Birth and evolution: a wonderful work of folk art
Huan County is located in the Loess Plateau of Longdong (Qingyang, Gansu), with difficult natural conditions, vast territory and sparsely populated, and remote and backward. In this barren yellow land, a magnificent flower of folk art-"Huanxian Taoist Love Shadow Play" was bred.
As the originator of movies, shadow play itself is not unique to Huan County in China, nor is it unique to China in the world. According to historical records, shadow play began in the pre-Qin period, flourished in the Han Dynasty, flourished in the Song Dynasty, and spread to West Asia and Europe in the Yuan Dynasty with a long history.
The Taoist shadow play in Huanxian County was deeply influenced by Taoism and absorbed the rap art of fishing drums and Taoist feelings. At the end of the Song Dynasty and the beginning of the Yuan Dynasty, some Taoist priests sang "Taoist songs" with fishing drums and simple wooden boards in their hands, encouraging people to oppose foreign invasion and be loyal to the monarch and patriotic. Through the artist's artistic practice, it is integrated into the plot of folk stories, forming a unique local drama. In the long-term missionary activities, in order to make the sermon tell stories and visualize, shadow play was introduced, and the Taoist feelings were combined with shadow play in the form of opera performance, forming a unique Taoist shadow play.
In Huan county, which was closed and backward in the past, the local people's main entertainment was watching shadow play on holidays or in slack seasons. There are more than 100 kinds of Taoist shadow play sung locally, most of which are traditional operas. It not only runs through the sectarian thoughts of Taoism and Buddhism, but also carries forward the traditional virtues of the Chinese nation, such as loyalty to the country, thrift, respect for the elderly and love for the young. Therefore, Taoist shadow play has become a stage to promote morality and a carrier to educate the good. Nowadays, some village communities still have to organize temple fairs and other folk activities to reward God with Taoist shadow play and pray for peace in the four seasons.
Compared with the shadow play in other parts of the country, the Taoist shadow play in Huan County has two remarkable characteristics: First, the unique shadow play music in Huan County is unique in the country. There are four major modes, namely, injured tone, Huayin, injured tone adagio, injured tone adagio, Huayin adagio and Huayin adagio. The lead singer is definitely vocal at the end of the sentence, and everyone has the help of harmony. Qupai was transplanted from local folk songs and ditties. In the second half of the play, the flute was changed to flute, and the singing was changed from C to D, which easily set off the climax of the plot. Second, the scale of the troupe and the number of artists are rare in the country. At present, there are 50 Taoist shadow play classes in the county, with more than 280 performers and more than 200 shadow play sculptors.
At the end of the Qing Dynasty, the Taoist shadow play in Huan County was unprecedentedly prosperous, which produced a famous artist, Jie Changchun. Xie Changchun's great contribution to Taoist shadow play lies in that he not only inherited and sang Taoist shadow play all his life, but also made bold reforms in the script, musical instruments and singing of Taoist shadow play. First, according to historical stories and some traditional dramas, many Taoist shadow plays have been transplanted and adapted, such as "The Picture of Loyalty and Filial Piety", "Zhengbei Pagoda", "The Picture of Righteousness and Evil", "The Picture of Loyalty and Righteousness" and "The Fairy Cow Roll Shapong". Most of the plays are still widely sung in Longdong University. Secondly, the musical instruments of Daoqing were reformed and innovated. The original musical instruments of Daoqing in Huanxian County are erhu, flute, suona, fishing drum and simple board. On this basis, Jie Changchun added four strings, flutes (small suona) and bangzi (stick and bell), absorbed local folk tunes, improved the tunes of Taoist Qupai, and integrated them. The third is to train a group of well-known disciples. Jing Nailiang, Du, Han and Wei Guocheng studied art as teachers, and another group of students sang songs, forming four schools of "East, West, South and North" at that time, thus completely preserving the intangible cultural heritage of Taoist shadow play, which was passed down from mouth to mouth.
In 2006, the national intangible cultural heritage inheritance and protection site meeting and the second China Huanxian Daoqing Shadow Play Folk Culture Festival were held in Huanxian. This on-the-spot meeting will summarize and promote the experience of inheritance and protection of intangible cultural heritage in Huan County, Qingyang, and the Taoist shadow play in Huan County will be publicized in a wider scope. Shadow play in 2008: a bright "business card" for opening to the outside world
In 1950s, Huanxian Daoqing Shadow Play Troupe went to Beijing for three performances, and was cordially received by Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai and other party and state leaders. Subsequently, on the basis of Taoist shadow play, a new kind of drama-"Long Play" was developed.
During the period of 1992, Xi 'an Film Studio filmed the film He Banzhu and His Lover, which reflected the career of Taoist shadow play artists in Huan County. Jing Jiaban, Shi and other artists all participated in the pre-recording and sub-lens shooting of the film, which made the art of Taoist shadow play in Huan County take on a new look.
The Taoist shadow play in Huanxian County of Xiaoyao Cave Culture not only walked out of the mountains, but also entered Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, Hong Kong and other big cities. At the Shanghai World Expo last year, merchants organized a Taoist Shadow Play Art Troupe in Huan County, Shang Yan, and the performance time exceeded 1 month.
1987, at the invitation of the Italian-Chinese Friendship Association, the "China Gansu Folk Shadow Play Art Troupe" composed of six famous shadow play artists, including Shi, went abroad for the first time and went to Italy, where it performed 24 performances in Rome, Venice, Milan, Florence and other cities 13, and was called "Oriental Magic Art" by Italians. After a lapse of 20 years, the shadow play in Huan County once again went abroad, and it was out of control. Up to 20 1 1, he has visited France, the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Austria, Switzerland and other countries for nine times, causing great sensation. On June 6th 10-June 3rd10, Huanxian Shadow Play will visit Australia again to participate in the "China-Australia Cultural Exchange Year and Colorful Gansu Cultural Week", during which it will perform exchange performances in Sydney, Canberra and Melbourne, especially at the Sydney Opera House for the first time. This is a great honor for Huanxian Shadow Play.
In order to meet the aesthetic requirements of foreign audiences, overseas performance groups constantly adjust their repertoire and performance forms. Live performances such as Monkey King Thrice Defeats the Skeleton Demon and Wang Qi's Fear of Wife have been a great success. 20 10 went to Switzerland to perform, and experts and theater leaders from Germany, Italy and France flew to see the performance. At the end of each performance, the audience applauded for more than 10 minutes, and the cast made many curtain calls, but the audience did not want to leave. The foreign audience praised: "It's amazing that just a few people can sing such a grand voice and interpret such touching stories and wonderful music!" The publicity samples of shadow play brought by the performance team have also become hot items for foreign audiences. They bought back these magical "shadow play dolls" as souvenirs.
"Only the national is the world's."
The beauty of Taoist shadow play is not only manifested in the process of drama performance, but also in its own right as a wonderful artistic masterpiece.
Shadow play handicraft has no life, but it has a soul. It is not only soaked with the sweat of shadow puppeteers, but also full of their intelligence and artistic accomplishment.
Since the new century, many singing and carving artists have turned to professional carving, from the past family workshops to centralized and professional carving groups. The content of sculpture has changed from dramatic figures to folk stories, historical figures, modern figures, mascots and scenic spots, and even cartoon characters and bookmarks in shadow play have appeared. Nowadays, a number of national masters of arts and crafts, such as Gao, Bai, Chen Yuling, Yang, Geng and Zhao Decai, have emerged in the shadow play team in Huan County.