Pear Garden Anecdote My Teacher Cheng Yanqiu (2)

(Continued above)

In 1941, when Cheng Shi performed "Lock Linsac" at the Shanghai Golden Theater, Cheng fans in the audience sang with him, and there was a big chorus. This incident caused a sensation in Shanghai, which shows the depth of its artistic charm.

Not long after Master Cheng returned to Beijing, I asked him to visit him. He said: "Your family is very good, and you are a college student, why do you want to do this?" You see my child, there is no one who learns drama, and society discriminates against this line of work, calling it drama and lewdness. What stimulated me the most was that during the warlord chaotic period, I went to Shandong to act, and one day, after the warlord Zhang Zongchang listened to the play, he did not ask me to unload my load and go to drink with him. I listened very angry, isn't this insulting? I said, this is not appropriate, and I unloaded and left. From then on, I made up my mind not to let my children sing. ”

He also said: "This line, peers, mutual exclusion, if you act well, it is 'drama rice', and if you sing badly, it is 'qi rice'." Yu Zhenfei visited Cheng as a teacher, which I introduced, and he joined my troupe half a year after his mentorship. On the day of the first performance, I played "Jade Lion Pendant", and he performed "Halberd Shooting at the Gate" for the second time. The drummer and a few supporting characters, because he was a ticket mate from the south went to the sea, deliberately messed with him, so that he could not sing, Cheng Jixian was so angry in the audience that he wanted to hit the drummer, and the drummer slipped away from the backstage. Yu Zhenfei ran back to the south in a fit of anger and wrote to me saying that this bowl of rice was not delicious and uncomfortable. Later, my troupe replaced Liang Huating from Jinglice, reorganized the troupe, and implemented a new system before asking him back. ”

Cheng Shi then talked about the reorganization of his troupe: "The Minghe Society was formed by Liang Huating. He alone monopolizes both internally and externally. At first, he was obedient and obedient to me. For example, after I finished acting today, I was thinking about the next issue of "Yutang Chun", and before I said it, he booked it, and what he booked coincided with what I thought, and he really understood me. When I came back from France, my body was fat, and he thought that I was 'tasteless and abandoned it', and he always messed with me no matter what. I didn't want to act in any plays, what plays he ordered, and even my daily life, he controlled it very strictly, I really couldn't bear it, and finally with the enthusiastic help of Mr. Li (Li Xizhi), I quit him, reorganized the troupe, and established the Autumn Sound Club, with Wu Fuqin and Gao Dengjia in charge of everything. This is not to be bullied by Jinglice. This matter is too complicated, I advise you not to do this line of work..."

The more he spoke, the more interested he became, and also told a story about him and Mei Lanfang, Shang Xiaoyun, and Xun Huisheng recording "Four Five Flower Caves" in EMI:

"That record, why did I sing the fourth verse? The reason is: before recording, we studied together how to arrange, and the first sentence was naturally sung by Mr. Mei; Whoever sang the second sentence had a dispute, and Shang insisted on singing this sentence, but Xun refused to let it. Xun said: 'I won't say the third sentence. 'The two sides are deadlocked, and the company is in a difficult situation. So I said to Xun, 'You sing the third verse, and I will tell you the tone of this sentence.' Xun saw that I was so concerned about the overall situation, so he complied. So I gave him the phrase, and the fourth verse I sang was finished. ”

Now "Four Five Flower Caves" has become a very popular play, often festive banquet places, many famous actors when they gather together always imitate the singing methods of the four famous dan to string this play together. But little is known about how it came about.

Cheng Shi also told about his childhood entourage Rong Diexian learning drama and suffering. He said: "I am under Mr. Rong, which is tantamount to a child servant, and he has a very bad temper, and when he loses his pleasure, he will be whipped. In the winter, I chopped firewood for him, washed and cooked, and did not teach me to play at all. He wore cloth socks and every morning he got up and held them in front of him. Because my hands were not clean, they were coal and mud, and there were frozen blood, I did not dare to give him the socks directly with my hands, but I had to put a white cloth on my hand, put the socks on the white cloth, and then hold them to him. In this way, it is inevitable to be beaten. Before I left the division, he finally injured my leg, leaving a lot of blood bumps on my leg, and then I went to Europe and was treated by a German doctor..."

He talked to me for a long time, and finally left me for lunch at his house. During the meal I said to him, "I do not want to eat this bowl of rice for your purpose, and my father will not ask me to eat this bowl of rice." I have this wish for a long time, and your care and teachings for me over the past year have made me admire you even more, and I can no longer be silent, so I proposed it to you. If you think I'm not qualified enough, then I'm not reluctant. "He saw that I was very determined and sincere, so he agreed to my request and fulfilled my wish.

After visiting the teacher, I spent more than five years with Master Cheng. Many touching deeds that I have seen and heard with my own eyes and ears from his life style, human behavior, artistic accomplishment and moral character are deeply engraved in my mind.

Cheng Shi himself lived a frugal life, but he was generous to his friends and old difficulties. Be strict with your children and never pamper. He often wore cloth clothes and shoes. Whenever there is a performance, it is always on foot or on a "maudian" (tram). There is heating in the house, but no guests never use it, and a stove is built in the house for heating. The diet aspect is also simple. He likes to eat lamb, and every winter, he often buys sliced meat and eats them at home. The amount of alcohol is very large, and you can drink liquor and a half each time, but you usually do not drink it at home, and its wine morality is very good.

