Book reviews are found all over the country, and can be roughly divided into the northern and southern factions. Beijing's commentaries are the main body of the Northern School's commentaries. There are many famous storytellers, and there are also many citizens who listen to books. This is probably related to the fact that there are more flag people in Beijing who are not engaged in production and rely on Feng Lu for a living. Because many long commentaries need to be listened to for several months in a row, citizens without leisure time cannot become listeners.
In the early Qing Dynasty, there was no special teahouse in Beijing to listen to commentaries, and artists who said commentaries could only pull the field to talk about books. In a clearing, a table of eight immortals was placed, and on the table was a piece of waking wood, and in front of the table were placed several rows of benches as an audience seat. When the audience is roughly full, the storyteller comes to the field, sits on the stool behind the Eight Immortals table, takes out a hand towel and puts it on the table, and the folding fan and the waking wood are also the necessary props for the storyteller, which are placed on the table. Before opening the book, the storyteller must first say a few quotation words, all of which are some uniform clichés with rhyme, such as: "A piece of waking wood is divided up and down, up to the king to the subject, the king is in charge of Wenwu, and the wenwu is under the jurisdiction of Limin." The saints awaken Confucianism, the heavenly masters one guard the ghosts, the monks persuade the Dharma, the Taoists persuade the Xuanmen, the one falls in the hands of the rivers and lakes, the wanderings persuade the world, and the friends of the lake and the sea do not provide for me, if there is a door of art theory. "The introductory poem has the effect of a still field. After saying the introductory poem, you can only open the book.
It was not until the last years of Guangxu in the early 20th century that formal book and tea houses appeared in Beijing, and some famous book critics performed in tea houses. The Book Tea House is a tea house that mainly listens to lectures and commentaries, and receives tea drinkers every morning, and invites Mr. Storyteller and drummers to come here in the afternoon and evening to talk and sing. Tea drinkers can listen to commentaries while drinking tea as a pastime. The book review is divided into two sessions: "day" and "light night". "Daytime" starts at three or four o'clock in the afternoon and ends at six or seven o'clock. "Lantern Night" starts at seven or eight o'clock in the evening until it ends at eleven or twelve o'clock. Some teahouses add a short show from 1 to 3 p.m. Mr. Storyteller speaks in a teahouse for two months, and then changes to another teahouse, and this teahouse is replaced by other Mr. Storytellers who say other books, and there are also three months in a row, but few say four months in a row, and every two months a rotation is called "one turn".
Book Tea House
Tea guests who listen to books have to pay another book money, generally one or two dollars per book. The distribution of the book money was negotiated in advance between the owner of the tea house and the storyteller. The artist's fame is large, the content of the bibliography is attractive, the storytelling skills are high, the number of people who listen to the book is more, and the income of the artist is also more, and the income of the general storyteller is only enough to feed himself.
Beijing is the birthplace of the art of storytelling, and there are a number of famous storytellers. Their storytelling skills are very skilled and fascinating, and they can talk about a lot of books, and there are always one or two of the best books. Wang Jiekui said "The Case of Bao Gong", Liu Jiye said "Biography of Ji Gong", Lian Kuoru said "Western Han" and "Eastern Han", Zhao Yingpo said "Liaozhai", Pan Chengli said "Ming Yinglie", Shuang Houping said "Sui and Tang", and Chen Shihe said "Liaozhai", all of which are incomparable.
Commentaries can be divided into several categories according to the subject matter. The first type is the robe belt book, the content is mainly the story of the emperor will kill and conquer, such as "The Nations", "Three Kingdoms", "Western Han", "Eastern Han", "Sui and Tang", "Jingzhong", "Ming Yinglie", because the characters in the book wear robes and armor, so it is called "robe belt book". The second type is the public case book, also known as the chivalrous book, the content is mainly the official government to handle the case, the chivalrous guest and the grass Kou wrestling, represented by "Seven Heroes and Five Righteousness", "Three Heroes sword", "Peng Gong Case", "Shi Gong Case" as representatives. "Water Margin" is between the robe belt and the public case. The third category is the book of gods and monsters, mainly the stories of the gods and monsters fighting methods, and the "List of Fengshen Gods", "Journey to the West", "Ji Gong Biography", and "Liaozhai" are among the representative bibliographies.
