China's first film "Dingjunshan" In the fall of 1905, the Fengtai Photo Studio, located in the present Hepingmenwai Street in Beijing, filmed "Dingjunshan" starring the famous Peking Opera veteran Tan Xinpei, who is known as the "King of Lingji", which was the first time that Chinese people filmed a movie. It was the first time a movie was made in China. History records that the movie was made for Tan Xinpei's 50th birthday. In fact, at the end of the Qing Dynasty, Peking Opera, which was known as the "National Opera", had a great influence on the social and cultural life of China and had a very important position in the hearts of the people. Ren Qingtai, the owner of the Fengtai Photo Studio, which was located in the Liulichang area, where there were a lot of cultural figures, was very close to the famous Peking Opera performers and often took pictures of them. The earliest group photo of several Peking opera actors in Beijing's history was taken by Fengtai Photo Studio. Therefore, when Ren Qingtai tried to make a movie, whether it was from his personal preference, his close relationship with Peking Opera actors, or from the social craze for Tan Xinpei, which is what we call the demand of the cultural market today, he chose to shoot this title as a matter of course. Dingjunshan is a traditional Peking Opera play about the Three Kingdoms period, when Cao's general Zhang Jiemeng Pass was attacked by veteran general Huang Zhong, who asked Zhuge Liang for an order to resist the enemy, but Zhuge Liang refused because of his old age. Huang Zhong danced with his sword and broke his bow on the spot, so he got the order to kill Zhang Xia, and took advantage of the victory to capture Tiandang Mountain, where Cao's army stored food. Huangzhong's courage increases as he fights and beheads Cao's general Xiahou Yuan, and finally captures Tingjun Mountain, a major town of Cao's army. According to the characteristics of the movie, the movie "Dingjunshan" was filmed in three segments: "Inviting for help", "Dancing with swords" and "Fighting". On this shooting, a more accurate eyewitness account is contained in Mei Lanfang described, Xu Ji biography "stage life forty years" (second episode), chapter three of the eighteen months in the work of the general "five of the first performance of the Red Chamber drama - Daiyu buried flowers," after the text of the note. The article said Chinese theater film, I know, I'm afraid the earliest Tan Xinpei's "Dingjunshan". Not many people know about this, my old friend Mr. Wu Zhenxiu is inadvertently bumped into them are shooting, can be said to be his own eyes to see such a scene with the historical significance of the Beijing Opera's valuable footage. He told me, 'At the end of the Guangxu period, I was teaching at the Master's Hall of the Peking University. After class, I always liked to stroll around the factory. ...... About one fall, one day I wandered into Liulichang again. Passed through a square near the Fengtai photo studio, far away to see a temporary support a white cloth, some people in the photo. I went to the front of a look, where is in the photo photo, simply in the shooting activities of the movie it. And still one of our most admired old artist - Tan Xinpei, tied with a yellow leaning, holding a golden knife, playing a "Dingjunshan" in the big knife flower off the field. Standing next to a few are Tan's family and relatives and friends, the number is not large. The owner of the photo studio, a big man, and I know him very well, he was also busy taking care of everything. Unfortunately, not much shooting, all at once, even if the matter ◇ to also in the Grand View Tower cinema public screening it. I'm afraid this is the earliest scene in Peking Opera.'" Mr. Mei (Lanfang) told me that Yu Jusheng and Zhu Wenying had filmed a part of the knife fight in "Qing Shi Shan", and that Yu Zhenting had filmed "Bai Shui Tan" and "The Money Leopard", all of which were also filmed at the Fengtai Photo Studio." In Xu Ji Chuan, "Xu Ji Chuan Seventy Years of Seeing and Hearing", Tan Xinpei's Artistic Path, "Section VII of Tan Xinpei's Film Wax Cylinder Records", the same person's account was also recorded by Mr. Wu Zhenxiu, who told me that 'one day in 1905, I walked past the Fengtai Photo Studio in Beijing's Liulichang Factory, and I saw that there were people shooting a movie, and looked closely at them. I saw someone making a movie, and looked closely to see Tan Xinpei wearing a yellow leaning, with a white three (beard), holding an elephant trunk knife, and pretending to be Huang Zhong, so I stood still to watch them panning the camera, filming the clip of playing the big sword in Dingjunshan. Later, I saw this clip at the Da Guan Lou outside the front gate, and I also saw the sword pairing between Yu Jusheng, a martial artist, and Zhu Wenying, a martial artist, in the filming of 'Qing Shi Shan'; and the clips of 'Baishuitan' and 'The Money Leopard' filmed by Yu Zhenting, Yu Jusheng's son, were all screened at the Da Guan Lou.'" During the filming of the movie, stills were also taken for Mr. Tan Xinpei, and the stills of the movie Dingjunshan that you see now were taken at that time. When Mr. Mei Lanfang mentioned the shooting of Peking Opera stills in the same book, he mentioned these stills from 'Dingjunshan', and he said that these film negatives were long gone, but the photos of these old-timers that we see now were taken at the time when the film was made." According to Mr. Tan Xinpei's great-great-grandson, Tan Xiaozeng, a famous Peking Opera actor of the Tan School of martial arts, when Mr. Tan Xinpei went to perform in different parts of the world, he chose Dingjunshan for the opening play , and the reason for this is that apart from this play being a masterpiece of the Tan School, it is also because the other name of this play is Successful in the First Battle, which has a very good meaning.