Quanzhou is known as "the hometown of opera", "the city of puppets" and "the capital of southern music". Since ancient times, Quanzhou has had a aria of "xianggong" jumping from the shed: "... ask the artificial puppet, when did Mr. Chen Ping make it ..."
According to legend, when Wang entered Fujian at the end of the Tang Dynasty, puppet shows were introduced to Quanzhou. By the Song Dynasty, it had been widely circulated among Quanzhou people. The puppet show in Quanzhou in Ming Dynasty has been separated from the "puppet playing" form of fragment and acrobatic performance, and can perform large-scale historical dramas.
By the time of Daoguang and Xianfeng in Qing Dynasty, the puppet making technology had been greatly improved, and artists created a large number of painted faces and grimaces according to the characteristics of Manglietia, Journey to the West and Immortals. At the same time, the movable avatar was improved, which made the puppet take a big step forward.
Classification of Quanzhou Puppet Show
There are two kinds of puppet shows in Quanzhou: puppet shows in the palm of your hand and marionettes.
1, puppet show in the palm.
The puppet show in the palm of your hand, commonly known as "puppet show" among the people, has been circulating among the people in southern Fujian for hundreds of years since the Ming and Qing Dynasties. It connects the puppet's head with the puppet's clothes, just like a cloth bag with a downward opening. During the performance, the artist put his hand into the cloth bag, his forefinger into the puppet head cavity, and his thumb and three fingers into the left and right sleeves. He vividly performed various puppet characters with flexible fingers. His representative works include traditional dramas such as Daming Mansion and Lei Wanchun Beating the Tiger.
The puppet show in the palm of your hand, as its name implies, is because it can put the puppet in your fingers and manipulate it in your hands. Why is it also called "puppet show"? According to legend, there are many sayings: some people say that in the past, puppet shows were performed from one place to another. Artists put puppets in cloth bags for easy carrying, hence the name. Some people think that puppet clothes are square like cloth bags. Another way of saying it is: when performing a puppet show, there are usually cloth bags under the stage curtain, with bamboo poles and puppets on them, hence the name "puppet show". The real origin is hard to find, only some records of unofficial history, an official in charge of long-term welfare.
Puppet show Puppet show may have evolved from the puppet show in the Tang Dynasty. According to legend, during the Jiajing period of Ming Dynasty, Jinjiang scholar Liang developed from street storytelling to "passing love through the curtain".
According to legend, during the Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty, there was a scholar named Liang Ming Bing Lin in Quanzhou, who tried every time. This year, he went to Fuzhou, the provincial capital, to try again, and asked Bu Yu about Gong Xian Temple in Jiuli. That night, he dreamed that Gong Xian held his hand and wrote the words "Fame is in his palm". When Liang woke up, he thought that God's instructions meant "mastery" and "Yi". Unexpectedly, Liang Xiucai fell into Sun Shan again. He thought that the gods were teasing him, so he cut off his official thoughts and made a living by telling stories in the village based on his own knowledge of literature and history. One day, he happened to see the performance of the puppet show, and he felt a little bit that he was carving his own puppet, and the operation of the puppet was more flexible with his palm instead of the operation of the line. Liang then made up a play according to the record of Bi Zheng Shi unofficial history and performed it among villages to express his dissatisfaction. But the scholar is thin-skinned, so he performs in the form of "showing the past through the curtain", that is, telling stories through the curtain. Unexpectedly, this caused a sensation and made him famous all over the world. Because the puppet show is in the palm of your hand, it is called "the play in the palm of your hand", and Liang realized the meaning of "fame in the palm of your hand", which is commonly known as "cloth"
With the arrival of the new century, nowadays, the puppet show in the palm of the hand, a bright pearl in the national drama of the motherland, has developed well in Jinjiang, Quanzhou, its birthplace, and Jinjiang Puppet Troupe is also famous in the art circles at home and abroad for its unique style. The troupe has long attached great importance to exploring and inheriting traditions and formed a unique artistic style. At the same time, it also attaches great importance to the development and innovation of art, does not stick to the old rules, boldly explores, and constantly injects new vitality into the simple traditional art. In 2002, it won the excellent drama award and nine awards in the 2 1999 and 2 1 and 22 nd drama exhibitions in Fujian Province. Among them, Wuli Changhong also won the Third Hundred Flowers Literature Award of Fujian Provincial People's Government and the Ninth National Wenhua New Program Award of the Ministry of Culture.
2. Muppet show.
In ancient times, muppets were called "suspension spring Muppets", "suspension spring Muppets", "Line Play" and "String Muppets". As the name implies, they originated from the strings they operated.