There are some old listeners in the book and teahouse, who are very familiar with the content of the commentaries they hear, and the appreciation taste is also very high, and the storyteller can be famous if he gets their praise; conversely, if he says the wrong book, he will be criticized and cannot be famous. Dongyuexuan outside Donghua Gate and Tonghexuan in Tonghexuan, a hutong outside The Di'an Gate, are famous for their old listeners. The artist was not very sure and did not dare to speak in these two teahouses. On the other hand, there are many general tourists listening to books in Fuhai Xuan in the tianqiao, so there are also many laymen, and it is easier to make money by telling books here.
The art of storytelling has a whole set of artistic techniques, such as "opening the face" (depicting the image of the character), "posing the end" (describing the surrounding environment), "praising the characters and scenes with rhymes", etc., many of which have formed a fixed and unchangeable program, like describing the black-faced warrior, no matter which book, whether it is Zhang Fei or Wei Chigong, all of them are "black oil armor, soap-colored satin brocade robes, sitting on a black horse, soap gun in the palm of the hand". It is annoying for those who are old listeners to repeat it many times. Therefore, in order to adapt to the audience, some storytellers have added many "books outside the book", not only adding oil and vinegar to the plot narrative, ancient and modern sayings, accompanied by comments, but also secretly ridiculing current events, but not showing sharp edges, which can make people understand and be funny.
Shuang Houping was a famous storyteller in Beijing in the late Qing Dynasty and early Ming Dynasty, who often told books at Tonghexuan and Dongyuexuan, and there were many broken flag people among the listeners. Once, when a flag bearer boasted that he was having a wedding, the emperor gave him a flower plume to wear on a hat, and repeatedly asked Shuang Houping to compile the matter into a book and render it. Shuang Houping resigned several times, and the man shouted arrogantly: "It doesn't matter, you can make up whatever you want, and I blame it on me!" "Well, the double is ugly." On this day, Shuang Houping was talking about the paragraph "Yang Guangxia Yangzhou" in the "Sui and Tang Dynasties", and temporarily added a paragraph of extra-book, to the effect that:
When Yang Guang went down to Yangzhou, it was Futian, the weather was very hot, he sat on the imperial boat to cool off, surrounded by several eunuchs, holding knives, guns and bows and arrows to guard there. This alarmed the water tribes, and they hurried to report to the Dragon Palace: "The head of the Tianzi ship is cool, and I have arrived at the water frontier!" The Dragon King listened, "Since this is the case, the opportunity is rare, you should wait for the seal to be sealed." "Yes!" Shrimp Rice surfaced and played a set of guns at Yang Guang. Yang Guang said, "You are made the Great General of the Golden Gun." Shrimp Mi walked happily. The crab floated horizontally and opened two clips to show that Yang Guang said, "Seal you as the Iron Armor Great Iron General." "Thank you!" Immediately after the carp shook its head and tail and jumped out of the water, Yang Guang said, "Seal you as a Longmen University scholar." The carp also walked away satisfied. When it was the turtle's turn to appear, it fluttered the lid twice before revealing itself, but the lid was covered with moss, and Yang Guang did not recognize it and ignored it at all. The turtle was in a hurry, its claws were lying on the bow of the boat, its neck was more than a foot long, and its head hit the boat gang three times, Yang Guang was startled, and hurriedly commanded left and right: "Shoot me!" An arrow "whizzed" and was hitting the back of the turtle's neck. The turtle quickly ran back to the Dragon Palace, and the Dragon King asked it, "What did you seal?" The turtle said breathlessly, "Although I didn't get a seal, the emperor rewarded me with a plume." ”
At that time, there was neither a qu art school nor a qu art troupe, and if you wanted to learn to comment on books, you had to worship the master, and if there was no master and no home, you couldn't eat anywhere. After the apprentice worships the master, he must respect the master as if he were at home with his parents, make a bed and fold a quilt for the master every day, and bring tea and water to do various housework. Before the master speaks, the apprentice will move the table and take the stool. After the master opens the book, the apprentice will take a small basket in the field to ask the audience for money, which is called "pestle" in the jargon. As for the skill of storytelling, the master does not directly teach it, but the apprentice observes, imitates, and ponders it on his own. After a period of time, clever apprentices can learn many masters' skills, and those stupid apprentices are likely to learn nothing for three or five years, only the life of a fool. In the past, there was an old saying that "the master brings in the door, and the practice is in everyone", although this sentence has a certain truth, it also reflects the irrationality of the master-apprentice system, and the apprentice often becomes the master's non-cost miscellaneous servant. The reason why the master is reluctant to work hard to teach the apprentice is because he is unwilling to establish future competitors. In the old society, the concept of "church apprentices, starving masters" did exist in the show business world.
