The folk art in Jinxi, an ancient town, is very prosperous. The lotus pavilion, Zifu Nunnery, tea houses, streets, streams, and forests can be heard everywhere. Jinxi Fishery Singing adds a more charming color to the town. Various dramas in Beijing, Shanghai, Wuxi, Vietnam and Kunming also show their magic here. However, among the numerous flowers of art, the most popular one is Sixian Xuanjuan.
The silk string Xuanjuan in Jinxi Town has a long history. The original name of "Da Shifan" in the Ming Dynasty was Xuanxuan Baojuan, later called Xuanjuan. Singing can be in Mandarin, or in Subai, or other dialects. From the "Wu Sheng Song" of Yuefu folk songs in the Southern Dynasty to the "folk song" of Feng Menglong in the Ming Dynasty, folk oral singing is the main form, which is widely spread in Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces.
Professional artists in the Ming Dynasty named "Da Shifan" as a treasure scroll. Later, it became a complete Jiangnan Sixian Xuan scroll because of the music of Jiangnan Sizhu musical instruments. According to the records of Jinxi Town in the 13th year of Jiaqing in the Ming Dynasty (1518), "Wu Di likes to play jokes, and there are also people who gather pear gardens in the ancient town, and those who play ten times." It is also recorded that "there are literary fairs, poetry fairs, and social plays in the town, which are held once a month or twice a month. The form of gathering temples and temple fairs or gathering houses is also known as" clamorous ". This kind of folk activity is essentially a folk art activity.
Folk art has long been very prosperous in the ancient town of Jinxi. It is active in places where people gather all year round, such as birthday greetings for the elderly, birthday celebrations or weddings and funerals for children. There are often theatrical troupes' brochures appearing to perform programs according to the requirements of the inviter; Or on the first day of the lunar calendar, half of the moon, meeting the god of wealth, making temple fairs and other activities, there will also be programs such as propaganda.
The performance form of Sixian Xuanjuan is simple, as long as two or three tables with eight immortals are placed side by side and benches are provided for performers to sit down. The protagonist of the Xuanjuan is sitting in the middle, and musicians such as blowing, pulling, playing, beating and knocking wooden fish are sitting on both sides in turn. The protagonist holds eye-catching props such as fans and handkerchiefs. At the beginning of the singing, four loud sounds are played first, and then the wooden fish is knocked. The main characters show the repertoire, and each enters the role. They sit right to accompany and left to help; Generally, it starts with "36" or other silk and bamboo tunes. The artists face the audience, mainly speaking, singing, and expressing themselves, or standing or sitting, depending on the needs of the characters in the story; The protagonist can play positive and negative characters, as well as male, female, old, young, baby, even lady, lady and other roles; According to the needs of the plot, the cries of chickens, dogs, cows, sheep, cats, pigs, ducks, and geese all come from one person's mouth. They are vivid, lifelike, and lifelike. They must be artistic. The actors should be 5 to 8 people, singing one song and two harmonies (harmony and harmony); The main instrument is the erhu, accompanied by various musical instruments such as Yueqin, Sanxian, Pipa, flute, board, bell, dulcimer, wooden fish, etc; The aria is mainly Xuanjuan tune, but also Shanghai Opera and Xiju Opera. In terms of rap, each person has his own unique tune, which is mainly local dialect. This has a broader mass base than Suzhou Pingtan, which is more popular among the people.
The plays played, that is, the volume of Xuanjuan, have different plays in different times. There are more than 30 ancient volumes well preserved in Jinxi, of which the typical ones are Baihuatai Baojuan, Xiangshan Jinjuan, City God Baojuan, Peach Art Baojuan, Jade Lotus Ring Baojuan... The general traditional songs include Pearl Tower, Jade Dragonfly, Jade Chain, Qin Xianglian, Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai, which are all love stories between men and women, There are also stories of righting wrongs, such as "Double Pearl Phoenix", "Double Gold Ingot", "Bao Gong's Clever Breaking of the Mirror of the Red Chamber", "Wang Hua Selling His Father", "Double Gold Flower", "Red Mane Horse" and so on, which are loved by the people. The performers and audience of Sixian Xuanjuan are mainly farmers. Historically, it has been inherited by self-study or apprenticeship. There is no special school curriculum to train future generations, so there is a shortage of talents. In fact, this is one of the contents that the rural cultural market needs very much, because it is very popular with farmers. The late old man Wang Bingzhong, Zhou Degang and the living old man Wang Yuzhong in Zhangjiashe Village were all masters of silk string Xuanjuan. Before liberation, they traveled dozens of miles in the village by boat and performed outside all the year round, which was very famous. After the liberation, they sang praises of the new China and the Communist Party. They compiled many new programs and performed many new performances. The propaganda volume "Husband and Wife Open the River" was highly praised by leaders. After the Third Plenary Session of the 11th CPC Central Committee, the old artists restored the silk string scroll, which can be called "a unique scenic spot in Jinyuan". In 1984, under the cultivation of old artists, the mass literary and artistic propaganda team of Jinxi Town performed in Zhongnanhai, Beijing, and was received by the leaders of the Propaganda Department of the Central Committee at that time, and took a group photo. Now Wang Lijuan, Wang Bingzhong's niece and Wang Yuzhong's daughter, has successfully become the successor of the propaganda volume. She can perform dozens of volumes and travel dozens of miles to the village car shop to perform for rural audiences. Under her leadership, there are two propaganda teams active in rural areas all the year round. They are invited to perform on birthday celebrations, birthday celebrations, temple fairs, childbearing and other occasions. They are not only welcomed by the masses, but also solve the employment problem of these artistic talents in their forties and fifties. Under her leadership, an oral cultural team that is about to be lost is actively active in the vast land of rural areas, making the old Sixian Xuanjuan, an old tree, blossom into bright flowers and be loved by the people.
