Liu Wenbin

Liu Wenbin

He was born as a farm laborer. He liked to listen to books when he was young. He was 22 to 25 years old and worked in Rehe. In the early years of the Republic of China, there was often famine in the countryside, and there was often no harvest for ten years. It was impossible to survive in the countryside. 28 year old Liu Wenbin went to Tianjin to make a living.

Life of the characters

He lived successively in the old city of Tianjin, such as yihetoudian, sunjiayuan, Wujiayuan, and sometimes in yizhanghou. At that time, he shaved his hair and lived in a small shop where many people lived together. In the daytime, I go out to string Hutong to shave my head, and in the evening, I sing a favorite Dagu book in my hometown. While farming in the countryside, he hummed a ditty while working. He had learned many short and long drum scripts, such as "the case of Liu Gong", "demolishing the West Chamber" and "dream of Hong yue'e". At that time, the poor people in the lower class had no entertainment activities, so his drum was very popular with his friends. After listening for a long time, some people feel that it is not easy for everyone to survive, and it is not appropriate to listen for nothing. Sometimes they take the initiative to give some small change. With the increasing audience, he saved more change than shaving, so he gradually took singing drums as another way to make a living. Because I always sing, I naturally practice for a long time. Since then, he has been singing along the streets with a drum, and he often plays in the area of Xiaoying market on Dagu road.

The conditions for the performance were very poor. A large awning was set up and several benches were nailed on board. That's what people often say: "half the wind, half the rain." Liu Wenbin also often said: "people stop work, teeth hanging team, intestines live suffer." Since Liu Wenbin had no gateway to the world, he was rejected by the artists and local people in Tianjin city after entering the city. He was kicked out of the arena and disrupted by others during the performance, and the drum was confiscated. This is because he does not have the master of the river and the lake to lead the way, and he does not know how to "chundian" (River and the lake terminology) to cross the way with them. It's not possible to do this job in Tianjin city, so I have to go back to the shop and ask the villagers for help.

If he wants to do this business again, he has to pay homage to his teacher. After returning to Baodi with his luggage, he paid homage to Mr. Song Ende as his teacher at the temple fair through the introduction of his fellow villagers. Mr. song also specially taught him the "spring ceremony" and door rules used by artists. It is recalled that he invited many artists to eat donkey meat and pancakes at the temple fair, which cost him a whole year's money. Mr. Song Ende is a semi blind man, nicknamed "Song blind chaff". According to the seniority, Liu should be a "Wen" generation, and his name is "Wen bin". Liu Wenbin's ancestor is the "Mei" family, and his typesetting is based on "Ji, Cheng, long, yuan, Yu, Tang, Wen, Shu, Hua, Qi". Liu Wenbin has many brothers of the same generation, including Qi Wenzhou and Li Wenjun in Tianjin, Jin wenran, Qi Wenfeng and Liu Wenxun in Tangshan.

After a series of apprentices, Liu Wenbin went to Tianjin to perform after crossing the river and lake pass. At this time, he also made friends with many artists from all walks of life and further broadened his artistic vision. He boldly reformed the singing of Jingdong drum. First, he erased the line that appeared on the stage and changed it to: "it shows that..." Come straight to the point. On the basis of conciseness, the voice is broad, the words are correct, the tone is round and the charm is full. Through continuous performance, many basic singing tunes have been fixed. In addition, the lyrics of his songs are accurate and unobstructed, and he also absorbed some rural songs and local tunes. He also has a way of singing, which is to absorb the plain and tonal charm of the old scholars reciting ancient poems. This kind of singing is buzzing, using the back work voice (head and back voice), which is called "Tanzi drum" by people.

At this time, in addition to building a cloth awning to "lay down the ground" singing, he also insisted on walking through the streets, into the big house, the residence singing. He said that the first time he sang was with his younger martial brother Li Wenjun. At that time, it was the master of the rich family who ordered a piece of Luo Cheng Suan Gua by his younger martial brother Li Wenjun. It happened that his younger martial brother could not sing this piece. Li Wenjun recommended his elder martial brother Liu Wenbin to sing for him, but the master didn't want to, so he made Liu Wenbin happy and said, "he looks like that. How can he sing?" At that time, Liu Wenbin was ill and didn't pay attention to his clothes. Later, after being interceded, he was allowed to sing. The first few words of Jingdong drum were loud, and people in and around the building gathered around and applauded. Everyone whispered and asked who the singer was? Therefore, Liu Wenbin's name spread like wildfire and resounded through Tianjin.

