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The development history of Lijiaban

Shortly after the establishment of the Li Jia Ban, the Anti-Japanese War broke out, so the Li Jia Ban took a boat up the river from Wuhan and traveled to various places in Hunan, Hubei, Guizhou, Yunnan, and Sichuan, and finally settled in Chongqing. In the past 20 years, after going through hardships and ups and downs, it has cultivated a group of outstanding Peking Opera performing talents. They have composed and performed many plays that have left a deep impression on the audience, forming a unique Lijiaban stage art style and paving the way for the art of Peking Opera to take root in the southwest region. It has made important contributions to the development of Peking Opera and is one of the most influential Peking Opera classes in the modern Peking Opera art world.

Background of establishment

The Peking Opera Troupe "Li Jia Ban" was founded in Shanghai and took root in Chongqing in the rear area after the Anti-Japanese War. It became very popular in southern China. The five Li brothers and sisters, known as the "Five Tigers of the Li Family", have also withered away with the passage of time - Li Huibin, who worked with a copper hammer and wore a painted face, was known as the "Little Jin Shaoshan" in Shanghai when he was a child. He hanged himself in Chongqing at the beginning of the Cultural Revolution; Li Huilan, who played both male and female roles, passed away in 1990; Li Huiliang, the founder of the Li School of Art and an eclectic Peking Opera master, died suddenly in his residence in Tianjin in 1995. Now, the only remaining "Five Tigers" are Li Huisen, a famous Peking Opera actor, and Li Huimin, a female actor and niche actress. Li Huisen, who has grown old together with Li Jiaban, is 77 years old this year. Although the "Li Family Class" has completely changed, the old man still worked tirelessly to pass on the inheritance, and wrote the more than 300,000-word manuscripts "History of the Li Family Class" and "Reminiscences of the Second Brother Huiliang".

The old man's remarks

The old man said, "I can no longer go on stage for fear of being embarrassed. But it is my duty to record the history of the Li family class." The family moved to Chongqing Li from the occupied area Li Yanzhi, the founder of Jiaban, was born in a family of bannermen in Beijing in 1896. He loved Peking opera since he was a child. He often learned to perform Peking opera and practiced Peking opera with fellow fans. Li Huisen said, "My grandfather, who was born in the military, was stationed at De Shengmen in the late Qing Dynasty, and he often wrestled and practiced martial arts with the Eight Banners disciples. My grandfather had a bad temper and had no plan in life, so although my father enjoyed a salary from the court, he still couldn't make ends meet and had to rely on brushing horses and riding horses for the messengers who delivered official documents. Walking horses, he used his meager income to support the family. ""After my father changed his voice, he specialized in Jinghu. He often went to the base of the city wall to practice the piano at dawn. His Jinghu was recognized as being strong, bright, crisp, accurate, and fast. After the founding of the Republic of China, This is how he supports his family." Li Huisen said that his father was very strict with his children. If they violated any family rules, he would be scolded or beaten: adults were not allowed to interrupt when they were talking, they were not allowed to ask for money in front of others, they were not allowed to fight, and they were not allowed to pick and choose when eating. Don't drop any rice grains from the food... Brothers seeing their father is like seeing the king of hell. In 1930, Zhou Xiaoqing, a Cantonese, established the "Renewal Stage" in Zhabei, Shanghai, and hired Li Yanzhi to take charge of the business. Boss Zhou was an outsider in Peking Opera, but he was capable and strict in management. His trump card was the mechanical scenery and colorful lights that were rare in dramas at that time. "When we were seven or eight years old, my father began to teach Peking Opera. Huibin studied Jing, Huiliang's student, Huimin studied Dan, I studied Chou, and Huilan did not return to the profession when she was young. In addition to playing in the new stage "Journey to the West" "In addition to playing the roles of Little Monkey, Cloud Boy, and Wawa Shengdan, I will also perform in other plays when I have the opportunity," Li Huisen said. Two years later, an unexpected fire reduced the stage to ashes. In 1934, the stage was moved to Nanjing. With no funds, no plan, no enrollment and start date, no back-end sponsorship, and even no class name, Li Yanzhi started from scratch and recruited Chen Huijun and other top ten disciples. After Boss Zhou generously purchased a batch of small tables, chairs and simple costumes and props for the young actors, based on the Li brothers and ten disciples, the Li family class began to take shape. In 1935, the updated stage returned to Niuzhuang Road in Shanghai.

