Peking Opera Knowledge--Face Painting

Definition

Face painting is the art of make-up styling on the faces of Chinese opera performers for stage performances.

Characteristics

The main characteristics of face painting are the following three: first, the contradictory unity of beauty and ugliness; second, the close relationship with the character of the role; and third, its pattern is programmed.

Face painting is different for different lines. "Sheng", "Dan" facial make-up is simple, slightly powdered, called "handsome dress", "plain face", "Clean Face". The "net line" and "ugly line" face painting is more complex, especially the net, are heavily applied oil color, complex patterns, so called "flower face". The face painting in opera mainly refers to the face painting of pure.

The art of Chinese Peking Opera face painting is a very popular art category among opera lovers, which is widely popular at home and abroad, and has been recognized as a symbol of traditional Chinese culture.

Face painting comes from the stage, we can see the image of different styles of face painting on some large buildings, packaging of goods, various kinds of porcelain and the clothes people wear. This is far beyond the scope of stage applications, which shows that the art of face painting occupies a position in people's minds, indicating that face painting has a strong vitality. Many international friends and domestic intellectuals are exploring the mystery of face painting out of their curiosity and love for Chinese opera face painting.

Categories of face painting

The face paintings we see can be roughly categorized into two main types, one is the arts and crafts face painting. This kind of face is the author according to their own thinking and imagination, in the plaster material on the face, with painting, weaving, embroidery and other techniques to produce a variety of forms, color pattern changes in the face of the products, this kind of face has a certain ornamental value! The other type is the stage practical face painting. This kind of face is according to the plot and the need of the characters in the play, the actor with exaggerated techniques in the face sketched out in different colors, different patterns and patterns of the face.

Origin of face painting

There are several ways of saying about the origin of stage face painting, one of which is the song and dance play originated from Northern and Southern Dynasties and Northern Qi Dynasty, and flourished in the Tang Dynasty, also known as Da Mian or Dai Mian, which is a man's only thing made to glorify King Lan Ling's war achievements and virtues, saying that King Gao Changgong of Lan Ling, a fierce and good warrior with the appearance of a woman, every time he went to war, he wore a ferocious fake face, and he was victorious time and time again. People in order to glorify the Lanling King created the men's solo dance, also with masks. Opera actors on the stage sketching face is used to help increase the character of the character played by the character traits, appearance characteristics, identity status, to achieve rich stage color, beautify the effect of the stage, the stage face is the people's mind the concept of harmony and unity of perception.

Introduction of related faces

Red face Symbolizes loyalty, righteousness, uprightness and bloodiness, such as: Guan Yu in "Three Kingdoms" and Wu Han in "Chopping the Scripture Hall".

Others: Ironic, indicating a fake good guy.

Guan Yu (red face)

Black face: It shows seriousness of character, not smiling, such as Bao Zheng in "Bao Gong Opera"; it also symbolizes strength and power, rude and brash, such as Zhang Fei in "Three Kingdoms Opera", "Water Margin Opera", "Water Margin Opera", "Water Margin Opera", "Water Margin Opera", "Water Margin Opera", and so on. Li Kui in "Water Margin" and Jiao Zan in "Yang Pai Feng".

Other: It is the yin of yin and yang, and is used for ghosts. Darker skin color or ugly appearance.

Zhang Fei (Butterfly Face with Black Cross Gate)

White Face: Indicates treachery and suspicion, e.g. Cao Cao in "Three Kingdoms" or Yan Song in "Beat Yan Song".

Cao Cao (white face)

Blue face: A straight, untamed character, e.g., Ma Wu in "On the Roof", Duo Erdun in "The Ring".

Dou Erdun (blue face with three tiles)

Purple face: solemn, stable and righteous, e.g. Xu Yanzhao in "The Second Palace", Zhuanzhu in "Fish Intestine Sword".

Other: bad and ugly face.

Zhang He (purple three tile face)

Golden face Symbolizes majesty and solemnity, expresses the role of gods and immortals. E.g. Rulai Buddha and Erlang Shen in "Haunted Palace of Heaven".

Roc (Golden Face)

Green Face Brave and reckless. E.g., Xu Shiying in "White Water Beach"

Others: Green heroes.

Others include yellow face, pink face and silver face.

The term "face paint" refers to the colorful make-up on the faces of male actors in traditional Chinese drama. This kind of face makeup is mainly used for jing (flower face) and chou (clown). It has a certain format in form, color and type. An expert audience can tell from the face makeup whether the character is a hero or a villain, smart or stupid, loved or loathed. Peking Opera's fascinating facial makeup occupies a special place among the countless facial make-ups in Chinese drama. Peking Opera face painting is famous for its "symbolism" and "exaggeration". It demonstrates a character's personality traits through the use of exaggerated and distorted shapes. The eyes, forehead and cheeks are often drawn as the wings of a bat, butterfly or swallow, and the mouth and nose are exaggerated to create the desired facial effect.

