He was only a ticket friend, but Yu Shuyan, Yang Xiaolou, Wang Fengqing and other Peking opera masters were willing to play supporting roles for him, and Li Shaochun also worshiped under him.
Statue of Zhang Boju
Zhang Boju is versatile, in addition to the collection of calligraphy and paintings, he also loves poetry, piano and chess, opera, especially in the art of Peking Opera has also made great achievements. He has been watching dramas since he was seven years old, and the first play he watched was Yang Xiaolou's "Golden Leopard". Yang Xiaolou was a martial arts master of Peking Opera, and during the Republic of China, he enjoyed the reputation of "Master of Chinese Opera".
Zhang Boju not only loved to watch plays and like ticket plays, he also liked to appear in ink and ink, and later became an important descendant of the Yu Shuyan Yu School and an opera theorist. As we all know, Yu Shuyan is a peking opera old taidou, he was born in the Liyuan family, his grandfather is Yu Sansheng, who is known as the grandfather of Peking Opera, why is it said that Yu Sansheng is the grandfather of Peking Opera? Yu Sansheng was a native of Luotian, Hubei Province, and was a pillar of the Chuntai Class, one of the four emblem classes of the Qing Dynasty. After Hui Ban entered Beijing, Yu Sansheng stayed in Beijing, and he identified the Peking Opera "Hu Guangyin" and "Zhongzhou Rhyme", and was revered as the "setting tone" of modern Peking Opera, and it can be said that he is a first-class figure in the peking opera circle. Yu Shuyan has been influenced by his family since childhood, and became popular in Tianjin at the age of 13, and was called "Little Yu Sansheng" by fans. Yu Shuyan's Wenwu Kun was chaotic and achieved very high achievements in the art of Peking Opera. During the late Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China, it can be said that from the high-ranking officials and nobles to the people of the city were his fans. At that time, he was also called the "Three Sages" of the Peking Opera circle together with Mei Lanfang and Yang Xiaolou.
The "Three Sages" of peking opera - Yang Xiaolou, Yu Shuyan, Mei Lanfang
Due to his illness, Yu Shuyan rarely accepted apprentices, and only accepted a few disciples such as Meng Xiaodong and Li Shaochun in his lifetime. Meng Xiaodong is a famous Peking Opera female elder who was active during the Republic of China, who was nicknamed "Winter Emperor", and in life, Meng Xiaodong was also a legendary figure. She had a marriage with Mei Lanfang, and later married Du Yuesheng, the leader of the Shanghai Beach Green Gang. Li Shaochun is known as "Li Shenxian" in the Peking Opera circle, he is an all-rounder in literature and martial arts, proficient in the ugly appearance of Shengdan Jingdu, and he also founded the famous Peking Opera Old School - Li School. Compared with Meng Xiaodong and Li Shaochun, Zhang Boju is only a ticket friend, so through what channels did he learn to play with Yu Shuyan? How did he become an important descendant of Yu Pai art?
It turned out that in addition to singing opera, this Yu Shuyan was also intoxicated with Jinshi calligraphy and painting, and he liked to interact with cultural people very much. Zhang Boju admired Yu Pai's singing voice, and Yu Shuyan also liked Zhang Boju, a literate and thinking reader, and the two had similar interests and became friends for a lifetime. Zhang Boju followed Yu Shuyan to learn drama, and Yu Shuyan taught him without reservation. Yu Shuyan also borrowed Zhang Boju's writing style to summarize some Peking Opera singing experience, such as the two of them have cooperated in the compilation of the book "Modern Drama Rhyme", which systematically summarizes the pronunciation rules of spit characters in Peking Opera singing, which is a must-read book for Peking Opera practitioners. We say that Zhang Boju and Yu Shuyan have a good relationship, the relationship between the two is iron, and there is no specific performance? Of course, there is, and here is a story of the "great "Empty City Plan".
