The "Menshenpu" (big shadow puppet) from Jianghan Plain, which is about 72 centimeters tall, represents the mainstream of Hubei shadow puppets. The Jianghan Plain belongs to the hinterland of Jingchu and has rich Chu cultural heritage. The ancient bronze, bamboo and wood hard carvings and leather, Mianyang carving and paper-cutting and other soft carving crafts have prepared good prerequisites for the birth of shadow puppets.
The shadow puppetry popular in the Jianghan Plain was originally introduced from the north, and its shadow puppets are slightly longer than those in the north. About two feet two inches tall (70 to 80 centimeters), it is four inches taller than the Sichuan and Shaanxi shadow puppets and two inches taller than the Eastern Hubei shadow puppets. Its tall size makes it visually clearer. Most of the repertoire comes from literary creations, novels, literary poetry collections, and Han folk stories from various dynasties. The scripts are generally very short, with the performers developing plots and characters based on the story and improvising lyrics. Language art, spoken in dialect, mixed with folk sayings, proverbs, idioms, dialects, etc. It is humorous, full of local flavor and folk flavor, making the audience feel very intimate.
The folk song goes like this: "Look at cowhide (referring to shadow puppets), boil your eyelids (doze off), go home in the dark and bang on the drum skin (wall), get a slap in the eyebrow (criticism) from your wife and pinch your spleen (receive anger)." This shows the charm of Mianyang shadow puppets.
In the old days, Yunmeng also had 26 shadow puppet shows. Lu Chunyuan, an old artist born in a family of shadow puppets, can carve and sing historical stories from Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming, Qing and other dynasties. Famous artists such as Qianjiang Tang Yutang and Guo Dabiao founded Tang Ge and Guo Ge respectively in the Jianghan Plain shadow puppetry. As a result, these two schools of shadow puppetry have many descendants and disciples in the Jianghan Plain area.
Hankou Shadow Play combines Huangpi Xixiang Shadow Play, Xiaogan Dongxiang Shadow Play and Mianyang Yugu Shadow Play. Artist Zhou Zhongquan’s ancestral home is Mianyang, and his master Liu Xiubao is the direct descendant of Mianyang Fishing Drum Shadow Puppetry. Zhou Zhongquan has been making shadow puppets for more than 50 years and has made no less than 800 shadow puppets. During the performance, there is no fixed notebook, and the rhyme book is used to compose and sing casually, and the speech is talented.
In Xiaogan, there is also a folk saying that "one commentator, two drums and three shadow puppets can outwit Xiang Yu's three thousand soldiers". It tells the story of the conflict between Chu and Han. Liu Bang followed the strategy of Zhang Liang and used storytelling, drumming and shadow puppetry to disperse Xiang Yu's three thousand soldiers and win the victory. There is certainly an element of exaggeration in the spread of folk literature, but the influence of shadow puppets in this area can be seen from it. According to the "Mianyang County Chronicle", in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, there was a custom of singing shadow puppets in Mianyang area when attending meetings and honoring gods. During the Jiaqing period of the Qing Dynasty, brothers Pi Sijin and Pi Siyin, two fishing and drum artists from Miannan Embroidery Embankment, were forced to live in a foreign land due to flooding in their hometown. Shadow puppet performances are performed using cloth shoe shells to imitate shadow puppets from other places and accompanied by Mianyang fishing drums. This has initially formed the local characteristics of Mianyang shadow puppets. Later, it became increasingly popular, and a shadow puppet guild was established during the Tongzhi period of the Qing Dynasty, and then developed to the Yingcheng area. Mianyang Yugu shadow puppet artists unanimously recognized the Pi brothers as the first generation ancestors of Mianyang shadow puppetry. At the same time, like the folk theater troupes, they respected the drama god Lao Lang Wang and set up a memorial tablet to worship him.
The production of Mianyang Yugu shadow puppets has gone through several stages of evolution: shoe shell, paper shell, cowhide and donkey skin. In terms of shape, Mianyang shadow puppets are about two feet long, and their shapes are relatively realistic. The film content is rich, including more than 100 plays such as The Conflict between Chu and Han, Three Kingdoms, Water Margin, and Journey to the West.
