Peking Opera Face Painting of Beijing Clay Sculpture Peking Opera Face Painting Introduction

The development of face painting is inseparable from the development of Chinese opera. The development of face painting is inseparable from the development of Chinese opera. It originated from the "generation face" in history. According to the "Old Tang Book" records, about the period of the North and South Dynasties, there is "generation face" that is, "masked song and dance" appeared, which should be the ancestor of the face. Guizhou's "Nuo opera" mask is the living fossil of the face. With the development of opera, wearing a mask performance is not conducive to the actor's facial performance, artists directly with pigment in the face of sketching, make-up, and gradually formed face.

Face painting is a special pattern that is drawn on the actor's face with various colors in traditional Chinese opera. Pure and ugly characters are the main roles that use face painting as facial make-up, and some of the raw and dan roles also use face painting. Face painting is used to show the face and character traits of the characters in the play to enrich the color of stage art and strengthen the performance effect. Face painting is a kind of image art creation, which is an inherent part of the stage art as a whole. The face painting is a pattern that organizes the eyebrows, eyes, mouth, nose, patterns and face colors that are composed by thoughts and painted on the actor's face in order to create a beautiful perception. Face painting came into being with the formation of the theater. Most of the characters have their own specific patterns and colors, and face painting highlights the character traits of the characters and has the artistic function of "conveying praise and blame and distinguishing good from evil", so that the audience can look at their appearances and know their hearts and minds. Peking Opera face painting was gradually formed after the formation of Peking Opera at the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th century. In the process of formation, Peking Opera face painting drew on the face paintings of many local opera styles. On the basis of the local opera faces, the advantages and disadvantages were taken. After several generations of famous actors and opera artists continue to explore, research and reform, forming the current Peking Opera face. Peking Opera face painting is also the most complete face painting system with the most faces on the stage.

Peking Opera face painting is a branch of the traditional Chinese face painting system, which has a general character of face painting and its own characteristics. Peking Opera face painting draws on the experience of Hui, Han, Kun, Qin, and all kinds of theater. From the beginning of a more complete system, face painting is an inherent part of all the stage art of traditional Chinese opera, leaving the stage and the characters in the play, the face painting will lose its fundamental significance.

The net in the opera, the ugly hook face and the raw corner of the smear color, Dan corner beat powder is the same nature of the facial make-up means. Must be harmonized with the line, cut the end of the mask and other character style, and singing, reading, doing, playing, turning and other forms of performance coordination, so acting is the front and back stage of the integration of the art of opera work. The spectrum of a face, a play in the face with, must be embedded in the overall stage art, which is the face of the art of wholeness. Peking Opera face is the most colorful opera face, the so-called face color refers to the main color of the face, there are red, purple, black, white, blue, green, yellow, pink, brown, ochre, gold, silver and other colors, each with a second, with rich imagination and exaggerated techniques, highlighting the complexity of the characters in the repertoire, appearing on the stage.

The Peking Opera face focuses on the shape, God, meaning and other aspects of the performance of a variety of characters loyalty, treachery, good, evil allegory praise and blame, love and hate, and coloring variations, sketching and drawing exquisite, rich in the beauty of the pattern, with distinctive ideology and artistry. It is an exaggerated depiction of the skin color of the characters in the play, and an exaggeration of the character of the characters in the play. The face pattern on the face is often used with other colors, which have the role of accentuating the main color. Generally speaking, the red on behalf of loyalty, courage, integrity; black on behalf of courage, straightforward; white on behalf of treachery, vicious, sinister; oil white on behalf of conceited, domineering; blue on behalf of strong, prima donna; green on behalf of tenacious, chivalrous; yellow on behalf of ferocious, calm; gray on behalf of the old age lords; purple on behalf of the wisdom and courage of the righteousness, righteousness, and majesty; silver on behalf of the gods, Buddhas, ghosts and sprites.

