the rocks of the artificial mountain", quoting the lyrics of "Peony Pavilion • Frightening Dream": "Turn over this peony medicine bar, close to the edge of this lake stone mountain." He talked about "Jiangnan garden walls" and used the words "love pick" in the "Jade Basket Record": "The pink wall flowers and shadows are heavy, and the curtains are remnants of the lotus water temple wind," taking the two arts as a comprehensive learning method, which is his bold attempt to move Kunqu opera from the opera stage into the garden.
In the 1980s, he took a graduate student majoring in gardening, and listening to Kunqu opera was a compulsory course, and he told the students: "Drama, literature, calligraphy and painting, and gardens in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties are the same kind of thought and feeling, and they are expressed in different ways. Father's classic "Saying Garden" asked Yu Lao to ask him to ask for an eyebrow, because they "performed a play on the same stage"; his father implored Yu Lao to be the "first in the Jiangnan Garden" of the Yu Garden Ancient Drama Stage Title: "Heaven increases the age of people to increase life, and Yun wants to dress and flowers." After the stage was completed, Elder Yu volunteered to sing the cannon play, which was understandable and felt.
Built at the end of the 19th century, the Yuyuan Garden Ancient Opera Stage
Garden beauty and Kunqu beauty
In 1981, the noise of cicadas in the backyard from morning to night, the recording of Huangmei opera and Yue opera, mixed with the noisy noise of neighbors and couples, scolding children and grandchildren, rode the heat wave into the "Zi Room". His father opened the Kunqu opera "Peony Pavilion • Garden". Beautiful words, melodious syllables, leading father to meditate on the delicate relationship between Kunqu opera and the garden. He wiped his pen and explained the interdependence of the two lips and teeth, that is, "garden beauty and Kunqu beauty". This was another breakthrough in his garden thinking.
My father analyzed the prevalence of Kunqu opera in Jiangnan in parallel with the maturity of Chinese gardens in the middle of the Ming Dynasty, and compared the titles, contexts, and artistic conceptions of the songs, and considered them to be more than similar, almost identical: "The so-called differences are only formal expressions." "My father looked at the famous gardens in the north and south of the great river, and he had to build a flower hall first, and he was more near the water pond or added a water pavilion, which was the place of Gu Qu. In the Suzhou garden, the Yiyuan Garden "Lotus Champs" and the Net Lion Garden "Maoshui Pavilion" are all built with water, the water temple is windy, and the shengge flute sound has excellent sound effects. "In addition to the beauty of the shape, there is also the beauty of the sound." At his suggestion, the "Suzhou Garden" filmed in the 1950s and the American film "Suzhou" in 1979 were both expected successes with Kunqu music.
On the day that "Garden Beauty and Kunqu Beauty" was reported, Mr. Yu Zhenfei read it twice in one breath, beat the case and wrote to his father with the same feeling: "You saved the garden, saved kunqu opera." Someone asked me why young actors don't have 'bookishness' now, and now your masterpiece has raised my awareness, and if someone asks me again, I will give them your article to read well..."
A generation of Grandmaster Mr. Yu Zhenfei
In June 1989, the 88-year-old Mr. Yu Zhenfei and his wife Li Qihua came to my house to invite my father to Jiading Qiuxia Garden to see a video of him "Peony Pavilion Picking Paintings". After lunch, Elder Yu sat quietly and put on makeup, his father was tired, leaning on the trough to take a nap, and when he woke up in his dream, he saw that a young man was already next to the bamboo forest stones; his father could not help but repeat the sentence "Spend a good full moon and a long life" performed by Elder Yu in the ancient opera stage of Yu Garden in May, and the old man laughed. With the music, the old man's singing voice is still clear and gentle, the gestures of the body are naturally free, and the father explains it in words: "In the middle, it can only be said that it is an overflow of Chinese books." ”
After the performance, Yu Lao was extremely sleepy, and was carried back to the dressing room by the four doormen to rest, and his father changed Li Shangyin's sentence "heavy" to "love" in passing, and gave Yu Lao: "Providence pities the grass, and the world loves the evening." "He also took care of his own self-pity. Old Yu instructed him to paint "orchids", and his father understood it. On the painted orchid, the father inscribed: "In the mountains people do not know, out of the valley will be fragrant." But it was a cry of lamentation about the coldness of Kunqu opera.
