In 1923, the old artists paid homage. Front row from left: Guan Zhenkui, Chang Shutian, Chen Zizhen, Bai Jiuchuan, back row from left: Han Dezhen, Qu Guotian, Han Dequan, Zhang Shouchen, Bai Fengyan, Xiao Fuxiang
Since I was seven or eight years old, my father has been performing in Beijing – speaking crosstalk. At first, he set up a stall in Tianqiao, then in Tongzhou, Tangshan and other places, and finally lived in Tianjin for a long time, and sometimes returned to Beijing. By any measure, time has passed so quickly, and it has been more than fifty years now. In the middle, it went through various periods of the late Qing Dynasty, the early Ming Dynasty, warlord melee, Kuomintang rule, Japanese aggression, and the liberation of the motherland. Looking back on it now, it is really difficult to say a word; it was only after liberation that I was meticulously cared for by the party and the people's government and felt incomparably warm. I would like to put out my personal experience and observations truthfully and make a little contribution.
First, my life course
Hou Yichen, Zhang Shouchen and Chang Lian'an took a group photo
My life can be divided into three stages: spending childhood in suffering, spending middle age in humiliation, and living in happiness in old age.
My childhood
In 1953, Zhang Shouchen received a group photo of Tong Dafang and Tian Lihe, the third from the left was Zhang Shouchen, and the left one in the back row was Tian Lihe
My family's original hometown is Shen County, Hebei Province. My grandfather moved to Beijing in his 40s to make a living as a carpenter. When my father grew up, he changed to storytelling because he had less work as a carpenter. Later, because he befriended Jiao Dehai and Li Dezhao (stage name "Ten Thousand Fans"), he joined the cross-talk industry. At the age of twenty-five, he formally worshiped Han Lianyu as a teacher, professional storytelling, and began to set up stalls on the Comparative 4-Day Bridge. When I was six years old, I entered a private school, studied half a day, and set up a stall with my father half a day. Because there was a custom at that time, there were children helping at the stall, people thought it was childish and cute, and often gave a little more money. My father took advantage of this mentality to make me earn a few more money to support my family. However, my father could not bear to delay my schooling, so he adopted this balanced approach. When I was nine years old (the thirty-second year of Guangxu, that is, in 1906), the official family canceled cross-talk, Li Dezhao went to Baoding, Jiao Dehai changed to bamboo board books, and my father and I were unemployed. My father had to go back to the streets and alleys to say zero books (that is, small paragraphs) to let me officially go to school. When I was twelve, when my father died and there was no place for my family, I started talking about crosstalk at the stall where my father used to set up. Thirty to forty coppers can be earned a day, and the whole family deserves porridge, but the dry ones cannot be eaten. In the first month of the following year, he officially worshiped Jiao Dehai as a teacher and followed him on the overpass. At the age of fifteen, he still partnered with his old teachers and friends, and set up stalls in Dong'an Market, Huguo Temple and other places to talk to each other, and his life was barely sustainable.
Two Monks
But before long, my body suddenly changed, the light grew tall and not thick, neither like an adult, nor like a child, making people look unpleasant, so they lost popularity, business declined day by day, and no one wanted to partner with me. Therefore, in the three years from sixteen to eighteen years old, he could only work alone, could not earn food and drink all day, and fell into the situation of crying hunger and cold for the whole family. But because of this, I have learned a lot of truths and gained a lot of insights in the past three years. At this time, I had lost the qualification to occupy a fixed place in the Dongan Market, and I could only borrow land to sell art after my peers had finished speaking, earning at most 20 or 30 copper. At that time, my family lived outside xuanwu gate in the south of The Great River Road, south of the road there was an ancestral hall called "Yuezhong Pantheon", which was opening a propaganda center. Every day when I go home and pass by there, I will go in and listen. First, you can listen to Mr. Guan Duofu talk about the ancient text "The Theory of Yu Concession", and Mr. Cai Youmei talk about the novel "Jinghua Story" and so on. Second, you can also take the opportunity to drink some boiling water. Over time, my knowledge increased. Later, I borrowed books such as "Water Margin" and "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" to read for myself, and my interest was even greater. Later, I ordered a "Vernacular Current Affairs Newspaper", which made me aware of some major national events. Although I did not talk to Mr. Guan and Mr. Cai Liang, they were my truly enlightened teachers. When I talk about crosstalk, I often incorporate what they say, and the audience is very welcome.
