In "The Legend of the White Snake", Du Jinfang plays Bai Suzhen
In "The Book of Willow Shade", Du Jinfang plays Zhu Yingtai
In "Peach Blossom Fan", Du Jinfang plays Li Xiangjun
Du Jinfang and Dou Xiaoxuan
In the book "Du Jinfang's Oral Records", the 16 words "born in a chaotic world, grew up in the world, became prosperous, and passed on to future generations" are printed on the back cover, next to her stage photo: Female official Xie Yaohuan - holding a wat in her left hand and a belt in her right hand, walking towards the Golden Ruan Treasure Hall with great enthusiasm.
But below the stage, Du Jinfang seems to have no "Xuan Ang" atmosphere, just like when the older generation of revolutionaries inscribed "people's artists" for her, in the same book, in the preface "A Little Impression of Mine", she wrote: "Such a high honor and praise, such care and encouragement, I really dare not be!" ”
However, for Peking Opera, in the same article, her words are so "daring": "Finally, I want to say that I love my Peking Opera career. As long as I still have a breath, I will not give up the pursuit of Peking Opera, I always have to do something. ”
Now, this breath has dissipated, and the person who said such "daring" words is gone.
At 22:26 on April 17, Du Jinfang, a famous Peking Opera performance artist at the National Peking Opera Theatre, a national non-hereditary person and a famous Danjiao artist, died in Beijing at the age of 89. With the departure of the founders of the artistic style of the National Peking Theatre "Li, Yuan, Ye, and Du" (Li Shaochun, Yuan Shihai, Ye Shenglan, Du Jinfang), an era has also come to an end.
She lamented that her departure was a great loss for the Peking Opera community
Du Jinfang, whose original name was Chen Yuhua, was born in Beijing in 1932 as an orphan and was sent to the family of Chen Xiguang, who sang opera. Later, the Chen family fell, and she was sold to Du Juchu, who earned money by raising children and singing. Du Jinfang studied under Wang Yaoqing, an artist and education master known as the "Master of the Liyuan Tongtian Sect" since childhood, and after taking Master Mei Lanfang as a teacher, after joining the National Peking Theatre (formerly the China Peking Opera), she cooperated with Ye Shenglan, Li Shaochun and Yuan Shihai for a long time, and was known as the four top cards of "Li Yuan Ye Du".
If the era of "Li Yuan Ye Du" is the golden age of Chinese Peking Opera after the founding of New China, then Du Jinfang is the youngest witness of them. She has pioneered and performed more than 20 new plays: she can sing "The Legend of the White Snake" and also act in "White Haired Girl"; her performances in the 1950s and 1960s such as "Xie Yaohuan", "Wild Boar Forest", "Peach Blossom Fan", "West Chamber", etc., are all long-lasting plays performed on the Peking Opera stage; in modern Peking Opera, she also has "White Haired Girl" and "Red Detachment of Women" and other representative works.
"Her departure is really a big loss for our Peking opera industry, and her art has too many places for future generations to learn." Du Jinfang's former collaborator, Ye Shaolan, a famous Peking Opera performance artist, told the Beijing Youth Daily reporter on the phone.
Du Jinfang's cooperation with Ye Shaolan can be traced back to 1979, and Ye Shaolan resumed stage performances by cooperating with Du Jinfang on "Xie Yaohuan". In an interview, Ye Shaolan did not talk too much about the scene of cooperation at that time, and the most he said was one sentence: "I am very grateful to Du Jinfang for her constant encouragement at that time." Behind this encouragement is Du Jinfang's understanding of Ye Shaolan. Behind this "understanding" is a deeper relationship: Du Jinfang and Ye Shaolan's father, Ye Shenglan, have been cooperative colleagues for many years.
Ye Shenglan, as an artist of the older generation, gave a lot of help to the growth of Du Jinfang's art. In the book "Du Jinfang's Oral Records", there are stills of du Jinfang's cooperation with Ye Shenglan: in the Peking opera "The Tale of the West Chamber", Du Jinfang plays the red lady, Ye Shenglan plays Zhang Sheng, and Zhang Junqiu plays Cui Yingying; in "Butterfly Cup", Du Jinfang plays Hu Fenglian, and Ye Shenglan plays Tian Yuchuan; in the Peking opera "Lü Bu and the Sable Cicada", Ye Shenglan plays Lü Bu, and Du Jinfang plays the mink cicada; in "The Legend of the White Snake", Du Jinfang plays Bai Suzhen and Ye Shenglan plays Xu Xian.
