If the origin of shadow play art depends on literature and history data, according to the existing historical data, the most similar shadow play was reflected in the Tang Dynasty.
At that time, the social economy and culture reached an unprecedented peak, especially the spread of culture, art and religion. For the needs of the society at that time, people often supplemented history books and classics with paintings in order to make them more vivid and concrete. Later, someone changed the painting into a paper figure with movable joints, which was used to pass on the scriptures and tell the history more vividly. In the history books, we can see the words "Monks chanting at night are just putting a screen and setting up an image" that prevailed in the society at that time. The "night chanting axis" here has candlelight and stories to tell, and its "screen device" is equivalent to the "screen" of modern shadow play performance, and "image setting" is to play tricks on people. The most interesting thing is that today, in some areas of our country, such as Tangshan and Luanxian, the old artists of shadow play still refer to the characters who perform shadow play as "matchmaking" and "palm line". It is certain that it will take a long time for the shadow play art to become a complete form of China opera.
There are many different legends about the origin of shadow play art. The earliest legend comes from the story that the savior Guanyin Bodhisattva came to the world to preach Buddhist scriptures. "At that time, people didn't like to listen to dry sermons. Guanyin Bodhisattva sat sadly under the bamboo forest, picked the bamboo leaves and made them into various human figures, and could make various movements. She thought it was very interesting. Suddenly, Guanyin Bodhisattva remembered how touching it would be to perform Buddhist stories with human figures made of these bamboo leaves! Later, when she was preaching Buddhist scriptures, she hung a bamboo curtain and danced with bamboo leaves behind it. In the evening, Guanyin Bodhisattva reflected the shadow of the bamboo man on the bamboo curtain by the light of the oil lamp, and performed various Buddhist stories, which attracted many people to watch. Since then, shadow play has come into being. "
In addition, according to legend, during Liu Huan's reign in the Western Han Dynasty, a princess in the palace held the prince and played in front of the window, skillfully cutting the leaves of tung trees into human shapes and reflecting them on the window. It is also said that when Liu Che, the Emperor of the Han Dynasty, died young because of his beloved wife Lee, the emperor missed him, and sometimes few people could talk to his god. At night, he decorated lanterns and made curtains, drank wine and ate meat, and the emperor lived in his tent, looking back and forth. See a good woman looks like a lady, still sitting and walking, as if she were a lady.
Although these legends can't really be called the origin of shadow play art, if we combine the social economy, science and culture, art and music at that time, we will find that these legends are indeed credible.
In addition, the early shadow play in Shaanxi was also called "storytelling through curtains". Can be said to be unique, the same strain.
Shadow play prevailed in Song Dynasty.
Written records about the art of shadow play were first seen in Zhang Lei's Ming Dow Magazine in the Song Dynasty. It reads: "There is a rich boy in Beijing who is lonely and specializes in wealth. A group of hooligans tried their best to induce him. This son is very good at making movies. Every time Guan Yu is beheaded, he needs to cry and ask for instructions. " According to Song Gaocheng's Tale, "In Renzong's time, there were people in the city who could talk about the Three Kingdoms, or adorned them with their words." Later, more detailed historical records of shadow play can be found in1kloc-0/47 Meng Yuan's Dream of Tokyo and 1235 Ned Yang's Victory in the Capital.
"Tokyo Dream China" wrote: "Every holiday, there is no music shed in every corner of the alley, and there are more small shadow play sheds to prevent children from getting separated from each other and attract them." "Victory in the Capital" is described as: "Shadow Play. Every movie is carved with plain paper at first, and then painted with pink, and the storyline is quite similar to that of historical writers. In general, the truth is half and half, the loyal public carves the right appearance, the evil one is ugly, and the cover is also a drama in the eyes of the common people. "
According to Wu 1275 "Liang Lu's Dream", "There are many people in the theater. At the beginning of Bianjing in Yuan Dynasty, they carved clusters with plain paper. Since then, they have skillfully carved shapes with sheepskin and decorated them with colors, which will not be damaged. Hang Cheng has Jia Silang, Wang Sheng and Wang Yanqing. There is no difference in words. "
In addition, 1280' s "Old Stories of Wulin" also records that Lin 'an (now Hangzhou), the capital of the Southern Song Dynasty, entered the new government on "New Year's Eve, and the lights became brighter and brighter ... Since then, it has been like this every night. There is a poem in Jiang Baishi that says,' The light is dim, the moonlight is cold, and noon is often late at night. You should just be dissatisfied. Look at the street. "Then he narrated:" Baiyun Poetry said,' Tourists will return to the quiet street the day after tomorrow, and their houses will not be closed. Hanging lights on the curtains, smiling and feeling the warmth of spring. ""or play in the small building, people-oriented movies, children screaming, endless at night. There are countless such things. " Its famous shadow puppeteers in society are Jia Zhen, Shang, Sanjia (,Jia Yi, Jia You), Sanfu (,Fu Er, Fu San), Shenxian, Ma Jun, Ma Jin, Wang Sanlang, Cai Consulting, Zhou Duan, Guo Zhen, Li Ernian (. There are more than twenty people. At the same time, there appeared a special "shadow play small broker" and "shadow play club", which was a shadow play group that could compete with other operas at that time.