There are many exquisite apprentices who accept apprentices. If someone wants to worship a certain storyteller as a teacher, he should be introduced by the insider to meet with the master, and after the master agrees, he must invite guests and set up several tables in the restaurant. Inviting the disciples to accept the disciples of the master uncles and brothers and brothers will also invite some old seniors in the same industry, called "pendulum support". On the day of the official worship of the Master, everyone gathered together and enshrined the deceased ancestors of honmon in the church. A copy of the scholar's post is written by a ghostwriter, called "Guan Shu". The main content is: There is a certain person, how old he is, who is willing to vote under Mr. So-and-so as an apprentice to study the commentary book after being introduced by someone, in order to seek food and clothing. Today, on a certain day in a certain month of a certain year, so-and-so burned incense before the ancestor drove. Since the beginning, if there is a negative heart, nothing to rely on, the book is specially closed, and the photo will always be kept. The introducer, the master, and the apprentice must sign the guanshu. At this time, the apprentice is considered to be a formal entry, and then the master and the elders of the main door together take the stage name of the new disciple and fill it in on the closing book. Then the new disciples perform the worship service, and then salute all the people who attend the worship service. Apprentices generally have to learn art for three years to be able to become a teacher, and at this time, they also have to put on a feast for the teacher. It is also very difficult to learn the profession of storytelling, one must be clear-tongued, the other must have the ability to perform, and the third must have good memory, can remember hundreds of thousands of words of long bibliographies, and must have historical and cultural knowledge.
There are many similarities between the situation of drum artists and storytellers. In the late Qing Dynasty and early Ming Dynasty, there are many kinds of drum songs popular in beijing, such as the Jingyun big drum, the plum blossom big drum, and the Xihe big drum. The Jingyun drum is the most popular, and there have been famous artists such as Liu Baoquan and Bai Yunpeng. In the 1930s, male actors were gradually replaced by actresses, and people called the actresses who sang drum songs "Drum Ji" and also "Big Drum Girls". Singing drum songs should be clear and clear, the pronunciation of the words should be accurate, the second should be loud in voice, the third should be in good shape, good looks, the nose should be straight and wide, the face should be white and red, the actress should be slim and beautiful, the country should have the ability to perform, the posture of every move should be good-looking, and the expression of joy and sorrow should be decent.
Some of the venues for drum performances are in open spaces, surrounded by reed mats, and several rows of stools are placed. There are also small stages in the special Kun Library, which is not tall or large, and there is no backstage. Actresses singing drum songs sit in a row on stage. Standing in the middle of the stage during the singing, there is a small band on the side, and there are seven or eight tables and twenty or thirty chairs under the stage as the audience seats, and the audience listens to the music while drinking tea, eating melon seeds, fruits and other foods, and from time to time nodding, smiling and greeting the actresses on the stage. The audience can order actors and songs, which is called "poking live". The remitter first holds a large folding fan full of repertoire to show the listener, and after someone clicks the song, the remitter shouts "There is a title". An actor then sings a certain piece of music. The price of the point of the song is generally a few corners of the ocean to one dollar. There are also some young masters who spend money to hold horns, order a song to spend one or two yuan, and even sell out their family property because of the big drum girl. Between the big drum girls and those who are wide and young, there is naturally no shortage of eyebrows, showing off the style and other scenes, and some even hook up to become adulterous, from selling art to selling themselves, or becoming the little wives of the wide family.
Kun Tea House
It is not easy to make money by singing big drums in Beijing, because there are many old listeners in Beijing, and there are many cultured insiders, and there are not many listeners in Beijing without a high level of art. Only first-class drum book artists can sell art in Beijing, and they can only earn a few yuan a day when singing dry mouths. To learn to sing the drum, you must also worship the master, and the worship ceremony is similar to that of the storyteller.