Characteristics of Nuo Opera in Guichi

Nuo Opera in Guichi is a spreading form of witchcraft culture in China. Although its name is different from that of witchcraft in other parts of China to drive out the Naji epidemic, it all originated from primitive beliefs. They all regard singing, dancing, and drama as rituals to charm the gods, and do not emphasize the role of entertaining people. Everyone regards some kind of spiritual attachment, such as mask, puppet, straw stick, paper-cut or body painting, as a mourning ceremony and activity, and carries out mourning ceremonies and performances around it. Wearing masks is the performance feature of Guichi Nuo Opera, and it is also an important sign that Guichi Nuo Opera is different from other operas.

The masks of Nuo Opera in Guichi, commonly known as "Lianzi", "Nuo God" and "Bodhisattva", are all carved from willow (Pterocarya stenoptera) and painted with pigment. Their shapes are convex and concave, and their eyes and corners are hollow, which is convenient for actors to look out during performances. When wearing them, they are decorated with a red headscarf or a red cloth hat. The shapes of masks are colorful. In terms of color, red, black, white, blue, purple, yellow (gold), crimson, ochre and other colors are often used, which are different according to the identity and personality of the characters.

Due to different regions and families, the masks of Nuo Opera in Guichi are different in quantity, material, size, color, function and wearing mode. Their titles vary according to the number of masks. 13 pieces are called "Thirteen Pacific Insurance", 18 pieces are called "Eighteen Singles", 24 pieces are called "Twenty-four Immortals", and there are 36 pieces and 48 pieces. A group of faces with the same number have different names of masked characters.

The different role names are as follows:

Yincunyao Mask Modeling (28 pieces):

emperor

Military attache, emperor, civil servant

My daughter always goes back to the god of wealth, elders and monks.

Meng Nv's Second Cave-in-Heaven Longwen Little Monk

Jipo three times Bao Gong Qi Liang three monks

Xiangmei

Zhou Xiaohui Cang Zhong Song

Zhang Long

Tang Shutong Ziyang star

Zhao Hu

The pose of Han Dongshan mask (25 photos);

A courtesy title added to the name of God.

Judge Bao Marshal Yue Marshal

The prequel is the birth of kuixing Xiao Sheng Deng Jun.

Later known as Goddess of Mercy, a boy who plays with students.

Hehe, Lao Dan Lao Lang Lao Sheng Hehe

The husband returned to the land of Guan Gong and the monk.

Note: Lao Lang is Prince Zhaoming of Xiao Wen.

The pose of Yao village mask (32 photos)

emperor

Jin Xingwen, Prime Minister of Bao Zheng Jiro

Old monk

County magistrate Zhang lives in Zheng Dan.

The young monk put a small bag of Meng Jiangnu in the outer corner.

Old Xiao Hui Zhang Shenglong Lao Dan

Zhao Hu Xiangmei at the end of the second cycle.

Song San returned, calling out Lao Yang.

Sihui xiaoyang

Mao's pose and Cao mask (24 photos):

emperor

The land association of the big monk visited Guan Gong.

The young monk Mr. Jipo Bao Gong twice

Miss Zhang Long went to the altar three times.

Aunt Zhao Hu's clown walked down the altar four times.

County, Liang Fan and County.

Face types include "full face" and "half face", and are divided into "universal" and "special". The whole face is 43 cm long, 33 cm long and 26 cm wide. Covering the whole face when wearing, which is basically consistent with the five senses. Half of the face is slightly smaller, 37 cm long or 40 cm wide and 23 cm wide. Wear it on your forehead, covering only half your face and exposing your mouth, so that you can sing clearly and easily. Common faces are mostly positive figures, and peers in different plays can use one face. For example, the actress Liu in Liu's Examination, the actress Xiao in Liu's Examination and Fan Siliang in Meng Jiangnv all have similar faces. Special masks are mostly used by people with special identities, and their facial expressions have certain personality characteristics, so they are specially worn by some people, such as Erlang Shen, Guan Yu, Bao Zheng and Weichi Gong.

Masks made by sculptors can only be regarded as ordinary objects. Only the mask exposed by the pestle or the end has inviolable spirituality, which has the same effect as God. When performing Nuo opera, members of Buddha and God should bathe, change clothes, burn incense and worship before they can contact and wear it.

