Chapter Seventy-Six: Shadow Puppetry

Panjiayuan is bustling with tourists, and the sound of frequent noise is transmitted from time to time into the shop called Duobaoge.

Yin Luoxue pondered for a while, bit her lip lightly and said: "The Lotus Pond Baiyun Temple has a stalk of three treasure jade Ruyi, which has been enshrined for more than thirty years, and it is popular enough, it is suitable for small use, you go and find a way to exchange it back, if Baiyun Temple does not agree, you can tell them, as long as you are willing to take out the three treasure jade Ruyi, I will calculate it for them once without charging any price." ”

Yin Duobao was stunned for a moment, and said with a little worry: "Calculate once? Nope······ There won't be any problems. ”

"A little trouble, nothing matters."

As soon as she finished speaking, Yin Luoxue shook her head lightly, said nothing, and reflexively sat back at the door, without looking at the sweet food on the table, and returned to a dignified posture of reading.

It's like that thick ancient book can never be finished.

······················

Nothing to say all night!

As a qualified practitioner who relies on the antique industry to eat mixed rice, the first stop when you arrive in your place is of course to choose the most prosperous local antique market.

In the morning, the two drank donkey broth, ate donkey meat, inquired about the exact location of the antique market, and drove the Jinbei car straight to the destination.

Zhang Yi understands things very well, and does not ask about the function of medicinal wine and pills because he has a good relationship with Su Ren, as if he is pulling a strip for things, and it is very taboo to inquire about the specific origin of objects and explore the customer's information.

The old friend's empathy made Su Ren take a long breath, secretly grateful in his heart, and saved a lot of white lies.

Because it is not a holiday, the antique market in Baoding is not prosperous, there are few shops, many stalls, the bosses have keen eyes, sit in the center, look at the eagles, stare at the tourists who come and go, and secretly judge which of these people is the old man of the eagle claw, which one is the fat sheep and the new tender.

Porcelain, calligraphy and paintings, copper coins, woodware, strange small pieces, many fakes, few genuine products, plus the sparse tourists, people can not arouse the slightest interest in wandering.

It was the unique local shadow puppet play that aroused Su Ren and Zhang Yi's strong desire to buy.

Shadow puppetry, formerly known as "shadow play" or "lantern shadow play", is a kind of folk drama in which the silhouettes of characters made of animal skins are illuminated by lights to perform stories.

Behind a white curtain, the performers manipulate opera characters while singing and telling stories to popular local tunes, accompanied by percussion gongs and stringed erhu.

Its performers manipulate silhouettes, sing, or set to music behind the scenes. In the past, when film, television and other media were not yet developed, shadow puppetry was one of the most popular folk entertainment activities.

The status is equivalent to the cartoon anime that is now very popular, or it is a sound movie.

Shadow puppetry is an ancient traditional art of the Han nationality in China, and the people of the old capital call it "donkey shadow puppetry". For thousands of years, this ancient art has accompanied generations of ancestors and spent many happy times. 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. The shadow puppet making is exquisite, the craftsmanship is exquisite, and the performance is full of fun and vividness. 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.

During the Yuan Dynasty, shadow puppetry was spread to various countries, and this art form originated in China was fascinated by many foreign theater fans, and people affectionately called it "Chinese Shadow Lantern".

The process of making zuò is as follows: first, the leather is soaked, scraped thin, and smoothed, and then the artists depict the drawings of various figures on it, carve it with various types of knives, and then paint it with color.

When carving, it is generally engraved with yang, and sometimes it is also engraved with yin. Painting and dyeing pay attention to women's hair ornaments and clothing are mostly patterned with flowers, grass, clouds, phoenixes and other patterns, while men use dragons, tigers, water, clouds and other patterns as patterns. The loyal character is a five-faceted character, and the negative character is a seven-faceted character.

The character modeling is the same as that of the drama characters, with a complete range of raw, dan, clean and ugly characters.

The shadow puppets are up to 55 centimeters tall and about 10 centimeters low. The limbs and head of the shadow puppeteer are carved separately and connected with threads to allow for free movement during the performance. A shadow puppet is manipulated with five bamboo sticks, and the artist's fingers are nimble, often dazzling the audience. Not only is the kung fu in his hands superb, but he also has to speak, read, play, and sing on his lips, and he also has to brake gongs and drums under his feet.

The screen for shadow puppetry is made of a piece of white gauze with a size of 1 square meter. The white gauze is polished with fish oil to become crisp and translucent. During the performance, the shadow puppets moved close to the screen, and the figures and colorful colors were really moving. The shadow puppet props are small, the performance is convenient, and the venue is not limited, and the actors do not need formal training, so they are deeply loved by the people. In areas where shadow puppetry is prevalent, people will affectionately refer to it as the art of "one dan pick".

Donkey shadow puppetry originated in Shaanxi, China, but was extremely prosperous in Zhuozhou, Hebei Province in the Qing Dynasty.

Like the place where Su Ren is looking now, it is played in the back and sold in the front.

is acting in opera, Zhu Bajie carries his daughter-in-law, and sells well-made, pure donkey skin carved puppet objects.

There are flowers and birds, noble girls, officials, servants carrying sedan chairs, Guan Gong with a long beard, Chang'e running to the moon, pigs, dogs, rabbits, tigers, dragons, and all kinds of animals, which are even more dazzling.

The machine is carved, the machine is colored, so the price is very cheap, Su Renyi was happy, and directly spent 20,000 oceans to buy several sets according to the wholesale price, one is to add some selling items to his stall, and the other is to take it back for Xiaomei as a toy.

Even if it doesn't sell in the end, it's not ugly to put on a frame and hang it on your wall as a decoration.

Knowing that Su Ren was injured, Zhang Yi consciously walked back with two snakeskin bags, and Su Ren followed brightly.

At this moment, He Shen beckoned to the side and shouted eagerly: "Master, master!" The bronze mirror over there, the bronze mirror over there, master?"

Su Ren's spirit was immediately shocked, and he hurriedly stepped forward and asked in a low voice, "Which one?" ”

"On the left, master, look at the stall on the left."

Motioning for Zhang Yi to wait, Su Ren walked towards the stall He Shen said.

The porcelain in the stalls in front of me was large and small, some with cracks, some with chips, and a small pile of porcelain fragments. Copper Buddha, copper Guanyin, copper ingots, bronze with cyan rust, looks a little old.

The owner of the stall is a young man, not very old, it seems that he is temporarily looking at the stall for the adults in the family, about seventeen or eighteen years old, playing with a mobile phone in his hand, he doesn't answer when he sees the guests, and nods his head even if he greets.

According to what He Shen said, Su Ren picked up a bronze mirror, just by virtue of the weight, you can know that it is cast of pure copper, round, about 20 centimeters in diameter, the mirror surface is stained with obvious scratches, and the figure can barely be illuminated, and the center of the back is convex, engraved with twelve zodiac pictures.

According to the style, the old and new Cheng dù, the terms, etc., Su Ren judged that the bronze mirror in front of him belonged to the products of the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China. Judging from the situation at that time, the flood of large-scale glass products was the time when the mercury mirror replaced the bronze realm and entered thousands of households.