lcionline Chapter 199 The First Changes in Shadow Puppetry and the Story of Performers
Chapter 199 The First Changes in Shadow Puppetry and the Story of Performers
Chapter 199 The First Changes in Shadow Puppetry and Performing Arts
The initial transformation of shadow puppetry into storytelling
As dusk painted the stage a deep crimson hue, Su Yunlan's embroidered shoes stepped over a carpet of broken melon seed shells.
Behind the faded curtain, twenty-seven shadow puppets hung on bamboo frames, swaying in the wind. The leather ropes at their joints were worn white, just like the shadow puppet of the Greedy Wolf Star Lord swallowing the moon that the old artist had held in his arms last night.
"Master, please look," she said, her fingertips brushing over the broken ankle of the shadow puppet. Dark red nail polish peeked through the cowhide, revealing the characteristic crackles of star-patterned glaze. "If these joints were re-tanned with my special fish glue, they could last at least another five years."
Master Wang clutched the half-worn script of "Beidou Zhensha," the veins on the back of his withered hand bulging like the control levers of a shadow puppet.
Behind him stood the sandalwood memorial tablet of the first troupe leader, with three sticks of incense flickering in the bronze incense burner: "Madam Xiao, is the fish maw you mentioned a new product of your Xiao's Trading Company?"
Xiao Yuhan's black iron armor suddenly struck the table with a clear sound, startling the shadow puppets on the bamboo frame.
He surveyed the stage with the eyes of a battlefield strategist: "The puppet show that the teahouse in the east of the city staged last month has a single performance fee three times that of a shadow puppet show."
"How can those marionettes compare to a thousand-year-old tradition!" Master Wang suddenly turned around, the candlelight on the offering table swaying wildly in the wind from his sleeve.
The shadow of the memorial tablet fell on his deeply lined face, overlapping with the mask of a demon in a shadow puppet show. "Back then, the founding emperor personally bestowed upon him the title of 'King of Shadow Play'..."
Su Yunlan's silver-patterned shawl suddenly became entangled in a revolving lantern, in which the seventy-two constellations were rotating with the mechanism.
She took out a jade box from her sleeve. Inside, the fish glue shimmered with the unique ethereal blue of the Star-Patterned River: "This glue is made from the pearls of the Star-Patterned River mussels. It will not melt in fire, nor will it rot in water."
Suddenly, the shadow puppeteer peeked half his face out from the gap in the curtain. His index finger was wrapped in a blood-soaked bandage—it had been cut by the rusty control lever last month.
The young performer's gaze was fixed on the jade box, his Adam's apple bobbing as if he wanted to say something, but he was startled by Master Wang's cough and shrank back into the shadows.
&34; Does Madam Xiao know the secret of the seventh act of "The Big Dipper Suppresses Evil"? &34; Master Wang's withered finger suddenly poked at the ceiling of the stage, where a fragmented star map was drawn in cinnabar. &34; When the Po Jun star moves, the shadow puppets have to do thirty-six somersaults in a row. If it were a new, light material... &34;
Su Yunlan's jade earrings suddenly flashed with a cold light, and she took out a palm-sized shadow puppet from her purse.
This is an improved version made from scraps of the inn's ledger, with fluorescent stones unique to the Star Pattern River embedded at the joints: &34; Last night I rearranged the martial arts scenes according to the old troupe leader's playbook, look at the height of the jumps—&34;
The improved shadow puppet suddenly leaped up from her fingertips, and the silvery light of the Big Dipper burst forth on the screen.
As the Star Lord of Greed cleaved through the cloud patterns with his crescent blade, a gasp of cold air suddenly came from behind the curtain.
The shadow puppeteer, Sun, had been kneeling beside the prop box, the blood-stained bandages gently touching the ankles of the modified shadow puppets.
"Master!" The young performer's voice was like a taut leather rope. "Last month, when we performed at the Li family's private gathering, they insisted that our shadow puppets could be like puppet shows..."
&34; *Snap!* &34;
Master Wang slammed the script down on the offering table, and incense ash fell softly onto the jade box in front of the memorial tablet.
His thin back suddenly straightened, like an unyielding old loyal minister in a play: Sun San!
What were your father's last instructions?
Our Sun family's shadow puppetry tradition has a nine-generation single-line succession... &34;
Xiao Yuhan suddenly stood up, and the teacup that was knocked over by the black iron armor rolled on the blue brick floor with a crisp sound.
His tea-stained fingers traced the Big Dipper formation in the air: "Does Elder Wang know about the beacon fire formation of the northern barbarians?"
Last month they broke through my Seven Star Arrow Formation using a modified leather shield. &34;
The tea stains scattered on the ground reflected the remaining starlight, dividing the stage into fragments of light and shadow.
Su Yunlan stared at the fresh bloodstains seeping from Sun San's fingers, then suddenly stuffed the modified shadow puppet into his trembling palm.
The moment the young artist's fingertip touched the fluorescent stone, a gust of wind leaking through the gap in the curtain suddenly lifted the stray hairs at his temples, revealing a star-shaped birthmark behind his ear that was identical to Su Yunlan's.
(End of text) When the last piece of incense ash in the bronze incense burner broke, the fluorescent stone between Sun San's fingers suddenly burst out with a ghostly blue starlight.
