The First Generation of the "Eight Monsters"

Appeared in the Qing Dynasty around the Xianfeng, Tongzhi and Guangxu dynasties. They are poor not afraid, vinegar drowning cream, Han hemp, basin bald, Tian crippled, ugly grandchildren, nose buzzer, often stupid, eight healed folk artists. Their art forms include saying, pulling, playing, singing, martial arts, acrobatics, writing and painting, etc., artistic style and attainments, only the difference between the elegant and vulgar, but no high and low and the theory, the different colors are presented, each hero. The real name of "Poor Fearless" is Zhu Shaowen, a scholar who did not pass the imperial examination. He was born around 1829, and sold his comedy in Tianjin during the Tongzhi and Guangxu periods of the Qing Dynasty. He was originally a Peking Opera clown, playing the frame flower face, and it is rumored that the martial arts drama "Eighteen Takes" came out of his hand. Later, he worked in Tianqiao. In his later years, he lived in a felt room outside Di'anmen in Beijing. Zhu Shao Wen first sang Peking Opera flower face, dress up Nian playing innovation and suffered from jealousy, so he switched to comedy, named "poor not afraid", which means that although he is poor, but the backbone of a person, not afraid of anyone's business.

"Poor Fearless" was not only proficient in literature and ink, but also had a good understanding of the sounds and meanings of Chinese characters. When he performs, he always uses white sand to sprinkle into the shape of characters, and tells the reasoning in the characters while sprinkling, so as to attract the audience to watch him perform and make people learn knowledge in the sound of laughter. Therefore, Zhu Shaowen's greatest contribution to the art of comedy was the introduction of the "white sand sprinkled with words" performance style into comedy. Zhu Shao Wen always brought a small bag of fine white sand, took two small bamboo boards, clamped a large broom, and drew a big circle with white sand in a crowded place, which was called "drawing pot", which is the meaning of the paddock performance. Then he knelt on the ground with one leg, a thing with the thumb and make finger pinch white sand on the ground into a variety of words Hugh or pattern, and then take two small bamboo board beat and sing, or lead to a variety of interesting work and jokes. After the performance of a set of programs, sweep away the words on the ground with a broom, write new words and start a new program. He can use white sand to write into a zhang two feet of double-hooked large characters, quite a picture, such as "a tiger", "pen Fu", "a life" and other large characters. Often there are small words under the big words, many words grouped together, it becomes a poem or a pair. He often wrote a couplet: "A scholar grinds ink and wipes ink from a scholar's vein, and a plum scent adds coal to two brows of coal." This couplet reads like a tongue-twister, clever and funny. There is also the couplet "painting on the lotus monk painting, book Lin Han Lin book" is also the same. "This fresh form of performance attracted a lot of audience and everyone was willing to watch it, so Zhu Shaowen's comedy was listed as the first of the "Eight Strange Things in Tianqiao" at that time.

Poor not afraid of Zhu Shao Wen learned to be the best at spreading the pre-Qin female poet Su Ruolan's miscellaneous Huiwen poems. According to the Book of Jin. According to the "Jin book. Double according to Tang "xuan gui tu preface" said, is due to family disputes, dou tao and his wife cut off, Su's self-hatred, sadness to the deep, so weaving brocade text, colorful phase Yi, vertical and horizontal eight inches, the title of the poem more than two hundred, about more than 800 sound, vertical and horizontal repetition of can be chapters and sentences. He sent someone to Xiangyang, where his husband stayed in town, and Dou Tao was very impressed by it, so he took Su to his side.

Poor not afraid of Zhu Shaowen in the performance, he first spoke of "Su Hui Ruolan brocade back to the text Xuan Gui Figure" ability, and then they grabbed the white sand, sprinkled and wrote one or two poems, such as:

Lin Long Zhaode Huai Sheng Huang, people low for the female have soft and strong;

Parents want to think about who hope to be a chastity Zhi Yi Yi Jishou when.

