"The powder building looks at the west and tears flow, fearing that the river boat will move at dusk; In April, Xiangzhong made tea and recalled Heather to court. "
The title of the poem is "Farewell to Tea Pickers". Judging from the chanting scenes in the poem, the farewell "tea pickers" do not refer to those engaged in tea picking, but to professional artists engaged in singing "Tea Picking". This artist may be quite accomplished in the singing art of Picking Tea, or he may be deeply concerned by contemporary celebrities such as Tang Xianzu. It can be seen that tea picking had a deep foundation among the people at that time, otherwise there would be no such professional artists. Tang Xianzu's "Peony Pavilion" not only contains the poems quoted above, but also has a play of "Persuading Agriculture", including a performance of picking tea and singing and dancing:
……
[Door-to-door introduction: Another pair of women sang well.
[Lao Dan and ugly holding baskets to pick tea, sing:
[Filial Piety Song]: Grain Rain rode in the middle, picking fresh tea, with flags and guns.
(Bai): Hey, what kind of immortal is this?
(Singing): A bachelor cooks him in snow, a scholar misses him, and bamboo smoke makes new tiles.
(Waibai): The song is good. Speaking of him, he is neither a bachelor of postal science nor an envious scholar. He is our government's uncle who gives advice to agriculture. Seeing that you women pick mulberry, tea is better than cauliflower, as evidenced by a poem: "Because there are few tea stars in the sky, a hundred herbs bloom first in the ground, and girls are greedy for fighting grass, and the scenery is not like fighting tea." Arrange flowers.
[Clean and Ugly Flower Arrangement and Drinking] Sing:
The official is drunk, arranging flowers before the wind, and picking tea is not handsome.
……
This play tells the story of Du Bao, the prefect of Nan 'an, who went out of the city for a spring outing and came to Le Qing Township on the outskirts of Nan 'an (now Dayu County) to persuade farmers. The elders of Leqing Town led the villagers to meet him at the Guan Jie Pavilion. This ceremony of "persuading farmers" is a routine for local officials to show concern for farmers in past dynasties; It is also a means for officials to understand people's feelings and collect folk customs. The old people in Leqing Town prepared songs and dances reflecting local folk customs and dedicated them to the prefect. The song and dance quoted above were performed by a pair of tea pickers. Tang Xianzu was born in Wanli period of Ming Dynasty. Before writing Peony Pavilion, he went to Nan 'an twice, wrote poems, and had a good understanding of local folk customs. The story background of Peony Pavilion is Nan 'an area. When choosing songs and dances that reflect local folk customs, they must be circulated by the people to show the local characteristics of the plot. It can be seen that this kind of tea-picking song and dance chosen by Tang was already loved by local people at that time. There are songs and dances, themes and eyes, characters and stories, which have already possessed the traditional opera elements of singing and dancing performance stories. This is enough to prove that in the middle of the Ming Dynasty, Gannan tea-picking drama began to be popular among the people. The most prosperous period of tea-picking drama in southern Jiangxi was the Kanggan period in the Qing Dynasty. Chen (a Qianlong person) wrote a poem "Nan 'an Ci", which reflected the grand occasion of tea-picking in folk performances at that time:
Before the camp, Qiu dressed up as a beautiful young man; I've been playing triangle for a long time, so I'll try tea songs.
Before the camp, in today's Shangyou County, it belonged to Nan 'an Prefecture at that time and was a mountain city. In such a small town, it is also very difficult for the triangle class to start picking tea and perform until the end of tea tasting. It shows that the triangle class of tea picking at that time was quite basic and so attractive. Otherwise, it is impossible to maintain such a long performance in one place.
Regarding the enthusiasm of the masses when they were watching tea picking at that time, there is a poem "Nan 'an Yin" in Xinfeng County Records, which is described in detail:
"Tea-picking songs, village children dress up as demon moths. Looking for Yao in our village, I turned around and smiled. Dude's children competed for lottery tickets and made waves with cups. Poor Shiyan whimpered, killing people's livelihood and falling into a coal pit. His face was covered with soot and his fingers were black, and he was fascinated by tea picking. Hard-earned money spilled with joy, and the bag was empty. Do you learn from A-mei? . "
This song Ode to Nan 'an was written by a teacher named Xie in the county. Oracle Bone Inscriptions is a scholar, and his views represent the views of the ruling class in feudal society on tea-picking opera. Although full of derogatory meanings, on the other hand, it just shows that the masses were fascinated by tea-picking drama at that time, especially those coal miners who lived at the bottom of society (all the mouths were coal), and they were even more fascinated by "tea-picking". Even if all the hard-earned money was spilled, they returned to happiness with the mood of "learning". Gannan tea-picking drama was highly praised by the society in the era of "self-entertainment class" in Ming Dynasty. Because at that time, the "Tea Picking in Jiulong Mountain" light show was performed, and most of the contents were to celebrate the peace. For example, the lanterns in the play show that the world is peaceful, so they are appreciated by feudal rulers. In the triangle class era of juggling, because the content of the drama is mostly based on the love between men and women, the views and ways of expressing love often violate the feudal ethics. Such as "Anti-Love" and "The Same Year". Some even satirize, expose and criticize the real life of society in the form of comedies, such as Daquanfu and Hershey in Man Mei. This is intolerable to the feudal rulers and is considered immoral and immoral. Since Qianlong, successive dynasties have repeatedly banned performances. Such as Daoguang four years "zhili Ningdu county annals, customs annals" contains:
"Tea-picking, also called triangle class, is a demon-like lewd voice, which leads evil into righteousness and is the most harmful place. ..... Recently, someone was allowed to perform. They should be arrested and punished to stop this wind. "
Similar records can be found in the county records of Gannan. The ban is not only written on official notices, but also engraved on monuments and stones, standing in rural markets and towns. For example, before 1949, there were regulations prohibiting tea picking, smoking, gambling, whoring and stealing next to Zhenjun Temple in Xiaofeng.