Before and after the performance of Guichi Nuo Opera, the "mask" (that is, the mask) was activated or returned, and there were grand ceremonies such as "welcoming the gods off the shelf", "sending them off the shelf" and "inviting them". Its form is slightly different between clans. On the evening of the sixth day of the first month of each year, Nian (the host of welcoming Nuo God) appoints two people to quietly carry Lianzi from the ancestral temple to Shuikoushe Temple with "Dragon Pavilion" or pick it up with "Day" and "Month" boxes. The next morning, wipe the "face" with a clean original cloth (unused new cloth), and then put it in the "Dragon Pavilion" or dragon box. Take the lead in the first year, use flags, gongs and umbrellas to clear the way, burn incense paper and set off firecrackers along the way to welcome "Nuo God" ("Lianzi") into the ancestral hall. Before the performance in the evening, the patriarch or the first year held an umbrella for the people and gave it to the masked "umbrella boy" in the slogan. Take the umbrella as the guide, and then dance various Nuo dances in turn. After Nuo dance, after Nuo opera is singing opera. When performing Nuo dance and Nuo opera, the actors all wear masks. From this point of view, masks are the core of Nuo opera activities in Guichi, and the whole process of Nuo opera activities is carried out around masks. Wearing a mask is a typical performance of Nuo opera in Guichi. During the Cultural Revolution, the masks of Guichi Nuo Opera were destroyed and lost. Fortunately, 27 masks were collected by Mr. Wang Zhaogan on the ceiling of the Cultural Center as exhibits of the "Four Old People" exhibition, thus being preserved. These masks have become the treasures of Nuo culture in Guichi, and most of them were made in Daoguang period of Qing Dynasty or earlier. Among them, an emperor mask in Yao Village, Liu Jie Township, Guichi was identified as a Ming Dynasty product by Shanghai experts. These Nuo opera masks were investigated by the author and Mr. Wang Zhaogan, and they came from the Yao and Wang families in Guichi County. These Nuo masks are vivid in modeling, skillful and fluent in knife work, exaggerated in image and rigorous in structure, which embodies the charm of characters and shows the superb skills and artistic expression ability of sculptors of that era. The following is a brief introduction to some masks named Yao:

The Emperor (Liu Ling, the Emperor of Han Dynasty in Nuo Opera, Zhang Wenxian, and the Jade Emperor) was 33cm long and18cm wide, carved with ramie silk as whiskers, in the Ming Dynasty. Gentle and elegant, a pair of big ears make people feel kind.

The Necromancer (a character in Zhang Wenxian's play) is made of wood, with a length of 18.5cm and a width of 6.6cm. The image seems to be a combination of man and ghost, a dark face, a helmet with a red edge, a big mouth and a pair of empty eyes, which has the power to shock people.

(also known as General Di) is 33.2 cm long and 19. 1 cm wide. In the Qing Dynasty, he had horns on his head, eyebrows standing upright and eyes protruding to highlight his aggressive and fierce temperament.

Zhang Fei (female mask) has a double bun on her head, an oval face, eyebrows and phoenix eyes, earrings and gold earrings, and her lips are slightly red, which makes her look beautiful and dignified.

The mask of Nuo opera in Chaxiwang Village was created by another folk artist. The size of the mask is larger than that of Yao Jia. Generally, it is 30.5-40.5cm long and 19.2-22.2cm wide. Their distinctive feature is that the ears of each mask are hypertrophy, hanging down to the bottom and cheeks of the face, almost as long as the face. Smiling, kindness and friendliness are very similar to the ears and faces of Amitabha, Sakyamuni and Tathagata in Jiuhua Mountain. Obviously, the artists who carved masks were influenced by Buddhist culture and sculpture art. Now briefly introduce several masks of the Wangs:

The ground is 35.5 cm long and 23 cm wide, wearing a foreign hat, smiling all over the face, eyes narrowed into a crack, sparse white beard, drooping big ears, affable and humorous.

Liu Nuo plays an important role in the play. Wearing a black niche towel, his face is gentle and his ears are big, which may indicate that the character is blessed and has won the top prize. Wood, a product of Qing Dynasty.

Guan Gong has masks in every village and household, and his appearance is generally carved according to his face, such as heavy dates, lying silkworms' eyebrows and long strings. The Wang family's carving skills are more refined and vivid. A pair of phoenix eyes, half open and half closed, have a deterrent effect and have magical power.

The host monk in the old monk's New Year's Zhai. Fat head, big ears, a scar on the top of the head, a faint smile.

Umbrella boy is also called Hehe, dancing umbrella boy. Length 28.3 cm, width 19.4 cm, wood, made in Qing Dynasty. There are three lotus-shaped black hair painted with black paint on the head, with thin shoulders, straight nose and big teeth, which are vivid and lifelike.

After the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, China embarked on the road of reform and opening up centered on economic construction. Guichi, an ancient cultural accumulation area, has regained its former vitality. After 1983, the ancient Nuo opera began to be active in various villages and clans. Old artists sorted out the scripts left after the robbery, recreated the performances and ceremonies treasured in memory, and made a new batch of masks. The most prominent and representative mask sculptor of Nuo Opera is Liu Benrong (1903- 1988), a native of Xingtian Village, Qian Miao Township, Qingyang County, who came from a family of sculptors. He is exquisitely carved and lifelike. Many places with Nuo opera from other places have come here one after another to ask him to carve masks. In order to pass on this carving art from generation to generation, he recalled sketching thirty or forty masks commonly used in Nuo opera before his death.

This paper briefly introduces some masks carved by modern folk artists.

Clairvoyance and Clairvoyance are hidden in Jinxi Village, Yuanxisuo Village, Liu Jie Township, Guichi City. They are masks, umbrellas and ancient coins for dancers performing Nuo dance in the social arena. Clairvoyance has a pair of big horns on its head, a red sun on its forehead, red eyebrows, big eyes and empty eyeballs, a black face lined with a bright red mouth, and its tongue sticking out more than an inch, giving people the impression of being bold, brave and fierce.