He said to his children: "Money is earned by my blood and sweat, do not waste it, cherish it." "He pays a lot of attention to every little thing about his children. Once his second son Yongyuan took a copy of "Flower Shadow of the Curtain" to read, he found it, immediately confiscated it, and said to Yongyuan: "This kind of book is not good for you, and you don't understand." You are now concentrating on reading your own textbooks and not reading other books. (At that time, Yongyuan was in the first grade of Furen Middle School)

At that time, the life of Rong Diexian's descendants was very difficult, and he often sponsored it. Someone asked him: "His Laozi (referring to Rong Butterfly Immortal) treated you like that, and you still help them?" ”

He smiled and said, "That's their Laozi, what does it have to do with them?" ”

There is also the former principal of the Chinese Opera School, Jin Shenlu (Zhongsun), an old man who lives in Beijing, and he often visits and gives cash every time he goes. In March 1945, when Jin Lao died, Cheng Shi generously covered all the funeral expenses and provided financial support for his children from time to time.

There are too many such examples. But he never paid the old society journalists, police stations, social bureaus, etc. He said: "I have to sing when I entertain them, and they have to sing when I don't pay them, they can't do anything to me, and they don't spend money on these people." ”

At that time, Zhang Huanru, the deputy manager of the Chang'an Theater, said to me: "Your husband (the instructor) is a brick in the toilet, smelly and hard. "It reflects the views of some people in the society at that time on Cheng Shi's upright behavior. It is precisely because of his stubbornness and arrogance that he has offended many villains, so much so that he was retaliated by those dog spies at Qianmen Station.

Master Cheng once had a vow to "never accept female apprentices in his life". At that time, except for Hou Yulan, Li Yuyi and others who studied at the Chinese Opera School, the rest such as Xin Yanqiu (Wang Yuhua), Zhang Zhiyun, and Green Dye Xiang, and even now Jiang Xinrong and Li Shiji have not officially visited Cheng as teachers.

After thinking about everything, Cheng Shi has his own opinions and propositions on society, life, life, and art, and never follows the crowd and follows the flow.

He told me that when he went to Europe to study theater, in Paris, France, Li Shi invited him to talk about opera with Ouyang Yuqian and Chen Zhenru (Ouyang and Chen are the two founders of the Guangdong Theater Research Institute). Everything can be talked about in accordance with the purpose, but when it comes to the philosophical issues of life in the opera, each has its own opinion, and it has not been solved for an hour and a half.

This topic also involves the "opera movement" of Cheng Shi in those years. Mr. Li is an advocate of cooperation and mutual assistance; Mr. Ouyang is an advocate of competition and resistance; Cheng Shi himself believes that the ideal of life is happiness, and happiness can only be obtained in peace, but aggression must be stopped, and oppression must be resisted. After he said his opinion, although Li and Ouyang temporarily suspended, they did not give up their respective opinions.

Another time, when I asked him why he had sent his eldest son to study abroad, he recounted the process to me. He said: "When I went to Europe to study opera, in the center of Paris, France, I saw a 'student city' where schools all over the world existed. I thought that it could be the center of the future world peace movement. If China builds a theater there, using themes such as Remarque's "No War on the Western Front" and writing a script to perform, it will definitely enable young people from all over the world to cultivate the idea of great harmony.

There is also a piece of land in China, but unfortunately there is no construction school, let alone students. I felt ashamed at the time. Later, I went to the Geneva School of Nations, where I volunteered to teach Tai Chi. This school was founded by Mr. Rasman and Mrs. Moritt, there is no discrimination based on race, country, religion, class, men and women, there are children from all over the world, but there are no Chinese children, and I feel even more ashamed.

Therefore, after I returned to China, I decided to send my children there, so that there were also Chinese children there, and won glory for our Chinese. He was 9 years old the year I sent him away, and the school lasted from elementary school to university. ”

This conversation of his is enough to show how strong his national self-esteem is and how much he loves the motherland! It is precisely because of his noble ideas that in the days when North China fell, Kou Yan Fang Zhang and all the people looked sideways, whenever there was a banquet and heard that Japanese people participated, they would politely decline. The Liyuan Guild, ordered by the enemy, asked Cheng Shi to perform an airplane play, but he strictly refused. Every time I saw a Japanese person, I looked sideways at it. Some snobs, provoking from it, are despised by the enemy.

Soon, he ordered radio stations not to play program films when playing celebrity records. In order to meet the requirements of some Cheng fans, the radio station purchased the "Lock Linsac" record from Shanghai to play. Fan Ziqi (now a director of the Peking Opera House) who was working at the radio station at the time invited me to play "Green Frost Sword" on the radio once.

At that time, someone poured records on behalf of Shanghai Beikai Record Company and discussed with Cheng Shi, who first declared: "If the factory is Chinese to do it, it will not be thick to ask for friendship, and it is also a little bit of my Cheng's intention to advocate domestic products." On the contrary, if it is done by the Japanese, I will not fill it with how much money I am. The visitor agreed vaguely.

The two sides agreed to fill six sheets of 12 faces, including the scene, all expenses, only 3,000 yuan, and automatically added one sheet, without additional remuneration, to show friendship. The price is unexpectedly cheap. At that time, it was agreed that the old and new skins were halved, of which "Yutang Chun" was the main one. On the day of the opening of the irrigation, Shanghai famous prostitutes Shocking Hong and Cuifang came to visit. The two were not only related to the Beikai authorities, but also disciples of the Cheng school, and knew that Cheng Shi's "Golden Lock" was one of the absolute structures, and demanded that "Yutang Chun" be easier.

Cheng Shi politely declined all the dramas, phrases, paragraphs, and time scales produced in advance, and it was inconvenient to make temporary changes. But the two repeatedly begged, and the Beikai authorities were also embarrassed. Cheng Shi saw that the two of them were very sincere, so he asked for it.

(To be continued)