Chinese shadow theater

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Warrior figures of the so-called Qianlong set
Empress figure; Sichuan style - detail

The Chinese shadow theater (皮影戏; píyǐngxì) is a special form of puppet theater, an important part of Chinese folk art and at the same time a national expression of the art form shadow play . With him, transparent, two-dimensional figures are moved in front of a light source close behind a screen, whereby their outlines are projected onto the surface.

The Chinese shadow theater was in 2011 by the UNESCO created the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity Representative List added.

Emergence

There are different theses about the origin of the Chinese shadow theater:

  • In some cases it is suggested that shadow theater developed from illustrations to popular Buddhist sermons. The figures that were originally on the picture panels were cut out at some point and thus became "paper people" ( zhiren ). Later, the paper was replaced by leather because of its greater durability, creating the “leather men” ( piren ) from which the shadow theater figures were ultimately created. One possible indication is the set of toys exhibited today in the German Leather Museum in Offenbach, which, with moralizing intent, describes in detail the torments of the Buddhist hells.
  • According to another opinion, the shadow theater developed from the puppet theater . The shadows produced involuntarily in the latter would have inspired the players to use them alone as an artistic form of expression and to create a two-dimensional theater.
  • A third explanation sees the origin of shadow theater in the so-called lantern of galloping horses . It was a drum wrapped in transparent paper in which hot air generated by a candle moves a wheel; the figures attached to it are projected from the candle onto the paper wall as a scheme.
  • The hand shadow play was also identified as the root of the Chinese shadow theater, in which figures are projected onto the wall in front of a light source by skillfully moving the fingers. This art form was traditionally widespread mainly in southern China, especially in the area around Guangzhou .

history

The first indications of the existence of shadow theater can already be found in the Han dynasty . The historian Sima Qian tells of a man named Shaoweng who, by means of “magical” practices, resurrected his late favorite wife Wang for the emperor sitting behind a curtain. Similar anecdotes can be found in the collections Fragments from the northern dream lake of Beimeng Suoyang and Lost History for the Emperor of Gao Yanxiu from the Tang period . In contrast to Sima Qian, the light source, in the form of candles, is now also guaranteed for the first time in addition to the curtain.

The first historically secured evidence for the art form of shadow theater does not come from the Song dynasty . In his work On the Origin of Things , Gao Cheng writes that at the time of Emperor Renzong (1023–1063), shadow theater figures were used to reenact events from the time of the Three Kingdoms . Also Wang Zimu mentioned shadow theater in his writings. It soon developed into a professionally run industry. According to the work Old Things from Hangzhou , there are said to have been 22 “shadow players” in the capital of the Southern Song alone - although the term can also be read as “shadow play troops”. The ensembles formed guilds and organized nationwide tours. In contrast to other forms of puppet theater, the shadow actors of the Song era mainly used historical subjects, with the period of the Three Kingdoms in particular enjoying great popularity.

During the Yuan period , the Mongolian foreign rulers spread Chinese shadow theater to the Middle East. Whether the Indonesian shadow play wayang kulit or the Arabic shadow play can be traced back to a cultural import from China or whether they developed from other origins is controversial.

The Buddhist hell in the shadow theater - The punishment of shattering

In the Ming Dynasty , evidence of shadow theater can be found on the wall of a grave opened in 1953 and in a poem by Qu Gu . During the reign of Emperors Wanli and Chongzhen in particular, there was a renaissance of Buddhist fabrics. Often the texts of the pieces went back to the "precious roles" (baoquan).

The shadow theater was further developed in the Qing period , where it also reached its peak at the beginning of the 19th century. At that time, the regional types that still exist today and the instrumentation finally emerged. The subjects were increasingly taken from novels and entertainment literature; Popular were The Journey to the West or The Story of the White Snake . In addition, there were also increasingly socially critical tones as well as hidden protests against the foreign rule of the Manchurian Qing emperors, which at times led to considerable hindrance and suppression of the shadow players.