In the period of "rising from the sea"
In 1965, Liu Baorui went to Tianjin to visit his master Zhang Shouchen
In the spring of the eighteen-year-old, I left Beijing for the first time, walked to Tongzhou, Tangshan and other places, and landed along the way to sell art, and I could barely take care of life. Later, when he arrived in Tianjin, he swept the ground in Sanwu and Beikai. At the age of nineteen, he returned to Beijing and still performed in tianqiao and Dong'an markets. This time, because I learned about some rural things, I tasted the bitterness of running the dock. I have practiced a lot more about human feelings than before, and I can also talk about people. In the summer, there is a coat to put on, and sometimes you can catch a church meeting, and the business gradually improves. When I was twenty-two years old, no one in Beijing's Stone Hutong "Four Seas Rising Peace" went to the end, so I went with Mr. Jiao Dehai. Later I personally listed. After the performance, each ticket extracts two coppers at the price, and you can get about one hundred coppers per day. Although it was not until after twelve o'clock in the evening to go home, the family's life was finally taken care of. More importantly, I have to mention it here. At that time, Mr. Zhuang Yintang, the owner of "Four Seas Shengping" (Liu Baoquan's drum lyrics, most of which were revised by him), were artistically profound, which benefited me a lot. He often published articles in newspapers. The signature is "East Asian Drama Fans". He not only can write, but also sing well, especially good at duo, which was admired by the Jinghua artists at that time. I admired him and asked him for advice from time to time. It can also be said that two-quarters or three of the words in my performance have been revised by Mr. Zhuang.
Got a foothold in Tianjin
Between the ages of 22 and 25, I performed at the Tianqiao and Dongan Markets during the day and performed in the "Four Seas Rising Peace" at night. At the age of twenty-six, he cooperated with Mr. Li Dezhuo and was employed for one year, performing in the "Grand View Building" in Beijing. In the meantime, he went to Shenyang once, followed by Tianjin "Yanle", and separated at the end of the year. It wasn't until I was twenty-seven that I began to perform completely independently, polishing what I had learned, and finally gained a foothold in Tianjin. Since then, I have been in various juggling theaters in Tianjin, successively cooperating with Tao Xiangru, Hou Yichen and others for nine years, cooperating with Zhou Toad for one year, and the rest is doing it alone. At this stage, I have a very good popularity, and my income can also be self-sufficient; I also have a little false reputation in the cross-talk industry, which should be said to be a relatively smooth period in my life. But the bullying and blackmail of the government and hooligans has also intensified, and it still makes me breathless.
From changing careers to storytelling to retirement
Zhang Shouchen in 1956 in the performance of the book review
At the end of 1947, I changed my career to storytelling, and the performance venue was in Baohexuan outside the North Gate. First of all, "The Secret History of the Qing Palace", followed by "Water Margin", a total of six years.
In 1953, Sun Shujun set up a group sound music troupe and invited me to participate, and the business was booming. Later, the leaders knew that I was talking about cross-talk, and in August and September of the same year, Luo Yusheng of the Tianjin Qu Art Troupe invited me to join, but it was a return to the old business of saying cross-talk. In October 1964, due to old age and illness, I could no longer continue to work, and with the approval of the leadership, I retired, and I was sixty-seven years old.
Second, the words of suffering were those years
In the old society, the suffering of being an artist could not be said for three days and three nights, and when I recalled the past, my heart was full of sorrow and indignation.
I often hear people of the older generation say: During the Xianfeng period, someone was told to sing an octagonal drum in front of Xianfeng. There is a sentence in the passage of "Wanshouxiang" that reads: "Holding a pillar of incense in your hand to go to Shou", which was considered to have committed a sacred secret and was sent to Yunnan to charge the army for ten years. Xianfeng's name "Yixuan", "Yizhu" is harmonized with it, so it is offended. Wang Zhiyuan, who commented on the book during the Guangxu dynasty, once said "Peng Gong Case" in the Gong King's Mansion, which contained the word "suspicious", which King Gong thought was homophonous with his name "Yi Zhi", that is, scolding and banging. When Yuan Shikai was president, Li Dezhuo went to the presidential palace to say cross-talk, which contained the word "Lantern", and was punched out by the adjutant several times. Because "Lantern" is homophonous with "Yuan Que", it is considered to be a slander against the President. As far as I am concerned, in the sixteenth year of the Republic of China, I talked to my teacher Jiao Dehai in Beijing Sanqingyuan, and the words "black dog and white nose" were mentioned in it, and I was beaten by the police and immediately brought to the bureau. It turned out that the police were nicknamed Black Dog White Nose at that time, and we said it unintentionally, but they thought it was a satire on them. As a result, after arriving at the game, he hit us countless times in the mouth and fined us ten yuan to blast out. After this beating, my master and apprentice did not come to power for three days. They also said behind their backs that if they didn't give these things something powerful, how would they know ma Wangye's three eyes.