In addition, "Tokyo Dream of China" and "Old Stories of Wulin" also recorded "shadow play" in many places. "Rockett, phyl, go and play with Qiao Ying. ..... don't wind and rain. The shed looks at people every day. " And "miscellaneous craft has a kind of hand shadow play." One of the most interesting records is the story of "or dragon boat, phoenix, balcony" in the Wulin lantern market. The sheepskin lamp is exquisitely carved and dyed in five colors, such as the method of shadow play, and there is a "fish shadow play, Hu sheep sin ..." which can be eaten in the "market food". And the "cinema criminals" displayed in the "food store". Not to mention that. If you had gone to the "grocery store" of the Lantern Festival, you could have bought things like "playing candy: exquisite and precious, suitable for ladies" ... and movie clues, muppets ... ".
To sum up, it can be said with certainty that at least in the Song Dynasty, the art of shadow play was very perfect and popular in society.
The Rise and Fall of Shadow Play in Ming and Qing Dynasties
According to Ming History, Wu Zongzheng was virtuous for three years. After entering and leaving Beijing, palaces, altars and temples were built. In order to hold celebrations, "fine artists" from all provinces in China were mobilized to "supply" in Beijing. At that time, artists from all over the world gathered in Beijing and held various performances including "Shadow Play".
Because there are not many people performing shadow play art (commonly known as "seven busy and eight busy"), and the stage and props of shadow play are easy to carry, and in feudal society at that time, women were not allowed to go out to watch the play at will, and the shadow play performance had a window and curtain to separate the audience from the actors, so the shadow play club in Beijing was highly valued by the palace and the palace. During this period, the nobles of various palaces also set up their own photo boxes and hired artists to show off their luxury. Especially in the early Qing Dynasty, most of the civil and military officials and their families stationed in various places were Manchu, and they were not familiar with the language and culture of the resident people. Second, because they have a deep love for shadow play, all the people on stage are accompanied by shadow play classes. In the fifth year of Kangxi, there were eight people in charge of the shadow play box in the official residence of Prince Li. From this, we can imagine the popularity of shadow play at that time.
Historically, the art of shadow play suffered the biggest disaster after the 18th year of Jiaqing in Qing Dynasty (18 14).
During the Jiaqing period of the Qing Dynasty, the North Korean government was corrupt and the people were poor, and "White Lotus Religion" rose everywhere. There have been rumors all over the world that shadow play will become a heavenly soldier and will help the people resist the court. In addition, because shadow play is mostly performed at night, Manchu officials are afraid. Later, the government took the opportunity to post a notice saying that the country was in great trouble and the people were ruthless. If they sing again, they will set fire to the box. As a result, the Beijing government sent troops to raid the shadow play club, the shadow play artists were killed, and some shadow play boxes, including sets and various materials, were also destroyed. The disaster affected the whole country. Since then, the art of shadow play has declined.
The mutual influence of shadow play art and traditional Chinese opera art
In the long development process of Chinese shadow play art from birth to later, what is the relationship between shadow play art and other drama arts in China and the degree of mutual influence? I think this is an important issue that should be further investigated and studied. Here only from the perspective of studying the art of shadow play, I would like to talk about some humble opinions.
From ancient times to the present, the modeling of Chinese shadow play art is based on loyalty and treachery, and great achievements have been made in painting art and carving technology. It can be said that the artistic modeling of shadow play is unique in the art development history of China and even the world.
