Peking Opera Sanding Jia - Zhang Erkui
Liu Xinyang
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Zhang Erkui (1814-1864), formerly known as Zhang Shiyuan (张士元), was a chinese poet whose apartment was named "Zhongshu Hall" after he became famous. He is generally believed to be directly subordinate to Hengshui (present-day Hengshui, Hebei).
Zhang Erkui entered Beijing with his ancestors in business at an early age, and once entered a private school to study. When he was in his twenties, Zhang Erkui entered the Ministry of Works Dushui as a jingcheng, because he loved Peking Opera and had a loud voice, often sang as a ticket holder in hechun class, and was later dismissed for violating the imperial court's rule that "those who serve in the dprk are not allowed to act in ink". At the age of twenty-four, he "went to the sea" to perform for his livelihood, taking the stage name Zhang Erkui, and has since become a professional Peking Opera actor.
Zhang Erkui has a strong physique, a heroic appearance, and a good voice of "solid characters and unbroken", so after he "went to the sea", he first took the spring class, and as soon as he performed on stage, he attracted the attention of the audience and became famous ever since. After that, Zhang Erkui took the Four Joy Class again, and soon became the chief veteran actor and foreman in the class. In the early years of Xianfeng, Zhang Erkui left the Sixi class and formed the Shuangkui class with Dakui Guan (Liu Wanyi). Zhang Erkui's birth made his reputation in the Beijing opera scene once surpass that of Yu Sansheng and Cheng Changgeng, so he was elected as the head of the "Jingzhong Temple" before Cheng Changgui, which shows Zhang Erkui's influence on the Beijing opera circle at that time.
Peking Opera Encyclopedia
Ticket holders: According to legend, the children of the Eight Banners of the Qing Dynasty used the "dragon ticket" issued by the Qing court to publicize it for the Qing court, and went to various places to sing the children's books without getting paid. Later, the term "ticket holder" gradually evolved into a lover who liked to sing and act but did not take professional acting as a profession. But there are also those who believe that only lovers who participate in box office events can be called ticket holders.
Box office: refers to the organization and place where lovers of opera and opera often gather, sing and act.
Going to the sea: The opera industry calls the conversion of non-professional actors (or ticket holders) into professional actors "going to the sea".
According to legend, Zhang Erkui dressed up as graceful and luxurious, dignified and arrogant, which made him good at playing the role of an old student like an emperor and a nobleman. Therefore, he has always been famous in the drama world for acting in the old life king hat drama, and what is particularly rare is that he is a ticket friend, and he also plays a short martial arts drama. In the sound cavity of singing and reading white, he fully absorbed the phonetic characteristics of Beijing, used beijing character sounds (called "timid tones" by insiders), changed regional voices such as emblem tone, Kunqu opera, and Han tone, catered to the appreciation habits of the audience in the north (especially Beijing), giving people a clear word, simple and natural, simple and unpretentious feeling, therefore, won the pursuit of a large number of young audiences, which was also an important reason for the rumors of "young people competing for Zhang Erkui" at that time. Zhang Erkui also created a heavy air jet character singing method, which is also the singing characteristics of the Zizi Cavity, such as the singing method of "Pushing the King" in "Playing the Golden Branch", which sounds clean and neat, giving people a painful and vivid artistic feeling. ShiRen chanted: "Si Xi said 'urge the king', and Sanqing Changgeng also frowned." Pity him Chuntai Yu Sansheng, "Catch and Release" at the end of Rao "Touching the Monument". Yi Zuo: "Si Xi came to Zhang Erkui, and San Qing Chang Geng frowned." And Chun Duan two did not sit on the seat, and sang twice in a hurry. From this, we can see how popular Zhang Erkui was with opera audiences at that time.
Zhang Erkui's frequent repertoire includes "Jinshui Bridge", "Fighting Golden Branches", "Taking Chengdu", "Taking Xingyang", "Dadeng Temple", "Huilong Pavilion", "Mulberry Garden Society", "Silang Visiting Mother", "Shepherd Roll", "Catching and Releasing Cao", "Five Thunder Arrays", "Evil Tiger Village" and so on. Because the Laosheng school he pioneered absorbed a large number of Jingyin in terms of character sounds, the Laosheng school founded by him was called "Jingpai" or "Kuipai". Zhang Erkui's disciples were passed down by the famous martial arts students Yu Jusheng and Yang Yuelou during the Tongzhi period, and Yu and Yang were once known as "Zhongshu Tang Wen Wu Shuangbi". In addition, there are also Xu Yintang, Wei Jiufeng, Zhou Chunkui, Liu Jingran, and so on. Originally, the opera circles had always believed that Zhang Erkui died in the Xianfeng Decade (1860), but in recent years, the scholar Professor Wang Zhengyao had concluded that Zhang Erkui had died in the third year of Tongzhi (1864).
Cheng Changgeng, Yu Sansheng and Zhang Erkui formed three art schools with different regional styles in Peking Opera in the early stage of peking opera according to their different artistic experiences and singing strengths, so the genres they founded were called Hui school, Han school and Beijing school, also known as "Cheng school", "Yu school" and "Kui school", these three artists played a pivotal role in reforming Hui opera, Han tune, fusion of Kunqu opera and Zizi, and finally contributing to the occurrence and development of Peking Opera. Of course, in the early days of the formation of Peking Opera, there were not only these three outstanding Peking Opera actors on the Beijing Opera Stage, but also well-known veteran actors such as Lu Shengkui, Wang Jiuling, and Xue Yinxuan, who also made non-negligible contributions to the development of Peking Opera art.