In Peking Opera, the term “shu sheng” usually refers to an actor who performs the role of the old sangha. In the 1930s, Yu Shuyan, Gao Qingkui, Ma Lianliang, and Yan Jupeng each created their own unique style of art, and were known as the “Four Great Shusei”. Later, Gao Qingkui retired from the stage due to voice problems, and Yu Shuyan and Yan Jupeng passed away in the 1940s, so the term “Four Masters” changed. One theory is Ma Lianliang, Tan Fuying, Yang Baosen and Xi Xiaobao, and another is Ma Lianliang, Tan Fuying, Yang Baosen and Zhou Xinfang. Their distinctive performances have won them numerous accolades.
After the establishment of the Chinese Communist Party in 1949, the fortunes of Ma Lianliang, Tan Fuying, Yang Baosen, Xi Xiaobao, and Zhou Xinfang also fluctuated. The “lucky” one was Yang Baosen, who died in 1958 without having to go through the tragedy of the Cultural Revolution, while the others were either persecuted to death or died of physical and mental injuries.
The death of Ma Lianliang
Ma Lianliang, the founder of the Ma School of Peking Opera, became famous in the 1920s and formed the Fufeng Society in the 1930s. His elegant costumes and high-pitched, flamboyant singing voice were popular in the north and south of the country, and were widely sung by people.
In 1950, Ma Lianliang was invited by the Chinese Communist Premier Zhou Enlai to return to Beijing from Hong Kong. At that Time, Zhou Enlai said, “Don’t take the performance in the pseudo-Manchu to heart, you are an actor, you support your Family by singing, you have no political purpose.”
Upon hearing this, Ma Lianliang decided to make a comeback and established the Ma Lianliang Theatre Company, which, unlike the state-run theatre companies around the Communist Party, was still private and earned money by performing.
In 1953, during the Korean War, Ma Lianliang took the initiative to join the “3rd Consolation Mission to North Korea” and performed there for half a year without taking a penny. Ma Lianliang also repeatedly reassured the troupe members who had no income for six months that they would earn money after returning to China to support their families. However, after his return to China, Ma Lianliang was criticized for “asking for money” during his performance to the Chinese Communist army. Feeling wronged, Ma Lianliang had no choice but to make a public review.
Later, during the “Anti-Rightist” period, Ma Lianliang managed to escape under Peng Zhen’s “strong protection”. In 1959, in response to Mao’s call to “learn from Hai Rui’s courage to speak the truth and ask for help from the people,” Ma Lianliang asked Wu Han, then vice mayor of Beijing, to be the scriptwriter and rehearse Hai Rui’s Dismissal. In 1961, the play was praised by Mao, who invited Ma Lianliang to Zhongnanhai for dinner to show his praise.
However, in 1963, there was a sudden change in the political climate and “The Orphan of Zhao” was banned by Jiang Qing with the word “poisonous grass”, followed by “The Emperor and the General” being “expelled from the stage”. In 1965, under Mao Zedong’s leadership, the play was banned.
In 1965, at the behest of Mao Zedong, Jiang Qing and others launched a campaign to criticize “Hai Rui’s dismissal” in the literary and historical circles, which became the trigger for Mao to launch the Cultural Revolution. Ma Lianliang, who had starred in the Peking Opera “Hai Rui Strike the Official”, was also implicated and expelled from the Beijing Peking Opera Company by Jiang Qing.
Soon after the outbreak of the Cultural Revolution, Ma Lianliang was branded as a “traitor” and a “theater bully” and had his Home raided, with all his antiques, cultural relics and valuable items looted. Afterwards, he was imprisoned in a hut separated by scenery pieces in the lounge of Beijing Zhonghe Theater, and was often taken out for criticism.
According to his disciples’ recollections, one day during Ma Lianliang’s isolation, a 16- or 17-year-old female “Red Guard” entered the so-called “black room” with a whip in her hand and ordered all the people inside to kneel down, asking them to “explain” one by one The “red guards” ordered everyone inside to kneel down and asked them to “explain” one by one how much money each person earned, and Mr. Ma was naturally no exception. After the “explanation,” the “Red Guards” again loudly reprimanded: “You earn too much, each person is only given twelve yuan a month to live.” On another occasion, a meeting was held to criticize the so-called “capitalists”, and Ma Lianliang was forced to accompany the fight, and his weakened state was heartbreaking.