Before liberation, shadow puppetry was still the main entertainment activity for people to celebrate the New Year, celebrate harvests, thank gods, and worship temples. On the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, there is a Lantern Festival performance of "The Great Return to the Kiln"; on the second day of February, which is the birthday of the Bodhisattva of the Earth, "The Land Meeting" is performed; on the third day of March, during the Cold Food Festival, the performance "Burning Mianshan" is performed; on the eighth day of April, the divine performance is performed "The Hoop Formation" "Miluo River" was performed during the Dragon Boat Festival in May; "Nezha Makes the Sea" was performed in honor of General Yang Si on June 6th; "Magpie Bridge Crossing" was performed on July 7th; and "Tang Minghuang's Tour of the Moon Palace" was performed on August 15th. Entertaining both gods and humans, shadow puppetry adds to the festive atmosphere. The singing tune and Yugu tune are folk songs popular among the people in the Jianghan Plain. After being absorbed and evolved by artists of all generations, they have become the two major singing tunes of the shadow puppet plays in the Jianghan Plain.
"Song Tune" originated from the folk song "Chicken Crow Song" of Chu State in the Eastern Zhou Dynasty. Later, the chicken crow song was combined with shadow puppetry and evolved into "Cock Crow Tune". The shadow puppet artists in the Jianghan Plain used the singing skills of "tongue to produce flowers", "mouth to produce fragrance", "face to produce color" and "eyes to produce light". They constantly modified their singing skills, and then integrated them with "Cao Cao Song" to become the singing style. It has become the main singing tune of Jianghan shadow puppet show.
The chicken crow tune in the "singing tune" is high-pitched, euphemistic, mellow and passionate. Anyone who learns to sing must first learn "rooster crowing". It starts with a rooster's crowing sound and ends with a drawl. The jump is as high as 17 degrees. It originated from the Chu State's "Song of Besieged on All Sides" during the Eastern Zhou Dynasty. It is a live part of traditional Chinese music. "fossil". It is the unique tone of Jianghan shadow play and is divided into six tone patterns: male tune, female tune, ugly tune, miscellaneous tune, Tianguan Cifu tune, and Babujiu tune.
“Yuguqiang” is named after the singing instrument “Yugutong”. By the end of the Qing Dynasty (around 1900), Mianyang Yugu Opera and shadow puppetry were completely merged and integrated into one, becoming a unique Yugu Opera shadow play, even replacing the singing shadow puppetry in some areas. Yugu Shadow Puppet uses Mianyang Yugu tune as its main tune, and later integrated singing tunes such as Mianyang Flower Drum Opera, Han Opera, and Chu Opera. It has the characteristics of cheerful and lively rhythm, high-pitched tunes, and boldness. According to the note in the Dai (sound ái) mouth book (Summary) Used on the spot, usually in a rhyme to the end and easy to understand. Sometimes, "Haoshui Ci" or "interpretations" are added impromptu, such as "After singing for a while, there is not a cup of tea. Although the boss's tea is expensive, it can be simmered in a jar."
The Mianyang Fishing and Drum singing tunes sung in shadow puppet shows are divided into five categories: Ping tune, Bei tune, Yuwei tune (or Fengwei tune), Pipa tune and Miscellaneous tune. The singer uses real and fake voices, with large scale jumps, wide range, beautiful timbre, high voice, tactful, conveying emotions, and is very moving.
Among them, the tragic voices of men and women in shadow puppet plays are very similar to the cries of women in the Jianghan Plain and the sad voices of flower drum opera, which are sad and desolate and can make people cry. In particular, the "shaking baggage" (called "button" by the artist) at the end of each libretto of the shadow puppet show is a "supporting tune" (called "shuiqiang") for the chorus, with "Hey, cough, ah, yo" The lining words supplement and extend the meaning and pleasure of the words, and expand the structure of the music form. In the harmony of more than ten syllables or dozens of syllables, the ups and downs are ups and downs, the momentum is vigorous, the rhythm is bright, and the sounds and emotions are mixed, which is especially pleasant to the ear. It makes people listen to it for a long time.
The Yugu Shadow Puppet was later integrated with the Mianyang Huagu Opera style, which has the characteristics of cheerful and lively rhythm, bright and bold tunes, etc. Its accompaniment uses fishing drum tubes and simple boards, and later artists added gongs, drums and orchestral music. In particular, the tone and rhythm of the two musical instruments, the bamboo stick and the fishing drum, can enhance the atmosphere.
