When the old man talked about the baby's marriage, it was as if he had opened the chatterbox, and he couldn't stop it.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, look at me, I'm on the construction site again, and I've said so much nonsense."

As he was talking, the old man seemed to suddenly realize that he was a little too excited, and he was talking a little too much, and Zhang Tianyuan was not from the Ministry of Civil Affairs, why are you listening to these things.

"Uncle, I know that there is a shadow puppet township in Tongzhu County, and when I was a child, my grandmother often took me to watch shadow puppet shows, but I was very timid at that time, and I was scared to cry when I saw a sudden figure. You're from Shadow Puppet Country, aren't you? ”

"Yes, yes, yes, but now it's not called Shadow Puppet Township, it's called Shadow Puppet Town, but it's almost the same, and there's a shadow puppet research center, but it's really not very useful, now that film and television are so developed, who still watches shadow puppetry." When the old man said this, his heart was full of helplessness and emotion.

But Zhang Tianyuan has no problem with this, in fact, just like the art form of Qin Yan, there are not many young people who like to watch it, unless it is cultivated from a young age, but even so, when he grows up, he will still be pulled away by film and television dramas.

It is true that Qin dialect and shadow puppetry are populists, but if they are outdated, they are outdated, and now we should find a way to treasure these things in the museum, at least they can be left to future generations, rather than trying to give them a new life, which is too difficult after all.

And it's also unrealistic.

Zhang Tianyuan is going to set up several broadcast rooms in the museum, including shadow puppetry, puppet shows, etc., which can be regarded as living antiques. It's just a cultural heritage, even if it can't be widely disseminated. But in the museum, let the visitors try it out. Look at the excitement and recall the history, it should feel quite good, and it can attract a lot of customers.

He looked at the shadow puppets, and suddenly his eyes lit up, he thought that these shadow puppets were at most handed down after the founding of the People's Republic of China, even if the production was exquisite, it was not an antique, but after checking it with the word appreciation trick. He was surprised to find that the dragon faces of these shadow puppets were really very rich, from the Han Dynasty to the founding of the People's Republic of China.

This leather is much easier to preserve than paper, but Zhang Tianyuan still didn't expect that he could save things from the Han Dynasty to this day, which is also a bit too surprising.

Just these two boxes of things, it is estimated that a shadow puppet history can be listed, this is a really good thing, it was sent.

Shadow play. Formerly known as "shadow play" or "lantern shadow play", it is a kind of folk theater in which the silhouettes of characters made of animal skins or cardboard are illuminated by light sources such as candles or burning alcohol to act out stories. During the performance, the artists manipulate the opera characters behind a white curtain. While singing and telling stories with popular local tunes, percussion instruments and strings, it has a strong local atmosphere. In the river. South, Mountain. West, Shaanxi. Xi, Gan. Su Tian. water and other rural areas. This humble Han folk art form is very popular with people.

"Shadow puppetry" is a general term for shadow puppetry and shadow puppet characters, including scene props and scenery products. Shadow puppetry is a white curtain that allows the audience to pass through guò. A theatrical form of watching a flat puppet show with light and shadow to achieve artistic effect; The flat puppets and scenes in shadow puppetry are usually handmade by folk artists. Leather products made of knife carving and painting, so they are called shadow puppets. In the past, when there were no movies or television, shadow puppetry was one of the most popular folk entertainments.

Shadow puppetry is an ancient traditional art of Han Chinese folk, and the people of the old imperial capital call it "donkey shadow puppetry". Shadow puppetry is not only a puppet art, but also an authentic craft. It is made of cowhide, donkey, horse, and mule skin, and goes through several processes such as material selection, carving, coloring, sewing, and painting. Affected by various factors such as the external environment and the difference in the texture of animal skin materials, the style of shadow puppets is different from place to place.

Shadow puppet play has a history of more than 2,000 years since there are written records, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty loved his concubine Mrs. Li and died, Emperor Wu's thoughts were in a trance, and he ignored the government all day long. Minister Li Shaoweng went out one day, and met children playing with rag dolls on the road, and the shadows were reflected vividly on the ground. Li Shaoweng's heart moved, and he cut the image of Mrs. Li with cotton silk, painted it with color, and installed wooden poles on his hands and feet. At night, the emperor was invited to sit in the tent and watch. Emperor Wu looked at Long Yan Dayue and couldn't put it down. This love story, which is enshrined in the Book of Han, is considered to be the earliest origin of shadow puppetry.

Since the Yuan Dynasty in the thirteenth century, Chinese shadow puppet art has been introduced to Persia (Iran), Arabia, Turkey, Siam (Thailand), Myanmar, the Malay Archipelago, Japan, Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Russia and other Asian and European countries with military expeditions and sea and land exchanges.

China has a vast territory, and the shadow puppets in various places have their own characteristics, but most of the shadow puppet making procedures are the same, usually through eight processes, such as skin selection, leather making, drawing, drafting, engraving, coloring, sweating and ironing, and embellishment, and more than 3,000 knives of hand-carving, which is a complex and wonderful process. The artistic creativity of shadow puppetry draws on the techniques and styles of Chinese Han Dynasty silk paintings, portrait stones, portrait bricks, and murals in Tang and Song monasteries.

