Who can tell the story of the origin of the shadow urgent ！！！！！！！！！！！！！！！！！！！！！！！！！！！！！！

About the origin of shadow art, there are roughly two ways of saying: one says: shadow art is "began in Han", "flourished in Tang", "flourished in Song". This is to say that more than 2000 years ago that there is shadow theater. The other argument is based on the written historical materials that can be accessed at present, that the shadow play was invented in the Song Dynasty more than 1,000 years ago. The former is based on reasoning, while the latter is based on historical data, which is certainly justified. Our ancestors in the Han Dynasty before the gradual mastery of a set of skillful carving techniques; but also very early on the discovery of the relationship between sunlight and the shadow of the object changes, the use of which invented the determination of the moment of the "sundial" and can be accurately calculate the calendar "sundial table" and so on. A long time ago, there is a "shadow follows the shadow"; "immediate effect" said. In addition, there are such as the invention of papermaking and the results of the art of painting, etc., have created very favorable conditions for the production of shadow art in China.

If the origin of the shadow play should be based on historical and literary data, the most similar shadow plays were produced in the Tang Dynasty from the currently available historical data.

At that time, the social economy and culture could be said to have developed to an unprecedented flourishing, especially the culture and art as well as the spread of religion gained great development. People out of the social needs at that time, in order to make the history books, scriptures recite more vivid, specific, often with the means of painting to supplement. Later on, some people changed their paintings into paper figures with movable joints and used threads to move them to be used in a more visual way for passing on scriptures and telling history. In the history books, we can see that "monks recited sutra scrolls at night and installed screens and set up statues" in the society at that time. The "nightly recitation of scriptures" mentioned here had "candlelight" and stories to be told, and the "mounting of the screen" was equivalent to the "screen" of a modern shadow puppet show. "(i.e., shadow screen), and "set up the image" that is to play the person. The most interesting thing is that, so far, in some areas of our country, such as Tangshan, Luanxian area of the old shadow play artists still perform shadow figures called "pulling the line", "palm line". It can be said with certainty: shadow play art from the birth to become a complete form of opera art, indeed, to go through a long period of years.

There are many different legends about the origin of shadow art. The earliest legend comes from the story of the savior Guanyin, the Goddess of Mercy, who came to earth to preach the teachings of the Buddhist scriptures. "At that time, people did not like to listen to the dry sermons, so the Goddess of Mercy sat sadly under the bamboo forest, picking bamboo leaves to make up all kinds of human figures and can make all kinds of movements, she thought it was very interesting, and suddenly, the Goddess of Mercy remembered that if she used these bamboo leaves to make up the human figures to perform the story of the Buddhist how moving it would be! Later, when she preached the sutra, she hung up the bamboo curtain and danced the bamboo leaf figures behind the curtain. At night, Guanyin, the Goddess of Mercy, used the light of oil lamps to reflect the shadows of the bamboo figures on the bamboo curtains and performed various Buddhist stories, thus attracting many people to watch. From this, shadow theater arose."

Also legend has it that in the Western Han Dynasty, when Emperor Liu Huan, a palace consort held a prince playing in front of a window, and skillfully cut tung tree leaves to make a human figure, which was reflected on the window to perform. Legend has it that in the Han Dynasty Emperor Liu Che, because of his wife died prematurely, the emperor misses, there are Qi people less Weng said to its God, so it is the night to open the lamps and candles, set up the tent, Chen wine and meat, the emperor lived in his tent to look away. See a good woman as the appearance of the lady, but also tent sitting and walking, as if the image of the lady.

These legends, although they can not be called the origin of the shadow theater art, but, if combined with the then socio-economic, scientific and cultural, as well as art and music and many other factors to analyze, will feel that these legends do have credibility.

Additionally, the shadow theater in Shaanxi was also known in the early days as the "curtain storytelling". It is really a unique, one-of-a-kind tradition.

Song Dynasty Shadow Play Prevailed in the World

The earliest written record of the art of shadow play can be found in Mingdao Magazine written by Zhang Lei of the Song Dynasty. It reads, "There is a rich family in the capital, less orphaned, specializing in wealth, the group of scoundrels by all means to induce, and this son is very good looking to get the shadow play, every get to the beheading of Guan Yu, always for the sobbing, and asked to get and slow down." According to the Song Gao Cheng, "things remember the original" recorded: "Renzong time, the city people can talk about the Three Kingdoms, or take their words plus edge decoration, as a shadow people." Later, more detailed records of shadow theater were found in the 1147 book "Tokyo Monhualu," written by Meng Yuanlao, and the 1235 book "Capitol Jisheng," written by Gupo Naidong.

Tokyo Monhualu reads, "On festivals and celebrations, at the mouth of every alley in every neighborhood, where there are no music huts to go to, there are many small shadow play huts set up in order to prevent small children from being lost in the neighborhood, and to attract them together." The city of record victory is described as: "Shadow play. Where the shadow play is the Beijing Shi people at the beginning of the carving arrowheads with plain paper, and then with pink mounted skin for the words of the book and the history of the book is quite the same. Most of the true and false half, public loyalty to carve a positive appearance, * evil with the ugly appearance, cover also in praise and blame in the marketplace of the eye theater also."

