"Four Huibans Entering Beijing" is a symbol of the birth of Peking Opera?
Liu Xinyang
The fifty-fifth year of Qianlong in the Qing Dynasty (1790) was the year of the 80th birthday of Emperor Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty. Officials from all over the country must present birthday gifts to celebrate. Among them, Zhejiang Salt Minister Wu Lana recruited the three-chung squad from the Hui squad to Beijing to attend the birthday celebration in order to congratulate Emperor Qianlong on his 80th birthday. There are different opinions about the performances of Sanqing Class in Beijing. Some people say that Sanqing Class once went to the palace to perform for the royal family, while others say that Sanqing Class only participated in various forms of birthday celebrations among the people after entering Beijing. However, no matter what, the Sanqing Class entered the Beijing drama world in 1790, and there is no doubt about the fact that Emperor Qianlong entered the Beijing drama world through the 80th birthday of Emperor Qianlong.
Peking Opera Encyclopedia
Huiban: refers to the Huiban Opera troupe invested and formed by Anhui businessmen. Hui Opera originally only sings the sings and plucking songs, and the Ersong and Kunqu operas added later absorbed the Ersong tunes from Hubei and Kunshan tunes from Jiangsu. In fact, before the Sanqing Class entered Beijing in 1790, the vocal and repertoire performed by the Sanqing Class was quite rich. In addition to the blowing, piaozi, Kunqu and Erlun, it also sang various accents such as Liuzhi (zi) and Luoluo.
Because the performances of Huiban learn from others, they have a lively atmosphere of life. After Emperor Qianlong's life, the Sanqing class did not return south, but stayed in Beijing and continued to perform in folk performances. Since Sanqing Class is a comprehensive opera troupe that mainly focuses on Hui Opera and absorbs other vocal and opera genres, both in terms of vocal and repertoire composition, it is very rich, which refreshes the audience of opera in Beijing, so the performances of Sanqing Class in Beijing won unanimous welcome from Beijing audiences.
"Historical Materials of the Pear Garden of Yandu in the Qing Dynasty·Seeing Flowers in the Rixia" records that Gao Langting, an actor from the Sanqing Hui class of Qianlong and Jiaqing years, was the "Elderly Summer of the Second Yellow"
Another reason why the Sanqing class's performance was popular in Beijing is that in the Hui class during this period, "star-based" actors represented by Gao Langting began to appear in the Hui class during this period.
Peking Opera Encyclopedia
Gao Langting (1774-?) male, whose real name is Gaoyue Palace, was originally from Baoying County, Jiangsu Province. He was born in Anqing . He is a famous Huiban actor and actress. When Gao Langting was young, he took the "Anqing class" to Yangzhou, Hangzhou and other places to perform, and became famous at the age of 16. In 1790, he went to Beijing to perform with Anqinghui troupe, and then stayed in Beijing for a long time. The woman played by Gao Langting has a vivid look with every frown, smile, and every move. It can be seen that he has profound acting skills and superb acting skills. He also absorbed and combined the strengths of various schools and made outstanding contributions to the formation of Peking Opera in the future, so he was respected as the "Er Huang Senior". He acts a lot, but at present, only the title of "The Fool's Marriage" is left behind. In addition to his excellent acting skills, Gao Langting also has superb management skills. He was once the title of "Qingfeng Housewife". He served as the head of the Sanqing class and was in charge of the Sanqing class for more than 30 years. Later, he was the head of the "Jingzhong Temple" organized by opera artists in Beijing (also known as Huishou). Gao Langting's disciples include Chen Xiguan, Qiu Yuguan, Su Xiaosan, Shuangfengguan, Shen Xiaguan, Shen Cuilin, etc., all of whom are famous actresses. At present, the verification of Gao Langting's year of death is unknown, but there is evidence that since the 14th year of Daoguang (1834), the head teacher of Sanqing Class has been succeeded by Chen Jincai. It is conjecture that Gao Langting may have died at that time.