The masks of Zhang Long and Zhao Hu are hidden in Chaxiwang Village, Liu Jie Township, Guichi City. From the hands of craftsmen, their knives are rough and powerful, and they are often exaggerated. Zhao Hu has a pair of upright horns, ferocious fangs and fiery eyebrows on his head, deliberately depicting his integrity and hatred of evil; There is also a small head carved on the faucet, blue face and red eye, neat and powerful.

There is no helmet on the mask of Nuo opera in Tangjia Old House, Mao Tan Township, Guichi City. During the performance, the actors wore seven stars on their masks. Beautiful and powerful.

Generally speaking, Guichi Nuo opera noodles have the following characteristics: 1, which adopts traditional production technology, simple and smooth knife work and fine carving; 2, pay attention to realism in modeling and exaggerate deformation; 3, the color is single and dignified, and a few masks are strong and gorgeous, but they all pay attention to color contrast and harmony; 4. Because they are geographically adjacent to Jiuhua Mountain, influenced by Buddhism and the carving art of Buddha statues, most of them are kind-hearted, generous and blessed. Most of the masks of modern Nuo opera inherited these characteristics, while the masks made in Ming and Qing dynasties were more primitive and extensive. The mask of Nuo Opera in Guichi absorbed and integrated the religious consciousness, folk customs, folk sculptures, paintings and other aspects of Confucianism, Buddhism, Taoism and witchcraft. It is the essence of Han folk art and has high artistic appreciation value. It is also a valuable material for studying ancient culture, regional customs, folklore, anthropology and folk crafts.

However, for all the clans who perform Nuo opera during the sacrifices on the seventh to fifteenth day of the first lunar month every year, the mask of Nuo opera is not a folk craft, but a "god" that is especially revered. Can be explained from the following.

(1) According to records, it was popular to offer sacrifices to Prince Liang Zhaoming in Guichi in the late Tang Dynasty. Nuo dance masks and idols may be the seeds of Nuo opera in Guichi. In the future, Guichi Nuo opera with drama plot, performance program and role line was gradually formed, so as to achieve the purpose of inviting God to worship ancestors, exorcising evil spirits and receiving blessings, and entertaining people as well. It can be seen that the mask of Nuo opera plays the image of a god from beginning to end.

(2) All families performing Nuo opera in Guichi respect masks as "Nuo God", "Dragon God", "Social God", "Playing God", "Bodhisattva" and "Five-party Crying God". Nuo opera masks can be divided into two categories: one is the "true god" (or righteous god) worshipped at the ceremony, including land, Jiro, Guan Gong and Jade Emperor. Some take Zhong Kui as a righteous god, and such masks do not double as drama roles; Another dragon god can be used as a character and role merchant in traditional Chinese opera. It can be seen that the mask of Nuo opera is always regarded as a "god" regardless of the characters.

(3) According to the performing custom of Nuo Opera in Guichi, in the first month of each year, Nuo Opera is performed with masks and grand activities are held to greet and bid farewell to the gods. When worshipping God, the elders took the masks out of the boxes, put them on the "Dragon Case" in the ancestral hall in turn according to the regulations, burned incense and paper and offered three sacrifices, and everyone kowtowed. When giving gifts to the gods, the "faces" will be boxed in turn and sent to the altar of the ancestral temple. When asking God, every family has a different form. Some people will welcome Nuo God into the ancestral temple, and in the first year or the elders will read "Please God's Proclamation", burn incense and worship three glasses of wine; Some specially use the auspicious word "Happy New Year" to invite God. At the beginning of the year, some people read Please God's Book, and invited immortals from all walks of life to perform such plays as Meng Jiangnv and Chao Temple. Under normal circumstances, it is not allowed to move or touch the mask at will. If you touch it, be sure to wash your hands and burn incense.

Treating masks as Nuo gods and performing Nuo operas as gods shows the desire of ancient people to pray for the blessing of gods, drive away ghosts and diseases, and eliminate disasters and accept happiness.

From the perspective of drama, masks have the function of drama industry. Some masks are carved according to the characters in the play. They were once called "one end, two clean, three lives, four points, five ugly, six crooked, seven small students and eight stickers". When making, folk artists also pay attention to portraying characters and exaggerating their personality characteristics. If Guan Gong has a red face and a long beard, it shows his courage and loyalty. As long as the figure appears, the audience can identify the figure in the opera and know what the figure is. Our understanding of Nuo opera mask as a drama role is based on drama performance, but for all clans, even when performing Nuo opera, the mask is still regarded as a god, so in the process of Nuo opera performance, incense paper is constantly burned and firecrackers are set off.

The mask of Nuo opera in Guichi is a treasure of mask art in China, which fully embodies the long history and splendid culture of the Chinese nation. Studying and inheriting the excellent tradition of mask art in Guichi Nuo Opera is of great significance for carrying forward excellent national culture and prospering folk literature and art.