Joystick book drums and whistles
In the autumn of 1984, the Xinmin Evening News reported that the Shanghai Three Opera Troupe went to Haiyan to perform, but there was no Shanghai Kunqu Opera Troupe, and my father was a little angry, so he called me to quickly get a pen and paper, and the rocker was written, and asked me to go to the post office at the door to send the envelope "Hope Kunqu Opera goes to Haiyan" to the "Xinmin Evening News". Kunqu opera originated from Kunshan, "Sea Salt Cavity" is an important vein in the song, now forgotten by the locals, not known to others, should not be! The next day, he rushed to the Kun Opera Troupe to bluntly say that he suggested going to Haiyan to perform voluntarily and "make a bright appearance".
In October 1985, Mr. Pei, the world architect, came to China to accept the honorary professor of Tongji University and gave an academic report, and the mayor of Suzhou, Duan Xu, applied for him to return to his hometown to see, and Mr. Pei invited his father to go to Suzhou with him. At huanxiu mountain villa, where his father had participated in the restoration, Mr. Pei said: "Such a famous garden, if you can listen to Kunqu opera once inside, it would be very good." "Mr. Pei was born in Kunqu Mendi, and was trained by the Kunqu master Congzu Bei Jinmei, and his father Mr. Pei Zuyi also loved to make music. Mayor Duan was quite understanding, and the night before leaving, he arranged a wonderful performance of the play "Crazy Dream" for Mr. Pei. This night, the two masters chatted about Kunqu opera until midnight, and they were both worried about the fate of Kunqu: now most of the professionals have changed careers, and only more than twenty people are left to support the façade, and Kunshan Kunqu is almost extinct. Recall that since the early 1950s, my father and the older generation of people rushed to the deserted and abandoned Wumen Garden, wrote and wrote, and only today did the Suzhou garden have a global reputation and was listed in the "World Cultural Heritage", and the father picked the lamp night "I.M. Pei Suzhou Listening to Music": Mr. Pei came to Suzhou to see Kunqu opera and woke up the mayor, such as waking up from a long dream, it seems that Kunqu opera has a day of salvation.
Even during the period when my mother was seriously ill and was admitted to Ruijin Hospital, my father still had to bend the road to go to the Shanghai Kun Opera Troupe, and I couldn't help but feel a little resentful, pleading: "Mom is so sick, Daddy accompany Mom more, don't go to the troupe!" Look at the bed next to it is two old people accompanying each other. "The father set his sights on his mother, looking for help, and he knew she would understand." Let your dad do what he's going to do, you can't go wrong, he can't help here. But the mother said, "You must also stop at the right time, your blood pressure is high, you are old, don't be tired of Kunqu opera, no one will take care of you anymore." With extreme pity, the father turned around and left the ward step by step.
Not to see the actors, not to find someone to chat, but to see the spark of kunqu revival that flashes on them. Hua Wenyi greeted him and blurted out: "We are going to perform once in your Tongji University business, Mr. Pei said, 'Those who study gardens and architecture should absorb nutrients from Kunqu opera.' Then Kunqu opera is a sister with the garden, as a sister, you should go to the sister's house. Her thoughts made her father more or less brush off the worries of the ward, full of welcome.