Zhang Shouchen and his disciple Yu Shide were photographed in 1960
Also, Wang Zhaolin, who sang the lyrics of Taiping, once performed the passage of "Rao Zhen", which contained a sentence "Pie back to the camp to rescue the soldiers", and the gendarmes in the theater were cut off with tea bowls. Even at that time, those who sold pies were not allowed to shout, only meatloaf. Because "pie" is homophonous with "gendarme".
In the old society, artists and poor people had no guarantees of personal life, no freedom to speak, and there would be no senseless disasters at any time.
The atrocities of bullies and hooligans
Cross-talk master Zhang Shouchen (left) and single-string taidou Chang Shutian (right) in Tianjin in the winter of 1936
In the twenty-seventh year of the Republic of China (1936), I said cross-talk with Renchang Radio in Xiaoliyuan, the old French Concession in Tianjin, and the business was quite good, who knew that he was bullied by the bully Yuan Wenhui. At that time, the "Yanle Shengping" in Nanshi came from Beijing with two cross-talkers- Dai Shaopu and Yu Junbo, and somehow they offended the bully Yuan Wenhui, and within a few days they were beaten away by Yuan Wenhui. At this time, Yuan's dog-legged son Li Mou came to my home and forced me to go to "Yan Le" to make up for his vacancies. There is no need to say, and immediately forced to leave home. After arriving in Nanshi, I was placed in a hotel, not only to give a small amount of personal living expenses, but also to live in the family, and I was not allowed to go home to visit relatives. After surviving more than a year, catching up with the flood in Tianjin in the twenty-eighth year of the Republic of China, I secretly drilled the power grid and returned home. Looking up, the old and young were lying at the head of the bed, their faces hungry. Looking around again, everything and clothes in the house should be sold out. Can't help but be miserable for a long time.
Stills from Zhang Shouchen's performance in Tianjin's Xiaoliyuan in the mid-1930s
In 1940, I was speaking crosstalk in Beijing. Because he offended the secret agent Wang Mou when he asked for money, on the same day he told the special agent group of the Inner Second District to ask me and Chang Lian'an for a cross-talk manuscript, and sent us to the bureau for questioning. I didn't go. The next day he sent someone to call me and Chang Lian'an away. Asked Chang Lian'an once, he put it back, but he didn't let me go. Then in the evening, they asked me if I was a Kuomintang or a Communist Party, and why I always said that it was unfavorable to the imperial army. I said, "We who are performers only know how to eat and drink, and we don't know what the Communist Party or the Kuomintang is." Wang Scolded at the side. Beat me up again. I said, "Do you still let people live?" One of the people sitting in the middle said, "Yes." I said, "It doesn't matter if you beat me to death, poor my family will starve to death." You are all Chinese, don't you have a little conscience?! "They were so angry that they had me crushed and whipped me with leather, and soon I was unconscious. Later, changlian Anto paid money to bail me out. After this torture, I almost lost my life. It took more than half a year to demobilize the original.
Hostile and pseudo-coercive propaganda
Zhang Shouchen and Zhang Lilin father and son were photographed in 1947
During the Japanese occupation of Tianjin, the life of the artist was even more difficult. Once the Japanese army hit Burma. At that time, the Japanese army forced entertainers to publicize for them on the radio and praise the heroism of the imperial army. They sent Hou Baolin and I to Beijing and Tianjin to use radio to spread the word of mouth, to publicize how powerful the Japanese army was. Hou Baolin got this news beforehand, took the train to Beijing that night to discuss with me, and asked me how to deal with it. I said, "This is easy to do, let's give him a mix of two mills, three dozen forks, and it's over." "On that day, we were on stage. Hou said, what day is it? I said, today is a few days in the lunar calendar, a few days in the solar calendar, a few days in the week, and a lot of witty words, that is, not to say that it is the day when the Japanese army occupied Burma, so that when the time comes, we will step down and bow. The pseudo-radio staff scolded us. We say, what can be done if there is not enough time? They have nothing to do. cough! The off is over. But this kind of mental insult is worse than being beaten!
Exploitation by gardeners and hooligans
Zhang Shouchen (third from right), Zhou Toad (fourth from right) and so on
In the old society, the suffering of artists was manifold. Now I turn to the exploitation and oppression of us by gardeners and hooligans. When I was young, there was a bad rule in the qu art field, and every year on December 25, after the performance, the stage was closed. Twenty-three, twenty-four, twenty-five three days, all the actors sang in vain. The income of the first day belongs to the front desk manager; the income of the second day belongs to the backstage boss; the income of the third day belongs to the three-line treasurer. The collective name is "smear table". After the performance on the first day of the first lunar month, the owner of the garden gave each two dimes, wrapped it in red paper, and wrote the words "Golden Ten Thousand Two" on it, called "God of Wealth". Just use this set of tricks to swallow the rest of the money earned completely.