If this poem is read in reverse, it will become the following poem:

When the Ji Yi Zhi Ching Chun, who is looking forward to thinking about the relatives;

The woman who has softness and rigidity is a slut, and the imperial saint has shown the Dragon and the Holy Spirit.

"Poor not afraid of" Zhu Shaowen speaking "xuan gui tu" ability to spread writing Su's Huiwen poetry, in the history of Chinese comedy can be said to be unique, can be called a masterpiece. He relies on his own profound writing skills, applied to the process of easy-to-understand explanation, a large number of viewers attracted to their own surroundings.

He also often writes some of the words and phrases from the "Collection of Famous Sages", and after each phrase is spilled out, he expounds on them, such as:

Poor living in the city no one asks, rich living in the mountains have distant relatives.

The tiger is always lying on its head, and the trapped dragon has its time in the sky.

These famous lines, after his shallow and incisive speech, often give the audience some philosophical aspects of life enlightenment, so that the audience in the entertainment accepted the reason.

The most prominent artistic feature of "Poor No" is the harmony of Zhuang. He often puts together several Chinese characters with the same radical and radical side to form words, phrases or short sentences that rhyme with each other. For example, "Three characters with the same head, hibiscus flower, three characters with the same side, sister mom." Another example is, "Three characters with the same head are often dangdang, and one or three characters with the same side are eating, drinking and singing." When he added, "It's all because of eating, drinking and singing that we have always been a dangdang." "You see, eating, drinking, and singing are not to be avoided! You see, from me, I have learned the couplets and the way to live in the world, which is of great benefit! If you are willing to give me a few dollars for my food, I'd be grateful. Then again, I'm not afraid of being poor, and I won't turn around and curse you if you don't give me a small fortune." His words often make people handsome, so that people in the easy and fast laughter, realize the truth of hard work and thrift, filial piety and parents.

There are many comedies made up by Zhu Shaowen, who was not afraid of poverty, that have been passed down to this day. Such as clever satire on the corruption and greed of the officials at that time "word elephant", advise people to do good "truth", "Baoyu sighed", "heap of soldiers dreaming", etc. In form, there are mainly said to be "poor", "poor", "poor", "poor", "poor", "poor". In the form, there are mainly spoken one-liner comedies such as Old Japanese Fighting, Master Qianlong Fighting Jiangnan Siege, and Fake Sven, and the counterpart comedies such as Bodyguard and Yellow Crane Tower, as well as the three-member comedy Four Characters Joint Tone, etc. Zhu Shaowen had four disciples. Zhu Shao Wen has four disciples: Poor Yuben, Rich Root, Xu Yulu, and Fan Youyuan. Nowadays, Daxin, who speaks comic opera, inherits the school of Zhu Shao Wen and continues to thrive.

"Poor not afraid" Zhu Shao Wen is the early representative of the art of comedy. Because of his singing and rapping skills are superb, and created a new form of double-mouth comedy performance, opened up new areas for the spread of the art of comedy and development has made a significant contribution, so he is quite contemporaneous with the later comedians worship and respect. At present, among the cultural relics handed down in the world of Chinese opera, there is a pair of bamboo boards left behind by the "poor and not afraid", about 12.5 centimeters in length and 4.9 centimeters in width, with two oval bamboo boards remotely very bright, and a five-sentence poem engraved on the back of the bamboo boards and two engraved on the back of each board, which reads: "Eat a thousand meals a day, sleep in an ancient temple at night, and do not do anything illegal, which is the only thing that is not against the law, which is not against the law. and do not do anything that violates the law, even if you see the king." There is also a pair of bamboo boards without whereabouts, it is said to be engraved: "full of articles poor fear, five cars of books and history landing poor."

Yang Manqing, a literati of the Qing Dynasty, wrote a poem in seven lines in "Miscellaneous Songs from Tianqiao" in praise of "not afraid of being poor":

An old man with a witty tongue, inviting wealth and fortune to be written by you.

