Chapter 32 Soul of the sixty-sixth night

In the old days, or in some villages far away from the hustle and bustle of the city and full of strong rural atmosphere, everyone still regards theater as a national celebration similar to festivals. If there is no special important thing, they will definitely not invite For the theater troupe, if it wasn’t for the annual temple fair, or the weddings and funerals of wealthy or distinguished families in the village. Most of the theater troupes are mobile, they eat and sleep outdoors, perform hard when they have business, and rush on their way when they have nothing to do. In a word, they are no longer on the stage, but they are on the way to the stage.

In fact, the theater industry, including all rap art, is not as detailed as it is now, and its origin also comes from a dance danced by wizards in ancient times to pray to heaven. When the gods in mythology gradually became personified and historicalized In recent years, dramas that could only appear in serious and elegant god-prayer activities have gradually penetrated into ordinary people, becoming the main means of entertainment and leisure for people before the emergence of movies and television. But unfortunately, actors who sing opera are commonly known as actors, and their status is so low that these stars who are respected and loved by thousands of girls and boys can't realize it.In the old days, the drama industry was called the cheap industry, which was a "thing" dedicated to serving people. What is a cheap industry, such as slaves, prostitutes, and barbers are all classified into one category. "Yuan History 8226; Election Records" says: "People who advocate excellent families and suffer from invalid diseases, and those who commit ten evils, rapes and robbers, do not need to take the exam." This shows the discrimination suffered by theater actors.

This is especially true among the folks, who regard people in the theater industry as "lower class", and think that if one person plays in the theater, the Manchus are disgraceful, and artists are not allowed to be buried in their ancestors' graves after death. Conversely, the common people are very fond of drama art, which creates a seemingly ridiculous and contradictory phenomenon - "everyone loves it on stage, but hates it offstage". Having said so much, I just want to lead to the following story about singing. As I said before, Ji Yan's hometown is a relatively large village. Although Ji's family has the most status among them, this village is not called Ji's Village, and I can't remember it. Let's call it Zhouzhuang.

Most of the people in Zhouzhuang are busy with farm work. It is said that this incident happened when Ji Yan's father was young, and he recorded it in detail. "That period of time was just after the double-robbery in summer. Because the village was in a good year and it was our grandpa's birthday. The villagers decided to invite a troupe to sing a Henan Bangzi opera. The old people loved to listen to Mu Guiying in command. , the singing is powerful and powerful, and it is very exciting to listen to. But where to ask for it? This task is handed over to Saturday, who has the fastest legs and the most dexterous tongue in the village. This man has a sharp mouth, cheekbones, thin hair, and a short stature. Put it on your chest—don’t get me wrong, he is not a devout Christian, but he has always been fond of thieves in the village, and he is always looked down upon by others, but he also has his advantages. People talk to people, and they are very good at bargaining. Of course, it is better to let him do this kind of work. Isn't there a saying that even a piece of used toilet paper will have his role one day, not to mention it is a big job. people.

It is said that when I walked out of the village with a gray linen bag on my back and a prepaid deposit on Saturday, the sky was gloomy. "Wait for my good news, the troupe will definitely arrive as scheduled." Saturday waved to everyone. One night a few days later, just after the thunderstorm, the air was filled with the clear and strong smell of the land, and there were still a few big trees in the village that were split by lightning from the middle, so when I sniffed carefully, I could still smell some burning wood. burnt smell.And it was me who first saw the troupe come in.

A group of people lined up in a single line, neatly, and inserted straight in from the entrance of the village like a bamboo chopstick. There are about dozens of people. The person in the front has a big back and fair skin. He puts one hand on his chest and puts the other hand behind his back. He wears a blue long coat and a pair of black cloth shoes with inlaid soles. He walks very carefully. , about forty years old, but with white face and red lips, and a pair of eyes like shooting stars.When he saw someone, he put down his folded cuffs and saluted with both fists.It seems that he is the class leader.

"Today I brought a theater troupe to Guibao Land on invitation. If the courtesy is not enough, I hope you will forgive me." He said, bowed deeply, and then waved his hand. The mandarin jacket was wearing loose green trousers that reached to the ankles, and he came up with a box of things. Here I want to explain that opera troupes pay attention to excluding going to the rivers and lakes. People who sing operas often live in illusions on the stage and discrimination in reality. Among them, so they are very particular about rules. The so-called rules are naturally what they think can keep them in order.As the disadvantaged group at the bottom of the society at that time, they had no choice but to hope for the blessings of ghosts and gods.What the boy brought up was the "Five Immortals" enshrined by the troupe.Because the opera troupe pays attention to physical health, the voice is round and clear, and the throat is the food they depend on for survival, so they are very cautious about food. Some opera singers do not eat cows, horses, dogs, mules, geese, pigeons, doves, etc. custom.It is said that in this way, malignant boils can be avoided, and the so-called five immortals, namely hedgehogs, foxes, snakes, weasels, and mice, are five animals.It is taboo to call these five animals by their names on weekdays, and generally they dare not look directly at them. , it can be seen that everyone in the theater industry is in awe of him.