History of Face Painting

Face painting has a long history of creation. Face painting originated from masks, face painting the graphics directly on the face, while the masks painted or cast the graphics on top of something else and then wear it on the face, in ancient China, there are witch dances and exorcism dances in the rituals, and the dancers often wear masks. In Sichuan, north of Chengdu, the ancient Shu ruins "Sanxingdui" unearthed artifacts, there are dozens of bronze masks, is 4,000 years ago, the ancient king of Shu fish mallard rituals held supplies. Lanling King Changgong of Northern Qi Dynasty, the temperament of the brave and strong martial arts, but handsome like a woman, he fought with a mask, to help its power. In the Tang Dynasty's song and dance "King Lanling's Entry Song", the actor playing King Lanling had to wear a mask. This may be the origin of face painting in theater.

Related Records

Ancient masks featured simple symbols, "idea symbols" and ""expression symbols,"" which were used to express a particular idea or expression. To the theater, these symbols are painted directly on the face to express more complex and rich ideas and expressions. In the Tang Dynasty, there was a record of "painting the face", and Meng Jiao wrote in "Song of Strings": "Driving the stalls and beating the drums and blowing the flute, the skinny ghosts dyed their faces but their teeth were white", which indicated the use of dyeing and painting of the face to express the image of the ghosts and gods. In the sixth volume of "Qingkang Zhongchixi" of Xu Mengxin's "Three Dynasties of the North Gate" of the Song Dynasty, it is recorded that two sycophants of Emperor Huizong of the Song Dynasty used "powder and ink to make a play", uttering obscene and vulgar words in the marketplace, to bewitch the emperor. Song Dynasty "face painting" is divided into "clean face" and "surface" two categories, flower face is also very simple. Painted a white nose, red eye circles, the purpose of "business in the funny". Because the Song Dynasty miscellaneous dramas, gags accounted for a large proportion. Yuan dynasty miscellaneous dramas prevailed, in the "Daxing scattered music Zhongdu Xiu in this do field" in a large mural, appeared in the Yuan miscellaneous dramas in front of the character of the "whole face" of the spectrum, breaking through the past vice net kind of white and black line of the basic tone, with some kind of character color.

The Ming Dynasty was already the world of legendary plays performed by the Kun Opera, with rich performances and a fine division of labor, with the Jing divided into the Pure (big face), the Vice-Pure (two faces) and the Ugly (three faces). All the jing and chou are painted with a face, and each character has a special face. The background color is mostly designed according to the depiction in rap literature or the actor's own imagination. For example, Guan Yu's base color is red and Bao Gong's is black. Its basic spectrum is the exaggerated eyebrow and eye part. In the Ming Dynasty, people kept their hair and their faces were drawn below the forehead, while in the Qing Dynasty, people kept their hair in braids and their heads were shaved above the head, and their faces were also drawn above the head. The proportion of the patterns also changed. Compared with the Ming Dynasty, the face painting was complicated and simple, with the same base color. In the middle of the Qing Dynasty, the rise of local theater, the face of the net clowns in each place is very different, there are obvious local characteristics and folk art breath, a variety of local theater about more than 300 types of plays, mostly in the 18th century after the rise. The prosperity of the local theater, making the repertoire of the subject matter of the increasing number of characters and roles, the line division of labor more detailed. In addition to the Jing line, there was the addition of the Wu Jing. The colors increased blue, green, yellow, gray and orange.

Categorization of face painting

Face painting is divided into four basic types according to the way of coloring: rubbing, hooking, wiping and breaking.

Rubbing the face: dignified and majestic, with the whole color as the main one, and the texture of the five senses is added to realize it. It is a very ancient form of face painting.

Hook face: colorful, rich patterns, complex and beautiful, colorful, and some also affixed with gold and silver, gorgeous.

Wiping face: light-colored for more, thought to apply powder to the face, not to show people their true colors, highlighting the nature of the treacherous bad guys.

Broken face: asymmetrical face, left and right, describing the ugly face or meaning than the opposite role.

Based on the arrangement of the pattern of the face, the face is divided into the following four types:

The whole face: the most primitive form of the face, the use of the eyebrows to divide the face into the forehead and the face of the two parts of the face.

Three tile face: on the basis of the whole face and then use the mouth and nose to divide the face into left and right face.