The Peking Opera face with color is not absolute, there is flexibility. For example, the color red represents Guan Yu, a character in the Three Kingdoms opera, on behalf of his courage and loyalty. But in "Famen Temple" in the eunuch Liu Jin although red face is on behalf of its pampered, power pressure courtiers; such as: "Water Margin" in the drama of the character Chao Gai although "yellow three tile face" here is not on behalf of its ferocious, calm, but on behalf of the facial skin color of yellow, the Hall of the seal outlined in an oval of red light, at a glance you can see that it is a bit of the old upright uprising heroes; such as: "eight great heroes" in the play of the character Guan Yu, on behalf of its courage and loyalty. For example, the gold color used for Jin Wu Shu in "Eight Hammers" is not that of a god or an elf, but represents his surname Jin. This face painting is entirely an interpretation of the "Hope for the Meaning of Wensheng", which does not explain the real meaning of this face painting. Beijing's clay painted faces originated in the late Qing Dynasty. Who actually turned the faces on the stage of Beijing Opera into clay painted faces? People say different things. The more popular one is "Flower Face Guizi". In the history of the development of Beijing clay face painting, there is a story. According to legend, around the 25th year of the Guangxu reign in the Qing Dynasty (1894), there lived in the western city of Beijing a flag person surnamed Gui, who was good at poetry and painting, and was also a ticket enthusiast who loved Beijing opera. By eating "Lumi" that is, salary for a living, in the idle play, he saw the temple fair mud pinch made of clay, a sudden whim, with a face with clay mold, turned to do some mud blanks, after drying, after imitating the stage of the face coloring coloring to the mud blanks outlined, after the face is made and take it to their good friends to see, friends think it's pretty good. Mr. Gui then distributed the faces to his friends, and over time, people knew that he could do clay face painting. So the number of people who came to his door for painting gradually increased, and he became famous in the capital. Because Gui was the best at drawing "jingjiao" faces, people called him "flower face Guizi".

After the Xinhai Revolution, the old system of "Lu" was canceled. "Flower face Guizi" in order to try to make a living, at home to do clay face to the temple fair to sell. At first sent a few samples of goods to the White Pagoda Temple of the Li Kee grocery store, quickly sold out. Later, no matter how much to send, can always sell out, always in short supply. Li Ji store not only profit from this, but also because of the sale of clay face in Beijing became famous. From then on, the clay Peking Opera face painting became popular as a Beijing folk craft in the capital, and the Peking Opera clay face painting developed rapidly due to the active market of clay face painting. There were more people doing face painting. The more famous after the "flower face Guizi" after the capital has appeared Bai Rulin, Wang Nintian, Li Rongshan, Zhao Yousan, Zhao Yongnian, Li Keming, Ma Chengzi, Tang Jingkun, Han Qitai, Shuang Qixiang, Yang Yudong and other famous artists.

The clay faces are mainly handmade by artists at home and then taken to temple fairs or art stores to sell. Liu Zengfu said: in the old Dong'an market there is a handicraft store "pine bamboo plum" (Xing Jing'an founded) small store on the operation of clay face painting. In the early years of liberation, several old artists who made clay face painting formed a cooperative group, and later set up the Beijing Color Plastic Factory, which was later transferred to the Special Arts Three Factory. In the early nineties, the three factories were shut down due to the downturn in business, and later on, in order to pass on the art of face painting and carry it forward, I founded the Beijing Xingxin Crafts Factory in 1995, specializing in the production and development of Peking Opera clay face painting, as well as the development of gypsum, paper, and other different materials such as face paint, and for clay Peking Opera face painting, we registered the trademark of "Beijing Bat", which was the first time in China to register a trademark. Registered trademark is the first time in the country. Nuo originated in the primitive religion. In ancient times, low productivity, people have no resistance to the threat of nature, in case of natural disasters and man-made disasters, can only use Nuo Nuo, a primitive religious rituals of witchcraft activities to pray to the gods, exorcise the evil and expel the devil, eliminate disasters and good luck.