According to Wu Zimu in 1275, "Mengliang Records" recorded: "There are more to get the shadow play, Yuan Bianjing, the beginning of the carving of clusters of plain paper, since the latter cleverly crafted fine, carving the shape of the sheepskin to colorful make-up, and do not cause damage. Hangzhou has Jia Shilang, Wang Rising, Wang Yanqing, etc., familiar with the arrangement, speak without difference."

And, in 1280, Zhou Mi's "Old Story of Wulin" also recorded that at the time of the Southern Song Dynasty capital Lin'an (now Hangzhou) "Yuansi ...... one into the new positive, the lights of the day ...... since then, every night all the same! The first is a poem by Jiang Baishi, who wrote a poem on the subject. Jiang Baishi has a poem, 'the lights have been appendaged moon color cold, the afternoon child often night deep still. Only should not be exhausted Brahma intention, more to the center of the street to get the shadow to see '." Then he recounted, "Baiyun's poem, 'The street is quiet after the tourists have returned, and the doors of the houses are not closed. The lamps in the curtains illuminate the bottles and chairs, and the laughter in the seats feels the warmth of spring'." "Or play in a small building, with people as big shadow play, children clamor, endless night. This kind of thing can't be counted." Its renowned in the community to get the shadow play artists are Jia Zhen, Jia Xiong, Shang Bao Yi, three Jia (Jia Wei, Jia Yi, Jia You), three Fu (Fu Da, Fu two, Fu three), Shen Xian, Chen Song, Ma Jun, Ma Jin, Wang Sanlang, Zhu You, Cai Consulting, Zhang Shi, Zhou Duan, Guo Zhen, Li Erniang (team play), Wang Runqing (women's streams), the black mother. Counted more than twenty people. At the same time, but also in the city specializing in "arrowhead shadow play of small brokers" and in the community at the time can compete with other shadow groups - "Drawing Ge Society".

In addition, the Tokyo Dreaming Records and the Old Story of Wulin also detailed "shadow theater" in many places. "Ding Yi, thin Ji and other get Joe shadow theater. ...... not with the wind, rain, cold and heat. The shed watchers, day after day." And "Miscellaneous Crafts" has a hand shadow theater. Among them, the most interesting records in addition to the Wulin lantern market, "or for the dragon boat, phoenix carriage, the building story. Sheepskin lamps are delicate arrowheads, five-color makeup and dye, such as the method of shadow play", in addition to the "market food" on the edible "fish and meat shadow play, Hu Sheep criminal ...... ". And the "food store" in the display of the "movie theater offender". This is not all, if you go to the Lantern Festival at the time of the "colorful groceries" to see, you can also buy "such as theater sweets and so on: rows of delicate, suitable for the mother ...... and clues of the shadow play, puppet children ... ..." and other items.

Summary of the above, it can be safely stated that, at least in the Song Dynasty, the art of shadow theater has been very perfect and prevalent in society.

The rise and fall of the shadow play in the Ming and Qing Dynasties

According to the Ming History, in the third year of Zhengde of Wuzong, the imperial palace in and around the capital, after the construction of the palace and altar, temple, in order to hold the celebration had mobilized all the provinces of the Department of the "art" of the best people in the capital "supply". ". At that time, artists from all over the world gathered in Beijing, held a hundred plays, including "shadow play".

Because of the shadow art performance with not many people (commonly known as seven tight eight busy nine stop), coupled with the shadow stage, props are easy to carry, and the feudal society at the time, women can not go out to see the play, while the shadow play performance has a shadow window, curtains can be separated from the audience and the actors, so in the capital of the shadow class society doubled the importance of the Imperial Palace, the Royal Household. In the meantime, the royal aristocracy also set up their own shadow box, hiring artists to compete to show off the luxury. Especially in the early days of the Qing dynasty into the Central Plains, a civil and military officials stationed in various places and their families are mostly Manchu, they are rusty on the language and culture of the people in the resident; two because of their original hobby has been a deep shadow puppet theater, so all of them are followed by the shadow puppet theater class. Kangxi five years, the Prince of Li's residence has eight food five taels of salary and in charge of the shadow theater box of people. From this, we can imagine the popularity of shadow puppetry at that time.

Historically, the art of shadow puppetry had its greatest disaster after the 18th year of the Qing Dynasty (1814).

The Qing Jiaqing period, the corruption of the government, the people are not happy, all over the "White Lotus Sect". It was rumored that shadow puppets were transformed into heavenly soldiers and generals to help the people rebel against the imperial court. Also due to the shadow theater performances in the night, resulting in Manchu officials fear. Later, the government took the opportunity to post a notice saying: the country is in great trouble, the people have no conscience, and if they sing again, they will set fire to the box. As a result, the government in the capital sent soldiers to raid the shadow theater, shadow artists known as "XuanDeng bandits" were killed and banished, and some of the shadow boxes, including sets and various materials were destroyed. This disaster spread to the whole country. From then on, the art of shadow theater went into decline.