Who says that people like him are not afraid of poverty when he frequently knocks on the bamboo board and sings from a squatting position?

Spreading white sand on the street every day, I don't need ink to scribble.

It's a common thing to sweep the floor, but I'm looking for money to support my family. He mainly told jokes and comedy, and also sang Shanxi slang village tunes, mountain songs and pier tunes.

He usually dresses up very oddly, and when he goes on stage, he has a hand with a grass bead, wears a sarong, has a long sideburns beard, and has a strange and strange face. His specialty is called "dark spring", which is also known today as "ventriloquism", in which to learn bird calls for his specialty. He learned the birds, including a variety of birds chirping, and the sound of the sound, but also a beautifully, as in the performance of the bird market in general. Tianqiao miscellaneous chants" in a poem praising "vinegar drowning cream":

Slang song village song Xing is also proud, clang tartar rhyme ow noisy.

And now there are still people who say, "I'm not sure if you've ever heard of this, but I'm not sure if you've ever heard of this," he said.

The grass, the beads, the veils, the drums and the gongs, the drums and the gongs, the drums and the gongs.

Who has succeeded in the past fifty years?

The song sung by the "vinegar drowning cream" is called "Shanqu" in Shanxi, and it is a folk tune popularized in the area of Hequ in northwestern Jin Dynasty. Its lyrics are basically seven-word sentences, without strict constraints, free to expand and contract. The most famous one is "Going to the West", which expresses the scene of Shanxi and Hequ people going out to Inner Mongolia in spring to make a living. Its tunes are divided into "Zheng style", "Shang style", "Yu style" and "Gong style", which are simple, beautiful and rhythmic. The music is simple, beautiful, and rhythmic.

The minor key is also known as "Xiaoqu". It is characterized by soft and smooth tunes, beautiful lyrics, popular images, the content of the field and mountain labor, with a deep local color. The tunes sung by "Vinegar and Drowning Paste" in those years included "Meng Jiangnu", "Five Shifts", "Embroidered Lotus and Pacman" and "Su Wu Shepherds", etc. He was good at using different tunes to make his songs more appealing. He was good at using different tunes and replacing the lyrics with different ones, making them constantly changing and always new, so that the audience would not fall back on their tastes.

The pier tune is also known as "social fire tune". "Social fire" is a form of song and dance performance. In the early years in Shanxi and western Inner Mongolia and other regions, every time a festival comes, the villages are to do social fire, such as running dry boats, rice-planting songs, gnawing on the high practice, etc., the tunes used to call the pier tunes. Its music is divided into rap and lyrical two categories, the former narrative-based, interesting and lively content, bright, simple style, but not strong melody; the latter singing is very strong, smooth and rich tunes, cheerful and lively, euphemistic and soft, but also a bleak and mournful.

The scenes sung by the "Vinegar and Drowning Paste" performers are not only slang village songs with strong colors, but also words of ridicule and mockery of the current evils, together with the different attire and movements in the performances, which made the audience never get tired of watching them, and they did not want to go away. In the past, there was a popular saying in old Beijing: "Pocky Han asks for money with his waist crossed." This is the long stroll old for the early days of Tianqiao one of the eight strange Han Pocky specially created.

