Here Simon Qing says that Zhang Xichun is a Luqi man,where "Luqi" actually refers to folk street performers.
1. Various aliases of Luqi
In the Song Dynasty (the first in the Yuan Dynasty) play "The Eunuchs' Children's Wrong Standing," the character in the play, Ma Wanyan, admits to Wang Jinbang that her favorite woman is "a woman who is happy with what she has, and is willing to be a Luqi. " Lu Qi is also mentioned here. The character "岐" can also be written in different ways. Luqi is also known as "Playing Wild He". In Beijing, it is called "putting down the land". In the early years, Hou Baolin and Xin Fenxia both left their land in Tianqiao. So what does Luqi really mean?
2. Meaning of Luqi people
Classical literature historian Feng Yuanjun in the study of ancient opera "ancient drama said Hui? Luqi Kao" said about Luqi: "The actors in the Song and Yuan Dynasties were called Luqi. Others called them Lu Qi. The Encyclopedia of China explains: "The itinerant performers were called Luqi" and "The small groups that performed in various places were called Luqi, and were generally organized mainly by members of one family". Dictionary of Appreciation of Golden Vase Plum explains more vividly: "Because at that time, artists in order to feed, clothe, house and travel, wandering performances, running on the wrong road, had to run around the capital all year round, so it was called Luqi." It can be seen that Luqi was the title of a folk artist in the Song and Yuan dynasties, now commonly known as a street performer. The metaphorical significance of Luqi is also clear. The artists it refers to were highly mobile. They often performed and worked hard on the roadside, in squares and other places.
3. The Evolution of Luqi
In Song, Yuan, and Ming notes, novels, and operas, the term "Luqi" or "Luqi people" is used more frequently. But in the more formal literature of the Ming Dynasty, did not use the word "Luqi" to address the artists. It began to return to its original meaning, that is, the meaning of the fork in the road and the roadside, which is similar to the word "Luqi" in the reverse. Ming Shen Defu in the "Wanli Yowu Zhi", recorded the thirteenth son of King Tai Zu Daijian, in the fiefdom of the storage of entertainers: "so the storage of music households than the majority of other clans times. Today has been declining, in the flower of two thousand people, singing, dancing and strings, day and night. Now inside and outside the capital is not subordinate to the three courts, most of them are the Datong nationality in the overflow of the fringe, the Song so-called Luji scattered music is also." From the last sentence of this passage can be seen, Luqi in the Song Dynasty called Luqi, in the Ming Dynasty is not Luqi.
So Luqi in the Song, Yuan and Ming dynasties refers to the street sellers, and Luqi people naturally refers to street performers.