Horse-head Wall Reflects the Qing Dynasty

Chapter 55 Who says that the stage relies on singing and dancing? Worrying about the country and the people, carefully drawing pictures

Coming closer, the sound of gongs and drums could be heard. The stage had not yet been decorated. Cheng Heng's eyes were drawn to a couplet on the front pillar: "The crowds are bustling, talking about the Three Tombs and Five Classics, stirring up the mud and promoting the clear", "The gongs and drums are clanging, performing the legends through the ages, persuading people to do good".

That is to say, you can still see these Taiwan associations on the temple stage!
Before Cheng Heng who broke in was noticed, he looked around and focused on a place not far away. Then a long couplet was written in a fluent manner: "Two families sued Mulian. People came to watch the play, listen to the play, men and women, old and young, scholars, farmers, merchants, witch doctors, monks and Taoists. There were crowds of people, and the world was bustling. With one stick, hell was opened, and the eldest son ghost, the short ghost, the gambler ghost, the smoker ghost, the lonely ghost, the lame and deaf ghost, the disabled ghost, the ghost spirits, and the monsters rushed to the gate of hell."

"Mulian Opera." The couplet clearly stated this, and Cheng Heng's curiosity was aroused. After all, "Mulian Saves His Mother" was common, but Mulian Opera was not.

Cheng Heng couldn't imagine what festival it was and why they suddenly had to put on a play.

"Sir, are you here to watch the play? There's no performance today."

Cheng Heng was brought back to his senses by the call. His eyes fell on the person who came and he remembered the identity of the person in front of him - no wonder he called him "sir". He was one of the only two or three people who stayed in the school after Ying Sheng left. Cheng Heng still remembered him.

"How do you come to sing?"

"My parents asked me to be a scholar, but the teacher can see that I am not cut out for it." The person being asked did not get angry, but smiled and agreed with Cheng Heng, "This is a job to make a living. I can't even sing, so I just play some music and drums reluctantly."

"How can it be easy to play music?" In the future, at the very least, he can become a folk artist. Cheng Heng listened to the self-deprecation of the person in front of him, as if the contempt of the acting industry in this era also fell on him.

Facing this topic, Cheng Heng obviously had no idea. He coughed dryly and asked for details: "What is this performance going to be? There haven't been any temple fairs or festivals recently...but who invited them?"

"If you want to compete with us, we are not afraid, but poaching is not appropriate!"

The conversation between the two was drowned out by a burst of noise. Cheng Heng originally didn't want to listen to the dispute between the two opera troupes, but the troupe leaders' voices were too loud, and the noise echoed within the high walls.

"You know we are going to have a lot of success here, but you still come to poach our talents. Do you really think that no one cares about the rules? Or do you think that I, the boss, am dead?"

"Nowadays, who doesn't get the job if the price is high? What's more, the main star of our class has left, and we are short of people because someone is being punished for acting. Otherwise, why would we poach people from you? Those rules in the past..."

Obviously, the person who spoke later was being unreasonable and wanted to make trouble. After all, there are always people who think: as long as they can make money, it doesn’t matter what dishonorable means they use.

But Cheng Heng didn't like this at all. He felt that the troupe leader was no different from the person who had tricked him and his classmates into performing.

Even Cheng Heng could imagine this man's face. When he invited him to his class, he promised him wealth and glory in the future, but now he's in trouble... In the end, the scapegoat might still be the person with a weak heart.

"What? Acting as a punishment is the rule, but you don't care about the class rules? For the sake of money, you really don't care about your face?"

After hearing these words, Cheng Hengmu was stunned and didn't know what to say. In the early years, these opera troupes had many rules. Even if he was in the past, he would inevitably violate one or two of them inadvertently. But poaching people during the performance was unethical even now.

"Well, since you don't admit it, then we'll sit in court and have a good discussion!"

There was a lot of noise, and the boss's words put an end to it. The dust that was raised made Cheng Heng cough twice.

"Oh, this is a big deal!"

"It's not a big deal. Only by following the rules can everything be done properly." As soon as he finished speaking, Cheng Heng remembered that he was no longer the master of the person in front of him, but the bad habits that had become habits had already fallen on him.

"That's what sir said."

"But the penalty scene he just mentioned..."

"Oh, sir, you're asking this." Perhaps because the boss left in a hurry and the person in front of him didn't need to work, he simply asked Cheng Heng to find a place to sit down together and began to tell the whole story of this farce. "I wonder if you know that a merchant from a nearby village went to the countryside to collect tea two days ago, just after the Qingming Festival."

"Oh?" Cheng Heng had never heard of this rule.

