Taoist feelings in northern Shaanxi

There are few written records about the origin and evolution of Taoist feelings in northern Shaanxi, only some oral records. According to the legend of predecessors, Comrade Wu Xiwa, an old artist of Shenchi Daoqing Troupe, said: "In ancient times, there was an unusually beautiful piano sound on the mountain of Zhong Nanshan, so people imitated this piano sound to make songs and spread them among the people. Later, Taoism collected and compiled it into Daoqing. Taoist sentiment is developed from Taoist sentiment, and it is said that songs were produced in the Han and Tang Dynasties. " "Records of Rites and Music in Tang Dynasty" records: (to the general effect) Xuanzong was fond of immortals, and had called Taoist Sima and others to write more than ten poems, with the total name of "Daoqu". Doug and Daoqu are tunes related to Taoism, which may be the original form of Daoqing. After Doug and Daoqu developed into Taoist feelings, they were generally rap art forms, mainly singing events with certain storylines. This is a major change in the artistic form of Taoism. The former is a song and the latter is a folk art; The former focuses on lyricism, while the latter focuses on rap stories.

The transformation of Daoqing from rap to drama is another major change in the artistic form of Daoqing. Daoqing in northern Shaanxi is the earliest Taoist drama in Shanxi. In the early years of Qianlong, it entered the opera stage with the help of the combination of "wind stirring snow" and "hook cavity" Gouqiang Opera, also known as "Gouqiang Opera" or "Laogouqiang Opera", is a kind of opera with the same name as Beijing Opera and the same period as Kunqu Opera. During the Daoguang period, the "hook cavity" has gradually declined. It is through the combination of rap and "Gouqiang" that Taoist feelings in northern Shaanxi entered the stage of opera with the help of "Gouqiang". Before that, there was a transitional development stage called "crossing the street", which was actually a combination of rap and "social fire" In the old customs of northern Shanxi, every Lantern Festival, the Han people hold "social fire" activities. Stilts or yangko teams walk through the streets dressed as the Eight Immortals, pass big shops or government agencies, and then stop to perform or sing. People dressed as the Eight Immortals will sing some related aria in rap, thus forming a prototype of traditional Chinese opera that speaks, sings, dresses up and simply performs. But this form is not a formal Taoist drama, but a transition from rap to drama. This change is undoubtedly an extremely important condition for the evolution of rap Taoism in northern Shaanxi to drama. Since Daoqing in northern Shaanxi is a local opera, it has kept close contact with Han folk art in other places since it entered the stage of opera, and has frequent artistic exchanges through the form of "wind stirring snow". Some of them got on the stage of traditional Chinese opera (such as the duet in Hequ County) driven by folk songs and dances, while others absorbed and learned from each other through this exchange and combination, and constantly improved each other's artistic structure. In this kind of communication and combination, the Taoist feelings in northern Shaanxi constantly enriched and developed plays, absorbed folk performance skills, and added a strong flavor of life, thus forming a unique local drama in northern Shaanxi.

Taoist activities in northern Shaanxi spread all over northern Shaanxi. In addition, there are footprints of northern Shaanxi Taoism from Inner Mongolia in the north and northern Shaanxi in the west. After liberation, Daoqing in northern Shaanxi reached Taiyuan in the south.

It is said that the Taoist sentiment in northern Shaanxi used to be considered as a "divine drama", and the first scene of the old temple fair in northern Shaanxi was a worship drama. People always worship gods with Taoist emotions. If Daoqing sings or plays against other operas on the same stage, it is always allowed to sing Daoqing first, and if Daoqing is not performed, other operas will not be performed. The early Taoist feelings were highly respected, and artists who engaged in Taoist feelings also relied on Taoist feelings, especially in cities, and asked for performances. Taoism in northern Shaanxi, like other operas, is a comprehensive art form, which includes four skills of "singing and doing", but because of its singing content, it is mainly based on three skills of "singing and doing". Daoqing in northern Shaanxi belongs to the "Lianqu" opera music system, with rich singing tunes. It not only inherits the ancient traditional Daoqing and folk Daoqing Quyi, but also combines some musical elements of folk songs and local operas, and at the same time has some singing tunes of local operas, so it is called "Seventy-two Tunes of Daoqing" and has 96 suites in 13 kinds. The earliest accompaniment instruments in Taoism are mainly fish drums and simple boards. After the development of traditional Chinese opera, the fish drum was still preserved, and Wenchang's musical instruments included the flute, big banhu, small banhu, dulcimer and Hu Si.

There are more than 100 Taoist dramas in northern Shaanxi, which are divided into four categories according to the times, contents and styles.

Early drama. The content is a Taoist story, which is characterized by reflecting Taoist life and promoting the religious philosophy of "no distractions, no feelings and no righteousness". Among them are Xiangzi Biography, Sean Biography, Zhuang Zhou Biography, Selling Medicine in Hangzhou (Lv Dongbin Story) and < U & gt[font color=#0000cc] Oolong [/font].