Li Shaochun, Meng Xiaodong
In the spring of 1937, Zhang Boju's fortieth birthday, he was preparing to hold a Peking Opera hall meeting to wish him a happy birthday, when it was just in time for the drought in his hometown in Henan, Zhang Boju temporarily decided to change the church meeting into a disaster relief charity performance. The repertoire of the charity performance is "Empty City Plan", Zhang Boju starred in Zhuge Liang, Yang Xiaolou, Wang Fengqing and other Famous Peking Opera performers, especially Yu Shuyan, who was frail and sick and had long left the stage, agreed to play the supporting role of Wang Ping, which made the fans of the play never expect. Why? Yu Pai fans all know that Yu Shuyan is a more personality person in the Peking Opera circle, and even when he is in good health, he rarely participates in the general church meeting. For example, in June 1931, the Shanghai Beach Green Gang Leader Du Yuesheng Family Ancestral Hall was completed, when Du Yuesheng was already a black and white figure in Shanghai, in the great Shanghai, it can be said that his hand can not reach the place. When the Du Family Ancestral Hall was inaugurated, even Chiang Kai-shek personally sent a plaque to congratulate him, and Xiong Shihui, commander of the Songhu Garrison, Zhang Qun, mayor of Shanghai, and other important party and state officials also sent congratulatory gifts. At that time, Boss Du also invited the famous peking opera singers in Beijing and Shanghai to sing in the hall, and only Yu Shuyan repeatedly invited and did not agree. Du Yuesheng was annoyed and ashamed, and let people bring words to Yu Shuyan, which can also be said to be an ultimatum, what did he say?
If you don't go, you will never want to go to the beach again.
The Du Family Ancestral Hall was inaugurated and group photo with the theater industry
At that time, this sentence was equivalent to cutting off the financial road of a Peking Opera actor, why did it say so? Because during the Republic of China, Pear Garden Has a saying that "Beiping is famous, Shanghai earns money". That is to say, a Peking Opera actor must sing well in Beijing and then go to Shanghai to earn money. At that time, the theater garden on the beach can be said to be all under the control of Du Yuesheng. So the weight of this sentence is self-evident.
Let's think about it, how did Yu Shuyan reply? He said in a loud voice:
I would rather not go to Shanghai in this life, nor go to the Du family to act.
Zhang Boju's "Notes on the Dream Poems of the Red Dragon Dynasty"
Sure enough, until 1943, Yu Shuyan died of illness in Beijing, he never went to Shanghai again, and fans in Both Beijing and Shanghai praised Yu Shuyan's personality of not being afraid of power!
Zhang Boju plays "Zhuge Liang" in the empty city plan
Zhang Boju's charity performance is unprecedented, Yu Shuyan, Yang Xiaolou and Wang Fengqing three members performed on the same stage, today can be seen as the world's three major tenors on the same stage of the concert. At that time, it not only caused a sensation in Beijing, but also caused a sensation in the whole country. On the day of the performance, the crowd was crowded and the grandeur was unprecedented, and it was praised by the ticket holders as "the great "Empty City Plan"".
Zhang Boju's contribution to the Peking opera circle also includes his fundraising, and together with Yu Shuyan, Mei Lanfang and others, he established the "Beiping National Opera Association" at Hufang Bridge. In his later years, he wrote the book "Notes on the Dream Poems of the Red Dragon Dynasty", which was praised by the famous playwright Wu Zuguang as:
A history of Peking Opera.
Mei Baojiu also spoke highly of Zhang Boju:
In modern history, without the achievements and efforts of Zhang Boju and others, there would be no glory of contemporary Peking Opera.
Wu Zuguang, Mei Baojiu
Zhang Boju loves Peking Opera, Qinqi calligraphy and painting, his bones are light and relaxed, and his life is a celebrity style, and he yearns for a life of idle clouds and wild cranes all day longing. He doesn't gamble, he doesn't smoke, he doesn't drink, he dresses casually, and he eats casually. Although he was born as an official eunuch, he did not speak of style at all. In his later years, Zhang Boju described his life in detail in his diary:
I like to fill in words, dinner, guess poetry fans, play poetry bells, watch apricot blossoms in spring, enjoy lotus in summer, play with the moon in Mid-Autumn Festival, admire chrysanthemums in Chongyang, watch red leaves, Chinese New Year's Eve or garden tea, or go on a country tour, or gather and chant.
One by one Zhang Boju "Zhang Boju Cowshed Diary"