Han Pocky, as the name suggests, we know that this person sex Han, face with a face full of marijuana, people do not call his name and call "Pocky". He was the most famous stand-up comedian in the early days of Tianqiao. This person specializes in witty jokes or learn from the market children of various business vendors selling sound into the performance of the program, very interesting. He has a harsh and sarcastic mouth, which is extremely unpleasant to the ear. You look at his appearance is also very strange, face purple more hemp, eyebrows contain a number of slutty, and will be dished in front of the forehead between the corners of the hair, hand-held broken fan a handle. Every time I see his two lips fluttering, two eyes turn around, do not hear what he said, can not help but make people laugh. Tianqiao artist Sun Baocai, a big dog bear, once recalled Han Ma's face and laughter, said: "Han Mazi has a different look, a big head like a wide pear in general, forehead lines crisscrossed, as if inserting a flower, full of a happy face. The face of the ground dash on the white ash, the back of the head to tie a foot long small defense, pouting towards the sky, in order to make people laugh. He often wears a right lapel green jacket, pinned with five cloth coiled into a pimple buttons. He was big, a fat man, with a face of pimples." "Pocky Han hand carrying a painted eyebrow cage, go wherever, where on the lively, he put the birdcage to the ground a put, people will gather around. When the people are happy and laughing, suddenly stop, two hands to the waist a fork, and then ask for money." Sun Baocai's mouth is powerful, he will curse, but also let you do not hear. For example, he talked about Ms. so-and-so's ivory bed, said: 'What ivory bed? Before and after the bed, dog bones, wolf bones, pig bones, cow bones, what kind of animal bones are there. Only the one in the center of the bed was an elephant!' When he said this, he stood in the middle of the field and scolded all the audience in the front and back, only he was a piece of ivory, and by the time the audience realized it, they had already been scolded. Because he loved to scold, so many people hate him, but because he scolded cleverly, scolded wonderful, so the audience was scolded or love to listen. Every day after the performance, Han Pocky earned money, always more than other comics. This is mainly because he is a good comedian, people are willing to listen, are willing to give. Then again, they are all afraid of his scolding, do not dare not give him money.

It is said that when the famous painter Shen Rongjian had Han said the comic mood painted like in the frame, hanging in the Dajie Bar more room window or hanging in the Coal Market Street Road east of the door of the rice store, borrowed to do the signboard of the Qing Shui Fax, attracted a lot of people around to watch.

Han Mazi's "GuanKou" (Opera terminology. It refers to rapid singing, reciting lyrics or recounting many things in a row) and "change of mouth" (a term used in the opera industry. Refers to the use of local dialects) and other basic skills are extremely skilled, and his peculiar appearance complement each other, the same is the "three myopia", "wax cuttings child" and other traditional monologue program, after he said, there are different rhymes and attract laughter charm, and even make people spit, hilarious, so whenever he finished a section of the cross-strapped into a dingzhi step, the guys always have to throw money to him.

The audience was y impressed by Pocky Han's manner of speaking and asking for money. All Beijingers who are familiar with Tianqiao know the man Basin Baldy. Basin Baldy is the nickname of the artist, whose real name is no longer available. Only because he knocked the tile pots in Tianqiao children and sing a small song, coupled with his bald head, so everyone called him basin bald.

Basin Baldy himself, there are two distinctive features of his appearance, one is bald, only some whiskers in the corner of the mane. The second is that when he walks, he walks with a limp, just like Iron Knuckle Li in "The Eight Immortals Cross the Sea".

There is a historical allusion to the man who sang a little song while knocking on a tile pot. Sima Qian's "Records of the Grand Historian" recorded the story of the King of Qin striking a percussion for the King of Zhao at the pool meeting, which is widely known to this day. The history of using percussion as percussion music can be traced back to the ancient period of the Tang Dynasty. According to "Literature can test" in the "music test" records: "Ancient percussion, shaped like a foot basin or said shaped like an overturned basin, with four staff to hit." By checking the relevant historical records, it can be seen that according to legend, when Guan Yao, an old man hit the soil and sang: "sunrise and work, sunrise and rest, chiseling wells and drinking, plowing and eating, the emperor why power over me?" The lyrics of this song later became an allusion to the glorification of peace and prosperity. From the examination, we also know that "hitting the soil" is "hitting the percussion". Tang Yao after the Spring and Autumn, Warring States, Qin and Han dynasties, there are records of percussion and music. For example, in the Book of Han. Yang Yun biography" contains this text: "After drinking and ear-heating, he tilted the sky to pat the percussion, and called out Wu Wu."