Du Jinfang mentions such an episode in the book: In 1956, the Peking Opera House in China staged "The Book of Jade Hairpins". At first, it was rehearsed by Li Shaochun and Hou Yulan and his wife in the three groups, but the box office was not very good, plus Hou Yulan was pregnant, Li Shaochun looked for Du Jinfang three times, hoping that she and Ye Shenglan could take over this play.
Ye Shenglan told Du Jinfang that he would take over this play, but he could not perform according to the number of Li Hou's two places. Ye Du and the two remade the line and asked the writer to revise the script. At that time, Premier Zhou Enlai was very supportive, and Premier Zhou said to Du Jinfang: "If there is any good 'Shengdan drama' in Sichuan opera, you and Mr. Ye can follow up, according to the characteristics of Peking Opera, and arrange new plays." "Du Jinfang then conveyed Premier Zhou's instructions to Ye Shenglan." Teacher Ye was very happy! Du Jinfang dictated.
It took only two weeks to rehearse the "Jade Hairpin", but it worked three shifts every day. In Du Jinfang's words, "I look for my pretty head, he looks for his pretty head." In Du Jinfang's eyes, Ye Shenglan was very "riveted" - he had to study it without resting at noon. The play was first performed at the People's Theater, and later when it was performed at the Beijing Workers' Club, there were 1,200 seats plus 1,400 small seats, and 95% of the audience was on the audience.
There are many more stories of cooperation between Du Jinfang and Ye Shenglan, from the performance of the volunteer soldiers together in the "War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea" to the rehearsal of Weng Yihong's newly edited "Peach Blossom Village" with Yuan Shihai in 1958, and to Zhang Junqiu's voice in 1959, when the two temporarily re-enacted "Yutang Spring" from "The Tale of the West Chamber"... At that time, Ye Shenglan was a long-established Xiaosheng performance artist, and Du Jinfang was a new generation representative of the Peking Opera industry, two generations of Peking Opera people, cooperating with each other, just for a common stage.
The older generation of artists who cooperated with Du Jinfang are not only Ye Shenglan? Li Shaochun, Yuan Shihai, Zhang Junqiu... In addition to drawing nourishment from Master Wang Yaoqing and Mei Lanfang, why did Du Jinfang not get artistic nourishment from these collaborating artists?
"Accepting the cultivation of the older generation and promoting the younger generation is a glorious tradition in our Peking Opera circle." Ye Shaolan said that in the hearts of his father's generation, the greatest hope is that he must pass on his art and pass on the art of Peking Opera forever.
Passing on the art and willingly "lifting shoes" for apprentices
Like all the older generation of Peking Opera artists, passing on the art is another most important artistic thing for Du Jinfang in addition to acting. Among the dozen or so disciples she has received, the oldest is more than 70 years old, and in 2015 she also accepted two "post-90s" disciples. But in fact, Du Jinfang, who is busy spreading the art of Peking Opera, is indeed very cautious in accepting disciples— the disciples must meet her standards. In this regard, her apprentice Dou Xiaoxuan was deeply touched.
In 2006, Dou Xiaoxuan, a recent graduate, rehearsed "Wild Boar Forest" at the Beijing Opera House, directed by Li Haotian, the son of Mr. Li Shaochun. They invited Du Jinfang to give Dou Xiaoxuan a play. Originally, Dou Xiaoxuan just wanted to learn from Du Jinfang the Lin Lady in "Wild Boar Forest", but he did not expect a leader to say to Du Jinfang that he hoped that she could take Dou Xiaoxuan as an apprentice.
Du Jinfang did not immediately express her position, but simply responded "thank you, thank you." Suddenly, one day, the leader told Dou Xiaoxuan that the matter of accepting apprentices had become a matter of fact--it turned out that Du Jinfang had watched Dou Xiaoxuan's performance several times and thought that she was indeed a seedling and had reached the standard of her acceptance of apprentices.
In Dou Xiaoxuan's eyes, Master taught the drama to be gentle in speech, but strict in requirements. "My master is always not in a hurry or in a hurry, nor does she yell at me, she speaks very skillfully but very accurately, and speaks very well." For example, if Dou Xiaoxuan's certain action is not in place, Du Jinfang will quip " How is your action like a big radish, there is no energy on the waist ..." And in order to allow the apprentice to grasp the action more accurately, Du Jinfang will step barefoot on the wooden floor at home to do the sword dance in the demonstration "Overlord Farewell". The purpose of barefoot is only to allow Dou Xiaoxuan to see more clearly the posture and position of the foot standing on the ground.
