The Origin and Development of Qichun Tea-picking Drama

Qichun County is located in the east of Hubei Province, at the southern foot of Dabie Mountain, on the north bank of the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, and bordering Guangji, Huangmei and An in the east.

Hui and susong county are bordered by Yingshan and Taihu County in the north, Xishui County in the west and Yangxin County and Huangshi City across the river in the south. There are mountains and fields in the territory, so it is divided into "mountainous areas" and "fan areas". According to qi zhou, Qichun was rich in tea as early as the Tang Dynasty. Tea farmers in mountainous areas always like to "sing the right mountain songs" with their boyfriends, or the tea pickers in this mountain and Napo sing in the tea picking season. The content of folk songs is mostly boyfriend's love and rural life experience. The source of lyrics is often "sing the mountain when you look at the mountain", "sing the water when you look at the water", "sing Zhang San when you say Zhang San" and "sing Li Si when you say Li Si", which is quite characteristic of oral improvisation. For a long time, in the activity of "picking tea against folk songs", many unique vocals have gradually formed, which people call "Qichun picking tea tune". In Fanqu, the common people have this tradition: on the day of the rice transplanting committee, farmers always ask people to sing for the rice transplanters on the ridge of the field. Four people were invited, one of whom was a lead singer and drummer, and the other three were accompanied by drums and gongs. The lead singer sang four auspicious words at the beginning, called "opening the seedling door"; Then there are folk songs (the tune of this folk song is different from that of tea-picking folk songs), which are composed of lead singers, gongs and drums players and villagers who are inserted as "chimes". If there are two people with surnames or two ridges transplanting rice in a field, there will be a lively scene of "singing folk songs" The aria used in the above activities is called "Qichun Fan Qiang" by the common people. Because the planting committee has a long festival, the content and lyrics can't be repeated every day. Singers attract lyrics from folk rap books and operas to update their vocals, so Fan Qiang unconsciously entered the field of operas. With the enrichment of life content and the development of culture, tea picking and mediation gradually spread. People fill in the lyrics according to the tune of cutting tea, and one or two people sing some short stories in life according to different people. Later, several people or a dozen people sang some short stories in life according to different people; Subsequently, several or a dozen people dressed up according to different roles, put on "costumes", sang a story with a relatively complete plot and put it on the stage. People call it "Qichun scissors" or "Qichun picking a joke". Or "Qichun Talent Show". People call the singing of Qichun tea-picking opera "Qichun wow cavity" because it often uses "help cavity" and the help cavity makes a "wow" sound.

During the Qing-Gan and Jia years, Qichun logging prevailed in the countryside. On festivals, temple fairs, weddings, birthdays and birthdays, local Han people love to invite troupes to sing tea-picking operas. According to Qian, editor-in-chief of Qichun County Cultural Records, he once saw a Guangxu version of the thread-bound book-"? The book Broken Gold (only the word "broken gold" is left on the cover of the book due to years of moth-eaten) contains the story of Chen Shi and Qichun's tea-picking drama. Chen Shi, a famous scholar in Qing Dynasty, was born in Tanhe, Qichun County. During Qianlong's years, he served as the director of Yuheng Department of Ministry of Industry, and wrote a lot. On the fifteenth day of the first month of one year, Zhu and Liu of Tanlin River invited the troupe to sing "Logging". People surnamed Zhu said that there was a Zhu Yuanzhang in Zhujiajian Island who wanted to sing Zhu Yuanzhang's play; People surnamed Liu said that there was a Han Chinese Liu Bang in the Liu family who wanted to sing Liu Bang's play. The audience has gone to the theatre, but two people are arguing and fighting. In order to get the play started early, they prepared wine for Chen Shi to judge. At that time, Chen Shi was going to retire at home, so she should be invited to settle the dispute. After some exhortation, I immediately wrote a couplet for Zhu and Liu and posted it on two pillars of the grass platform (pity? The book "Broken Gold" was burned in ten years of vigorous movement, but this pair of couplets can't remember the money clearly. The two surnames had a fight, and * * * invited the red class to sing Qichun tea-picking opera to celebrate the Spring Festival.

According to the Records of Wenchi in Qichun County, Chen Zeng, a famous representative of humorous figures in Hubei folk literature and a scholar of Taiping Heavenly Kingdom (born in Qing Dynasty, a juren), wrote couplets for Zhulin River in his hometown and posted them on the pillars on both sides of the stage. The first part is "Zhang Er's daughter rushed to the party in front of the theater", and the second part is "I'm afraid the fourth family will pay a New Year call". This kind of drama was often performed in Qichun tea-picking drama in Xianfeng period, which also shows that the plots of the above two plays were well-known at that time.

During the Republic of China, the Kuomintang authorities listed Cai Opera as a "Flower Drum Opera" and explicitly prohibited it. Many artists were beaten and arrested for singing tea-picking operas. However, people like tea-picking dramas very much. In the Republic of China 16, there were tea-picking opera classes in Zhangbangbang, Tanlinhe, Fantong, Gaoxinpu, Tongzihe, Shizikou, Gusiqiao, Hengche, Qingshuihe, Cao Jiahe and Zhuwa in Qichun County. Qichun tea-picking drama is so popular that I will hum a few words to rural farmers.

After liberation, the party and the people's government attached great importance to the traditional folk opera art-picking operas. 1957, Qichun County Cultural Center invited tea-picking artists from the county to the county seat, and invited professional musicians such as Wang from Hubei Art Institute at that time. Together, they compiled Fang Qing's Birthday, Buckwheat Basheng, White Sail, Paihuan and Turong. Similarly, the famous Qichun tea-picking artists Xu Deqing and Peng Yibin formed Qichun tea-picking crew and participated in the performance of Huanggang regional team in the provincial capital. They performed the little play "Three Shoulders Change" in the Han Dynasty, which was well received by the delegates.