After the tea-picking opera in Gannan was banned, it was unlucky. No longer allowed to enter the square and ancestral temple in the village, they had to set up an open-air performance in the corner of Weiwei Temple to survive tenaciously in the biting wind and rain.
In its heyday, Gannan tea-picking drama developed to more than 30 teams, and then gradually declined. On the eve of liberation, there were only five or six teams left in Gannan, hiding in the corner of the mountain and sneaking off and on. Really dying, only one breath left. Besides music, it can best show the characteristics of Gannan tea-picking drama. At the beginning of its performance, it paid equal attention to song, dance and drama. Its performance characteristics can be summarized as "three wonders and three wonders". The three wonders are: the traditional tea-picking drama shows all the love and labor that the lower-class working people dream of, and there is no court dance and talented person and beautiful woman dance, which is surprising; A large number of performers imitate animal movements and are named after animal movements, which is the second wonder; Song and dance dramas go hand in hand, so that some people think that it is a local song and dance drama, and it is a three-stop.
The three musts are: small step, single sleeve and fan flower.
The basic footwork of small step includes small step, high step, small step stride, shaking step, surprised step, sliding step and shovel step. Short steps are divided into short piles, medium piles and high piles. This is the only small step in the world drama. Single sleeve, which is necessary again. Generally speaking, the sleeves in the play are paired, but there is only one sleeve left in the tea affair, Gannan. But it created many dance terms. Such as grasping sleeves, draped sleeves, back sleeves, sun-shading sleeves, fan-shaped sleeves, underarm sleeves, phoenix-tailed sleeves, needle-piercing sleeves, basket sleeves, throwing, throwing, waist-winding, knee-winding and side-winding. ...
Beauty is a kind of symmetry. One sleeve seems to ignore the law of beauty, but no, the fan flower of the other hand is symmetrical with it on the stage. One hand swings the sleeve and the other hand dances the fan, which is extremely unique and interesting.
There are many kinds of actions to fan flowers, such as swinging fan, folding fan, avoiding fan, shading fan, overlooking fan, smelling flower fan, covering face fan and so on, which are very expressive. Among them, there are some artistic tricks left by old artists about fan flowers, such as:
Five fingers up, four fingers forward. Three-fingered flowers are square, and two-fingered flowers shake their chests. Yun, press, grasp and shake against the abdomen.
The characteristics of three wonders are the product of Hakka people living in the harsh ecological environment in mountainous areas in southern Jiangxi for a long time.
For example, short step, Hakka people live in the mountains, go out to climb mountains, bend over and bend their knees, and tall people become "short people." The clever Hakkas make the short step a unique basic dance step in the world. Clouds and mist filled the mountains with tea. The girl was carrying a tea basket, singing tea songs and dancing while picking tea. The young man was carrying tea on his shoulder and stepping on short piles, middle piles and high piles transformed by dwarfs. Dancing with single sleeve fan flowers has created a unique Hakka tea affair in Gannan.
For another example, there are many performers named after animals, because on the long mountain road, Hakka people are used to interacting with birds and animals, and their endless interest in animal world life has given whimsical Hakka people inexhaustible artistic inspiration. Imitate animal movements, and simply name them after animal movements, such as: monkey washing face, wolf foraging, lion opening mouth, thrush jumping, tortoise climbing sand, attracting phoenix tail, dragonfly playing in water, dog wagging its tail, lazy cat scratching, fox crossing the headland, butterfly picking honey, rooster pecking rice, monkey being frightened, frog becoming short.
The action of animals expressing life consciousness was captured by Hakkas. It is not difficult to imagine that without mountains, there would be no birds and beasts, and there would be no observation and refinement of life. How are these countless stage performances created? Clowns are divided into two parts: one is "ugly and handsome", which is called "just ugly"; The second is "appreciating ugliness", that is, the so-called "anti-ugliness".
Right ugliness: mainly young men among working people. They are hardworking, simple, bright, optimistic, witty and brave. When singing, the actor wears a "grab" and a "three-flowered skirt", a "white hall skirt" at the waist, bloomers at the bottom, a "fan flower" at the right hand and a "long sleeve" at the left hand. Singing and dancing, lively and relaxed. The performance is dominated by "short steps" and "fan flowers", and the combination of high and low steps is lively and distinctive.
Anti-ugliness: most of them are smokers, gamblers, hooligans and idlers. They often expose their opponents or laugh at themselves with some vivid, implicit, humorous and humorous words and actions. His performances often imitate some animal images, such as monkey washing face, monkey peeing, dragonfly, lazy cat scratching, chicken pecking at rice, thrush jumping, dog wagging its tail, tortoise climbing sand and so on. Facial makeup, white nose, footwork and flower-fanning movements are all similar to the "positive ugliness" performance.
Xiao Dan: Mainly hardworking, simple and smart rural girls and young women. The performance is vigorous and beautiful, concise and generous. Its "fan flowers" are richer than clowns. They can play with flowers with one hand or with both hands. Its body movements include: dressing and picking curtains, picking tea in the garden, umbrella flowers, opening and closing doors, etc. Its basic steps are eight steps, jumping, stepping, grinding, probing and breaking. , can be described as varied.