Characters of Zhangzhou Shadow Theater

The characters carved in Zhangzhou shadow play have exaggerated faces, exquisite hairstyles and helmets, delicate clothing patterns, and motifs that resemble Song Dynasty brushwork, but without coloring. The form of the performance: the shadow window is erected on the tabletop, surrounded by bamboo or wooden poles, hanging curtains, becoming a small theater in the shape of a box. The artist sits squatting or cross-legged, holding a leather puppet pole close to the shadow window to manipulate the shadow, using the light of an oil lamp to illuminate the shadows, with the music of the gongs and drums to sing. At the beginning of the Republic of China, there was an old performer "Cowboy Master" in Beiqiao Street (now Datong Road) in Zhangzhou, who could manipulate two roles with both hands, and beat gongs and drums with both feet. When the puppet is placed against the shadow window, he will also take advantage of the situation to play the erhu with both hands, and the whole play can be performed alone. He is good at acting in literature, no matter raw, dan, jing, chou, all can act perfectly. Especially in the role of the clown "Big Head Wang" (the most prominent puppet in the old shadow theater), he often uses funny language to make the audience laugh. Once the play was over, he would poke his finger through the white paper of the shadow window and recite under his breath: "The paper is broken and the play is over, so don't come to see it until it's too late. If you want to ask me to move (act), a play two and a half dollars (two dollars and fifty cents)." There was also a famous old shadow puppeteer in Dongmen Yuekou, nicknamed "Paper Shadow Fu". He was good at martial arts, and he could manipulate four puppets with both hands to fight each other with vivid postures and unruffled scenes. He can also make jumping, jumping and other actions. A couplet was often hung on both sides of the shadow window: "A mouthful of narratives of a thousand years" and "Two hands dancing against a million soldiers". At that time, the remuneration of shadow puppets was the lowest among the local operas. The artists once made up a folk song to describe their difficult life: "Playing the paper shadow is the toughest thing to do; a night's play costs two or three dollars. There is a play, three meals, barely; no play, the roadside rags."

After the Xinhai Revolution, Zhangzhou's shadow theater gradually declined. There are three main reasons: First, the warlords in the north and south several times, social unrest, affecting the business, most of the artists to make a living; Second, the old society belittles the troupe of artists, considered to be the lower nine streams, we are not willing to learn to play shadow play; Third, the old artists a death, there is no one to follow, resulting in the loss of the tradition. At the beginning of the Republic of China, three or four semi-professional shadow theater classes still existed in Zhangzhou, but by about 1930, this ancient genre had died out.

During the Anti-Japanese War, shadow puppetry was revived in Zhangzhou. In the name of the Longxi Anti-Enemy Resistance Association, the Zhangzhou "Xiangchao Drama Society" set up an anti-Japanese shadow play propaganda team of seven or eight people. The team compiles and performs plays on anti-Japanese war themes, such as "Little White Dragon, Hero of Anti-Japanese Resistance" and "The Fall of Kinmen", etc., and tours Zhangzhou, Hua'an, Nanjing and other places. The chants use "Jin Ge" tunes and anti-war songs; the manipulation of the characters to increase joint movement, can turn, nod, shoot, fire, take objects, etc., and can perform aircraft bombs, houses collapsed, battleships marching and other scenes, and with sound. Stage design can be folded, the shadow window increased, lighting with vapor lamps or electric lamps. Puppets were also enlarged and colored. At that time, such a reform of shadow art could be considered the first of its kind in Zhangzhou. Unfortunately, this sensational shadow play did not last long, and was disbanded by the local Nationalist government within a year of its establishment. Since then, the people of Zhangzhou could not see their favorite shadow play. According to the late Mr. Sun Kai Di, a literary scholar, shadow puppetry began in the middle to late Tang Dynasty or a little later in the Five Dynasties period (seventh to eighth centuries AD). At that time, it was in the service of the Buddhist teachings of reincarnation and retribution. Lay preaching monks in monasteries used shadow figures as the souls of the dead when they were transcending the dead.