In the past, Minnan people often invited puppet shows to celebrate auspicious events, so puppet shows were also called "Kerry plays".
Each puppet has 16 strings, and at most there are more than 30 strings. Artists manipulate performances behind the scenes and let lifeless puppets absorb their thoughts and feelings, thus performing many vivid and wonderful stories. It is "a thousand miles in a blink of an eye, and the cause of ancient and modern times is overnight." Cai Hongru, a scholar in A Qing, said in Jin Shui Lu: "Puppets, puppets, and today's drama customs ... right holders are best at this technique."
At the end of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the Republic of China, Lin, known as a "gifted scholar of etiquette", once created joint operas such as "Yue Shuo" and "Water Margin" with scholar Xiumei Yang under the influence of anti-imperialist thoughts at that time, thus getting rid of puppet shows and serving only the circles of weddings, funerals and celebrations. Lin, Lian and others also created and improved many performing arts skills. Such as sword drawing, sword inserting, snake hunting, umbrella dancing, weaving, cymbals playing, etc. , greatly enriched the performing arts of puppet shows.
There are more than 700 traditional puppet plays in Quanzhou, all of which are handed down from generation to generation in the form of manuscripts. Some of these operas, such as Tao Dou, are still rare for other operas in China.
After hundreds of years of inheritance, Quanzhou puppet show has gradually formed a complete and mature set of performance laws and regulations, performance "rules", idol production techniques, rich repertoires and unique drama music-"puppet tune". It is worth mentioning that among all kinds of puppet shows in China, Quanzhou puppet show is the only one with its own musical "puppet show tune". Puppet Tune is rich, simple, rough and high-pitched, and still retains more than 300 melodies.
The performance of Quanzhou puppets is very difficult. Each puppet image has 16 to more than 30 slender strings. By virtue of their exquisite traditional line rules and skillful performance skills, artists of past dynasties have created many vivid characters, which embodies the exquisite, vivid and vivid artistic characteristics of Quanzhou puppets.
In recent years, Quanzhou puppet show has developed continuously on the basis of inheriting the traditional art, and created a novel performance form, which is mainly based on marionette performance and combines puppets with puppets in the palm, and has been welcomed by Chinese and foreign audiences.
Quanzhou puppet has a complete image and exquisite production, especially the carving and pastel process of the puppet head, which is unique. Quanzhou puppet head has clear outline and refined lines. It inherited the carving and painting styles of the Tang and Song Dynasties. On the basis of inheriting traditional skills, we pay more attention to exaggeration and deformation, especially to individuality and expressiveness. It is a well-known folk craft treasure at home and abroad.
The Present Situation and Prospect of Quanzhou Puppet Show
China puppet art has a long history and is still popular in Quanzhou. Quanzhou, Jinjiang, Hui 'an and other professional puppet troupes are famous at home and abroad for their wonderful, delicate, vivid and lifelike performances, which are full of unique artistic charm.
1960, China Puppet Art Troupe, composed of Jinjiang Puppet Performer Li Bofen, Zhangzhou Puppet Masters Yang Sheng and Chen Nantian, participated in the Romanian International Puppet Festival, performing Daming Mansion and Lei Wanchun Beating Tigers, and won the first performance award and the gold medal. 1979, Quanzhou Puppet Troupe went to Beijing to participate in the celebration of the 30th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China, and won the first prize. From 65438 to 0980, Princess White Dragon, created by Jinjiang Puppet Troupe, participated in the national drama performance and was commended by the Ministry of Culture. From 65438 to 0988, the famous puppet artist Huang Yiqie went to Japan to participate in the International Puppet Festival with three wonderful plays, such as How to Train Monkeys, which was a great success and received rave reviews. ...
Today, Quanzhou has held five sessions of "Quanzhou International Puppet Festival in China". Every year, many domestic and foreign puppet performance groups gather in Quanzhou to perform and exchange excellent puppet programs, making Quanzhou International Puppet Festival in China a large-scale multilateral international cultural and artistic exchange activity. Many foreign artists who participated in the exhibition praised: "We have traveled all over the world, but we have never seen such a wonderful puppet show as Quanzhou. Quanzhou deserves to be the city of puppets! " "Real oriental classical art!" ……
We are convinced that with the care and support of Quanzhou puppet show artists and art lovers, Quanzhou puppet show will be able to carry out bold reform and innovation on the basis of inheriting tradition, thus pushing this ancient art to a new stage of development and making this wonderful art more colorful and fragrant!