"Please invite Erye Bai to enter the hall! Please let me enter the hall and enter the room, everything is suitable." The man in the coat at the head shouted loudly, his voice was extremely clear and sweet, and he seemed to be a well-rounded person.The Bai Erye mentioned here refers to the hedgehog. Sure enough, the boy opened the box, and there was a hedgehog in an iron cage. All the theater troupe, led by the troupe master, knelt down in front of it, offering incense and muttering words.After the ceremony, this is the end. The village head went over to chat with the class leader, but Saturday was the only one who went to find them.Maybe this kid was greedy for extra money and wandered around the busy market again, and everyone had no time to take care of him. They only thought that since the theater troupe came, his mission was completed.

"Tomorrow is Mr. Ji's birthday, let's set up the stage while it's in the evening." The village chief urged everyone. "No hurry, no hurry." The class leader smiled and waved his hand, "We still have to prepare for 'breaking the stage'." The so-called "potai" refers to the stage for drama performances such as newly built theaters, theaters, guild halls, and temple platforms, where the first performance of the troupe is held.This troupe is not small in scale, and Zhouzhuang can be regarded as a large village nearby, so such auspicious ceremony is still indispensable.

People in the theater industry call the stage facing south, the stage facing east is called "balcony", the stage facing north is called "Yintai", and the stage facing west is called "Baihutai". As the saying goes, "If you want to make a fortune, you should avoid Baihutai. ", therefore, all "Baihutai" with its entrance facing west must also be "broken" before it can perform, otherwise it will cause disasters and quarrels for no reason. There are different forms of breaking the stage, and some are relatively simple, just hang a red beard on the backstage wall, which means to represent the judge, so as to ward off evil spirits and disasters.To be more complicated, a dan role should play the "female ghost", drive the "female ghost" away, kill a rooster, scatter the chicken blood around the stage, and then firecrackers will be fired, and the stage will be broken.When the stage is broken, the actors are not allowed to speak, and they have a cinnabar bag in their mouths, which is said to avoid attracting ghosts.

