Master storyteller Yuan Kuocheng

At 3:30 a.m. on March 2, 2015, Yuan Kuocheng died of heart failure at the age of 86. His representative works include "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", "Western Chu Bawang", "Shui Po Liang Shan", "Fire King Kong" and so on.

In addition to cross-talk and sketches, the language programs in our hearts are always indispensable to a commentary. It is said that when the radio broadcast the commentary, the streets were empty, and even the crime rate dropped by many percentage points.

The highest generation in the contemporary book critics is Yuan Kuocheng, the "ninth generation of book critics", together with Liu Lanfang, Shan Tianfang, and Tian Lianyuan, who belong to the "Four Heavenly Kings" of the book critics, all of whom must respectfully call them "predecessors". As a post-80s and 90s, we did not catch up with the good time of book review. Reading Ku Lao Liu said: "Liu Lanfang, Shan Tianfang, Yuan Kuocheng, in their warm voices, I spent my youth."

Born in Tianjin and born in Yingkou, Liaoning Province, Yuan Kuocheng came from a family of commentators, and his uncles Yuan Jieting and Yuan Jieying and his father Yuan Jiewu were known as the "Three Masters of the Yuan Family". Yuan Kuocheng worshiped Jin Jieli as a teacher, and began to appear on stage at the age of 14, and was known as a "little prodigy of storytelling".

The book critics are known as "in ancient times there was Liu Jingting, and now there is Yuan Kuocheng". Yuan Kuocheng has a profound historical foundation, talks about books, and has a full understanding of the stories he tells, just by saying that his masterpiece "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" often draws on historical facts to diverge.

Yuan Kuocheng not only had a solid foundation, but also developed modern commentaries on the basis of inheriting traditional commentaries. He once worked in the countryside and took workers as his teacher, and once added a series of modern elements such as "driving a car" to his commentaries, and created works such as "Three Flutes". In order to innovate the art of storytelling, he has talked about Zhou Libo's work "The Tempest", du Pengcheng's "Defending Yan'an", and even joked that he wanted to learn from Jay Chou.

Some people also say that he is the most elegant one among several great critics, "Whether it is a robe, a short fight, a god and a monster, a worldly situation, no matter the 'ink carving' or 'Taoist work', whether it is ancient and modern, whether it is a long and short paragraph, a spoonful of stew, you can say it." He also said a small section of book commentary on the spring evening, and Tian Lianyuan said cross-talk, no matter what kind of book opened his mouth. ”

In addition to his profound artistic skills, Mr. Yuan Kuocheng also vigorously promotes the art of storytelling. In 2006, Shan Tianfang was accused of infringement for speaking about the commentary, and Mr. Yuan Kuocheng earnestly asked everyone to give this ancient art a way to live, believing that the storytelling was already in a state of flux, far from the era when Mr. Storyteller said a book decades ago, the author would be grateful for Mr. Shu's help in disseminating it. Therefore, Yuan Kuocheng also strongly hopes that commentaries will be listed as a key intangible cultural heritage for protection, and he also cooperates with the usual promotion websites to protect and promote the art of storytelling with his greatest strength.

In the past, when Mr. Shushu taught, he would ask students to carry such a poem as "Xi Jiang Yue": "There are many businesses in the world, only it is difficult to learn to speak, it is not easy to speak slowly, and thousands of words must be remembered." One is to sound bright, and the other is to be frustrated and delayed. Dressing up as a martial artist, it seems like a big drama. It is enough to see the hidden skills behind the word "commentary", and Mr. Yuan Kuocheng is one of the leaders.

Today, we bid farewell to Mr. Yuan Kuocheng, but hope that he and his commentaries can always stay in people's hearts.