There is a century-old shop in Beijing called Yuesheng zhai, which is famous for its sauce-made beef and lamb meat. Handed down for more than two hundred years, the golden signboard still stands. In the final analysis, the secret of the evergreen foundation of The Moon Sheng Zhai is hidden in this pot of mellow and refreshing old soup. Taste carefully, can be interpreted into a classic traditional cross-talk, why not like a pot of old soup? If the old soup is not rotten, it must be boiling on the fire day and night; if it is to "put the pole work" for a long time, it is necessary to have years of stage experience. To ensure that the old soup is as mellow as ever, it is necessary to add new spices in a timely and appropriate manner; to ensure that the traditional life is long-lasting, and new elements must be added with the times. The soup is still the pot of soup, the crosstalk is still the crosstalk, after being processed by the hands of different people, the taste is very different.
In traditional Chinese cross-talk, "old soup style" passages are not uncommon, such as "Learning Radio" and "Miscellaneous Learning to Sing" are all all-encompassing and often performed with new paragraphs. This kind of traditional work is like a big pot, no matter whether the actor is good at learning to sing Peking Opera, local opera, drum music, minor keys can be loaded into it. The work itself is both inclusive and malleable, and it also gives each actor enough room for innovation. Among them, there is also a pot of "old soup" that is extremely difficult to concoct, which also puts forward higher requirements for the skills of "master chefs". This pot of difficult "old soup" is the traditional live "Haunting Court".
"Haunting The Gongtang", also known as "Nine Arts together", the reason why its performance is difficult is because the actors not only have to learn to sing Peking Opera and a variety of folk music forms in the performance process, but also have the jumping in and out of the characters and the development of the storyline on this basis. To make this piece of work, the actor is required to sell the willow to be able to tip down, and at the same time, it must be sounded when the burden is also sounded. The difficulty of the performance has deterred most of the generations of cross-talk artists. Looking back at the history of the development of cross-talk for more than a hundred years, there are only a few old gentlemen who can move and make "Noisy Gongtang" called: Zhang Jieyao, Chang Baokun, Wang Shichen, Hou Baolin, Wu Kuihai, Chang Baoting and so on. Unfortunately, the old gentlemen are all ancient, and few of their disciples and grandchildren have been able to inherit this tradition in its entirety. Nowadays, there is another surviving mr. old man of the literary generation, and perhaps the only one who can skillfully control "The Haunting of the Gongtang" is Mr. Wei Wenliang, one of the representative figures of the Jin school of cross-talk.
At the age of 12, Wei Wenliang officially worshiped under the old cross-talk artist Wu Kui Haimen and became the first disciple of Mr. Wu to open the mountain gate. Later, the master successively accepted many disciples such as Wei Wenhua, Zhang Wenxia, Xi Xiangyuan, Chen Wenguang, and Liu Manying. And this "Haunting court" was first obtained by Wu Kuihai by chance when he was selling art in the south, and brought back to Tianjin. Among the many brothers of the master, the master only passed on this piece of work to the eldest disciple Wei Wenliang. There are two reasons for "opening a small stove": First, Wei Wenliang's voice conditions are excellent, and he has the foundation to control all kinds of willow work. Second, when Wu Kuihai was willing to self-destruct his oath for the sake of his beloved disciple, he also saw That Wei Wenliang's talent and wisdom, and he had an outstanding cleverness on the stage. The master taught word by word, and the disciple diligently sought to learn one board at a time, so that the treasures in this traditional cross-talk could be passed on to this day.
"The Haunted Court" accompanied Mr. Wei Wenliang's 67-year stage career, during which he has cooperated with a number of partners, and after several adaptations, he has polished the current appearance. In the face of different era backgrounds and different partners, he can always put fresh condiments into his pot of "old soup". Since entering the Nankai District Qu Art Troupe in 1956, he has begun a decade-long partnership experience with Feng Baohua. At a performance in the troupe, the work made by the two grandfathers, Mr. Feng Baohua guaranteed fan accurate strict seams, and Wei Wenliang's dashing atmosphere made it free. Mr. Wang Shichen, who only saw that he was sitting firmly on the stage, patted his thigh and pointed to the stage and said, "This boy is too much like when I was young, so it is really good!" I had to take him in as my son. As soon as the words stopped, Gao Fengshan, who was sitting next to him, hurriedly stopped him: "You are late to say this, he is already my son!" "Old audiences know that Mr. Wang Shichen's typhoon is also known for being handsome, and "The Public Court" is also his skill. When he was only in his twenties, he could make Wang Shichen of his uncle's generation can't help but say these words after reading it, which shows that Wei Wenliang is indeed talented in learning to sing.