However, the troupe's way of breaking the stage is quite different. Except for the troupe leader and the young man, everyone seemed to be serious. Whether it was the muscular martial arts student or the beautiful Huadan, they stood obediently behind the troupe leader.The head teacher called over a seventeen or eighteen-year-old girl with a slender figure, but her face was pale, her eyes were dull, and her fingers were slightly erythematous—it might be some skin disease, and she was more or less allergic to oil paint after long-term exposure. "Yu, you and Guomin go and prepare to break the stage." Although the class leader's words were soft, they were full of order and majesty. The girl nodded mechanically, and then signed the hand of another tall young man, and the two followed the village chief. Went to the place where the stage was going to be set up.The others followed the head teacher to the lodgings that had been prepared for them. And I curiously followed the two who were going to break the stage.Before leaving, I noticed that Grandpa's gaze was a bit strange, he was always staring at the class leader, and the class leader seemed to be aware of it, always lowered his head and pretended not to see him, but if he couldn't avoid it, he forced a smile at him, and then immediately turned his head Talk to others. The stage was set up very quickly, and there were a lot of strong laborers in the village. In less than two hours, the stage had begun to show its scale—there were also requirements for the stage specifications of different performances.Our place is naturally not as good as the formal stage of the Metropolitan Liyuan, but we can't let outsiders get confused and look down on everyone.So the stage is slightly bigger than usual. It is more than five feet long, four feet wide, and three feet high. The backstage is covered with canvas, so actors can change their costumes and put on makeup without being seen. The stage is made of bamboo. There are many good bamboos in the bamboo forest in the back mountain. up. I followed closely behind those two people, and they told the villagers who set up the stage to prepare to "break the stage". During this process, outsiders must avoid it, otherwise it will cause ghosts and gods at least, and it will be easy to attract ghosts at worst.Because most of the dramas were partly about life and death between ghosts and gods, people at that time were superstitious that performing such dramas too much would provoke their upper bodies, so when reincarnated as ghosts and gods with makeup, they had to go to incense and kowtow, and no one was allowed to be present.Everyone knew the rules, so they dispersed.I mingled next to the background cloth, because the color of the cloth was darker, and I was wearing a black satin dress. It was already dark, so it seemed that I hadn't been found. They asked the villagers for a rooster, saying it was used to ward off evil spirits. But when everyone dispersed, I saw that after slaughtering the rooster, they didn't spill the blood on the backstage or on the ground, but picked it up, put their mouths on the rooster's neck, and gulped down the rooster's blood. I've never seen anyone drink raw chicken blood.After drinking, the two rolled up their sleeves, cut their own wrists, and spilled their own blood on the ground. Their blood was as thick as meat sauce.After finishing these things, they packed up and returned to the troupe. I stood in the background for a long time, waiting for them to go far before I dared to run out, and then ran home in one breath, because I thought it would be better to tell grandpa about it. But when I got home, I found that grandpa was no longer home, saying that everyone had gone to the stage with everyone to prepare, and I was also pulled over by my cousin. The night quickly fell, and the theater troupe began to put on makeup, and things like gongs and drums had already been brought out, but the faces of those few people were dark and expressionless. There are already a lot of people gathered below, old and young, just like a festival, and yes, there are no entertainment programs here all year round. The wives and children are hot all year round. Listening to operas is a very luxurious enjoyment of spiritual appetite. The first play was Chang Xiangyu's famous piece at that time - Xuanhong. I didn't study much about Henan opera, and now it's half-tuned. What's more, at that time, it sounded pleasant to the ear, crisp and pleasant, and there seemed to be quite a few opera singers. Divided into Shen Yun, the following no matter who understands or not, please say hello. Listening to the play, don't you just want to have fun.The older children, like me, squatted on the ruined wall not far from the stage, while the younger ones had to ride on the necks of the men. Everyone was listening to the play attentively, but I was not in the mood. I talked about that strange incident to my grandpa who was sitting next to the Eight Immortals table in the middle and listening to the play with a smile several times, but my grandpa didn't seem to be very interested and always interrupted with words.I had no choice but to slip out of the crowd by myself and go to the back of the stage. The backstage was very lively. It seemed that the play just now was coming to an end. The host and the boy were yelling at the actors to hurry up and change their clothes and remove their makeup. Their legs were filled with lead, and it was strange that when they were on stage, their legs and feet were flexible and flexible. The boy seemed a little sleepy, covered his mouth with his hand, turned his head and said something to the head teacher. "Father, I have a toothache." Before he finished speaking, he was slapped on the mouth. "How many times have I taught you, you are not allowed to say that word, you have to speak chai tunes!" The head teacher and Bai Tian looked like two different people, very impatient, and the dim light next to him shone on his originally fair face, which was sallow and sallow. In addition, his face was thin, as if he had hepatitis.The boy was slapped, but he didn't dare to answer back, he just covered his mouth and walked into the tent with his head down. The class leader looked at him and sighed. (I learned later that words with the same pronunciation as deaf and dumb are not allowed in theatrical troupes. They usually have to be replaced by other words, such as the dragon is called Haitiaozi, the tooth is called Chai Tiaozi, and comic books are also not allowed. Said that he couldn't deal