The singing style of Mianyang Shadow Play is mainly fishermen's drum style and singing style, with percussion accompaniment. The early fishing drum shadow puppet shows had no orchestral accompaniment, only fishing drum tubes and cloud boards to play the paneye, drums, cymbals, big gongs, small gongs, horse gongs, interludes and singing. At first, the shadow puppet troupe consisted of three to four people, two of whom played shadow puppetry and sang, one played the fishing drum and cloud board, and the other "played the hand-clamping" (gong, drum, etc.). Later, national instrumental music (erhu, jinghu, dulcimer, suona, flute, etc.) was introduced as accompaniment and female artists were added to sing female lyrics. The number of shadow puppet theater troupes increased to five to eight people, further enhancing the artistic effect of shadow puppet theater singing; with the addition of costumes, lighting and scenery , amplification equipment, making the shadow puppet show extremely artistic. Most of them come from literary creations, novels, literary poetry collections, and folk tales from various dynasties. The scripts are usually very short, with the performers developing plots and characters based on the story and improvising lyrics. The language art is spoken in dialect, mixed with folk sayings, proverbs, idioms, dialects, etc. It is humorous, full of local flavor and folk flavor, making the audience feel very intimate.
The early singing form of Mianyang Fishing Drum Shadow Puppetry was "stand-alone singing". There are two types of lyrics for "Stand-Up", one is the traditional fixed lyrics, such as "Ci of the Eight Immortals" and "Busy at Both Ends", which artists call "dumb lyrics"; the other is "Haoshui", which is improvisation, You can sing whatever you see, be flexible and changeable, and focus on catering to the host's psychology and making you laugh. The main singing tunes include [Ping tune], [Ciling tune], [Taoist tune], [Yuwei tune], [Pipa tune], [Guanyin tune], and [Zahua tune]. There are three types of lyrics: the cross sentence of "three, three, four", the seven-character sentence of "two, two, three" and the long and short sentence of "five, five, seven, five". There are two types of lyrics: one rhyme for a long section and one rhyme for each section. The rhymes used are divided into "Guang, Xiao, Ban, Xiu, Ge, Ma, Yang, Yu, Qin, Guai, Wei, Ke, Si, Zhong, Fu".
The "Fifteen Rhymes" of Mianyang Fishing Drum Shadow Puppet's lyrics are the same as the "Thirteen Rhymes" of poetry.
Artists must be proficient in phonology when singing fish drum shadow puppets. Especially when they compose and sing "Haoshui Ci", they must make sure the words are well spoken and the rhymes are consistent.
During the late Qing Dynasty, lantern shadow play (shadow play) artists collaborated with fishing drum artists and used fishing drums to accompany the lantern shadow play. During the Guangxu period, Mianyang fishing drum artists gradually gave up the "stand-up" singing style and turned to singing accompaniment for lantern shadow operas, forming the fusion of lantern shadow and fish drums. After the merger, Yugu developed from Xiantao to Tianmen, Honghu, Qianjiang and other counties (cities). A performance of accompaniment has evolved to include one person playing drums and playing the board, which has expanded to "five pieces", namely drums, cymbals, large gongs, small gongs, and horse gongs. The singing style has changed from a solo to a chorus, and the number of tunes has also increased [ [Male Ping Tune], [Female Ping Tune], [Chou Ping Tune], [Han Ping Tune], etc. [Miscellaneous Color Tune] also incorporates some folk songs and opera accents.
As for the repertoire, any chapter novels or legendary stories with stories that attract people's interest can be composed orally sung by the artist "Haoshui". Therefore, there are too many fishing drum songs to count. The Jianghan Plain, bordered by the Han River to the north and the Yangtze River to the south, is one of the birthplaces of Han culture. Shadow puppetry has found a breeding ground and prosperity here. Although its origin cannot be verified, as early as the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, the area had the habit of singing shadow puppets when holding ceremonies to thank gods and during festivals. Over time, a unique style and carving characteristics were formed.
Shadow puppets are made of leather. For the sake of sturdiness and transparency, cowhide and donkey skin are preferred. One of the key points of shadow puppets is image modeling, especially the carving and whitewashing of characters. Shadow puppet artists were inspired by folk paper-cutting. They first used animal skins such as cows, pigs, sheep, etc. as modeling materials, and carved them carefully to create shadow figures.