The shadow puppet brought by this old man should be the shadow puppet of Shaanzhou.

In fact, there is a story about Shaanzhou shadow puppetry before Emperor Wu.

Legend has it that during the era of Emperor Wen of the Han Dynasty, the crown prince Liu Qi cried incessantly after he was born, and the whole palace was distressed by this. Once, a court maid stumbled upon the young prince staring at the shadow of the leaves cast on the ground outside the window, forgetting to cry and dancing happily. So, the palace maids used leaves to cut into various human shapes, animal props, and projected lights on white cloth to make the prince happy. Because the leaves dry up quickly, the preservation time is too short, and later the palace ladies found that the props made of cowhide are tough, easy to preserve, easy to collect, and shadow puppets were born.

Of course, whether it is Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty seeing Madame Li, or Emperor Yue of the Han Dynasty, this is a kind of folklore, indicating that shadow puppetry has existed since the Han Dynasty.

And among the shadow puppets of this old man, there are shadow puppets of the Han Dynasty, which can be regarded as physical evidence. Where did this thing come from, Zhang Tianyuan didn't want to delve into it, he just wanted to get this thing into his museum as soon as possible, and then let the world know that our country still has such a brilliant culture and art.

Even if it is declining now, it is always a good thing left by the ancestors, and it must be remembered.

"Teacher Zhang, in fact, someone came to me with shadow puppets in the past and asked me if I would accept them. But you know, unless it's someone who is particularly interested, no one will want to collect it, so I didn't accept it. I also thought in my heart because Mr. Zhang that you have set up a museum, after all, museums are different from private collections, and some things that may not be appreciated in private collections are priceless treasures in museums, such as these shadow puppets, so I simply called the head of their township and asked them if there was a ...... that they were willing to sell shadow puppets."

Mr. Li saw that Zhang Tianyuan liked this shadow puppet very much, and he breathed a sigh of relief in his heart, so he told him the ins and outs of this matter. In fact, he knew the head of the shadow puppet township before, and he was annoyed that he couldn't do it, but this time it was a double win, which not only solved the problem of the shadow puppet township, but also helped Zhang Tianyuan, and finally did nothing wrong.

"Old man, are there many shadow puppets like this in your township?" Zhang Tianyuan thought about it, since he decided to collect it, then this time he simply collected enough, at least to make a special shadow puppet exhibition hall, this thing, even the Palace Museum does not have! It's called a feature!

Don't think that this is a declining art that can't make money, in fact, although it is difficult to promote it on a large scale, but if it is only a small-scale exhibition, then tourists will definitely go with curiosity.

It's like a person who is used to eating big fish and meat, and occasionally eats shallots and tofu, which is also absolutely delicious in the world.

What's more, shadow puppetry also has its own unique charm, and some people are really good at it.

"Yes, why not, there are many. Our township was originally the largest shadow puppet base in Shaanxi, and during the Qing Dynasty, the art of Chinese shadow puppetry developed to its heyday. At that time, many wealthy and wealthy squires of the Wang clan in the official palace were proud of inviting famous teachers to carve filmmakers, store Seiko shadow boxes, and raise private film classes. In folk villages and towns, large and small shadow puppet troupes abound, and it is not surprising that there are twenty or thirty shadow puppet troupes in one township and one city. Whether it is a festival, a happy harvest, praying for blessings and worshipping God, marrying a banquet, or celebrating a birthday, it is indispensable to sing on stage. Even this play has to be performed all night or for more than ten days and a half months, and several film troupes can appear in a temple fair to set up a stage to sing against each other, which is very lively, and its grandeur can be imagined. The old man said with great interest.

"Not only that, at that time, our shadow puppet troupe in Shaanzhou was not only popular with farmers and citizens, but also entered the court. During the Kangxi period, Prince Li's Mansion had eight officials who were in charge of film and drama. During the Jiaqing Festival, it is also passed on the shadow puppet class to perform in the house on festive days such as New Year's festivals. At that time, the Imperial Capital Shadow Opera Troupe performed puppets during the day and sang shadow opera in the hall at night, and many Peking Opera actors also participated in the troupe's performances. Oh, listening to the ancestors, our Shaanzhou shadow puppet was in the imperial capital at that time, and it could be regarded as famous. ”

"Hahaha, it's so powerful, I didn't expect this art to decline like this." Mr. Li sighed and said.

In fact, the decline of shadow puppetry, mainly because it can't keep up with the times, but this is also related to many events in history, in the late Qing Dynasty, there were some local governments afraid that shadow puppet theaters would gather in the dark night to cause trouble, so they banned shadow puppetry, and even arrested shadow puppet artists. Shadow puppet artists were also implicated in the White Lotus Uprising at the end of the Qing Dynasty and were confiscated on charges of "Xuanlan Bandits". Before and after the invasion of the Japanese army, due to social turmoil and years of war, the people were struggling to make a living, resulting in the withering of thousands of households in the once prosperous shadow puppet industry. ”

Since 1955, the national, provincial and municipal shadow puppet performances have been organized, and troupes have been sent abroad to perform and carry out cultural and artistic exchanges. (To be continued......)