After the revolution of 1911, there was a decline in shadow theater due to the triumph of cinema and the opening of public theaters to women. Numerous distinguished Manchu families sold their play sets to Europe or the USA. Finally, the communists used shadow theater as an instrument of political agitation, with which relatively broad sections of the population could be reached. At the time of the Cultural Revolution, however, it was largely outlawed as an expression of the traditional feudal system. In the course of the liberalization of China under Deng Xiaoping , the shadow theater experienced a certain revival. In 1982 there were supposed to have been 18 professional groups again. Since then there have been groups that play traditionally again (Guangyi troops). Modern state shadow theaters with large screens exist in around 10 large cities.

Styles

In the area of ​​shadow theater, a large number of regional styles have emerged over time, which differ particularly in terms of figure size, the animal skin used and the cutting tools, but also in terms of music and singing.

The so-called western group combines the regional styles of the provinces of Sichuan , Shaanxi and Hunan . She works with cowhide , for the processing of which not only knives but also punches are used.

The eastern group, which is particularly widespread in Beijing and northeast China, can be divided into the style of the Beijing western city (xīchéngpài; 西城 派) and that of the eastern city (dōngchéngpài; 东城 派). The western urban style originated in the Zhuozhou district (Hebei province, 50 km southwest of Beijing) and has developed from there a. a. spread to the provinces of Henan , Shanxi and Shaanxi , possibly also to Gansu - where, according to another opinion, it should originally have been at home. The East City style comes from Luanzhou , 200 km east of Beijing , where it was created by immigrants from the south at the beginning of the Ming Dynasty. In the Qing period, the Manchurian nobility brought it to the new capital Beijing and from there to its former homeland, Manchuria .

The figures

construction

Disassembled figure

While in shadow theater backdrops and objects are usually made from one piece, human figures traditionally consist of up to nine moving parts, with parts occurring in pairs only being counted once. This is

  • the head (mostly removable and usable on different bodies)
  • the torso
  • the buttock part
  • upper arm
  • forearm
  • Hand (two-part in some styles)
  • Leg (two-part in some styles)
  • In Sichuan, headgear is often cut separately.

Usually the figures are shown in side profile. Clothes, hair and beard are based on the example of the “great” opera of the respective regional type. The size of the figures is 40–70 cm in the west style and 20–47 cm in the east. The figures are stored in flat folders ( bao ), which in turn are transported in boxes or bundles together with the rest of the equipment.

Manufacturing

The material used for the shadow figures was initially paper, later parchment, that is, untanned animal skin, was used; Celluloid has also established itself in modern times .

The provenance of the animal hide varies depending on the regional style: cattle hide was preferred in the west, donkey hide in Beijing and the entire northeast. Sheep skin (Hangzhou) and pig skin (Taiwan) are also used in some cases. In general, the relatively thin and lighter-colored skin of mother and young animals was used, which is first cleaned and then alternately watered and scraped four times until it finally reaches the final thickness of 0.1 to 1 mm (for cattle hide: 1 , 5 to 2 mm) and has thus achieved the required transparency.

After drying, the parchment is stretched onto a firm but elastic base such as a wooden board or a wax tablet. The figure is then cut out with special knives, watered again, dried and then smoothed with a so-called date wood knife in a semi-damp state until it shines. Once again stretched onto the base, the interior drawing is cut out, for which the artist has five different knives at his disposal, which differ in the shape (full round, half round, petal, arch) and the width (4, 7 or 10 mm) of the blade . They are wrapped in fabric up to the tip and then guided like a brush.

In the western style, punching and punching tools are used in addition to knives , which, in view of the greater thickness of the cowhide used there , makes work a little easier.

Originally, vegetable dyes mixed with glue were used for coloring and painting the parts of the figures. Green was obtained from barberry roots pickled in vinegar and alcohol , yellow from the fruits of the madder bush . Today, however, largely industrially produced artificial colors have established themselves here as well. The parchment is painted on both sides to increase the luminosity. Finally, the parts are dried again and flattened with an iron. In the Beijing East City style, the parts were finally painted with the sap of the wood oil tree to increase transparency .

The individual parts were connected to the joints with knotted strings (sheep intestine, as for violin strings). (This is a feature to distinguish it from Indonesian figures, there horn buttons are used.) Then the guide rods made of wood or bamboo are attached. Finally, you add additional equipment such as beards, feathers or the like.