The performance of Basin Baldy was different: he held a large tile basin when he performed, and used a pair of chopsticks to strike different parts of the basin, sending out different high and low rattles, and knocking out a variety of tones, coupled with the mouth of the lyrics made up, to catch the comic relief to make people laugh. Sun Baocai said this about Bunduzi: "Bunduzi is a strange man. His head was bald, only two bristles had some hairs, and he was walking with a twist, as if he was an iron crutch Li. He held a tile basin, two feet in diameter and one foot deep, and knocked it around with a pair of chopsticks, but he was also able to knock out the five tones and twelve rhythms. He knocked and sang at the same time, casually making up words to amuse and entertain people."

The basin baldy hit tile pots children, Can Can for sound, although not the eight tones of K Harmony, but the clear Yue in the music, and he sang the rhythmic and staccato of the little song should be and as one, tracing back to the roots of some of the ancient Gui, so the poet Yang Manqing in the Qing Dynasty in the Tianqiao Miscellaneous Rhapsody in the praise of the basin baldy:

Have seen that year basin baldy, the pots knocking rhymes clanking.

But nowadays the marketplace will be new tunes, do not realize that the Qin people are good at this sound?

Singing a song with a percussion like a beggar.

Laughing at the lack of knowledge of the common people, presumption of Zhuang Zhou wave knock basin. Tian cripple is the Qing dynasty in the Guangxu years on the Tianqiao vaudeville field specializing in plate kung fu old folk artists, whose real name has been unquestionable, because he was in the Tianqiao sells art for several decades, has never disclosed to the people of my life name, seems to have a hidden meaning, it is not good for others to ask again.

This person's early childhood martial arts extremely kung fu, because of kicking too hard to be disabled. But some people say, he was fighting with people, was injured by the other side, space which is right or wrong, who can not say. But with a disabled leg can play on the bar practicing a variety of technical movements, or quite uncomplicated. Every day, he brought a disciple to the footbridge to sell art site, the first bar frame support, and then let his disciple first perform one or two small tricks, as the introduction to the field, and then he limped to the field up. He is like the old man Tao Hong in "playing melon garden", hale and hearty, not the least bit old. He was tossing around on the bar, doing all kinds of maneuvers flexibly with his hands and limbs. Such as the top of the messy set, choke neck, left and right wind flag, swallow turn over, Nezha explore the sea, endless variations, can not be named. The audience applauds and praises the performance. Each performance can be charged when the top ten money ranging from 3,000 to 5,000, a day down, the money into the number of 30 to 40 thousand, the income can be said to be very expensive.

The martial arts master's "two-finger Xianggong" has long been familiar to people, Tian crippled the most skillful kung fu is to use two fingers to support, in the bar to take the top, upside down, which at the time of the Tianqiao performing arts circle is also known as the best.

The cripple's body was disabled, but he had extraordinary strength, tiger-like swiftness and ape-like dexterity. Whenever he performs, he always attracts the audience with a few simple movements first, and only after the audience gathers around him, does he take out his skills one by one. Many of his difficult and wonderful performances are related to historical figures or mythological stories. For example, the White Monkey steals me, Liu Yu lies down, and Huang Xiang lies down. In addition is the mimetic movement form, such as duck eider, harrier turn over, upside down golden bell and so on.

"The white ape steals the peach" is to bend one knee to clamp the bar, hands on the knee as the myth of the white ape holding a peach to offer the mother like, and then around the bar inverted seven or eight times, as fast as the wind and lightning, dazzling. Today's gymnasts on the bar to do the "single hanging knee loop" action, do not dare when the field crippled the white ape stealing peaches quite similar.