Zhang Shouchen and his disciples were photographed in 1948, with Kang Liben, Chang Baokun, and Zhu Xiangchen on the left in the back row, Zhang Shouchen sitting in the center, and Su Wenmao on the front
Outside the garden, there is also the wind of the countertop. Every year from December 8 to 30, local hooligans will arrest officials. They pretended to be polite and asked for help, and the money they earned belonged to the hooligans, and the artists were not allowed to take any money. If you don't agree, maybe one day, there will be a catastrophe. In the 23rd year of the Republic of China, Hua Sibao performed in tianjin "Tianqing Tea Society". Because of the delay in smearing the table for the rogue once. One day, after getting off the scene, passing by the Northeast Corner Vegetable Market, a person suddenly stepped out of the nearby alley, holding a tile pot in his hand, covered with a newspaper, and slashed at the head of Hua Sibao. The flower flash did not hit, but landed on her body. At first glance, it turned out to be a pot of thin. It's still light, and heavy ones tend to throw bricks and tiles and beat you to the head and bleed.
Zhang Shouchen and Shenyang cross-talk actors took a group photo, the front row from the left Geng Baolin, Zhang Shouchen, the back row left yang Zhenhua. Photographed in 1964
I personally have not been insulted by them in this way, but I have been extorted for money countless times by them. The big and small hooligans on the ground, whether it is the birthday of the father and mother or the full moon of the child's birthday, must hit the idea of the artist. When the red post flew in, he had to take the money. I often receive seven or eight times a month, and the blood and sweat of dozens of people disappears. After receiving the post, it is often not polite to people, which is afraid of causing greater trouble. Because if you do go to the banquet, you will receive more posts on the spot, which will make you step into a chain trap.
Switch to storytelling
As for why I changed my career to storytelling halfway? I also need to explain it here. After the Japanese occupied Tianjin, I felt greatly oppressed mentally. There is no spirit to laugh again, and of course the business will fall. I left my beard and intended to disappear from the stage. But forced by life, sometimes say one or two. Not only did the audience feel uninterested, but they also felt bored. When Japan surrendered in 1945, I was happy again and continued to perform. Who knows that after half a year, the kuomintang masters' misdeeds were even more sad, so my mood was depressed again, and I felt that there was no glimmer of light in the future. The roof leaked through the overnight rain, and this year I encountered an unexpected thing. One day I said a passage of "Shanxi Family Letter" in Xiaoliyuan, some of which were sentences that learned the Shanxi dialect, and there was nothing impolite. However, after stepping down, I met a Shanxi officer of the Jiang gang who actually said that I was insulting shanxi people, and I raised my hand and beat people with a belt. I was beaten to the head and bled, and I had to be taken to the police station. I said, "Fight as you please, I didn't die at the hands of the Japanese, but I was beaten by the Chinese themselves." After being persuaded by the audience, the soldier fled. After recovering from the injury, I thought about it again and again, and I decided not to do this line. Since then, I have changed my career to storytelling.
Third, the party gave me warmth
I'm sixty-eight years old this year. Recall that in the long years of the old society, all that was subjected was beatings, oppression, exploitation and humiliation; in name, he was an entertainer, but in fact he was an angry ghost. Liberated, I just turned over. In 1950, the street sent me to the Third Hospital of Tianjin to quit smoking, and I was hospitalized for more than a month, and all the expenses were borne by the public. My smoking addiction for more than twenty years was eradicated, and this was the first time the party saved my life. In 1958, I cut gallstones in Tianjin General Hospital and was hospitalized for more than two months, and the medical expenses were huge, all borne by the government, which can be said to be the second time that the party saved my life. In 1964, I retired. The government gave me a pension, so that I can live with peace of mind for the rest of my life in the years of illness, a family of seven, and a worry-free life. In addition, the party also arranged for me to be a member of the Tianjin Municipal Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference. When I was recuperating, the director of the Tianjin Municipal Bureau of Culture also came to the hospital to see me and comfort me. All this, how can I not be grateful to Zero! In conclusion, I would like to emphatically say: I am old and can no longer serve the people; but I must educate my three men and two women, always remember the party's kindness, work hard to be strong, and wholeheartedly make due contributions to the country.
Zhang Shouchen and cross-talk actor Hui Wanhua were photographed in 1960
(1965) Originally published in the sixth series of "Cultural Historical Materials Series", published by the Literature and History Materials Publishing House in June 1983