with the "dumb people" in those paintings). I saw the head of the show standing at the door all the time, and I didn't have a chance to go in to have a look, so I had to go back to the front desk. Now Mu Guiying is in charge. The people in the audience were already a little excited, and a few people began to imitate the tone of the people on the stage and sang. At first, they just hummed in a low voice, but then their voices became louder and louder. Some even added movements, and the scene became chaotic. stand up.Several people imitated the singing and actions of the characters on the stage, and the distribution was very even. The men imitated the men, the women imitated the women, and some imitated the erhu and drumming on the stage. The play, the audience is also a play, grandpa frowned and looked up at the sky. The moon above is very round.Today seems to be the fifteenth day, because I vaguely remember that grandpa's birthday is the first day of junior high school. The appearance of the people next to them seemed to be a little abnormal. They all opened their protruding eyeballs, opened their drooling mouths, and waved their hands in mid-air, as if suffering from hysteria.Grandpa slapped the table, yelled something bad, and then ran quickly to the backstage.My father, my uncles and I also followed. The drama on the stage was still going on, and they seemed not to be affected by the audience at all, but their singing voices became more and more ethereal and ethereal. The leader of the backstage department didn't know what happened, but was surprised when he saw grandpa running over. "What's going on, those people have problems, are they looking for a substitute!" Grandpa rushed over and grabbed the class leader by the collar. "I don't know, I'm just the class leader, I just want to sing well in every play." The class leader's face was so cold that it made people shiver. Grandpa has never been so angry. "It doesn't matter if someone's birthday touches the mold, half a foot in the coffin, I'm afraid what will happen to these people, but you can't involve innocent folks, I don't know you well, if you and I early There are old grievances, just for me, for my Ji family, why bother the innocent!" Grandpa let go of her, and roared with excitement, several uncles and fathers also took a step forward to the class leader after hearing this, and also Grandpa protected himself. "I don't know you at all. As I said, a kid invited us here. The troupe is here to sing opera. Besides, we sing well, so there's nothing wrong with it." People are a little angry. "What about Saturday? You've been here all day, where did he go?" my father asked.Before the words fell, the head teacher sneered. "It's just greedy. He took a deposit to gamble, but lost most of it. When he came back, he was afraid of being scolded by you, so he paid a low price to invite us here. If you have more money, you have more money. If you have less money, it is natural." How to sing with less money." The class master continued. "Those in your theater troupe are not alive at all!" Grandpa suddenly said, and several uncles and fathers all looked back at grandpa in surprise. "It doesn't matter whether we are or not. Aren't our opera singers very good? They also liked to sing operas when they were alive. After death, I can fulfill their wishes and make a little money by the way." The class leader said very easily. "Nonsense! You go to the front desk to see for yourself!" Grandpa pulled him over.The class leader came to the front desk and was shocked when he saw this scene. "Why, how did this happen." He immediately went to the audience and shouted loudly, "Stop, stop singing!" The drums were beating, and the rhythm was getting faster and faster, and the people in the audience were getting more and more crazy. "Once the play is over, they will find a substitute." Grandpa sighed. I also came from behind, pointed at the class leader and said, "Grandpa, I saw him tell those two people to break the stage, but he drank the rooster's blood and sprinkled his own blood on the ground." "I can't do anything about it. Their blood has already stiffened. Drinking rooster blood can stimulate blood flow. Otherwise, the body will be stiff and unable to move. I'm afraid that they will lose control if they spill the blood in the background." The leader said helplessly. Say. "But they are out of control. This show cannot be stopped. Once the singing is over, these people will lose their minds and go crazy. Losing their souls is worse than death." Grandpa said very sadly. The head teacher bowed his head and remained silent. "I don't want to harm anyone. I really have unspeakable difficulties." He seemed very annoyed, and actually sat on the ground with his head in his arms and cried. The boy suddenly came out, came over and tugged on his sleeve. The Lord hugged the young man and let out his pain. "There is another way now, as long as we trap them, we can still hug everyone." Grandpa's voice became much firmer, and he immediately began to order people. He asked several uncles to go to the entrance of the village to quickly look at some trees that had not been wet by the heavy rain but were split by lightning, while his father was ordered to take away all the children who were not yet full. "Young children are less than twelve years old, and they are easy to be possessed by wandering spirits." This is what my father told me later, but at that time I had just passed twelve, so my father drove me aside. Not long after, several uncles brought a large bundle of wood in various shapes.I curiously asked Grandpa what is the use of this. "This is called the Lightning Strike Wood, which is split open by thunder and lightning from the sky, and the ghosts are deeply afraid of it." While gathering the wood, the grandfather formed a circle around the backstage, with a total of eight corners, and arranged the wood according to the gossip pattern. The drama on the stage has reached its climax, the actor playing Mu Guiying's voice is high-pitched, and it seems to be coming to an end. Grandpa pushed aside the crowd, walked down the stage on his stomach, and yelled at the opera singers on stage. "Whether it's a human or a ghost, don't harm the innocent people in the world. Listen to the old man's advice, let's all go away." But the above drama is still singing, and it will soon end.Grandpa waited for a while, but there was still no response. He let out a long sigh, then took out a dagger and cut open his left wrist, blood flowed out immediately, several uncles and