The first person to sit on the top seat of the Ancestor of beijing opera kaishan: Zhang Erkui

(Excerpt from "History of Peking Opera Ticket Friends")

For the old student "Three Dingjia" in the founding era of Beijing opera, later Wen Mu was mostly ranked by The Order of Cheng Changgeng, Yu Sansheng, and Zhang Erkui, and in some influential historical classics, there are independent chapters on Cheng and Yu in the Three Masters, but Zhang Erkui and other slightly weaker masters are combined with a chapter, and the words are concise, resulting in the illusion that Zhang Shi is inferior to Cheng and Yu Er. However, looking through the history books of Pear Garden, I found that the truth was exactly the opposite. "The fashionable yellow cavity shouted like thunder, and kunyi spoke without media in those days; and now it is particularly heavy that Yu Sansheng, and the young people are fighting for Zhang Erkui" ("Dumen Miscellaneous Songs"). This is an oil poem that circulated in the capital during the Daoxian period, and it gives the most accurate description of Zhang Erkui's artistic status.

Indeed, before Zhang Erkui went to sea, the most popular among beijing opera fans was Yu Sansheng, the former Han tune old student of the Chuntai class. Yu Sansheng is the oldest of the top three, 9 years older than Cheng Changgeng and 12 years older than Zhang Erkui. Because the Han tune brought a performance form with male characters as the core, plus Yu Sansheng's change in the tone of the vocal cavity, he became famous in Beijing earlier as an old student, so there was a "special yu sansheng" opera market. This oil poem does not mention Cheng Changgeng, who was later highly respected by the Beijing opera circles, and according to the analysis of historical records, Cheng Changgeng was not very famous in the pear garden of the capital at this time.

However, Zhang Erkui is different, he is like a hei horse that came out of nowhere, taking the emblem and the length of the Han Er faction and blending into the Beijing cavity, and has won countless fans since the beginning of the stage. After he went to the sea, he starred in "Take Chengdu" with Chunban, and the Liu Bei he played was graceful and imposing, and before he could open his mouth, he had already shown his charm, and a high song showed the style of the king. Because of this, some literati later commented on him: "The performers are moving with the heavens, and the viewers are satisfied." "Youthful and handsome, full of vigor, loud voice, novel singing... Zhang Erkui's fame accompanied by his appearance on the stage at the same time, for a time, he became the main talk of Beijing opera fans, but also became a generation of young theater fans sought after the idol, "young people to pass Zhang Erkui" praise is not a false reputation.

Zhang Erkui's going to the sea made the popularity of the spring class increase greatly, and it became the first of the four classes in terms of box office revenue. In 1845, Zhang Erkui left hechunban and became the top star and foreman of the Sixi class. At this time, Yu Sansheng, who was in his prime, was driving the Chuntai class and the Sixi class with his rich stage experience; Cheng Changgeng, who was older than Zhang Erkui, had also taken over as the top card of the Sanqing class after several years of anger. However, in terms of performance effect, the two northbound artists and Zhang Erkui, a ticket friend in the sea, still seem to have a step away - this can be reflected in another popular oil poem at the time: "Four joys came to Zhang Erkui, Sanqing Changgeng frowned, and Chun duan er did not sit on the seat, and sang twice in a hurry to win three victories." ”

The loss of Zhang Erkui and Chunban came to an end shortly thereafter, and Zhang Erkui's later election as the head of the Jingzhong Temple Festival also shows that his artistic achievements and market popularity are among the top of the three. Indeed, no one thought that in the annals of modern Chinese culture, when the art of national essence Beijing opera began, the first person who could sit on the first chair of the Kaishan ancestors with art costumes was actually a young fan who went to the sea halfway out of the family, although regardless of age or artistic age, Zhang Erkui was under Yu Sansheng and Cheng Changgeng.

Cheng Changgeng became famous in the first three Dingjia with the latest life expectancy and the longest life, he lived 20 years longer than Zhang Erkui and 16 years more than Yu Sansheng, so he was widely supported by Pear Garden in the Tongguang Era. Although some descendants have worn all the laurels such as "the originator of Beijing opera" and "the ancestor of the founding mountain" on his head, from a realistic point of view, it may cause misunderstandings about the study and understanding of the history of Beijing opera. Because Peking Opera is an art rather than a religion, what gave birth to this national art is not an individual achievement but the collective achievement of a generation of artists, among which the great contribution of Zhang Erkui, who is the leader of the first generation of Beijing opera artists and a ticket friend who went to the sea, must not be underestimated or forgotten.