Three Tile Face: A face in which the edges of the three tiles divide the face into two parts, and various patterns are added artistically.

Shattered Face: A variant of the three-tile face with a very flowery border that destroys the original outline.

Patterns of the face

The patterns of the face are very rich, and are roughly divided into forehead, eyebrow, eye sockets, nose sockets, fork of the mouth, and the lower part of the mouth. Each part of the pattern varies a lot, there are regular but not definite, such as:

Bao Zheng has a white crescent moon on his black forehead, which indicates that he is clean and honest. Meng Liang has a red gourd on his forehead, signaling that this person loves to drink. Wen Zhong and Yang Jian are painted with three eyes, derived from classical legends. Giant Spirit, Fury God and Money Leopard have multiple faces to emphasize their characteristics of gods, ghosts and demons. Yang Qilang's forehead has the traditional Chinese character for "tiger", indicating his bravery and invincibility. Zhao Kuangyin's Dragon Eyebrow indicates that he is the son of the true dragon. There is a thunder and lightning pattern in Lui Gung's face. Jiang Wei has a yin and yang picture on his forehead, which indicates that he is skillful in calculation. Xiahou Dun's eye socket was wounded by an arrow, so he painted a red dot to indicate that. Duo Erdun, Dian Wei and others have their best weapon patterns on their faces. Wang Yanzhang draws a toad on his head, indicating that he is the reincarnation of a water beast. Zhao Gongming draws money on his face to indicate that he is the God of Wealth. The Big Dipper draws seven stars on his forehead.

The role of the face

The role of the face, in addition to indicating the character, but also imply that the role of a variety of circumstances, such as Xiang Yu's eyes painted as "crying", implying that the tragic end of his, Bao Gong frowning implied that he was thinking about worrying about the Monkey King monkey-shaped face implied that he was originally a monkey. Another role is to "distance", to open the psychological distance between the play and the audience. The drawings on the face make the audience unable to distinguish the original face of the actor, and it is very different from the appearance of real people in life, like wearing a mask. This makes the audience not easy to "enter the theater" to avoid hallucinations, but to concentrate on aesthetics and appreciation. In addition, the "big flower face" and "handsome dress" at the same time on the stage, forming a sharp contrast, highlighting the beauty of the raw, Dan's face and the grotesque face of the pure and ugly. At the same time, the face of the heavy, distinctive oil paint and a variety of patterns, coupled with the purity of the line "roar" of the rough voice, forming a strong artistic stimulus to the audience to play a role in excitement, catharsis and vibration.

Face painting is not absolutely fixed, due to the staging of the play, the age of the character, the actor's face is different and slightly different. In addition, the actor painted face when the performance, there is a principle, that is, the characters present at the same time, their faces, especially the tone of the color can not be "guilty of heavy", such as the "Chang Ban Po" in the Cao camp at the same time on the stage, in addition to Zhang Liao does not hook the face of the rest of the seven people must be a person of one color, can not be the same. The purpose of this is to use different colors to match for beauty, and at the same time to keep the audience from confusing the roles from a distance. The Pure line's face is the richest and most complex. The Peking Opera face of the King of Chu is called "Wushuang face", which is exclusively for the King of Chu. According to legend, the King of Chu was a beautiful man, but because he killed countless people and had a violent temperament, he was painted with a flowery face; and because he was a tragic figure, two large black shadows were painted on his eyes, which were slanting downward, making his face obvious as a wailing face. The base color of Xiang Yu's face is white, which indicates treachery and cruelty. In people's impression, Xiang Yu is a bloodthirsty man, especially Farewell My Concubine, which fully shows deep feelings and is unforgettable, but his face is only in black and white, and there is no red color. This situation shows that there are still many problems in the face to be studied and explored.

China Face Painting Website /

Beijing Clay Sculpture Peking Opera Face Painting

One, the original source of face painting]

The development of face painting and the development of Chinese opera are inseparable. It originated from the historical "generation face". According to the "Old Book of Tang" records, about the period of the North and South Dynasties, there is a "generation of 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 various characters have their own specific style and color, face painting to highlight the character traits of the characters, with "praise and blame, good and bad" artistic function, so that the audience can look at their appearance, know their heart.

The Formation of Peking Opera Face Painting

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 genres. 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 also loses its fundamental significance.

The net in the opera, the ugly hook face and the raw corner of the 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. A face of the spectrum, a play in the face with, must be embedded in this overall stage art, which is the face of the art of wholeness.

Three, Peking Opera face color general knowledge

Peking Opera face is the most colorful opera face, the so-called face color refers to the main color of the face in terms of the red, purple, black, white, blue, green, yellow, pink, brown, ochre, gold, silver, etc., each with a second to a rich imagination and exaggerated, highlighting the complexity of the character 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 is completely the interpretation of "Looking at the Text", which cannot explain the real meaning of this face.