One day in December 1966, Ma Lianliang fell after buying a meal and had a heart attack, and was taken to the Fuwai Hospital in Beijing, where he died at the age of 66.
After his death, Ma Lianliang was hastily cremated instead of being buried according to Muslim custom. Probably to his death, Ma Lianliang did not understand: How could the Chinese Communist Party go back on its word?
Zhou Xinfang’s family’s bad luck
Zhou Xinfang, known by his stage name “Qilin Boy”, was the founder of the Qifa school of Lao-sheng, and performed on stage in Hangzhou at the age of 7. He was known as the “Southern Qi and Northern Ma” with Ma Lianliang because of his simple and deep singing voice and strong and resonant dao.
After the establishment of the Chinese Communist Party, Zhou Xinfang became the director of the Shanghai Opera House and the vice chairman of the Chinese Dramatists’ Association, and joined the Chinese Communist Party.
In 1965, in order to resist Jiang Qing, Zhou Xinfang criticized Jiang Qing at a meeting of the Party General Branch of the Shanghai Opera House for stopping the troupe’s performances and rehearsing the “model play” Wisdom and Tiger Mountain alone, which cost hundreds of thousands of RMB, accusing it of “laboring the people and hurting the money” and “delaying the youth of the actors. This was accused of “wasting the people’s money” and “delaying the actors’ youth”.
Soon after, Shanghai’s Wen Wei Po began to criticize Zhou Xinfang’s performance of “Hai Rui Shang Shuo” in numerous articles, labeling it as “anti-party and anti-socialist”. When the Cultural Revolution broke out, Zhou Xinfang and his son Zhou Shaolin were detained at the Peking Opera House to answer questions. The Red Guards stormed Zhou’s house, pelting the family dog with bricks and stones, beating his daughter-in-law Minzhen with a military belt, and grabbing his granddaughter Mei Mei to cut her head off as a cow devil for public display. Minzhen was beaten unconscious and Maimei was frightened out of her mind.
According to the biography of Zhou Xinfang, in early 1967, Zhou was paraded through the streets on an overhead wire repair truck. He was hung with his arms cut behind his back, “bleeding from his nostrils and the corners of his mouth, with his hair pulled tightly and his face bruised and battered. Zhou’s wife, Qiu Lilin, was taken by the rebels and beaten so badly that her flesh was split open and she eventually became bedridden.
In 1968, Zhang Chunqiao personally arrested Zhou Xinfang. In 1969, Zhou’s father and son were released, but Mrs. Zhou had been persecuted to death, and the couple, mother and son, did not see each other for the last time.
In 1970, Zhou Shaolin was sentenced to five years in prison and sent to a labor camp in Anhui Province for saying “Jiang Qing is the movie actress Lan Ping”. On March 8, 1975, Zhou Xinfang suffered a heart attack and died unjustly at the age of 80.
The “dishonest” Xi Xiaobao passed away quietly
Xi Xiaobei, another famous “suzheng”, studied under Mr. Yan Jupeng in his early years, joined Mei Lanfang’s troupe, and later formed his own Peking Opera troupe. There was a saying in Beijing: “How could Xi Xiaobao not be popular? He shouted that he had dented a brick in the battlements of the three gates outside the Anding Gate to the east.” This shows that he worked extremely hard.
Xi Xiaobao was generous and righteous, and after he became popular, people came to his home every day to “sue for help” (that is, to borrow money). As long as the other party opens his mouth, no matter how much, always give one or two pieces of ocean. A cousin, must come to eat twice a week, after the meal will smoke a big cigarette, before leaving will take some money. Xi Xiaobao never got tired of this cousin. His wife has seven brothers and often relies on him to provide for her Life. He thought it was his share of the work. Xi Xiaobao did the same for his peers, and he once helped the famous flower face actor Jin Shaoshan to hold a “charity show”.