Zhang Erkui's blockbuster, on the one hand, although he has his personal talent as capital, on the other hand, the influence of hundreds of years of ancient capital culture and his personal cultural heritage is also one of the important reasons. The cultural foundation of the artists from the Chinese science class is relatively poor, and when they practice and learn the art, they mostly sing sentence by sentence with the predecessors' si memorization, and there is little change in the singing lyrics and repertoire. Ticket friends are not the case, Zhang Erkui is in contact with the Four Books and Five Classics since childhood, and he is very familiar with the Jingyan Jingwei Jingyun, so after he went to the sea, he not only created a clean and sharp heavy air jet singing method in singing, but also worked hard to personally change the script, which was naturally popular with the audience after the performance. Zhang Erkui wrote about the Liantai play "Peng Gong Case" and the Qing costume play "Yongqing Shengping", and later became the Beijing Opera Tan Sect's "Qingqiao Noisy Mansion" Beijing Opera Book was also adapted by him. As for his self-written and self-acting "Shilang Visiting Mother", he not only laid a deep foundation for the Kuipai singing method, but also has been performing for more than 100 years and has become the earliest classic play in the history of Pear Garden.

This period of artistic career, at least brought Zhang Erkui two firsts, that is, the first person to create the genre after the ticket friend went to the sea and the first person to write his own script by a Chinese Beijing opera stage actor, and his prestige in the Beijing opera circle soon became as good as the sun. When he became popular, Zhang Erkui did another thing - after he left the Sixi class in the early years of Xianfeng, he cooperated with the Great Kui official Liu Wanyi to establish a double Kui class, and its reputation was not inferior to the old groups such as Sanqing, Sixi, and Chuntai, which were now famous.

To be precise, Shuangkuiban was the first opera group in China to appear on the opera stage with pure Beijing opera performances, and some of the Beijing opera groups led by Sanqing that became famous before it actually evolved from Huiban. Shuangkui ban is one of the most non-negligible classes in the early days of Beijing opera, which was personally founded, foreman and starred by Zhang Erkui, a generation of Beijing opera founders, which opened a page full of youthful colors in the history of Chinese Peking opera and became one of the most proud and important events in the history of Chinese ticket holders.

Singing is a majestic song high into the clouds, the costume is exquisite like a king, plus he can change the organization, and integrate the feeling of historical figures into the performance, so although Zhang Erkui stood with Yu Sansheng and Cheng Changgeng on the Beijing opera stage during the Daoxian period, he only enjoyed the reputation of "the champion of the drama world", which was the fundamental reason why he was promoted by the Liyuan Line at that time as the head of the Jingzhong Temple Fair.

As a super-first-class actor in the same historical period, Zhang Erkui, Yu Sansheng and Cheng Changgeng have performed on the same stage many times, and the most cooperative performance they have performed in historical records is "Zhan Chengdu". A few years later, Zhang, Yu and Cheng performed the "Battle of Chengdu" in front of the Xianfeng Emperor Di in the Forbidden City, and its wonderful artistic skills made the Xianfeng Emperor Di marvel at the case, and on the spot, he named them "Old Students and Three Masters". Although they were given the crown of the Three Masters, Xian Feng was obviously slightly favored. He had a very good impression of Zhang Erkui, who was solemn in appearance, noble in temperament and peaceful and generous, and rewarded him with a four-pin top after learning that he was also the head of the Jingzhong Temple Festival.

……

Unfortunately, Zhang Erkui's stage career is only about 20 years. In the autumn of 1860, Zhang Erkui's mother died of illness, and in order to make up for the sadness caused to the old mother by going to the sea, he did a big job and built a number of altars along the street, but unexpectedly he was convicted of "doing the pomp and circumstance of the official eunuch who used the eunuch to do youling". On the way to the side court, Zhang Erkui was forced by local officials to sing operas, and he fell ill and died in Tongzhou, Beijing, about the third year of Tongzhi (1864). "Erkui has fallen today, and the origin of Sansheng may not be permanent" ("Dumen Miscellaneous Songs"), these two bamboo branches vividly record the situation of Zhang and Yu in the first three Dingjia in the early days of Tongzhi.

Zhang Erkui's early death made the Beijing opera master from the ticket friend fail to take the more gorgeous Beijing opera stage in the same light year, resulting in his personal starlight color becoming increasingly bleak in the history of Peking Opera. After Zhang Erkuisi, Cheng Changgeng took over his original position as the head of the Jingzhong Temple Fair, and a few years later Yu Sansheng also returned to the west, and from then on Cheng Changgeng took the lead and became a banner admired by Pear Garden.

Unexpectedly, after a few years, the leading banner of the Cheng Pai was held high by the ticket friend Zhou Ziheng, and Yu Sansheng's grandson Yu Shuyan also became the "da brother da" of the early four major su students of the × under the help and tutelage of the ticket friends Wang Junzhi and Chen Yanheng. With the passage of time, the three factions of the Three Dingjia before the old man died were unified, and it was only under the creation, inheritance and teaching of the fans that they were able to continue in the torrent of the development of Chinese Peking Opera.