General Knowledge of Sichuan Opera Face Painting

Sichuan Opera, one of the traditional Chinese opera genres, is popular in east-central Sichuan, Chongqing and parts of Guizhou and Yunnan.

Sichuan opera face painting is an important part of the performing art of Sichuan opera, and it is an artistic treasure created and inherited by successive generations of Sichuan opera artists***. Sichuan opera consists of five kinds of vocal cadences: kunqu, gaoqiang, huqin, playing theater, and lamp tone.

Sichuan Opera is divided into five lines: Wensheng, Danjiao, Shengjiao, Huafang, and Choujiao, each of which has its own self-contained system of gongfa procedures, and the performances of Wensheng, Choujiao, and Danjiao are the most distinctive ones. They have made many outstanding creations in terms of theatrical expression and performance techniques, which fully reflect the aesthetic characteristics of the Chinese Opera in that they are based on the illusion of the real and the imaginary, and on the writing of the meaning of the remains of the form. On May 20, 2006, Sichuan opera was approved by the State Council to be included in the first batch of national intangible cultural heritage list.

2. General Knowledge of Sichuan Opera

Sichuan Opera is composed of four main voices: Gaoqiang, Kunqiang, Huqin, and Weakqiang, plus a kind of folk lantern opera in the province. These five types, except for the lantern opera, were introduced to Sichuan from the end of the Ming Dynasty to the middle of the Qing Dynasty, successively by opera troupes from other provinces.

To distinguish it from other foreign styles such as Peking Opera and Han Opera, which were popular in Sichuan, this unified form of opera was called "Sichuan Opera", which was later renamed "Sichuan Opera".

Besides "Jing, Liu, Bai and Killing", the repertoire includes "Five Robes", "Four Pillars", "Eighteen Books", "Jianghu" and "Chuanju". There are also the "Four Great Ben Tou" recognized in Sichuan Opera. The music of the five voices of Sichuan Opera, Kun, Gao, Hu, Bomb, and Deng, all have their own characteristics.

There are more than 20 kinds of musical instruments used in Sichuan Opera***, and the commonly used ones are small drums, drums, gongs, cymbals, and small gongs (and hinges), which are collectively known as the "five parties", together with the strings and oboes, and are commanded by the small drums.

In general, Sichuan Opera is divided into six categories: Sheng, Dan, Jing, Mou, Chou, and Miscellaneous.

Due to the different popularity of the various voices in different areas, the artists of different masters, about the same period in the Qing Dynasty and the Guangxu years, gradually formed a number of schools. In these schools, in addition to the Dan line Run (Hua Xian) school, ugly line Fu (San Qian) school, Cao (Junchen, Wusheng, Wushu, with "Cao Da Wang" praise) school, such as the outstanding artists called school, the main river (that is, the popular area) is divided into the West Sichuan school, Ziyang River school, the north of the Sichuan school, the east of the Sichuan school and so on the four schools. Sichuan Opera not only has many lines and schools, but also has many wonderful stunts such as lifting, opening the eyes, changing faces, drilling fire rings, hiding knives, etc., and is good at using stunts to create characters, which is breathtaking.

3. Knowledge of face-changing in Sichuan Opera

Face-changing is a kind of stunt used to create characters in the art of Sichuan Opera. It is a romantic technique to reveal the inner thoughts and feelings of the characters in the play.

According to legend, "face-changing" is an ancient technique in which human beings face ferocious beasts and draw their faces in different forms in different ways in order to survive, so as to scare the invading beasts. Sichuan Opera puts "face-changing" on the stage and makes it a unique art with its marvelous skills.

There are three types of face-changing techniques: "face-wiping", "face-blowing", and "face-pulling". In addition, there is a kind of "luck" face changing.

"Wipe face" is the makeup oil paint on a specific part of the face, when the hand to the face, you can become another face. If you want to change the whole face, you can put the paint on the forehead or eyebrows, and if you want to change only the lower part of the face, you can put the paint on the face or nose. If only one part of the face is to be changed, the oil paint can be applied only to the place where it is to be changed. For example, Xu Xian in "White Snake", Pei Yu in "Release Pei", Chen Lun in "Flying Cloud Sword", etc., all use the technique of "smearing the face".