When cooperating with Feng Baohua, Wei Wenliang began to try to innovate on this traditional work. For example, the "Lady of the Palm Print" in the paragraph was changed from the original song artist to the "Golden Throat Singer King", and learned to sing the once popular "Song of the Four Seasons" with emotion. In addition, in the "shouting hall" this time, it is also cleverly added to imitate Wang Baosan's selling of medicinal candy. Because the performance was mostly facing the local audience in Tianjin Dangxiang, when it came to "Wang Baosan selling medicinal candy next to the Huaihai Cinema in Nanshi", it immediately aroused strong resonance from the audience, followed by laughter and applause.
In the 1970s, Wei Wenliang and Meng Xiangguang formed a comical partnership, and then the two became famous throughout the country for a time with new works full of the atmosphere of the times, such as "Conditions for Requirements" and "Duet". In fact, the two of them also cooperated in "The Haunting of the Public Court" that year, but what was different from before was that he replaced Zhang San, who sang the number of Noble, with Mr. Wang Fengshan, a famous allegro artist. When there are performance arrangements in the troupe, the two grandfathers are often front and back, and whenever it comes to "the defendant is Wang Fengshan who sings the number of treasures", there must be a burst of laughter in the audience. Where it is not a burden, there is a burden, and this change not only strengthens the effect of the hot performance, but also gives Mr. Wang Fengshan a vine in the audience.
Regarding the demolition and washing of "The Haunted Court", Wei Wenliang can say that he did not let go of any small detail. For another example, when working with Meng Xiangguang, it was said that the use of walking the streets and alleys to sell medicinal candy was "a small gas lamp (that is, a kerosene lamp) in a glass box." A few years later, Meng Xiangguang temporarily bid farewell to the stage due to illness, and when he and Ma Zhicun made this period, it was changed to "small electric lamp". This would have been an innocuous change to the layman. But Mr. Wei has his own considerations, in the early economic difficulties, the general small traders could not afford to use electric lights at night, and could only light a small kerosene lamp. When ma Zhicun cooperated in the 1980s, the economic conditions had improved significantly, and small traders began to use electric lights at night. If you still use the "little Gath lamp" in the old way, it will undoubtedly be out of touch with the current social situation at that time, and many viewers will have a strange feeling when they listen.
In 1995, his old partner Meng Xiangguang unfortunately died young, and Wei Wenliang had to find a new partner. So, I found Zhang Yongyong to hold it for him. Because "The Haunting of the Court" has long become Mr. Wei's lever work, it is really necessary not to perform for a period of time, and the audience will not agree, so the two of them often stage this section. However, time has passed, and at this time, Wang Fengshan and Qiao Qingxiu have become ancient. If you scratch at their names, not only will the new audience be unfamiliar with them, but they may also be opposed by the two respective families.
In addition, young audiences like Wang Baosan, who sells medicinal candy, are almost unknown. In order to "preserve freshness" for "Noisy Gongtang", Wei Wenliang resolutely deleted and changed the previous unique imitation of Wang Baosan's shouting, and at the same time changed the defendant in the paragraph "Wang Fengshan who sang the number of nobles" back to "Zhang San" in the original book. The plaintiff's "Qiao Qingxiu singing Henan pendants" was replaced by "Qiao Hengjin". In fact, there is no artist named "Qiao Hengjin" in the music art world. However, at that time, Mr. Wei's Tianjin Qu Art Troupe had a string master named Jiao Hengjin. Because the audience has long been familiar with this piece of work, "Plaintiff Qiao Qingxiu" is even more familiar. Therefore, Wei Wenliang "stole beams for pillars" and changed Jiao Hengjin to Qiao Hengjin. This change does not matter, Jiao Hengjin's name is suddenly widely known among music lovers.