"Liu Ling drunken lying" is to bend one arm to the bar, another hand to the chin as a drunken lying, the weight of the whole body support in one arm, the difficulty is even greater. Liu Ling is a major celebrity in the ancient Wei and Jin Dynasties, with Ruan Ji, Jikang, etc., known as the "Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove". And because he "often ride a deer car, with a pot of wine, so that people load spade follow", "the name of the wine, a drink a stone, five bucket solution to wake up", so known as the Wine Fairy, so the descendants left behind "Dukang wine Liu Ling drunk Liu Ling was known as the Wine Immortal, leaving behind the legend of "Liu Ling drunk on Dukang wine". Liu Ling was a good friend of Zhang Hua, the then Crown Prince. He traveled thousands of miles to Suicheng (now Xushui, Hebei Province) to visit Zhang Hua, often enjoying himself with wine, and after his death, he was buried in Zhang Hua Village, west of the ancient Suicheng in Xushui.

The "Huang Xiang Reclining Seat" is performed by holding a bar with both hands, bending both arms, holding the waist and legs in the air, and rotating the bar for a week with the hands upside down. Huang Xiang, a native of Jiangxia in the Eastern Han Dynasty, was known as Wenqiang. He lost his mother at the age of nine and served his father with filial piety, warming the bed in the summer with a fan and the pillow in the cold with his body. He learned the classics, can article, the capital said: "the world is unrivaled, Jiangxia Huang Tong". His official position was as high as Shangshu Ling (尚书令). The story of Huang Xiang was later incorporated into the "Twenty-four Filial Piety", which has been widely circulated in China. Therefore, the allusion to "Huang Xiang lying on the seat" as the name of the plate kongzi will be more popular with the general public.

Sun Baozai once recalled Tian Cripple, saying, "His specialty was practicing the style. Look at him, only one hand on the ground, put the whole body up, this is called single take big top. He also knows how to do a backward somersault; his body flips backward and then stands in front of you, which is called a swallow somersault. He also has a trick, in the single big top, the body to the left and right tilt, as if the wind blowing people crooked, which is called the left and right wind flag. There was another characteristic of the crippled Tian, he spent all his money when it came to him. Not a penny left, earn more and spend more, earn less and spend less. This is due to the jianghu people all day something to go, and no settlement, generally do not set up constant production, not for long-term planning, day by day, plus they suffer more, once the money, to enjoy. The next day and then say the next day, tighten your belt and then sell your art."

Tian's best maneuvers were the "bar ride" and the "two-finger handstand". Riding the bar is two legs back and forth apart riding on the bar, in front of the body or behind the continuous rotation of several rounds, the femur pinch bar roughly the same. "Two-finger handstand" is the index finger and middle finger on the bar, the body will be slowly upside down, this is the Tian cripple "finale" program, thrilling, every practice when the audience, but also make him famous in Tianqiao. "Ugly grandson" surname Sun, because of the ugly, so got a "ugly grandson" gag. He was a famous comedian in the Guangxu period of the Qing Dynasty, and was known for his strange appearances.

Sun Cai once described Sun Zi as ugly. He said: "The ugly grandson was born extremely ugly, simply a pig, ordinary days he said comedy, to the old calendar year of the big year Lu Yi, he wore a hemp crown, dressed in heavy mourning, left hand wailing stick, the right hand playing the streamer, crying a father, called a wrong, all the way to the Tianqiao lively place. At this time a lot of people gathered around him, all knowing that this was his way of asking for money, so the guys threw him a few bucks when they laughed."

The ugly grandson's best program was the "funeral" on the first day of the New Year. He performed a one-man show mimicking the entire funeral scene, and he did it beautifully. He first imitated the voices of many people in a tent: the second girl cried, three sisters-in-law shouted, four aunts advised, five aunts said, noisy and chaotic mess. Then he came out of the tent, wearing a hemp crown and heavy mourning, holding a mourning stick in his left hand, beating a paper streamer with his right hand, wrestling a funeral bowl, and crying loudly for his father. Crying, screaming, so as to make the audience laugh, in order to throw money to him.

The ugly grandson was already very ugly, plus heavy mourning wrapped around the body, dry horn, can be described as out of the good show ugly extreme. So Tianqiao market know ugly grandson, one for its strange, two for its jokes, known as the early days of Tianqiao "eight strange" one.