Memories

Li Huisen recalled that at that time, in addition to performances with mechanical backgrounds, adults and young actors also performed traditional plays on the new stage. "Shanghai theater fans like the Li brothers and sisters very much." They often went to the ticket office to ask, "What's the show like? What's the Li Jia Ban's opera?" From then on, we were named 'Li Jia Ban' by the audience." Then Shanghai opera publications began to pay attention to the Li family brothers and sisters. , Shanghai Lige Records specially invited five brothers and sisters to record records such as "Famen Temple" and "Farewell My Concubine". Due to their good training, the Li brothers and sisters quickly became the pillars of the class and were called the "Five Tigers of the Li Family" by enthusiastic audiences. When the Anti-Japanese War broke out in full force in 1937, the upright Li Yanzhi did not want to surrender to the Japanese invaders in the occupied areas, so he brought more than a hundred people from his class to Sichuan from Wuhan and traveled around the southwest.

He played as a defender, and when the opponent dribbled the ball in, he quickly turned around, knocked him to the ground with his hips, and took the opportunity to kick the ball out. This was his trump card. " He said that fortunately the rules of the game were loose at that time, otherwise the brothers would all be sent off. The brothers dared to play hard, but they never paid attention to tactical coordination on the green field and only focused on having fun playing football, so they often lost. But Huiguang There were many spectators from the Huiguang team, who came to watch the game as well as the people. When the Huiguang team scored, the players were all in high spirits and used their special skills as dramatic actors. "Front somersault" and "back flip" drove the "somersault cloud" from the enemy to triumph. The "Oriental Football Team" in the 1940s was composed of Hong Kong and Macao stars. They all had unique skills. Hou Rongsheng's iron feet and Cao Zhong's. The bottom line shot is a masterpiece. In 1943, they were invincible in the competition from Hong Kong to Guiyang. Even the top local teams could not beat the front line in the competition. Most of the members of the Eastern Team loved Peking Opera, especially the young actors from the Li Family Class. Once, they proposed to hold a friendly match with the Huiguang team. The Guiyang Nanchang Barracks Stadium was crowded that day, and the Oriental team deliberately made a "big shift" in which the goalkeeper played the center and the forward acted as the goalkeeper. Despite this, the Huiguang team still had no hope of scoring, and ended up carrying more than 20 duck eggs, so they happily "defeated" and returned to their hometown. After liberation, the Chongqing Peking Opera Troupe formed the "Jingyi Football Team", and Li Huisen, who played forward, was elected as the captain. He was very thin, but he did his job without kicking anyone on the court and was not afraid of death. He earned the nickname "Desperate Saburo". He said, "At that time, the city Peking Opera Troupe had to perform two plays on Sunday, so the players arranged their time in the morning. I played football in the afternoon and acted in a play. After the play, I walked to Datianwan Stadium to watch the exciting match between the Southwest Team and the Fighting Team, and then rushed back to perform the night show. I truly achieved both work and entertainment. "After singing for a lifetime, sometimes Li Huisen feels really tired. But once he bids farewell to the stage, he is still a little reluctant to leave. In 1988, when he was 60 years old, he retired from the Municipal Peking Opera Troupe. Unwilling to be lonely, he continued to teach at Chongqing Art School for two years. But as soon as the students graduated, he became a real idler. Li Huisen said, "I am a person who is afraid of troubles and nothing. what to do? I have no choice but to find something to do. "Li Huisen is a collector. After liberation, he bought a large number of books, such as "Twenty-Four Histories", Chinese and foreign ancient and modern classics and poems, various picture albums and copybooks, filling several large bookcases. After the confiscation of his house during the Cultural Revolution, most of the books were lost. Only drama materials such as "Peking Opera Series" and "Peking Opera Collection" were returned, and he regrouped and bought them again. He also named his humble room in Jiaochangkou "Yaxinzhai". He said, "I am a primary school student. For people who have never been to the school, the little ink they have in singing is all gained from reading books. "He wrote an epitaph for himself: "Good at reading, but not asking for deep explanations; good at writing, but at a very low level; good at composing poems, and hitting the shelves; good at speaking, but not talking nonsense; good at making friends, but not just empty talk; good at traveling, and watching horse races. "Flower; loves time, busy with nothing; addicted to sex and alcohol, occasionally overdoses", but his body is increasingly "rejuvenated" and he has no use for this epitaph.