The mutual influence of shadow play and fine arts, opera art

Shadow play art in China from its birth to the later long process of development, in fact, with other kinds of opera art in China, how the relationship, the degree of mutual influence? I think it is an important issue that should be further examined and studied. Here only from the perspective of the study of shadow art, to talk about a few brief comments.

China's shadow art modeling, since ancient times to loyal and good, evil and clear-based, its modeling in the art of painting and carving process of the two aspects of the achievement is great. It can be said that the art modeling of the shadow play, in our country and even in the history of the development of the world's art can be called unique.

If we take a closer look at the shadow products in China, it is not difficult to see such as the flying sky of Dunhuang, the Buddha sculpture of the grottoes, the idols of the temples, the scenery of the New Year's Paintings, as well as the animals and characters in real life, all of which are shown on the shadow windows of the shadow theater. These shadow art modeling both the characteristics of China's traditional folk art, but also a strong flavor of life in various eras; both the white drawings, brush paintings, neat and clear, delicate work, but also a high degree of generalization and refined techniques in the art of painting. Shadow modeling not only draws a lot of essence from the sister arts of paper-cutting and window-dressing, but also has a strong local decorative color in the clothes and the composition of the set.

Theoretically speaking, it is simply impossible to perform a complex theatrical story in a static picture (set) mainly with the modeling of front and side characters and animals, as well as with some large side models. However, our country's successive generations of shadow theater artists are quite clever to several kinds of art ** relationship (a point ** to scattered **) together, and then use this "unreasonable" art form constitutes a form of theatrical performance. This valuable artistic practice, for the world's theater art treasure trove added a unique and glorious page. With the development of modern science and culture and the increase of the world cultural exchange, there have been many domestic and foreign art, art people began to pay great attention to this, and make some shadow art modeling appeared one after another in art publications and textbooks.

Shadow art has been y rooted among the people before the Song Dynasty with its wonderful performance form and mobility which can be complicated or simple, winning the audience. It is also because this kind of folk art which can be self-edited, self-carved and self-performed is relatively easy to master, so those shadow groups which are widely active in the folk will compare and compete with each other, thus making the shadow art more and more tends to be complete and exquisite. This is indeed an improvement on the basis of popularization. And it is precisely in this kind of improvement that naturally provides sufficient conditions and fertile soil for the emergence of folk opera art.

For example, the bowl cavity shadow theater, since the Ming Dynasty has long been popular in the Weibei area. After the Qing dynasty Qianlong years, instead of the Kunqu and the rise of the clapper (now the bowl cavity of the clapper) has been a large number of popular in the folk. Artists in order to adapt to the new works of social flavor of the subject matter and some of the sadness and joy of the saga required, the original form of rap and performance of the reform of the cantata, so that the bowl cavity vocal tunes by the rough monotonous form of rap to the delicate and lingering tunes, to the "North" of the Wu Fu angry drums of the "just" and "South" of the "just" and "just". The "rigidity" of the "Northern Song" and the "softness" of the "Southern Song" are merged into one. And through the study of the history of shadow play in Shaanxi, shadow singing and local theater basically the same, the same vein. Here it must be noted that the shadow theater singing to be earlier than the local opera and nurtured the latter, is by no means the local opera derived from the shadow theater singing.

Then again, the original name of Guangdong's Teochew opera was "Chao Yin Opera", also known as "Bai Zi Opera". In the past, there was a proverb that said: "The positive letter of the alphabet is born in white, the positive word theater is born in white." The word "Zheng" refers to the official language, and the word "Bai" refers to the Teochew dialect. According to local historical records, Chaozhou paper shadow play seems to have been spread to Chaozhou during the Southern Song Dynasty, its "Chaozhou people most Shang shadow play, where the townships should pay God race will often be hired to perform" said, literature and history can be seen. And Chaozhou shadow play has "bamboo window shadow" and "Yang window shadow" two schools of thought. The "Yang window shadow" is also known as "Zhengyin Ban", which sings the same tune and gongs as the present Zhengyin opera. In addition, the "Zhengyin accent" of "Yangshou Ying" was mostly changed to "Chaozhou accent" after the evolution of the Ming and Qing dynasties. To this day, the repertoire of the opera is the same as that of the current Teochew opera.

As we all know, in recent years, one of the new local opera genres - Tang Opera (also known as Shadow Opera), it should be said that the Tang Opera was created by using the singing voice of the Tangshan Shadow Opera, which was popularized in the Hebei area in the form of real people instead of shadow performers. In addition, if we go back to investigate a * square theater Longjiang play, the southern Sichuan opera and many other local operas, can be found in the shadow play singing traces.

It's no coincidence: in our country in various local operas, almost all have the shadow theater art of "public loyalty to draw (carving) to the positive appearance, * evil painting of the ugly appearance of the script (book) and the history of quite the same" of the same characteristics. Throughout China's local opera face image and ancient music and dance masks, but carving, painting face modeling art, so that the shadow art and China's local opera connected to each other.

It can be said with certainty: China's shadow art, as well as the growing integrity and popularity of the art of China's opera has played a lot of role in the development of the art.