Peking Opera Encyclopedia
Jingzhong Temple: Jingzhong Temple was built during the reign of Emperor Kangxi of the Qing Dynasty. The temple worships the statue of Yue Wumu, a famous general of Song Dynasty, is located in Chongwen District, Beijing. Jingzhong Temple is a mass industry organization for Beijing opera artists in the Qing Dynasty and is also a semi-official administrative agency. Famous actors Gao Langting, Cheng Changgeng, Yang Yuelou, etc. have served as the temple head (or the meeting head) for many years. Since the institution is located in Jingzhong Temple, the temple name is used as the club name. The head of Jingzhong Temple is generally recommended by artists and approved by the competent administrative department before it can take effect. After the Republic of China, the organization was renamed Zhengle Yuhua Association, Liyuan Association, etc. In addition, there are also organizations that exercise corresponding functions in Tianjin, Shanghai and other places, but the names are slightly different.
Due to the richness and strength of the performances of the Sanqing Class, the Hui Ban's performances in Beijing continued to grow and grow, so after the Sanqing Class, there were successively "Sixiu", "Qixiu", "Nicui", "Hechun", "Suntai", "Sanhe" and other opera troupes, and they went to Beijing to perform one after another. Among these opera troupes, except for the two opera troupes "Qixiu" and "Nicui" that are Kunqu opera troupes, the rest are Hui Ban. When many Hui squads competed to perform in various theaters in Beijing, the four Hui squads, "Sanqing", "Sixi", "Hechun" and "Chuntai", were among them, the best reputation, the greatest influence, and each had its own characteristics. For a time, they were praised as "Sanqing's axis ('Saxi' read zhòu), the song of "Sixi", the handle of "Hechun's axis, and the child of "Chuntai". The general meaning of this sentence is that the Sanqing troupe is good at performing a whole drama with a beginning and ending, the Sixi troupe is good at performing Kunqu opera (the tune of the Kunqu opera) ("Quzi" refers to Kunqu opera), and the Chun troupe's martial arts are the most popular ("Baozi" is a special term on the opera stage, specifically referring to martial arts opera here). The Chun troupe's actors are mainly young people, especially the Hui-tuned "Three Little Dramas" ( Xiaodan , Xiaosheng, and clown) ("Children" here generally refer to children). Therefore, later generations called these four opera troupes the "Four Hui troupes".
At this time, the Hui troupe performances that were widely active on the Beijing opera stage have spread to major theaters such as Guangdelou , Guanghelou , Sanqingyuan, Qingleyuan and other major theaters. Therefore, at this time, the Hui troupe's performances occupied the dominant position of the Beijing opera stage with an absolute advantage. But one problem that needs to be explained and clarified is that today's familiar "Four Hui teams" are not uniform and unified in their respective visits to Beijing. For example, the Sanqing team entered Beijing in the 55th year of Qianlong, while the Sixi team entered Beijing in the early years of Jiaqing (after 1796). The Hechun team was established in the eighth year of Jiaqing (1803). As for the time when the Chuntai team entered Beijing not only has no clear records in history, but there were more than one opera troupe named after the Sixi team during the Qianlong and Jiaqing years. Therefore, the statement of "Four Hui teams" was only summarized and compared after the major Hui teams entered Beijing one after another. Therefore, there was a saying that "Four Hui teams entered Beijing in 1790" that confused the time when the major Hui teams entered Beijing one after another. At the same time, some people regarded 1790, that is, the year of the Sanqing team entering Beijing as the era of the birth of Peking Opera. Although the Huiban's entry into Beijing is a prerequisite for the formation of Peking Opera, in terms of its origin, the tunes performed by the Huiban at this time were still comprehensive tunes including vocal tunes such as Ersong, Kunqu Opera, Blowing and Piaozi. Since the Huiban's performance was not Peking Opera, how can we start from the birth of Peking Opera in 1790? Therefore, these conclusions lack historical basis.