What's wrong with buying tea? Nowadays, many fruits and vegetables are purchased at extremely low prices, and after being resold, the prices in the hands of consumers are already ridiculously high.

Cheng Heng didn't understand what the merchant's rules were for buying tea, but he couldn't ask directly.

"The merchant deliberately lowered the price and deceived the tea growers. When the villagers went to buy the tea, they knew what the merchant had done. According to the agreement they had made earlier, he should be punished with a play."

"This agreement was originally meant to protect those who grow tea. My parents also do this. The most hateful thing is these unruly merchants!"

When I was in private school, I didn't see the people in front of me being so talkative. Perhaps it was because I was not good at studying and was forced to stay in the room all day, so I had no chance to speak... Cheng Heng just thought that how many people have been saved by these industries? After all, there is more than one way out.

"That's true." The spontaneous rules in the industry are indeed a good thing. It is better for everyone to make the money together than for you to suppress me and I to suppress you, and in the end no one gets anything.

It would be great if the boss he met understood this principle, Cheng Heng sighed inwardly - how many of these rules are left now?
Just when Cheng Heng thought the man in front of him had finished speaking, an indignant voice rang in his ears: "Sir, don't you know that the business of this penalty play was originally snatched away by that troupe owner!"

"Merchants give a lot, it's not like we are performing this Mulian play, where we have to donate the money... After a few days of hard work, it's barely enough to live on."

"Now they come to our side to snatch people again!"

"It can't be helped. They give more money, and then they meet ..."

Seeing the troupe owner arguing with each other, a "court" was set up under the stage. The troupe owner sat at the top. When there was a scandal in the troupe, the troupe owner dealt with the people in the troupe first and did not insist on continuing to quarrel with the troupe owner who stole the business.

"Tell me, what are you doing for?"

"Is it because they pay more? Have I treated you unfairly?"

"You have to go to another troupe just to make some money. If you need that money, just tell me!"

The class leader sitting at the head of the class was intimidating without getting angry. He controlled his emotions and listed the crimes of the person in front of him one by one: "You shirked your responsibilities at the last minute, and were poached by someone else. Count how many of these class rules you have followed?"

It is rare to be able to take the leading role in a drama troupe, and this is also thanks to the village troupe. In a larger environment, he is more or less a leading role. If he is considered a leading role, the boss of the troupe is the leading role himself.

But the village opera troupe does not make money from the actors, and the people who are poached are of great importance and do not actually have much say.

"Boss, I admit my mistake, but I can't stay here any longer."

The person who was originally standing in the yard knelt down in response, without giving himself any hesitation. The "dong" sound made people anxious.

Cheng Heng knew how painful this sound would be, and he reached out to rub his knees. There were many places where the actor had to kneel in the play, and even in places with carpets, the impact was not light.

The man who was mistakenly recognized was tough, and he didn't seem like someone who was irresponsible and didn't know the rules. Cheng Heng didn't understand why this person could follow such a troupe owner and leave this good troupe?
"If your family is in trouble, you should have told me. Why did you follow that guy named Wang? You know very well that he is not a good guy!" The owner of the troupe is old, and many people in the troupe think that in the future the troupe will be passed on to the man kneeling in the yard.

The kneeling man did not stand up, but looked up at the elder in front of him. The latter could be regarded as a teacher who taught him and gave him a chance to make a living: "Master, I know your intentions, but you can only solve it for a while, not for a lifetime."

"Following him, I can perform outside the village, not just in the village." Every word was like a dense needle piercing the troupe owner's heart. The two of them sat in silence. Some people from the troupe around them wanted to persuade them, and naturally some wanted to scold the kneeling man for being ungrateful.

"Do you really have to go?"

"must go."

"Then go ahead."

"Boss... OK."

The class leader dismissed the onlookers, and the people who were kneeling stood up. The solemnity and oppression slowly dissipated with the departure of the two people, and lasted for a long time.

The couplets on the stage were originally painted black and decorated with gold. After being exposed to wind and rain for a long time, pieces of them fell off and met with the light dust accumulated on the ground, splashing up a ring of dust.

Gazing at the backs of the two people who parted ways, Cheng Heng was also infected by the loneliness. The moment the class leader turned around, it was like the withering autumn leaves, and his original spirit was gone.

"Sir, I know he's not doing it for the money."

The words of the person next to him called Cheng Heng's attention back. Of course, he could see that the man had something to hide, but he didn't know how could the person involved be blinded by something that was known to everyone in the troupe?

"He did it for his brother. His brother went north a few days ago, and he was going to go too."

"But if he goes, I'm afraid he won't be able to come back."