Although such a "barefoot" master has strict requirements for his apprentice, he is also willing to "lift shoes" for his apprentice. When Dou Xiaoxuan first performed "The Legend of the White Snake", Du Jinfang personally gave her a scene. Because this drama danjiao is both literary and martial, and there are also hands, it needs different color shoes. And Du Jinfang held Dou Xiaoxuan's colored shoes in both hands to give her the field. "As soon as I stepped backstage, she quickly put the shoes she wanted to change on the ground and said, 'It's time to change this pair, it's time to change this pair.'" Dou Xiaoxuan said.
"The Legend of the White Snake" personally arranged literary and martial arts for this play at the age of 66
Dou Xiaoxuan knew that no one was more familiar with and cared more about this "Legend of the White Snake" than Du Jinfang. For Du Jinfang, "The Legend of the White Snake" is the most important play in her life. Because this "Legend of the White Snake" was named by Premier Zhou to act, and it was Tian Han himself who wrote the words for her.
An interesting fragment is recorded in du jinfang's oral records: "After I returned from North Korea to offer condolences, Premier Zhou received us. When it came to my rehearsal of kunqu opera's 'Jin Duan Lei', Premier Zhou smiled and asked me: 'Why don't you perform Peking Opera?' I said, 'No. Premier Zhou said, "Let Tian Han give you the book of the Peking Opera "The Legend of the White Snake"!" I was young and stunned and said, 'I don't know Tian Han, can you tell him to give us the book?' Premier Zhou laughed and said to me, 'Little comrade, call him Elder Tian Han.' ’...... Later, Premier Zhou instructed Zheng Yiqiu to accompany me to visit Elder Tian Han. ”
Du Jinfang later used the words "young and crazy" to describe herself at that time when talking to Dou Xiaoxuan about this history, but it also showed the status of the play "The Legend of the White Snake" in the history of contemporary Chinese Peking Opera, and it was even more obvious that the weight of this play in Du Jinfang's heart.
As for the later Peking Opera audio and video project, Du Jinfang, who was 66 years old at the time, personally matched his own "Legend of the White Snake". She gets up at 7 a.m. every morning, doesn't eat breakfast after washing, and goes to the theater with several bags of tea leaves. From kicking legs to lower waist to running round field, in the final matching, not only with their own literary drama, but also with martial arts drama. In the process of matching, the left and right eyes have problems, the vision is affected, and it took ups and downs to finally complete the audio and video work of this play.
Idiots Say goodbye to the stage before you dare to eat nuts
In Dou Xiaoxuan's heart, Master Du Jinfang is a "drama fool", she said that all of Master's ideals and wishes are in Peking Opera, which also makes Du Jinfang have a lot of "regrets" in life.
For example, after Du Jinfang bid farewell to the stage, she ate nuts, because she used to worry that eating nuts would scratch her throat; for example, in her later years, Du Jinfang would also eat ice cream when it was cold, just because she wanted to eat, to know that this is not simply "old lady's mouth", but because when she was young, in order to protect her throat, she did not eat cold food, and being able to eat a bite of ice cream became the "luxury" in Du Jinfang's life.
For decades, Du Jinfang had not had long hair. "It's a waste of time to comb up long hair, and with this time, I can memorize two more plays." After work, every holiday, she will post a note on the door and put two gifts in front of the door, writing "There is no one in the family, people leave messages, if there is a red and white happy event, please take it yourself", in order to save the time of socializing and practicing rehearsals. She went abroad to perform with the troupe, slept at night, and even practiced sleepwalking.
It is difficult for ordinary people to understand Du Jinfang's "obsession" with Peking Opera, and it may be difficult to understand her responsibility to the students, but if you trace her artistic experience, understand that Wang Yaoqing and Mei Lanfang have carefully cultivated her, and explore her artistic experience, experience Li Shaochun, Ye Shenglan, Yuan Shihai, and even Yu Lianquan, Yang Baosen, Tan Fuying, Qiu Shengrong's promotion and help to her, and then recall the importance that Premier Zhou Enlai and Mr. Tian Han attach to her, Du Jinfang, From a small Kunjiao who cooperated with the masters to a top player standing in the middle of the stage, to an artist of the people... Whether she is honored or suddenly humiliated, her artistic life is a microcosm of the history of the development of Peking Opera in New China.
History is always tortuous, and it is difficult to describe the merits and demerits, but the only thing that can be understood is that Du Jinfang's love for the cause of Peking Opera first stems from the love of Peking Opera for her, and what she inherits is not only an art, but also an emotion and hope passed down from generation to generation.
Article/Reporter Man Yi