father were shocked when they saw it, and wanted to stop it, but grandpa stopped him with a wave. "I'm already dying, but you still have to listen to my words." After speaking, he turned his back to everyone, threw down the dagger, walked forward from the backstage, and actually stood among the actors. This group of people still didn't pay attention, and they still sang on their own, "Grandpa, strode forward, blood dripped on the stage with his steps."He grabbed the hand of the actor playing Mu Guiying, and the two actually sang duet.It's a pity that I am not interested in drama by nature, and I didn't hear clearly what was sung. I only know that grandpa's blood flowed more and more, and the faces of my uncles and father became more and more ugly. The ending play actually kept singing. Finally grandpa came down from the stage.He was very weak and his face was pale, but the people who sang and danced with him in the audience returned to calm, but they all passed out.Grandpa said something to take care of them, and then fell unconscious.Everyone immediately helped grandpa stop the bleeding, and then hurriedly carried him home. There were so many things that happened that night, I only remember that the play continued to sing afterwards, and the actors on the stage were very excited, as if they didn't know how tired they were, their voices became louder and louder, and the words of the play became faster and faster.Finally, I couldn't take it anymore, my eyes started to get sleepy, and everyone dispersed. Before I left, I saw the head of the class crying, kneeling in front of the stage with tears streaming down his face. The sound of their singing resounded through the sky, and it lasted until the first rooster crowed the next day. When I woke up in the morning, there was only an empty stage left, and they all disappeared, as if they had never been there, and the villagers had completely forgotten what happened last night. But one person came back, and he was Saturday. With a look of fear on Saturday's face, as if he had been greatly stimulated, he stumbled into my house and shouted: "Master Ji, save me, Mrs. Ji, save me." At that time, my grandfather was slightly better, but he still could only lie on the bed and eat a small amount of eggs in brown sugar water. When the uncles saw that Saturday was coming, they were so angry that they all wanted to beat him up. "What kind of mess did you invite back?" His father grabbed his collar, and with a mournful face on Saturday, he swung his arms and slapped his cheeks desperately, his face was red and swollen, as if A piece of pork fat was pasted on each side, with a red translucent color. Grandpa finally said it was over, and he stopped. "I really don't know. I took the money and went to the market that day. I lost most of my deposit for a moment. When I was worried, I wanted to come back and admit my mistake, but ended up in the wilderness dozens of miles away from the entrance of the village. I met that troupe everywhere. At that time, I felt very strange, because the weather was very hot, and except for the class leader and the boy, they were all wrapped up tightly, with bamboo hats and black veils on their faces, especially when they walked, their calves were straight Straight, like lead.And they walked very neatly, following the class leader in front. But I saw them carrying boxes and some opera singers, so I went up and asked, but I didn't expect that the troupe leader said that he would not charge any money when he heard that he could sing opera, and invited me to take them back to the village . As soon as I heard that there was such a good thing, I didn't use my dog's brain to think about what was wrong, so I agreed and took them to the entrance of the village. At dusk, it suddenly started to rain heavily, accompanied by thunder and lightning. The leader of the group seemed very frightened. temple. It was raining when I entered the ruined temple, and I followed at the end. I was about to go in, but there was a flash of lightning, followed by a big thunder, which made my ears almost deaf, but when I turned my head, suddenly one of them Pulling off the bamboo hat, he actually rushed towards me. Through the light of the lightning outside, I saw that man's face was shriveled like pickled vegetables, khaki, and hideous, with protruding eyes.Stretched out slender hands towards my neck, I was terrified and ran for my life, and the class leader kept calling me: "Don't run, it doesn't matter, it doesn't matter." That night, I was afraid that they would catch up with me, so I kept running along the mountain road until the rain stopped and the sun came out, and then I dared to stop, then fell to the ground and fell asleep tiredly, so I would go back to the village as soon as I woke up Well, nothing happened to that troupe here, right? "Saturday asked cautiously and tentatively in fear, but naturally got scolded by everyone. "That troupe master is not an ordinary troupe master, but a corpse chaser. I recently heard that there was an opera troupe who needed to cross the river when they were rushing to play, but they couldn't rent a big boat because they were looked down upon by everyone. Those people never went on the same boat with actors. In the same car, I thought it was a compromise of my identity and the reputation of the passengers. So the team leader had to take them on a dilapidated boat. Dozens of people were crowded on the boat. , the man in charge of the boat immediately abandoned the boat and ran away, and the rest of the people drowned in the river alive, only the captain was a good swimmer, but he risked his life to save his son. It is said that every night when the river passes by, you can hear the sound of drums and gongs below the river, and the sound of the opera is so loud that no one dares to cross the river. Everyone took them back to their hometowns for a good burial. "Grandpa started to pant when he said this, took a rest, and then said, "I think the head of the show is afraid that everyone's soul will stay, and he wants to sing the last play before he is willing to give up. That's why he made such a bad plan. The situation was not what he wanted to see, but fortunately nothing happened in the end, otherwise, it would be a big crime for me to celebrate my birthday. " The matter ended like this, but due to the excessive blood loss of the grandfather, his healthy body deteriorated year after year, and he passed away not long after. As for how the class leader drove the corpse, the grandfather never mentioned a word.