Playing technique

The figures of the shadow theater are moved with wooden or bamboo sticks attached to the limbs, whereby the leadership or “life” stick is of central importance. The players must make sure that the figures are always brought close to the screen, otherwise they will be out of focus. Particularly skilled players are able to safely use up to four pieces in each hand. At the same time they reproduce numerous details of the human repertoire of movements in a naturalistic way and differentiate between the “male” and the “female” gait.

The stage

The stage of the shadow theater always consists of a transparent screen, which originally consisted of mulberry or Korean paper. In addition, umbrellas made of parchment, fabric and, more recently, glass have established themselves. The dimensions can vary considerably and range between 40 × 70 cm and 124 × 150 cm, with modern stages up to 4 m wide. In the past, tallow or oil lamps served as the light source, but today they are mostly electrically operated fluorescent gas tubes.

Up to five puppeteers sit in the first row behind the screen. In the Eastern style, their roles are clearly defined: In addition to the main player ( Nache ), there is also the “Zureicher” and organizer Tieche , while the Siguche's job is to give the musicians who are seated in the second row.

music

Trapezoidal dulcimer yangqin , bamboo flute didse and tubular spit violin sihu with bow

The Chinese music of the shadow theater partly takes up the style of the respective regional opera, but also includes folk songs. Sometimes music was written specifically for shadow theater.

The instrumentation differs depending on the regional style; In Beijing, two differently tuned four-string tube skewer violins sihu are common, plus the two-string skewer violin with calabash resonator huluhu , a bamboo flute didse , the three-string skewer violin sanxian and the trapezoidal dulcimer yangqin . The singing is incumbent not only on the musicians, but also on the puppeteers themselves. The singing is not only from sight, but sometimes also from memory, which, given the often considerable length of the shadow theater pieces, places enormous demands on the memory. On the big modern stages, the music comes off the tape.

Fabrics

In the Song Dynasty , puppet theaters mainly brought historical material to the stage, with the Three Kingdoms period being particularly popular. In the Ming period , however, Buddhist themes were increasingly added. Under the Qing , shadow theater finally experienced a considerable diversification: love, ghost and crime stories were now performed as well as battle and war epics, Daoist legends, mythological and humorous stories. In addition, socially critical plays also came into fashion, addressing topics such as abuse of office, social inequality or the oppression of women. The most popular pieces have traditionally always been The Journey to the West , The White Snake , The Investiture of the Gods and The Generals of the Yang Family . The communists finally used the shadow theater as a propaganda instrument and brought revolutionary and class-struggle topics to the stage.

Badge of a shadow play troupe, Qing Dynasty

Social position of the shadow player

Regardless of the popularity of shadow theater, the players ranked relatively low in the social hierarchy. They and their descendants have always been denied access to the imperial official exams from the outset . In the 1920s, an 18-class ranking system was created on the island of Taiwan, which assigns puppet theater actors to 11th place, one level below the prostitute.

Museums

Chinese shadow figures are u in German-speaking countries. a. can be seen in the following museums:

literature

  • Shun-chi Wu, information sheets of the Museum for East Asian Art, Berlin-Dahlem, No. 417a-b
  • Rainald Simon: The Chinese shadow theater. Catalog of the collection of the German Leather Museum Offenbach am Main. Offenbach 1986, ISBN 3872800361
  • Rainald Simon: The white and the black dragon - three Chinese shadow plays. Frankfurt 1995, ISBN 978-3-922220-72-5
  • Rainald Simon: Chinese shadows. Lamp shadow theater from Sichuan. The Eger Collection. Ed .: Puppet Theater Museum in the Munich City Museum. Deutscher Kunstverlag, Munich 1997
  • TheaterFigurenMuseum Lübeck, UNIMA Germany (ed.): In the realm of shadows - Chinese shadow theater meets Beijing opera . ( Theaterfiguren im Kolk , Volume 2) Catalog for the special exhibition, Frankfurt 2012, ISBN 978-3-935011-86-0

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Official homepage of UNESCO