"Blow face" is only suitable for powdered cosmetics, such as gold powder, toner, silver powder and so on. There is a very small box on the floor of the stage, filled with powder, the actor to do a dance movement on the ground, take the opportunity to face close to the box to blow, powder on the face, immediately into another color of the face. It is important to note: when blowing, close your eyes, mouth and breath. Zidu in "Capture Zidu alive", "rule Zhongshan" in the Le Yangzi and other characters of the face change, using the "blowing face" way.

"Pulling the face" is a more complex method of face changing. It is beforehand the face painted on a piece of silk, cut, each face is tied a handful of silk thread, and then one by one on the face. The threads are tied to a convenient and unobtrusive part of the dress (e.g., on the belt). As the play progresses, the threads are pulled off one by one under the cover of dance movements. For example, in The Legend of the White Snake, the mantle boy (purple and gold cymbal mantle) can change into seven or eight different faces, such as green, red, white, black, and so on. The thief in "The Old Building" and Nie Long in "Wang Niang Tan" also use face-pulling. There are certain difficulties in "face-pulling". First, there should not be too much adhesive for the face-painting, so as not to be unable to pull down the face-painting, or to pull down all the face-painting at once. Secondly, the action should be clean and sharp, and the fake action should be skillful to cover the audience's eyes

4. What are the introductions of Sichuan Opera face painting

Historically, there was no full-time face painter for Sichuan Opera face painting, and the actors drew their own face paintings.

Before the performance, Sichuan opera actors had to paint various patterns on their faces with different colors to show the identity, appearance, and character traits of the characters. Under the premise of keeping the basic characteristics of the characters in the play, the actors can draw their faces creatively according to their own characteristics to get the effect of attracting the attention of the audience.

In the performance of Sichuan Opera face painting, as the plot twists and turns, the inner world of the characters changes, and the face painting needs to change accordingly. In order to make changes in a play, Sichuan opera artists created and invented face-changing, face-pulling and eye-wiping stunts.

These stunts are used in the stage performance scene, under the premise of not being detected by the audience, in order to achieve the strong performance effect of instantaneous changes in the character's face. Sichuan opera face painting expresses the basic characteristics of the characters with colors, and its principle of using colors to set the tone is based on traditional Chinese culture and the long-established appreciation habits of Chinese people.

In Sichuan opera face painting, red color is used to show the characters of loyalty and righteousness, such as Guan Yu and Jiang Wei; black color is used to show the characters of uprightness and unselfishness, such as Bao Gong. The makeup of the characters on the stage of Sichuan opera face painting, as with other operas, is mainly done through facial makeup and dress wear to **** with, but it has its own artistic characteristics of Sichuan opera.

"Pretend to be a dragon like a dragon, pretend to be a tiger like a tiger," a phrase that describes and demands the performance of Sichuan opera, has been passed down from generation to generation among the actors of Sichuan opera. The use of Sichuan opera face painting has a great role in shaping and reproducing the actor's role.

5. How to draw Sichuan opera face painting

Sichuan opera face painting is an artistic treasure created and inherited by generations of Sichuan opera artists***, and is an indispensable and important part of the performing art of Sichuan opera. Color is the most basic character mark. Sichuan Opera face painting expresses the basic characteristics of characters with colors, and its principle of using colors to set the tone is based on the traditional Chinese culture and the long-established appreciation habits of Chinese people.

For example, in Sichuan Opera face painting, red is mostly used to represent loyal and righteous characters, such as Guan Yu and Jiang Wei; black is mostly used to represent upright and selfless characters, such as Bao Gong; white is mostly used to represent ruthless and cunning characters, such as Cao Cao; green and blue are mostly used to represent reckless heroes, heroes of the green forest, or courageous and tough characters, such as Shan Xiongxin; and gold, silver, and gray have an illusory and mysterious feeling, and are often used to show the character's personality. Gray has an illusory and mysterious feeling, and is mostly used to show the role of Buddha, God, fairy, demon, ghost and monster.

Under the premise of using color to set the tone, the character's face is sketched with symbolic and allegorical patterns to show the character's personality traits. People sing praises to the characters in the play or praise, or expose the irony, or criticize the whip, its praise and blame can be reflected in the pattern.