For decades, Mr. Wei has dismantled and re-updated "The Haunted Court", but each improvement and innovation has not deviated from the premise of the dead end. The port is accurate and the size is accurate, so as to ensure the integrity and rigor of the paragraph to the greatest extent. "Haunted Gongtang" belongs to Liu Huo, which has a story line, and "Nine Arts" is this living gourd. Although each actor can choose the kind of music he is good at according to his own conditions, no matter which genre of music he learns, he will eventually be classified as a "like" word. For example, singing lotus flowers, cross-talk actors learn from Guan Dejun, an old artist of Tianqiao. The minimum requirement is to be similar, and the voice must be sung so that the audience can hear the taste of Deok Joon. If the scribe is not skilled in learning the art, not only will he be sorry for the audience, but even the imitated master will have an opinion: "Am I singing like you?" I'm not like me, you still have to learn something! ”
Another example is to learn to sing the dry boat, on the basis of the realistic singing voice, higher requirements are put forward, the actor needs to sing while cooperating with the body, expression to imitate the performance scene of the dry boat running at the temple fair in the early years, so the limb performance must keep up with the fast-paced singing words, sing to which sentence, the action must all follow to the point. Mr. Wei vividly interprets what the combination of sounds, expressions, actions, and lyrics are organically integrated and form a high degree of unity. Even if the audience has never seen what a dry boat is like, the actor's learning to sing and imitating alone can create a vivid sense of picture in the mind.
Mr. Wei makes "The Haunting of the Court" different from the pad, generally speaking, it is directly from the old society to buy and sell officials, and Mr. Wei cleverly borrows part of the content of "Fan Parade". After being adapted and sorted out, not only is the pad more abundant, but it also gives a better preparation for the positive life. The specific role has two points: first, through the small baggage of "toothbrush pestle and cheek helper" that is shaken out by learning the gong and drum of the scene, the effect of the program is strengthened; second, it is clear to explain the degree to which the fans are fascinated, and it is more reasonable to find a number of jianghu artists when they take office next.
In the past sixty-seven years, Mr. Wei Wenliang's "Noisy Gongtang" has always fixed the character roles as: Peking Opera fans, those who sing popular songs, those who pull foreign films, those who sing lotus flowers, those who sing dry boats, those who sing Henan pendants, those who sing the number of noble treasures, those who sing Shandong fast books, those who sell medicine candy, and those who call street bricks. The ten characters correspond to ten different styles of expression, male and female voices, true and false voices, and the test is not only Liu Huo's learning and singing skills, but also a test of the actor's strength and physical strength. Each kind of learning to sing can only be held by the audience to listen to the image first, and the corresponding characters can stand. Each character stands up, and the storyline advances with the performance. The meticulousness of the plot preparation, the credibility of the character shaping, and the baggage behind it can be sounded. Judging from Mr. Wei's handling methods, the whole piece of work can be described as tightly sewn and interlocked. Its artistic characteristics can be summarized into sixteen words, namely: learning to sing and conveying God, the characters are distinct, true and credible, and the baggage is reasonable.
A traditional cross-talk "Haunted Gongtang" witnessed Mr. Wei Wenliang's artistic refinement from a new sharp edge to the current fire. The secret that can make generations of cross-talk audiences tireless is actually to keep up with the times. The so-called "music art that can't be tired of listening" is not only the charm of crosstalk itself, but more importantly, what kind of attitude does people have. Each classic traditional cross-talk cannot be appropriated by an actor, it belongs to the entire cross-talk industry, and it is the industry that the ancestors of cross-talk have placed on the younger generations. As an old gentleman in the cross-talk industry, Wei Wenliang also knows the great responsibility of preaching for the old ancestors.
In 2019, at the Chinese Non-Hereditary Quyi Cross-Talk Seminar held in Tianjin, Wei Wenliang, who is 80 years old, and Wang Peiyuan, a famous cross-talk artist in Tianjin, jointly performed this "Haunting Court" for young actors again, regardless of rhythm size or singing performance, they still maintain a very high artistic standard, and many young actors who watched under the stage also enjoyed such a textbook-level wonderful interpretation for the first time since learning art. During the performance, the old man was always energetic, raising his hands and feet to show the handsome typhoon of his youth. For this traditional work that has made a lifetime, Mr. Wei Wenliang always has an unfulfilled wish: my "Haunting" has brought laughter to so many audiences, and it is worth it! In my lifetime, I hope to see more young actors who can keep this cross-talk alive and live on forever, and don't let it become a lost book after many years!