If we carefully observe China's shadow play products, it is not difficult to see that the flying in Dunhuang, the statues of Buddha in grottoes, the gods of temples, the scenery in New Year pictures, and the animals and figures in real life are all displayed in the shadow play window. These shadow plays not only have the artistic characteristics of China folk traditions, but also have a strong flavor of life in various times; There are not only neat and clear line drawings and meticulous brushwork, but also highly summarized and refined techniques in screen art. The modeling of shadow play not only draws many essences from the sister art of the same door-paper-cutting and window grilling, but also has unique local characteristics and strong decorative colors in the composition of shadow play clothing and scenery.
Theoretically speaking, it is impossible to perform a complex drama story in a still (set) picture with positive characters and animals as the mainstay and some large-scale modeling. However, the shadow puppeteers in China in the past dynasties skillfully and harmoniously handled several artistic relationships (a little * * to a little * *), and then formed the form of drama performance with this "unreasonable" art form. This precious artistic practice has added a unique and glorious page to the world drama art treasure house. With the development of modern science, technology and culture and the increase of world literary exchanges, many people in the art and art circles at home and abroad began to attach great importance to this, and some shadow play art forms appeared in art publications and textbooks one after another.
Before the Song Dynasty, the art of shadow play won the audience and was deeply rooted in the hearts of the people with its wonderful performance form and simple fluidity. It is precisely because this kind of folk art that can be written, carved and performed by itself is easier to master. Therefore, those shadow play groups that are widely active among the people will compare and compete with each other, thus making the art of shadow play more complete and exquisite. This is indeed progress on the basis of popularization. It is in this improvement that all kinds of folk opera art are naturally provided with sufficient conditions and fertile soil.
For example, Wan Wan Qiang shadow play has been popular in Weibei area since the Ming Dynasty. After the Qianlong period of Qing Dynasty, Bangzi Opera (now Wan Wan Opera belongs to Bangzi Opera), which was replaced by Kunqu Opera, became popular among the people. In order to adapt to the social customs of new works and the needs of some legends of sadness and joy, artists have reformed the original rap form and performing vocals, so that the tune of Wan Wan dialect has changed from a rough and monotonous storytelling form to a delicate and lingering tune, blending the "rigidity" of Five Blessingg's angry drum in "Northern Song" and the "softness" of "Southern Song". In addition, through the study of the history of Shaanxi shadow play, the singing of shadow play is basically the same as that of local plays in this area, with the same pulse. It must be noted that the singing of shadow play was earlier than that of local play, which gave birth to local play. It is by no means a local opera that has derived the singing of shadow play.
For another example, the original name of Chaozhou Opera in Guangdong is "Yin Chao Opera", also called "Bai Zixi". There used to be a proverb: "Orthography gives birth to white characters, and orthography gives birth to Bai Zixi." The word "Zheng" refers to Putonghua and the word "Bai" refers to Chaozhou dialect. According to local records, Chaozhou's paper shadow play seems to have spread to Chaozhou in the Southern Song Dynasty, and its statement that "chaozhou people is the most important shadow play, and it is often hired for entertaining the gods in the countryside" can be seen in literature and history. Chaozhou cinema can be divided into two schools: bamboo window shadow and sunny window shadow. Its "Yang Chuangying" is also called "Orthopedic Class", and its intonation and gongs and drums are the same as those of the current opera. In addition, after the evolution of the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the "Pronunciation Tune" of Yang Chuangying was mostly changed to "Chaozhou Tune". Up to now, no matter from the repertoire to the vocal cavity, it is exactly the same as the current Chaozhou opera.
As we all know, one of the emerging local operas in recent years-Tang Opera (also known as Shadow Play) should be said to be based on the singing of Tangshan Shadow Play, and then it was popular in Hebei Province in the form of real people instead of Shadow Play, resulting in Tang Opera. Besides, if we investigate Longjiang Opera, Southern Sichuan Opera and many other local operas, we can all find traces of shadow play singing.
Coincidentally, in all local operas in China, almost all have the same artistic characteristics of shadow play, that is, "believers draw (engrave) positive images, while villains draw ugly images, and their scripts (scripts) are quite the same as those who tell history books". Throughout the local operas in China, facial images are related to ancient music and dance masks, but the plastic arts of carving and painting facial images link the art of shadow play with the local operas in China.
It can be said with certainty that the emergence, integrity and popularization of shadow play art in China have indeed played a lot of roles in the emergence and development of China opera art.