Nuo mask art style, although thick, rough, but the craftsmen do not lack of fine carving, colorful, simple folk modeling techniques to give the mask to the vitality of life, the image of the folk myths of the gods, ghosts and monsters, and legends of all kinds of characters in the joy, anger, sadness, happiness, rich expression, distinctive character, breathtaking, is the treasure of Chinese folk culture and art.

When the winter festival came, Mr. Tian Youliang was happy to accept another disciple to learn face painting from him, Yang Qiang of the Comrades in Arms Peking Opera Troupe, in the Huguang Guild Hall. Mr. Tian Youliang said in a text message to me: "Now there are six disciples, and then another one, Yang Qiang of the Comrades in Arms Peking Opera Troupe, **** seven. The more accomplished are Sun Shiliang, Hou Baohua, Zhuang Jian three."

Then sixty-one-year-old Mr. Tian Youliang is a native of Beijing, young and fortunate to have Mr. Weng Evenhong (the former Chinese Peking Opera Theatre famous playwright, had created "Wild Boar Forest", "The Great Tangle", "The Tale of the Red Lantern" and other more than one hundred plays) to open the door to the art of the first involved in the painting of the face, the years a little longer, to worship Mr. Weng Evenhong as a teacher, specializing in the art of more than thirty years. His masterpieces include "Chinese National Classic Face Painting Collection", "Water Margin Heroes One Hundred and Eighteen Generals", "Twenty-eight Star Faces", "One Hundred Birds Face Painting", "One Hundred Monkeys Face Painting" and so on, of which "Chinese National Classic Face Painting Collection" contains more than 2,000 frames of face painting, including local dramas.

Mr. Tian Youliang told me that face painting is a special means of make-up for opera and a unique art of facial modeling. According to historical records, face painting gradually evolved from masks contained in music scores of the Tang Dynasty and the painted faces of senatorial theater. Mr. Weng even Hong argued that: "Chinese opera face, embryonic in the ancient totem, goblet in the Spring and Autumn Nuo Festival, breeding milk for the Han and Tang 'generation face', the development of the Song and Yuan 'painted face', the formation of the Ming and Qing face. " Thus, with the evolution of history, through the long-term practice of successive generations of opera performers, face painting artists gradually perfected the pattern of various characters face painting, summarized and classified into a spectrum, drawing colorful patterns, each person a spectrum. The so-called "flower" and "spectrum", which is the formation of face painting.

The Peking Opera is a national treasure and the largest opera in China, gathering the essence of various dramas, perfect face painting, and a wide range of spectral patterns, making it a grand spectacle. Actors in all lines of Peking Opera are made up, and their characters' appearance, identity, and character are effectively expressed by fixed face paint. Face painting allows people to see the appearance of the eye, a glimpse of its heart, with "praise and blame", "don't be good or evil" artistic function.

In recent years, as Mr. Tian Youliang's artistic achievements are getting higher and higher, his reputation is far beyond the overseas, was invited to explain the history of face painting on CCTV, and there are many works published in the publication, spreading and promoting the art of Peking Opera, traditional culture. Chinese Peking Opera face painting culture is profound and profound, and the use of face painting makeup is more than a heart! "Face painting is a kind of make-up art unique to Chinese opera and used in stage performances. From the point of view of drama, it is characterization; from the point of view of art, it is patterned. Over a long period of time, opera face painting was gradually formed and relatively fixed in a spectral method as the opera matured in its conception." Face painting is unique to Chinese opera and different from the make-up of any theater in other countries. Opera face painting has a unique and fascinating charm.

How is the relationship between face painting and the character roles in opera? Is it true that every character in opera needs to be sketched with face painting? The answer is no, not every character needs to sketch the face, the sketch of the face should be according to the categorization of the character roles.