For example, Bao Zheng's black face is painted with a mountain-shaped pen holder, Zhu Pen, the word longevity, crescent moon, the sun and other patterns to symbolize his official high quality, law enforcement, a life of integrity. Guan Yu's big red face painted with crouching eyebrows, three columns of incense, character pattern, showing that he is heroic and loyal, faith and righteousness must be guarded. Zhao Kuangyin is also red face, dragon double eyebrows that he is a generation of emperors, the Hall of India or eyelids outlined a white, it shows that he is suspicious of sinister characteristics. Xiang Yu black and white face sketched seven stars, the Big Dipper, longevity dragon, sword, tiger and leopard eyes and other patterns, showing the king of Western Chu had Tian Wei for a generation of lords and defeated Wujiang pulling out the sword and cutting their own throats end.

6. What does the color of the Sichuan Opera face represent

With the development of the art of Sichuan Opera and the need to portray the characters, the previous generation of artists began to pay attention to the performance of the characters in the play personality and external features, and strive to make the character modeling to achieve the shape, God, meaning the unity of the aesthetic effect and the decorative beauty of the pattern.

Gradually formed a variety of character types and personalized spectra with strong colors and exquisite patterns. Different colors of the face usually have different meanings. Red indicates loyalty, such as Guan Yu.

Yellow is mostly used for characters who do not look strong, but are actually too brave, such as Gan Ning. Blue, green and a mixture of colors of the face, generally for the Greenwood, drought bandits, as well as the murderous and horrible characters used, such as Shan Xiongxin, Lu Qi and the legendary God of Heaven, the evil spirits of hell.

The white color indicates treachery and sinister, such as Cao Cao and Dong Zhuo. The black color means straight and frank, such as Zhang Fei, Li Kui.

But black is rarely used alone, often with other colors sandwiched together. Gold and silver colors represent gods and monsters, such as Buddha and the wind god.

Although the meaning and use of the above basic colors is generally so, the specific use of it is rich in change. Such as Zhao Kuangyin and Guan Yu, although the same open red face, but the former did the emperor after the killing of ministers, so the eyelids add a white line, indicating that the character character is different from Guan Yu, with a side of suspicion and sinister.

The Monkey King face with golden eyes on the eyelids, there is a little bit of gold, when performing, his eyes blinking, golden eyes flickering, then call people to believe that he does have such a clever strength! The main elements Bao Gong face: the sun and moon, pen holder, Zhu Pen Lemony face: the sword, the seven stars Yuchi face: bats God of Fortune face: money, treasure beads Lingguan face: flames.

7. Knowledge of Sichuan Opera

Sichuan Opera, one of the traditional Chinese opera genres, is popular in east-central Sichuan, Chongqing, and parts of Guizhou and Yunnan.

Sichuan opera face painting is an important part of the performing art of Sichuan opera, and it is an artistic treasure created and inherited by successive generations of Sichuan opera artists***. Sichuan opera consists of five kinds of vocal cadences: kunqu, gaoqiang, huqin, playing theater, and lamp tone.

Sichuan Opera is divided into five lines: Wensheng, Danjiao, Shengjiao, Huafang, and Choujiao, each of which has its own self-contained system of gongfa procedures, and the performances of Wensheng, Choujiao, and Danjiao are the most distinctive ones. They have made many outstanding creations in terms of theatrical expression and performance techniques, which fully reflect the aesthetic characteristics of the Chinese Opera in that they are based on the illusion of the real and the imaginary, and on the writing of the meaning of the remains of the form. On May 20, 2006, Sichuan opera was approved by the State Council to be included in the first batch of national intangible cultural heritage list.

8. Why are the faces of Sichuan Opera more grotesque

The performance of Sichuan Opera is full of life, vivid and lively, funny and humorous. In order to better portray the characters, the artists of Sichuan Opera have created many stunts such as face-changing, hiding the knife, drilling the fire circle, opening the eyes of the wise, and so on, which are fiery and hilarious and interesting, and have formed a major feature of the Sichuan Opera.

Face-changing is one of the special techniques of Sichuan opera. It is a romantic expression of the inner thoughts and feelings of the characters in the play. The methods of face changing are roughly divided into three - face wiping, face blowing and face pulling.

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As mentioned above, Sichuan opera face painting is used to reflect the inner feelings of the characters, as opposed to Peking opera face painting in the same fold of the character's face is fixed. And the painting method of Sichuan opera face painting and Beijing opera is also different.