Shanghai Kun Opera Troupe performed at Tongji University in 1986, with Chen Congzhou in the fourth from the right
Hua Wenyi, Yue Meiti, Liang Guyin and Liu Yilong voluntarily came to Tongji University twice in the late autumn of 1985 and the early spring of 1986 to perform selected plays. Professors Huang Zuoshen, Feng Jizhong, Fu Xinqi and Dai Fudong of the Older Generation of the Department of Architecture are all fans of Peking Opera; Dai Fudong, the head of the department, can also sing the big face, quite understanding his father's painstaking efforts, saying: "Let Hua Wenyi and others come to Kunming opera as a professional learning auxiliary course in the Department of Architecture." ”
Chinese culture in Sri Lanka
In October 1989, 90 outstanding actors of Southern and Northern Kun opera gathered at Tongji University to rehearse intensely for their performances in Hong Kong. For half a month, they stayed in the "Miyoshiwu" garden designed by their father, and they felt like family and at home. "Busy me too!" Every night when I called me at the Villa in Huaihai, he always had to repeat this sentence that sounded like a complaint, but contained the satisfaction of dead wood and spring. I was pregnant and didn't go to the show.
Shanghai Kun Opera Troupe performed at Tongji University in 1989, with Yu Zhenfei on the center right and Chen Congzhou on the center left
On October 28th, "North and South Kun Opera Hui Xiangjiang" presented a good stage for the teachers, students and employees of Tongji University. Two years ago, my father wrote "Valley Qingyin" in the "Ta Kung Pao" written by his father, Binshe of the University of Hong Kong, which was to introduce the ancestral cultural heritage to Hong Kong friends and announce the spring in advance. On November 4, the leader of the group, Elderly Yu Zhenfei, led the delegation to Hong Kong. Only three days after sending the actor away, my father was hospitalized for overwork and a slight cerebral thrombosis. Everyone hid from me, afraid that I was anxious when I was hospitalized and about to give birth. In his spare time, my father thought of many things that he had not realized in his previous haste: "Half a lifetime of immersion in garden music, gradually increasingly feel that they are in common." ”
My father also strongly recommended foreign teachers and students to watch Kunqu opera, using the experience of foreigners to talk about it: "I can't forget Kunqu opera, this is Chinese culture, we have learned some Chinese cultural history." Wait, written in his article "Foreigners WatchIng Kun Opera".
In the summer of 1990, it can be said that the summer is like a tiger season, but my father is busy entertaining ticket holders from all over the world every day, people appreciate art, he is addicted to overseas one day can rise "Kunqu fever", if the micro waves can arouse the domestic "Kunqu fever" of the huge wave of thought, China's Shakespeare will no longer be dying, less people ask.
His father went to the Kun opera troupe like visiting relatives and friends, he talked about the world, talked about the empty, sat in the makeup room to watch them put on makeup and remove makeup, but also pointed fingers, the actors all affectionately called him: "Uncle Chen, we are the royalists of Kunqu opera!" "The requirements for them such as painting, inscription, engraving plaques, writing essays, buying tickets ... There are requests to respond, there is an emergency to help, the visitor does not refuse, donate to help; friends remotely sent condolences to Mr. Shaoxing wine, French wine, Nescafe coffee, Jinhua ham, Longjing green tea... As long as the actor likes, the big bag is delivered to the door, and the little nanny at home is a little dissatisfied and says: "Daddy, good things for your family to taste!" ”
Yu Zhenfei and Chen Congzhou from Tongji University
Gu Tiehua, Hua Wenyi, Yue Meiti, Liu Yilong, Liang Guyin, Gu Zhaoqi, Ji Zhenhua, Shi Jiehua... Fathers wrote inscriptions for them. In this group of outstanding Kunqu opera actors who have been infected by Mr. Yu Zhenfei and the generations of people who have passed on the characters, my father saw the hope of the re-emergence of Kunqu opera, and the continuation of Chinese culture was passed on endlessly. Although my father did not wait until 18 May 2001, when UNESCO listed Chinese Kunqu as the "Oral and Intangible Cultural Heritage of Mankind in the World", "I am a Chinese, I love Chinese opera" has been with him until the last moment of his life. (Chen Xin)