Liu Hongsheng, a veteran of Peking Opera. A work of Hongsheng, and also as Hongsheng, Hongsheng, the word Yu, the number Zebao. A native of Shunyi County, Beijing.
Originally an apprentice in the Beijing knife and scissor shop, people called him "Little Knife Liu", because he loved Peking Opera, he often went in and out of the Cuifeng Nunnery box office. Everyone saw that he had a good voice and encouraged him to study with his teacher. Later, he was introduced to chang erzhuang to learn flower faces, learn while practicing, and often follow his teachers to "work", so that he could get close to the famous flower faces at that time, He Guishan, Jin Xiushan and Liu Yongchun. Guangxu became a professional actor in 1895, and successively played supporting roles for Tan Xinpei and Sun Juxian in Tongchun and Sixi classes. After changing to Yucheng class, he starred in "Eight Judges of the Eight Books", and his reputation rose. Xuan Tongyuan (1909) went to Shanghai to set up a "new stage" and won the reputation of "the first flower noodle" with "Muhu Guan".
Later, due to a vicious illness, he could not take the stage, resulting in poverty and illness. After a good friend's help, he was able to extend medical treatment on behalf of him, and lived in the home of a ticket friend to recuperate, and gradually recovered. Because his acting in Shanghai was very popular with the audience, he went to Shanghai again and still played a flower face play. Because his legs were crippled after his serious illness, he was not valued by people, and even the class owner did not pay the package silver (monthly salary), and he was almost trapped. Fortunately, Tan sent the old student Gui Junqing's heel bag (the person who managed the costumes for the actors) Huang Mou planned on behalf of the old student, so he changed the old student. However, he will only play "Lost Street Pavilion And Chop Horse Rumors", but the audition is a hit, acting for 6 consecutive days, every day is full, so he changed to playing laosheng. In the early years of the Republic of China (1912), in Beijing Guanghe Lou self-organized Hongqing Society to perform in class, its air outlet, transportation cavity is extremely exquisite, high-profile wide over the river and sea, it sounds like one breath, in order to form a unique "Liu Pai" style.
After the Xinhai Revolution, he returned to Beijing to form a Hongqing class in Guanghe Lou and starred in himself. His singing voice is loud, crisp and sweet, with a straight, rigid and fluent voice, and he uses Kyo characters and Beijing tones. He is famous for "Chopping the Yellow Robe", "Chopping the Horse", "Cutting the Son of the Gate" and "Shilang Visiting the Mother". After becoming famous, he sometimes performed the flower face drama "Exploring the Yin Mountain" and the old drama "Fishing for Golden Turtles". He succeeded Tan Xinpei as the president of the Beijing Zhengle Yuhua Association.
Before Yuan Shikai ascended the throne, he made an embroidered dragon robe, but he did not dare to wear it. Once on his birthday, Liu was invited to sing "Chop the Yellow Robe", yuan was very happy to hear it, so he gave this dragon robe to Liu Hongsheng, and after that, when he performed "Chop the Yellow Robe", he wore this dragon robe on stage. "Yuanmen Chopper" was originally a Zizi play, Tan Xinpei turned it into Xipi, and infiltrated into the Xiaosheng cavity to please, so it became one of the often performed plays in Peking Opera, since Liu Hongsheng sang red, Tan Xinpei actually stopped singing this play. Liu innovated in this play, such as "seeing the old lady is a ceremony to bow down", integrating into the doll tune, creating a unique dragon cavity, and the melody is beautiful and moving. At that time, Liu Hongsheng performed Chai Rong of the big axis "Playing Dou Yao" on the first stage in Beijing, which was unique, and Yang Xiaolou's "Changshanpo" also ranked second from the bottom. Liu Hongsheng sang "Exploring Yin Mountain" at that time, and the silver package was five hundred yuan. In the seventh year of the Republic of China (1918), he succeeded Tan Xinpei as the president of the Beijing Zhengle Yuhua Association.