Not only that, Xi Xiaobao was also known for his filial piety. After his wife’s death in 1949, at the age of 40, he did not remarry for fear of disharmony between his mother-in-law and daughter-in-law, and after his mother’s death in 1954, he feared that his new wife would not be good for his three children, so he remained alone until his death.
After the establishment of the Chinese Communist Party, Xi Xiaobo became the head of the Beijing Peking Opera Troupe No. 4, and in 1957, when the “anti-rightist” movement was underway, he was labeled a “rightist” after he had not made any “anti-party” remarks. In 1959, he became a “rightist”.
After the outbreak of the Cultural Revolution, Xi Xiaobo was labeled a “reactionary artistic authority” and a “historical counter-revolutionary”, and listening to the enemy was one of his major “sins”. According to “Xi Xiaobo’s Past” written by Zhang Yihe, in addition to receiving various kinds of criticism and corporal punishment, he had to sweep the floor, build fires, sift ashes, and collect cinders. He was given a monthly subsistence allowance of 50 yuan, which was later reduced to 15 yuan. The sudden drop in living standards and the mental stress caused him to almost collapse, and he suffered from acute pneumonia and later a paraplegia due to a stroke.
In May 1976, Xi Xiaobao told his disciple Ouyang Zhongshi, who came to visit him, “I greeted the people who were closer to me and said, ‘Don’t worry about me, I can’t run away from the old rightist anyway, you all pull your families together. If you can’t stand it, just push anything onto me. But even so, it was hard to get through. When they (the rebels) asked me anything, I admitted everything, just as they wanted me to admit. But what I said still didn’t match what they said. So they said I was still dishonest.”
On December 10, 1977, Xi Xiaobao died quietly, followed by Ma Lianliang and Zhou Xinfang. At the time of his death, he had no savings and no family assets. He left his son only a torn blanket, a camphor wood box and an unfulfilled wish to see his relatives in Beijing.
Tan Fuying’s depression
Tan Fuying was born into a family of Peking opera performers, his grandfather Tan Xinpei and father Tan Xiaopei were both famous Peking opera actors. Tan Fu Ying’s fame was also early, as he made several recordings soon after his debut in the 1920s, including “Famenji” with Wang Lianpu, which became a household name and a sought-after item at the time.
In 1934, Tan Fuying officially took the lead, and her voice was so bright and sweet that it was a big hit. Some critics say that Tan Fuying’s voice is as clear and clear as the white moon in the sky.
Tan Fuying is also a filial son, he has to go to his father’s room to pay his respects in the morning and return home at night. If he was eating out and came across something his father loved or any fresh delicacy, Tan Fuying would always pay the chef to make another one and bring it home for his father to taste.
After the establishment of the Chinese Communist Party, Tan Fuying became the head of the Beijing Peking Opera Troupe and joined the Communist Party in 1959. However, when his father was seriously ill, Tan Fuying, who listened to the Chinese Communist Party, did not dare to tell his father that he was going to North Korea for a “condolence performance”. It was only when his father found out from other people that he was allowed to leave home. Just after he left home, however, his father died of an illness.
After the outbreak of the Cultural Revolution, Tan Fuying criticized some of his peers for being unkind to him and losing the traditional standard of loyalty and forgiveness. Once, Jiang Qing convened a meeting and asked for comments on the Peking Opera “Harbour”. Tan Fuying suggested that the play had too many high accents, which were not only detrimental to artistic expression, but also harmful to the actors’ voices. This annoyed Jiang Qing so much that he ordered him to resign from the party. In 1977, Tan Fu Ying died of illness.
Conclusion
The four most famous students, whose artistic lives should have continued to blossom, were firstly ended by the meat grinder of the Chinese Communist Party after the establishment of the Chinese government, and then their lives were taken away from them. Perhaps, they, who were well versed in loyalty, filial piety and morality, never understood until their death why the high officials of the Chinese Communist Party, who once praised their performances, had to turn the clouds upside down. In a word, it was because the Chinese Communist Party wanted to “revolutionize” the “life” of traditional Chinese Culture.
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