1960 Huangmei Troupe of Qichun County excavated and sorted out the traditional repertoire "Loutaihui" of Qichun tea-picking opera, accompanied by national orchestral music, and participated in the teaching performance of Hubei Provincial Professional Troupe. After the play was staged in the Han Dynasty, it once aroused great interest from local leaders and professional musicians in provinces and cities.

From 65438 to 0962, the famous Huangmei Opera actor Wang Shaofang led the Anhui Huangmei Opera Troupe to perform in Qichun. They took advantage of the gap between performances to watch the amateur tea-picking drama performed by Qichun County Construction Team. After watching it, I was very interested in Hu Fan's fucking traditional performances. During the discussion, he said with great appreciation: "Hu's" Fan His Mom "performance program has few skills and simple performance. Used in the play, it is elegant and full of life, which makes people feel natural and appropriate. From this play, we got a special combination of poker and traditional artists who picked operas in Qichun, which was very inspiring ... "Twenty-seven years later, at the first Huangmei Opera Art Festival in Hubei Province, Sun Huairen, an Anhui Huangmei Opera Association and a folk artist, recalled with great interest the time when he watched tea-picking operas in Qichun. Laughing and laughing, she said while "doing": At that time, when I saw the young lady going downstairs in the play, why did she always raise her hands over her head, more than a foot apart, and at the same time, her ass tilted up and stepped back step by step? I didn't understand this' downstairs' at that time. Later, I went to the countryside to perform, and found that the stairs used in the countryside are all movable' ladders', and farmers really walk backwards when they go downstairs. It suddenly dawned on me that all your performances in Qichun tea-picking drama were based on life. ……"

1965 Qichun Huangmei Troupe rehearsed and created the drama Phoenix Bridge. After being staged in Qingshi District, it was designated as a performance in Huanggang District.

1973 Qichun County Art Troupe (Huangmei Opera Troupe of Qichun County 1966 was changed to Art Troupe, and Huangmei Opera Troupe was changed to 1978) rehearsed Qichun tea-picking drama "Jin Fengshan", and professional troupes in Huanggang participated in other plays. 1974, the troupe also transplanted the wow-wow Peking Opera "Battle on the Plain", which was recorded and broadcast to compatriots in Taiwan Province Province on CCTV 2. However, in the whole decade of the "Cultural Revolution", a large number of costume dramas were criticized and banned because they were "closed, funded and repaired", a large number of traditional tea-picking dramas were confiscated and burned, and some artists who sang costume tea-picking dramas were persecuted to varying degrees. Tong Tianxing, a tea-picking artist in Fantong Village, Dongchi District, Qichun, was awarded the first place by the cadres of the Revolutionary Committee of the Brigade for several days because he hummed several traditional operas in the ridge mouth. At that time, in the countryside, it can be said that "camellia withered, gongs and drums were silent".

After the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee, the party's literary and artistic policy of "letting a hundred flowers blossom and bringing forth the new" has returned. At that time, amateur tea-picking troupes mushroomed. New actors have come out to seek teachers; Some old artists take out scripts that have been collected for many years, and some are still alive. They dictate scripts and tell the original lines and vocals in their bellies. Xu Deqing, Gu Yibin, Huang Laishun and other old artists were overwhelmed at the moment, and even the actors of the amateur tea-picking troupe in Meichuan Town, Guangji County came to learn from the teacher. A batch of new tea-picking operas in Qichun surged onto the stage, a large number of traditional plays were restored, and tea-picking operas in Qichun flourished again.

Since 198 1, amateur tea-picking dramas have appeared in Zhangbang, Dagong, Caishou, Penghua, Lion, Guanhe, Shangwusong, Shima, Huangchang, Qingshuihe, Hengche, Dong Chi, Fantong, Jinniudong and Gaoxinpu in Qichun County. Some tea-picking troupes not only perform for the masses in festivals, but also break into the county town, step into the gate of the county cultural center, board the "elegant hall", sing loudly, dance comfortably, and even be invited to perform in other counties.

1984 Two teachers, Guang Cheng and Wang Jun from Hubei Drama Studio, made a special trip to Qichun to record tea-picking dramas. The following year, Qichun County Literature and History Museum sent a pen to the countryside to collect information and visit. 1987, the author, together with Tong Ming, the literary editor of Qichun Radio Station (now the radio station), recorded the tune materials and vocals of tea-picking opera into tapes of five albums, which were played in various places during the Spring Festival.

Strangely, while TV, movies, pop songs and dances violently impacted the drama, many rural people, regardless of gender, old and young, loved this tea-picking drama which was born and raised in Qichun. Under the scorching sun, in the cold wind, at the edge of the rice field and in front of the earthen table, the old woman and grandfather shook the cattail leaf fan, lifted the drying cage, opened their eyes, stood up their ears and opened their mouths, and listened with relish to picking tea. On the other hand, a young man in a suit is sitting at a table with a tape recorder. When girls get home, they often turn on the tape recorder and hum a few words along with the tape! What is even more touching is that a sailor who was assigned to work on an ocean-going ship after graduating from college walked more than 30 miles to see three tea-picking dramas in order to record a box of singing tapes of Qichun tea-picking dramas. He told the actors that he would take the tapes to ocean-going ships and put them everywhere. This is a preference for local accent, a nostalgia for Li Shizhen's hometown folk culture and art, a love for Qichun Scissors Opera, an ancient and simple local art, and a love for her descendants.