Chinese opera characters in the line classification, according to the traditional custom, there are "raw, Dan, net, ugly" and "raw, Dan, net, the end of the clown" two line method, since modern times, because many kinds of theater "" end "line has been gradually categorized. In recent times, as many of the "end" lines have been gradually subsumed into the "raw" line, the "raw, Dan, Jing, Chou" is usually taken as the four basic types of the line. Each line has a branch of hard work, and each has its own basic fixed characters and performance characteristics. Among them, "Dan" is the general term for female roles; "Sheng", "Jing", and the two lines are male roles; and "Chou" is a general term for female roles. In addition to the line sometimes also play the ugly Dan and the old Dan, most of the male roles.

Generally speaking, the make-up of "Sheng" and "Dan" is slightly powdered to achieve a beautifying effect, and this make-up is called "Junzheng", or "plain face". This kind of make-up is called "Junzheng", also called "plain face" or "clean face". Its characteristic is "one face for a thousand people", meaning that the facial make-up of all the roles in the line of "Sheng" is more or less the same, no matter how many characters there are, they are all the same face in terms of facial make-up; the facial make-up of the roles in the line of "Dan" is also the same, no matter how many characters there are, they are all the same face in terms of facial make-up. The facial make-up of the characters in the "Dan" line is also more or less the same no matter how many characters there are. "Sheng", "Dan" character personality is mainly * performance and clothing and other aspects of performance.

Face make-up is used for various characters in the "pure" and "ugly" lines to change the actor's original face with exaggerated and strong colors and ever-changing lines, which is different from that of the "plain-faced" "raw" and "dan" characters. This contrasts with the "plain" make-up of "Sheng" and "Dan". The hook face of "Pure" and "Ugly" roles is set up for each person, one person, one spectrum, although it is composed of programmed spectrums, but it is a kind of character makeup, which directly expresses the character's personality, how many "Pure" and "Ugly" roles are there? How many "pure" and "ugly" roles there are in the spectrum, not the same. Therefore, the characteristics of the face makeup is "ever-changing".

"Pure", commonly known as flower face. With a variety of colors outlined in the patterned face makeup as a prominent symbol, the performance is in the character temperament of rough, Qiwei, bold characters. This kind of characters in the performance to sound broad and bright, singing thick and thick, action modeling line thick and staccato sharp, "color block" large, wide open and closed, magnificent. Such as Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, Cao Cao, Bao Zheng, Lian Po, etc. that is the net play.

Pure line characters according to identity, character and its artistic and technical characteristics of the different, largely can be divided into the net (commonly known as the big flower face), vice net (commonly known as two flower face), Wu net (commonly known as Wu two flowers). Among the sub-pure, there are the rack flower face and the two flower face. The clowns are commonly known as Xiaohua-fang or Sanhua-fang.

Cheng Pure (Big Flower Face), with a focus on singing. In Peking Opera, it is also known as the bronze hammer flower face or the black head flower face, and it plays characters such as Lian Po of "General Xiang Xiang He", [Picture 10: Lian Po (Peking Opera's "General Xiang He")] and Bao Zheng of "Guillotine Cases," most of them being important court officials, and therefore it is characterized by its styling to win with its grandeur.

Sub-purification (also commonly known as the second flower face), can be divided into the frame flower face and the second flower face. The frame flower face, to do the main work, heavy body action, mostly play the bold and courageous positive characters, such as Lu Zhishen, Zhang Fei, Li Kui, etc. There is also a negative character, Li Kui. There are also those who play antagonists, such as Cao Cao in Peking Opera, who is also played by the frame flower face. In most of the other types of opera, they are not called "rack flower face", and some of them are called "straw shoe flower face", such as Szechuan Opera and Hunan Opera. The second flower face is also a kind of frame flower face, the play is relatively small, the performance is sometimes close to the ugly, such as the "Famenji" in the Liu Biao, and so on.

