What is the shadow theater of Xiaoyi like?

The shadow play of Xiaoyi is named because it is popular in Xiaoyi City, Shanxi Province. Xiaoyi shadow play has evolved and developed over a long period of time, and has a unique local style and rich local flavor, which is simple, gorgeous and colorful, and is a flower of art hidden in folk culture, and has made Xiaoyi gain the reputation of "the hometown of opera".

As early as in the Northern Song Dynasty, Xiaoyi has a shadow performance of the class, and there are artists specializing in shadow carving tufts, comparable to the capital city of Bianliang at the time. Was found in the northeast corner of Xiaoyi New City, an ancient tomb in the late Northern Song Dynasty, **** on both sides of the mural there are several children, some blowing the suona, some holding the shadow man, playing on the lawn depicted.

Later, by the Ming Dynasty, Xiaoyi's shadow was even more developed. According to records, in 1508, in Beijing held a hundred theater assembly performance, then there are Xiaoyi shadow theater class went to participate in the performance. The Qing Dynasty was the heyday of the shadow theater, when the number of Xiaoyi shadow shadow playgroups reached more than 60, the shadow carving technique was more exquisite, and the repertoire became more and more abundant. Due to the flexible and lightweight performance of shadow puppetry and the magical fantasy, during the Jiaqing period of the Qing Dynasty, the princesses and the brothers also called the shadow into the palace, financed the purchase of a theater box, and hired artists for a long period of time to perform. In the countryside, there are Pingyao, Qixian, Taigu counties of merchants, employing Xiaoyi artists to take classes in the theater, or far away to Ningxia, Inner Mongolia, Hebei, Shanxi merchants performances. Such as artists Yang Erleng settled in Ningxia, Zhang Xianbao to Hebei, Liaoning, Heilongjiang performances, lifelong, in the Xiaoyi shadow theater community is quite famous, for future generations of teachers. At the end of the Qing Dynasty, there was an extremely prosperous golden age of shadow theater in Xiaoyi, with famous artists abounding, such as Wang Baodong, who was skilled in pole work and manipulated the skills to hide the gods. Zhang Liguang's copper voice, iron voice, moon and stars. Wells Runyuan specializing in the play, known as the "Miss class". Li Fu De specializes in comedy, known as the "Haha class".

In addition, there are Zhang Wannian, Yu Jirong, Song Guangde, Geng Fu, and a large number of young artists, each showing a great deal of skill and fame.

The content of Xiaoyi's performances, mostly adapted from well-known historical stories, myths and legends, and folklore, such as Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Journey to the West, and Yang Family Generals, are popular among the people. From the point of view of its performance style, Xiaoyi shadow mainly has two styles: leather cavity paper window shadow play and bowl cavity yarn window shadow play.

Xiaoyi shadow theater is divided into two major genres, the first is the leather cavity paper window shadow theater; the second is the bowl cavity yarn window shadow theater.

Xiaoyi's Leather Cavity Paper Window Shadow Opera has been passed down for a long time, and it is a kind of melody and singing created by folk artists who carved cowhide and donkey skin into the plane images of various characters, animals and scenes as props for acting, and used the local language and singing method to create a melody and singing, with a unique flavor known as "Leather Cavity", and it is a kind of vocal art native to Xiaoyi. It is a kind of vocal art native to Xiaoyi.

The main musical instruments of Piqiang are small suona, sheng and flute, which are also called "blowing and singing art" by local people. In the performance of Piqiang, the shadow figures are operated and sung by the artists, and also sung by other artists.

The shadow person of the leather cavity is usually 30 to 40 centimeters high, which is slightly larger than the shadow person of the bowl cavity, but the carving and modeling are not as fine as that of the shadow person of the bowl cavity. When the shadow play is staged, the main pole is resting on the chest and waist of the operator. With hemp paper as the window, that is, the screen, by virtue of the light hanging behind the window to light up the shadow, the cowhide man erected on the screen, by people with a few feet (a meter for three feet) long, chopstick-thick stick on top of the shadow to make a variety of actions, accompanied by the "shadow man" of the dialogue, rap and fight.

At that time, the light used to perform the shadows was either a sesame oil lamp or a gas lamp. The stage was not large and was best suited for performances in a hall or in a small village, where more than 100 people could watch.

The repertoire of the shadow play was mostly based on the stories of "The Enchantment of the Gods" and "Journey to the West". When the whole play is performed, a small play called "Taotai" is added, which has no singing voice and fewer dialogues, and is mainly based on martial arts. Xiaoyi's Bowl Cavity Shadow Show originated in the Guangxu period of the Qing Dynasty, due to a shortage in the year, Shaanxi artists were displaced to Xiaoyi to earn a living with the local class organization, because the singing was accompanied by a kind of copper bells shaped like bowls, so it was called the Bowl Cavity. The Shaanxi artists in Xiaoyi also took on apprentices to pass on their skills.

The bowl cavity shadow of the small but fine carving, with color, gauze window than the linen window to be much brighter. The same is a few pieces of cowhide to do shadow man, three skewers on top, but the main pole is placed in the operator's shoulder, not only the shadow man rotating flexible, easy to operate.

The musical instruments of the Bowls cavity shadow theater are hu hu, two strings, moon zither and copper bells, which are obviously different from the tunes and patterns of the leather cavity, and are called "moon shadow" and "moon tune". Its beautiful, lyrical singing was also influenced by the local Zhonglu Bangzi and Piqiang.

At that time, court plays such as "Nine Lotus Pearls", "Fortune Figure" and "Guanyintang", which were often performed, were finally brought to the stage later on, and have always been welcomed by the people.

In recent times, due to the rise of the Bowls and Bowls Shadow Theater and the increase in the number of class societies, the original Pi Cavity Shadow Theater in Xiaoyi gradually merged into one, soaking in the development of the Bowls and Bowls Shadow Theater or Drama.