In the ninth year of the Republic of China (1920), Liu once again went to the Shanghai Grand Stage to perform "Lost Space Chop", with him as Kong Ming, Bai Yukun as Wang Ping, Chen Yuelou as Zhao Yun, Ma Junshan as Sima Yi, Ying Baolian as Baozi, Yin Huchen as Ji Chen, Zhao Ruquan and Yao Junqing as Gao Qinjun, Pang Shaoqing as Zhang Gao, Wang Fuqing and Li Suyun as Qin Tong, Zhao Fuzhong as Sima Zhao, Yuan Kuiguan as Sima Shi, full of famous characters, showing their skills, and it was a good story for a while. This is Liu Hongsheng's last performance in Shanghai.
Liu Hongsheng first played the copper hammer flower face, Zong Mu Fengshan faction, and later changed to singing Lao Sheng. His voice is extremely high, the sound quality is pure, with back-of-brain tones, tiger tones, explosive tones, and rare water tones. Energetic, good at using the Fa, and good at making the breath. Learn to use the "upstairs upstairs" way of cavity, every time the height must be pulled, pulled to the top, can adapt to a variety of board style of singing, the Xipi cavity is the most famous. Singing with Beijing characters, Zong Zhang Erkui, singing voice is also close to Kui Pai, and absorbed Sun Juxian's singing method, but changed the straight and simple style of the two, there are a lot of innovations, such as the "Lone King Drunken Peach Blossom Palace" in "Cut the Yellow Robe" of the two-six board singing lyrics, deleted from 14 sentences to 6 sentences, each sentence is sung novel and gorgeous.
Liu Pai's drama path is very wide, not only has the Kui Pai dramas, but also other plays such as Sun and Tan factions, once transplanted, can also give Liu Pai characteristics. Liu Hongsheng was lame and had no young workers, so he basically did not rely on tricks, martial arts and special performance skills, mainly singing gong plays, and liked to use a large number of singing lyrics in singing, such as "one hundred single eight sentences" in "Shangtiantai" and dozens of "deceitful widows" in "Xiaoyaojin". The work drama is also good, and he also plays Lao Dan. Liu sings the brass hammer flower face, because of the high voice and the narrow range, it forms a unique singing method with a unique charm. Liu Pai often performed a large number of plays, and the most prominent representative repertoire were "Three Cuts and One Exploration" - "Chop The Yellow Robe", "Chop the Red Robe" (that is, "Dou Yao"), "Yuanmen Chopper", "Shilang Visiting the Mother" and "Shangtiantai", "Xiaoyaojin", "Empty City Plan", "Chopping Horse Rumors", etc., in addition to "Knocking on the Bone for Gold", "Golden Platform", "Complete Bi Gui Zhao", "Imperial Monument Pavilion", "Su Wu Mu Sheep", "Wulong Yuan", "Law Field Changing Sons" and so on. The singing style is high and clear, just sweet and crisp, and has a great influence on the development of some old schools at that time and later. However, Liu Pai's singing has extremely high requirements for the actor's voice, and Liu Hongsheng died of middle age, so although there are many imitators of Liu, there are not many people. Liu Pai's singing methods are only "Beheading", "Chopping Yellow Robes", "Empty City Plan", "Royal Monument Pavilion", "Complete Bi Gui Zhao", "Visiting Mother", "WulongYuan", "Knocking Bones for Gold", "Scolding Yang Guang", "Su Wu Mu Sheep", "Changing Sons in the Law Field", "Exploring Yin Mountain", "The Case of Gongmei" (the latter two are copper hammer flower faces) and more than a dozen records have been published.
His singing voice system is known as the "Liu Pai", which was formed slightly later than the "Later Three Masters" - Sun (Ju Xian), Tan (Xin Pei), and Wang Ge factions, and became popular in the early years of the Republic of China, which was based on Liu's own voice conditions and the singing voice of the Yikui School, absorbing the singing methods of tan and Wang factions, further changing and developing, and integrating into it, with the unique characteristics of the singer as the main symbol.
In the tenth year of the Republic of China (1921), Liu Hongsheng performed on the Shanghai Grand Stage, and on the seventh day of the night, he performed "Finish Bi Gui Zhao" and "Snow Cup Circle", and Mo Huaigu, who dressed up as "Snow Cup Circle", died suddenly in the background before he appeared. This generation of celebrities who inherited Sun Juxian and Gao Qingkui passed away at the golden age of forty-six years old.