When coloring, five pure colors of transparent pigments, including red, yellow, cyan, green and black, are mainly used. It is precisely because of these special materials that the shadows of shadow puppet characters and props projected onto the screen under backlight appear magnificent and crystal clear, with a unique aesthetic feeling. Following the custom of traditional opera, shadow puppet characters are divided into five categories: Sheng, Dan, Jing, Mo and Chou. What is even more special is that each character consists of a head, upper body, lower body, two legs, two upper arms, two lower arms and two hands. It is composed of eleven pieces. The performer controls a main pole in front of the character's neck and two poles at the ends of both hands to make the character perform various movements.
Mianyang shadow puppets are the most distinctive, widely spread and influential shadow puppets in Hubei. The main feature of Mianyang shadow puppetry is the same as that of drama, which is stereotyped facial makeup. From a visual point of view, the shape orientation is mainly from the front and side. Compared with drama, it is more virtual and inclusive. It can be said that a three-foot twisted rope can be used to form the sky or the earth. It is both an illusion and a small place, and is not limited by space. There are many characters in Mianyang shadow puppetry, and their professions are classified in an eclectic way.
A load of shadow puppet boxes generally requires 15-20 male pink-faced figures, including handsome men, emperors, fish-tailed pink-faced faces, bun-haired pink-faced figures, etc.; 10-15 female pink-faced figures, There are Huadan, Zhengdan, nvshuai, phoenix crown, Taoist nun, etc.; there are 15-20 colorful heads, including red face, black face, miscellaneous face, female face, etc.; there are 4 old vertical bosses, male and female, including male vertical, female vertical, and so on. Taoist priests, Taoist women, etc.; 6-8 treacherous and white-faced bosses, including old and young treacherous ministers, treacherous kings, etc.; 10-15 ugly and fair-faced bosses, including old, middle-aged, young, female shakers, standing hall, etc. ; 20-30 specialized leaders of various types. ***More than 120 bosses (character avatars) are needed to cope with various plays. The most eye-catching among these shadow puppets are those with special head shapes, such as Bao Gong: the sun and moon representing yin and yang are carved on the forehead, symbolizing Bao Gong's kindness in redressing the injustices of hell on earth. The three colors of red, white and black are applied with patterns on the forehead, making Bao Zheng's image both majestic and kind. The avatar of Lei Zhenzi (a divine general in The Romance of the Gods) is: a thunderous monkey face, an eagle beak, a fierce face, and an extraordinary look, which makes people know that he is a powerful martial general at a glance; but the Dragon King's avatar is It is a living dragon head: green dragon whiskers, a high dragon nose, and red dragon hair half covering a big ear of a cattail leaf fan. Even the two flesh tendrils on the dragon's nose are half rolled and half stretched, and an intuitive image of the dragon king comes to life; another example is Yang Ren's head in the list of gods, with two hands in his eyes, a strange, novel and interesting appearance.
The clown shape of Mianyang shadow puppets is ugly but interesting. In addition, the shadow puppeteer shakes the shadow constantly and utters funny and witty words. The sound and shadow match, which is particularly happy and refreshing. Among the shadow puppets, there is also a character called Jian Tang Shadow who is the most interestingly designed. This nameless little character is an indispensable figure in the entire shadow puppet show. He plays the role of connecting the plot, making jokes, and playing various roles. The shadow is only half as tall as the other shadows, with its head nailed directly to its body. He has a small head, a big belly, short and slender legs, a water chestnut beard, and a door-bolt eye. When he is satisfied, his little head can rotate in a circle. As soon as he comes on the stage, he makes everyone laugh. This is similar to that in life. Although the dwarf-like figure is a reduction in shadow shape, it is also an artistic exaggeration. The back flag on the drama takes up about one-third of the body's height, while the back flag on the shadow puppet is only one-tenth of the shadow's height. The hands of the shadow puppets are the parts with a large range of movements. For convenience, the proportions of the hands have been reduced several times. The figure's head is much larger, but overall it does not appear top-heavy. Instead, it feels appropriate and focused. This is another important point in the modeling of Mianyang shadow puppets.