"So he doesn't want the class owner to always be thinking about him...so he might as well be the one who betrays his teacher and ancestors."

"Going north?"

"Sir, don't you know that there's a fight in the north?"

"I know."

It would be so refreshing to feel the breeze in my arms, and it would be so refreshing to see the green mountains together. It was just a teacher and a student; a director and a Huihu, sitting here for a long time without saying a word.

"Sir, I actually want to go north too. I heard that there are many opera troupes that are doing very well, and some people support them and spend a lot of money on them!"

"You do it for the money?" Cheng Heng didn't think so, but he still wanted to hear the person in front of him say it himself, "I've said it before, whether it's scholars, farmers, merchants, or artisans, witch doctors, musicians, or craftsmen, there's nothing wrong with them."

"I can still barely remember a little bit of what the teacher said about 'On Teachers'... 'Now their wisdom is not as good as mine'."

"But not everyone in this world thinks this way. 'On Teachers' is also advising those 'gentlemen' that the people they ridiculed are now better than them. It's sad and ridiculous."

"You want to go to the capital to ask for respect?"

Cheng Heng knew that this era was an epic era in the history of opera. A group of predecessors worried about the country's demise and devoted themselves to the future of local operas - respect gained through self-respect is rare.

"If you want respect, you have to see how you see yourself."

I stood up and felt the damp wind blowing in my face. I didn't realize it was the beginning of another rainy day. These days, there are always winds and rains that fill the yard and make the lush green trees fall.

It was rare for Cheng Heng to chat with others, but the topic was always so heavy.

"He too?"

"No, there are too many people who save their mothers and their country in the play. Once you enter the play, you can't get out."

It is not good to fail to get out of the play, and there is nothing wrong with that. But if the play is written to wake up the characters in the play, then of course it is good - at least that is what Cheng Heng thought.

“The stage is a small world, and the world is a big stage.”

"The troupe owner told us this couplet before. Think about the officials and businessmen in the play. Which one is not the same as human affairs?"

"Sir, I'm going to be busy..." After a long time without receiving a response from Cheng Heng, the man holding the Huihu stood up and left, leaving Cheng Heng sitting there alone, looking at the stage in front of him.

There are many details to pay attention to when performing Mulian Opera. It is not only the performance on stage that requires a lot of effort and care, but also the early preparations. Cheng Heng, an idle person, has no status to help. He sits in front of the stage, watching the people busying around, and feels a little itchy in his heart.

Gongs, drums, Huihu, flute. This show is not only about Mulian, but also has several blessing plays. It is said that it will be performed for three consecutive days.

The busy boss concealed the dejection he felt at that moment of "sitting in court", but in Cheng Heng's eyes, there was still an indescribable desolation.

A gust of wind blew by, and sand got into Cheng Heng's eyes. While frowning and trying to let his tears wash away the sand, Cheng Heng rubbed his eyes and looked straight ahead at the stage.

The original Three Tombs and Five Classics, the eternal legend, turned into two completely different lines of text...

"Eight years ago, the Japanese invaders were rampant and the people suffered, just like a green grape falling into hell."

"Once it rains, the mountains and rivers will be returned to me, and my people will rejoice together, just as Prime Minister Fu has ascended to heaven."

After a while of trance, Cheng Heng opened his eyes again and found himself in the mountains again - green pines stretched out to welcome the flowing clouds, and Guan Yin was standing beside him.

The strange stone stood tall, with the intention of reaching the sky. Cheng Heng didn't know where it was, but Guan Yin recognized this "immortal pointing the way".

"Why are we on the mountain again?"

"What were you thinking about before you dreamed?" Guan Yin did not respond to Cheng Heng's words, but looked at the place where the pine and stone were reflected, "Was it fame and fortune? Or..."

"It was our ancestors who planted the trees for us, but later generations dug up the roots." Cheng Heng's eyes fell on the same pine stone as Guan Yin's. "The pine and plum trees stand proudly in the snow because they cherish themselves."

Listening to Cheng Heng's sigh, Guan Yin, an "outsider" could not fully understand what the former was worried about. He just looked at the meaningful "immortal pointing the way" and recited the tour guide script that he had told his friends dozens of times.

"Gods have to rely on their own hands, it's not something illusory. The predecessors showed the way, and the descendants should also walk out their own way to be worthy of the reputation of the predecessors."

"If you were a teacher..."

Guan Yin could understand his thoughts, so Cheng Heng did not find it strange. He just felt strange that this mountain and this dream seemed to be spiritual and were clearly guiding him.

The four couplets in this chapter are all ancient couplets from Huizhou area, and the information comes from "Shexian Hui Opera Records".