To the Song Dynasty (A.D. 960--1279) and the combination of the art of rap, became a thriving civic arts at the time, Song Gao Cheng said, "The Chronicle of Things," said: "Renzong time, the city people have been able to talk about the three kingdoms, or to take their sayings plus the margins of decoration for the shadow man, the beginning of Wei, Shu, Wu, the three wars of the image, and to this day, the shadow man has been used to show the souls of the deceased, the dead. The image of the three wars, and it has been passed on to this day."

The Song Dynasty's "Metropolitan Chronicle" book also describes the evolution of the shadow play materials and performances: "Where the shadow play is the Beijing Shi people at the beginning of the carving of plain paper, after the colorful skin (sheepskin) for the, the words of the book and the history of the book is quite the same". Here the said Jingshi people is the capital of the Northern Song Dynasty Bianliang (now Kaifeng City). In the city of Bianliang depicted in "Qingming Riverside" painted by Zhang Zeduan, a famous custom painter of the Song Dynasty, there were puppet shadow plays and so on. In Song Dynasty, the shadow play was quite prosperous, and it was also shown in the artists who made skeletonized shadow figures, which became a specialized industry in the records. Song "Wulin old story" has "small path" a record of "arrowhead shadow man" that is, engraved shadow man of the industry. "Wulin" is the capital of the Southern Song Dynasty Lin'an (now Hangzhou City), which indicates that from the Northern Song Dynasty to the Southern Song Dynasty, the shadow play has a new development. Because of the many needs, there was an industry specializing in carving and cutting out shadow puppets. At that time, there are different kinds of shadow play, "Tokyo Dreaming Records" "Jingwa Kabuki" chapter: "Ding Yi, thin Ji, etc. to make 'Joe shadow play' (funny shadow)"; "Metropolitan City Jisheng "Miscellaneous Crafts" says: "There is a 'Hand Shadow Theater'"; "Old Wulin Stories" says: "Or the theater in a small building, with a person as the 'Big Shadow Theater'. The children's clamor continued throughout the night. There is a "big shadow theater" tune in the southern songbook.

"Qiao" word at that time for the "disguise" solution, Wazi arts in the "Qiao sumo" a kind of comical wrestling, "Qiao Shadow Theater The "Joe Shadow Theater" may be a real person who simulates the movement of a shadow person and makes all kinds of funny and comical appearances to attract people's laughter. If the movie theater was not extremely enjoyable, it would be difficult to have "Joe Shadow Theater" said.

"Hand shadow play" literally may be a variety of images of the hand to show a variety of images, may be the use of light, in the powder wall, to change hands, under the projection of light to make a variety of animal images of the game show, may be the hands of the performance of the small form of shadow play.

The "big shadow play" clearly indicates that it is the performance of "human beings", and it can be inferred from this record that some operas in Song and Yuan dynasties absorbed movements and music from puppets and shadow plays.

The Yuan dynasty rulers of the shadow play for the court and military entertainment, Genghis Khan's army, expedition to the vast areas of Eurasia, China's shadow play was also spread to Persia and other Arab countries, and later transferred to Turkey. Some countries in Southeast Asia have also been circulated. At the beginning of the fourteenth century, a Persian historian Rashideg (Rashideg) has recorded an interesting history of the exchange of shadow play: "When Genghis Khan's son inherited the throne, had sent actors to Persia to speak a hidden behind the scenes of the opera" (that is, for the shadow play).

Shadow play continued to be popular in cities and villages during the Ming Dynasty, and it was not only loved by the masses of the lower classes, but also admired by the cultured, as seen in a poem praising the shadow play by Qu You, author of the famous Ming Dynasty literary novel "Cutting Lamps and New Words". From this poem, it can be seen that the Ming shadow theater also preserved the tradition of history telling in the Song Dynasty, and this shadow theater performance is the historical fact of the war between Liu Bang and Xiang Yu for the central leadership in the third century B.C. - the Chu-Han struggle:

Nanwa newly opened the shadow theater, and the bright lights and candles in the hall illuminated the rise and fall.