Yang Manqing, a Qing Dynasty literati, in his "Miscellaneous Songs of Tianqiao" in seven-character stanzas praising the "ugly grandson," said:

To make a living wearing a hemp crown, the line cried father and called for injustice.

There is no doubt that the people of the country have many taboos, but they also know how to get rid of the fake and make real money. There is less information about the nose buzzer in history. Legend has it that the nose buzzer is a strange, poor look of a nameless artist. His name is unknown, everyone called him "playing the tin pot of the horse's mouth". Some people say that he was originally a fellow of Shanxi somewhere, because of the good singing was dismissed to Beijing, so in the footbridge since the unique, I do not know whether this information is accurate. He took the foreign iron tube into the nostrils, and then the foreign iron pot hanging on the waist, both hands pull a bang bang huohu, while walking and pulling, singing at the same time. Sometimes he also plays the sound of the broken foreign iron kettle at his waist, and the iron cylinder stuffed in his nose is used as the final note after singing. Each sing a sentence, the end of the end of the sound of the brake to the nose tube instead, very funny, he was also listed as one of the "eight strange".

When he formally performed for the audience, but also deliberately dressed up, wearing flowers on the head, face powder. When he inserted two iron cylinders in the nostrils buzzing sound, that is, with a small stick in the hand struck the waist hanging the tin pot, that is, a rhythmic sound. At the same time the mouth and the tune, the iron pot of the beat sing a little song. People see his hands and feet busy work of the ridiculous antics will also laugh, leaving a deeper impression due to the county. In the Qing Dynasty, "Tianqiao Miscellanea" praised "Nose Buzzer" with a poem in seven lines:

The hemp and iron kettle knocked the rhyme and tone, but also can be handy with the Gongshang.

At that time, I was like a cow, a ghost, a snake or a god, but now I feel stronger.

When the nasal sound is heard, it is strange to dash powder and pin flowers.

But the practice of the tourists can pay attention to, today not to live up to the big soot. Chang fool is also one of the early eight weird Tianqiao. He performed ? Smashing stones", with the color of jianghu entertainers. Most of the old Tianqiao artists have heard of his performance. Some people say that his "smashing stones" is real kung fu, but some people say that his "smashing stones" is to peddle his treatment of bruises and injuries in the service of ready-made medicines, with a commercial nature and the color of the jianghu doctors. Then, no matter how to say, are recognized as one of the early days of the old Tianqiao eccentrics, his real name what, no one can say.

It is said that most of the stones smashed by the regular fool are cobblestones. Before the show, towel his brother Chang Lao Er take two pieces of stone to touch several times, so that the audience to hear the ringing sound, and then handed to the audience can use their hands to touch, see, and recognize the authenticity. At this time, Chang Laozi was lucky to get the chi into his hands. Then he took the stone and put it on the edge of a bench, and after finding the right position, he only heard "Hi!" "Hi!" Two sounds, where the palm of the hand poured down, the stone has been smashed.

Chang fools also have a great job, is to use the finger will be a stone poking broken. His performance is reminiscent of the kung fu performances of today's armed police fighters, and is very much in the same vein. However, "the blue is better than the blue, ice water for the cold in water", now the armed police fighters kung fu performance than when the fool is much more sophisticated, all with qigong, but also than the previous development of a wider range.

Constant fool performs a Chen "smashing stone", but to the audience to promote his "hundred complementary power pills". He said that his "hundred tonic power pills" has a miraculous effect, one can strengthen the body and bones, two can treat bruises, three can cure the flash waist and turn off the gas internal and external injuries. He also said that he himself took this medicine to have so much strength, in order to practice real kung fu. It is said that the pills he peddles are not miraculous, but they do not spoil people either, and the reason why he glorifies pills so much is mainly to maintain the minimum necessities of life in order to survive. He was "making money" from his audience in the form of selling pills. In this view, it is not unreasonable to say that he sells his art with a commercial nature.