Master Wang's age-spotted eyelids trembled violently, and his withered fingers almost squeezed the script of "Beidou Zhensha" until it was wet: "What a traitor!"
Back then, your father knelt before the patriarch and swore a solemn oath... &34;
The candlelight on the offering table crackled and burst, casting the hunched figure of Master Wang onto the faded curtain.
The shadow suddenly stretched and deformed, resembling a demon from a play that seeks to take lives.
Sun San's blood-stained bandages stained the modified shadow puppet with a dark red hue, yet he still clung tightly to the lifelike, leaping Greedy Wolf Star Lord: "Master!"
Last month, Master Li said that our "Heavenly Official's Blessing" was not as lively as the puppet show in the west of the city... &34;
"Shut up!" Suddenly, Master Wang grabbed a bamboo control lever from beside the offering table, the worn copper ring at the end of the lever making the shadow puppets hanging behind the curtain clang.
The shadow puppets of the Twenty-Eight Mansions swayed in the wind, and the cracks peeking out from under the cowhide were like the bulging veins on an old man's face: "Tomorrow, pack your bags and go back to your maternal uncle's house!"
The Sun family shadow puppetry has been passed down for nine generations; it cannot be ruined by someone like you who forgets his ancestors... &34;
Xiao Yuhan's black iron armor suddenly stopped the candlestick from tipping over.
The flickering firelight cast a dim light on the old scar on his brow bone, a mark left by a modified arrowhead on the northern battlefield: "Old Wang, do you remember the Autumn Festival three years ago?"
The sudden question left Master Wang's hand, which was holding the control lever, frozen in mid-air.
Amidst the clanging of iron saddle clippers on the eaves, Xiao Yuhan's tea-stained fingers traced the cracks in the blue bricks: "Back then, the barbarians used improved cowhide shields to charge into battle. I ordered my men to recast the arrowheads into triangular shapes overnight." His bony hand suddenly covered the jade box on the table. "Seven days later, their shield formation became a hedgehog studded with arrows."
Su Yunlan's silver-patterned shawl suddenly became entangled in a swaying lantern.
She gazed at the star-shaped birthmark behind Sun San's ear, which resembled her own, and quietly slipped the modified shadow puppet from her sleeve into the prop box's hidden compartment: "If Elder Wang allows us to try modifying three shadow puppets, Xiao's Trading Company is willing to cover the entire set of costumes for the Mid-Autumn Festival temple fair."
The night wind that had been seeping through the gap in the curtain suddenly picked up, causing the memorial tablet of the first troupe leader to tilt slightly.
Master Wang's cloudy eyes darted back and forth between Su Yunlan and Xiao Yuhan, finally settling on Sun San's bleeding fingertips.
The young performer was rubbing the joints of the improved shadow puppet with his thumb, which was stained with indigo paint. He had practiced the martial arts moves of "Beidou Zhensha" for twelve years but still couldn't pull off the thirty-six consecutive turns required by the old troupe leader.
Five days later. Suddenly, Master Wang slammed the control lever into a crack in the blue brickwork, splintering a few wood chips from the worn end. "Bring me the revised script of *Heavenly Official's Blessing*. It needs to include the constellation movement diagram annotated by the first master." His withered finger suddenly pointed to the tattered vermilion star map on the ceiling. "If the vital energy of the Big Dipper is damaged..."
Xiao Yuhan's black iron armor suddenly emitted a clanging sound.
The night breeze he stirred up as he stood up swirled up a pile of broken melon seed shells, but vanished the moment it touched the hem of Master Wang's robes: "Tomorrow at dawn, have someone deliver ten catties of star-patterned river clam pearls to Xiao's Inn."
As Sun San staggered to the edge of the stage, Su Yunlan's embroidered shoes were stepping across the moonlight reflected on the bluestone slabs.
The star-shaped birthmark behind the young artist's ear gleamed faintly in the night, and the blood-stained bandages fluttered in the night wind: "Madam!"
Last month, while rehearsing "Erlang Captures the Dragon," I tried using fish glue to reinforce the Dragon King's scales... &34;
"Brother Sun, have you ever heard of the third way the Big Dipper moves?" Su Yunlan suddenly turned around, and the cold light from her jade earring startled the owl under the eaves.
On the fragment of the ledger she held between her fingers, the star map drawn with fluorescent powder echoed the incomplete cinnabar map on the ceiling.
On the carriage back to the inn, Xiao Yuhan's black iron armor was damp with the night dew.
He gazed at the star trails Su Yunlan had drawn on the parchment scroll, then suddenly used the hilt of his sword to lift the swaying carriage curtain: "Back then, when the old troupe leader staged 'Heavenly Official's Blessing,' he used a rare copy from the previous dynasty's Ministry of Rites."
Su Yunlan's silver hairpin suddenly cut her fingertip, and the drop of blood dripped onto the fluorescent stone of the improved shadow puppet, which surprisingly stained the pattern of the handle of the Big Dipper.
As the watchman outside the carriage struck the third watch gong, she looked at the rows of wine shop banners lining both sides of the official road and suddenly remembered the scroll of "The Puppet Manual of Rainbow Feathers" that she had glimpsed in the library of her spatial dimension the night before.