Looking at the Wujiang River, the heroes are still talking about the king. Shadow theater circulates in an extremely wide area, the northernmost to Heilongjiang Province, the southernmost to Guangdong Province, west to Qinghai Province have shadow theater, the Central Plains in Shaanxi has cowhide doll shadow, Jiangsu and Zhejiang have sheepskin shadow and Shanxi has paper window shadow. Some provinces and districts have different schools, such as Hebei Province, there are western and eastern schools, the western school for the Beijing shadow, also known as Pudong shadow, the eastern school for the Luanzhou shadow, also known as Leting shadow or Tangshan shadow.

Some provinces and districts, in the shadow modeling *** with the same characteristics due to the singing and music, performance methods are different and have different genres and popular areas, such as Shaanxi shadow, according to the voice and popular areas of the different "A Gong cavity", "eight steps Jing", "Bowl", "Bowl", "Bowl", "Bowl", "Bowl", "Bowl", "Bowl", "Bowl", "Bowl", "Bowl", "Bowl", "Bowl", and "Bowl". ", "Bowls and Bowls", "Strings and Plates", "Beat Plate Shadows", "Shangluo Daoxiang ", "Guanzhong Daoxiang", "Ankang Daoxiang", "Shaanxi Bowls and Bowls", "Ankang Yuexiang "The difference between For example, the "Pat Ban Shadow" is mainly popular in the area of Tongguan and Huayin in Shaanxi Province, also known as the "Old Cavity Shadow", and is said to have been popular since the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644 AD), with a singing style based on the words, and a bold and vigorous voice. When singing, each person behind the curtain is assigned a role in the play, but the one who picks the pole is the master of the singer, and other people help. Musical instruments only use two strings (ox-string), huqin. Whenever a person sings to a tense moment, he or she will clap the rhythm of the board, forming a characteristic, so it is called "clapboard shadow". The repertoire of the opera is mostly based on the historical stories of the Spring and Autumn Period, the Warring States Period and the Three Kingdoms Period, and there is no play about a beautiful woman.

The "String Plate Cavity" is mainly popular in Xianyang, Qianxian, Lixian, Liquan, Xingping, Baoji, Fengxiang and other places in Shaanxi Province, as well as in the eastern part of Gansu Province. It is said to have been popularized in the 18th year of Jiaqing in the Qing Dynasty (1831 AD). There are "slow board", "tight board", "rolling board", "angry dead board", "skimming board", "two-six board" and so on. The repertoire has more than 500 books, and 350 books have been compiled. There are more martial arts plays than literature plays, and in addition to the "Three Kingdoms" and "Lianguo" plays, there are also the "Jasper Hairpin" type of talent and beauty plays.

"Bowl cavity" is mainly popular in the northern foot of Mount Hua in Shaanxi Province, Huaxian, Huayin and Dali and other areas. Therefore, it is also known as the Chinese opera. Its music is graceful, soft and detailed. Musical instruments include two strings, moon zither, huqin, bowls (shaped like small brass bells), side drums, cloud drums, hand gongs, gongs, horse gongs, clappers, suona, tuba, etc. The 'Bowls' are mainly popular in the areas of Hua County and Dali, at the foot of the Huashan Mountain in Shaanxi Province. The 'bowl bowl' is the main rhythmic instrument, hence the name 'bowl bowl accent'. Those who play the pole specialize in the performance of characters, not singing, not white, and those who play the moon zither also play the side drums, drums, gongs, and sing and white in the curtain, so it is called the "former head"; those who hold the two strings also manage the cymbals, whistling nagas, tuba; those who play the bowls and bowls play the clappers, gongs, gongs, hinges, etc., and only five can sing the whole play. The pole-pickers hold the poles with both hands and make various movements for people and horses. The movements of the literary field are no different from those of a living person; the martial arts theater is extremely vivid with the fights and the horses and horses. There are more than 250 traditional repertoires.

From the above simple example, that can be seen in Shaanxi province in a variety of singing, a variety of genres of performing arts, its music absorption of opera, opera, but also complemented the opera and the lack of music, the circulation of the region is extremely broad, all over the shadow play has a unique style, is really a unique Chinese shadow play, which is unique in the world is also one of a kind.