Wu Jie (Wu Erhua) is divided into two categories, namely, heavy handle work frame and heavy drop Park wrestling. The heavy handlebar work frame category plays characters such as Yang Qilang in "Golden Beach" and Li Yuanba in "Siping Mountain", etc. The heavy fall park wrestling category also plays characters such as Liu Biao in "Falmen Temple". The heavy fall park wrestling category, also known as wrestling flower face. Such as "picking the cart" in the cattle Gaogao for the frame flower face, Jin Wuzhu for the martial arts flower face, Jin Wuzhu's general black wind Li for the wrestling flower face.

"Clown" (small flower face or three flower face), is a comedic role, in the bridge of the nose and eye sockets between the outline of the face, and more to play a comical and amusing characters. In general, the performance does not emphasize singing, and the main focus is on the clarity and fluency of the recitation. It can be divided into two major branches, namely Wen Chou and Wu Chou.

The classification of the characters in the opera is not the same in all kinds of theater, the above classification is mainly based on the Peking Opera's classification as a reference, because the Peking Opera integrates the essence of many kinds of theater, representing the majority of the general laws of the theater, but this can only be a general classification. But this is only a general categorization. The names and divisions are much more complicated when it comes to the individual styles.

The relationship between face painting and the categorization of character roles in opera can be briefly expressed in the following diagram:

The character roles in opera were initially used to express the character's social status, identity and occupation, and were gradually expanded to express the character's character, character, temperament, etc. The character roles have typological characteristics. The character line has typological characteristics, and the distinction of the role with obvious good and evil, praise and blame moral evaluation in it, such as justice, loyalty and filial piety for the dignified appearance of the * evil and hateful portrayed as ugly shape. Facial make-up and clothing is to distinguish between the characters of the role of the visible direct representation, if the clothing is mainly to show the character's identity, status, occupation; then the facial make-up, especially face make-up is more expression of the character's character, temperament, moral character, emotions, psychology and other aspects. Through the face of the character's good and evil, praise and criticism of the evaluation is direct, at a glance. For example, Cao Cao hook white face indicates * fraud, Guan Yu hook red face indicates loyalty and righteousness.

Face painting has a relatively independent appreciation value and aesthetic significance, but fundamentally, it is always an organic part of the performing art of opera, therefore, the artistic expression of face painting and aesthetic characteristics of the understanding, only in the process of watching opera performances, combined with the costumes and performances in order to fully understand, recognize.

Face painting and costumes form the appearance of pure and ugly characters on the stage, and then with the singing, reading, doing and playing performances on the stage to form a radiant artistic image, arousing the audience's psychological **** Ming. Eyes, face is emotional, psychological window, so the face is the audience's visual center, the face of the aesthetic psychology of the audience to evoke a sense of beauty plays an important role can not be ignored. Colorful, ever-changing, rich in connotation, even many Western art masters think Chinese opera face painting is "wonderful". Painting a certain color on a person's face to symbolize that person's personality and qualities, his or her role and destiny, is one of the main features of Peking Opera, and is also the key to understanding the plot. Simply put, the red face is positive, representing the loyal and brave; the black face is neutral, representing the fierce and wise; the blue and green faces are also neutral, representing the reckless hero; the yellow and white faces are derogatory, representing the fierce and deceitful; and the gold and silver faces are mysterious, representing the gods and demons.

The colors of Peking Opera faces are very rich, and the main colors usually symbolize the quality, character and temperament of a certain character.

Red - to show the character of loyalty and valor, such as: Guan Yu.

Blue - to show the strong, brave, scheming character, such as: Duo Er Dun.

Black - to show the integrity, selflessness and uprightness of the characters, such as: Bao Gong.

White - represents sinister, suspicious, deceitful, flying, solemn character image. For example: Cao Cao.

Green - represents the character of tenacity and violence. For example: Wu Tianqiu.

Yellow - represents a brave and fierce character, such as Yuwen Chengdu.

Purple - represents the upright, steady and calm character.

Gold and silver - represent all kinds of gods and monsters