Four, Beijing clay Peking Opera faces

Beijing's clay painted faces originated in the late Qing Dynasty. Who actually turned the Peking Opera stage face into a clay painted face? People say different things. The more popular saying 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.

Fifth, the production of Peking Opera clay face

The production of clay Peking Opera face less than a dozen procedures. First of all, you need to look for color and texture of the better mastic, and then over the shower soak, and then repeatedly kneaded and fell, do a good job of the mold of the face, wake up the mud with a mold carving billet, billet to be placed in a cool place to dry, do not expose to the sun, to prevent the billet from drying and cracking. Billet cool and dry sanding and polishing on the white and then painted on the billet, lacquer, tie beard, on the helmet so that a piece of work is completed. Clay face is the most effort is painted, Beijing's clay face to pay attention to the regularity of the composition, rigorous, smooth lines, accurate location, bright colors, good at portraying and highlighting the character of the character, focusing on painting, known as the "three types of seven colors," the name. In color painting, red, black and two-color painting after the varnish, white, green, yellow, blue and pink and so on with pigment outlining. Because the black and red with varnish, enhance the brightness, can make the base color stand out, and can make it with the general color contrast, give people a bright visual sense.

Six, the current situation of the craft clay face future

A variety of crafts market counters, a variety of exhibitions have Peking Opera face; parade in Paris, France, the head of the colorful car is also our Peking Opera face as well as the streets of Singapore in the holding of a number of activities are also hanging Peking Opera face; in our daily life in the family decoration, matchboxes, key chains, playing cards, models, sculptures on the street. In our daily life, Peking Opera faces are everywhere on home decorations, matchboxes, key chains, playing cards, models, and sculptures on the streets. As a symbol of Chinese culture, Peking Opera face painting has been recognized and welcomed by people at home and abroad. With the opening up of our country to the outside world, joining the WTO, especially the 2008 Olympic Games held in Beijing, there will be more and more Chinese and foreigners to understand China, Beijing, Chinese culture, Peking Opera and face painting. There will be more and more people like our Peking-style clay face painting. Let's do something to revitalize the art of Peking Opera and promote national culture!

Seven, folk social face painting

Nuo originated in the primitive religion. In ancient times, low productivity, people have no resistance to the threat of nature, in case of natural or man-made disasters, can only use Nuo, a primitive religious rituals of witchcraft activities to pray to the gods, exorcise the evil and expel the devil, eliminate the disaster.

Nuo Nuo mask art style, although thick, rough, but the craftsmen do not lack of fine carving, colorful, simple folk modeling techniques to give life to the mask vitality, the image of the delineation of 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 jewel of Chinese folk culture and art.

Eight, Tian Youliang penned face painting

Small Nan

When the winter festival came, Mr. Tian Youliang in the Huguang Guild Hall was happy to receive a disciple to follow him to learn face painting - Yang Qiang of the Peking Opera Troupe of the Warriors. 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 China Peking Opera Theatre famous playwright, had created "Wild Boar Forest", "The Greatest Showman", "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 Nationalists Face Painting Collection", "Water Margin Heroes One Hundred and Eighteen Generals", "Twenty-eight Stars Face Painting", "One Hundred Birds Face Painting", "One Hundred Monkeys Face Painting", etc., of which "Chinese Nationalists Face Painting Collection" contains more than 2,000 frames of face paintings including those of 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, embryo in the ancient totem, goblet in the Spring and Autumn Nuo Festival, breeding milk for the Han and Tang 'generation of face', the development of the Song and Yuan 'painted face', the formation of the Ming and Qing faces. " 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 styles, 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 good and evil" artistic function.

In recent years, as Mr. Tian Youliang's artistic achievements are getting higher and higher, his reputation has reached overseas, he was invited to explain the history of face painting on CCTV, and many of his works have been published in the press, spreading and promoting the art of Peking Opera and traditional culture.

Nine, Chinese face culture

lp118.cn

Chinese Peking Opera face culture is profound, and the use of face makeup is more than a heart! "Face painting is a kind of make-up modeling art that is unique within 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: 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 nose bridge between the eye sockets sketch face, 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 visual 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 and rich in connotation, even many Western art masters think Chinese opera face painting is "wonderful". For more pictures of face paint go to:Face Paint:

Yellow Face and White Face

Painting a certain color on a person's face to symbolize the person's personality and qualities, his role and destiny is one of the major 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: Durden.

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

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

Green - represents the character of tenacious and violent. 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