Later, more and more people listened to him, and more and more theaters invited him to perform. After a period of time, the radio station asked him to sing live for a long time. Because of his superb singing skills, he was hired by the radio station for a long time. Through the radio, Liu Wenbin resounded in Tianjin, Beijing, Hebei and other places. At that time, Tianjin's radio stations were all privately set up, including "Radio China", "radio Renchang", "radio Oriental" and "radio Youth Association". These radio stations are all for business. Before the radio station starts, actors will broadcast a commercial. At that time, Liu Wenbin advertised the drugs of Yanshou Hall: "regulating menstruation and nourishing blood, one yuan.". The moth with diphtheria is a blessing for a lifetime and a family happiness. " At the same time, the raw milk of Tianjin dongma road drugstore is also introduced. At that time, during the economic war, radio stations were also used to publicize products and increase benefits. When the products were launched, actors were also put on the market. At that time, few people owned radios. In order to attract business, some big buyers put a big horn at the door of the shop. Every morning and evening, people went to the shop to listen to Liu Wenbin sing. Some of them stop their work while they are doing half of the work. Some of them are burning a stove. They have put it out because they are listening to music. They take a bench and sit in front of the shop to listen. At this time, Liu Wenbin became popular, and the reputation of Jingdong Dagu became more and more famous in Tianjin. Because his singing has a unique style and his lyrics are easy to understand, it is suitable for the audience of the poor people, especially those aria reflecting family life, which are deeply loved by urban and rural women. Because in his repertoire, he is especially good at describing love and the sad and happy plots in civilian life. These songs can be as natural and simple as chatting and chatting, and some songs are full of philosophy. Later, when tea garden performances and radio broadcasts were frequent, the other party asked him what drum he was singing? Liu Wenbin said frankly: "we are from Jingdong (Jingdong refers to Tongxian, Sanhe, Wuqing, Baodi, Jixian, Xianghe, Ninghe and other counties). Let's call it Jingdong Dagu." This is how the name "Jingdong drum" came into being.

After Liu Wenbin's singing of hongjinmen, there were some contradictions about business. According to Liu Wenbin's words, "big trees attract wind!" This is because his program is popular with the audience. At the same time, two radio stations "Zhonghua" and "Renchang" scramble to let him sing and advertise. "China Radio" is going to raise his broadcasting fee so that he can only perform on this exclusive radio station, and said that he will pay several times more. In order to be faithful, Liu Wenbin resolutely refused the request of "Zhonghua". He insisted on performing in "Renchang" and "Zhonghua" radio stations, which caused contradictions and conflicts between them. In order to rob him, "Zhonghua" wrote several anonymous letters to Liu Wenbin by using the influence of local ruffian gangs. In each letter, he drew a small knife and wrote that he wanted to kill Liu Wenbin. He once received more than 40 letters in one day. In this way, the atmosphere is very tense. Liu Wenbin couldn't sing any more, so he discussed with his colleagues, and they proposed to find the music owner of Yanshou hall. Mr. Le is from Dacheng County, Hebei Province. He has been doing business in Tianjin for many years and has some prestige. He thought it over and said, "I'll go out and walk around and ask all parties to see if there is a turning point. If we don't succeed, we can only go back to our hometown Baodi County to make a living. Tianjin Wei can't stand on its feet in any case! " He also left Liu Wenbin in the backyard and went to the northwest corner to visit Wang Sanye (the leader of Qinghong Gang) and ask him to take care of him. Boss Le asked Liu Wenbin to tell Mr. Wang why. After hearing this, Mr. Wang immediately picked up the phone and said to the police station, "who wants to make trouble on purpose..." Then he said something for them to take care of. Of course, the police officers agreed to take care of it. Later, Liu Wenbin paid a treat to calm down the incident and continued to sing on the two radio stations.

In the prosperous period of his singing, it was the Fengjun garrison in Tianjin. Because Liu Wenbin sings Putonghua with a little local accent, which is easy to communicate with the northeast dialect, these northeast people especially like Jingdong drum. With the growth of his career, his singing skills are constantly improved. Because he is also very simple and honest, he can perform with many artists and become a good friend. In Tianjin, he performed with Hua Sibao, Zhang Shouchen, Chen Shihe, Ma Liandeng, Ma Baoshan, Zhai Qingshan and Liu Baoquan. From 1930s to 1940s, he performed with Liu Wenxia, Chang Xujiu, Yu Ruifeng, Cheng Yulan, Zheng dieying, Cao Baolu, Gao Deming, Tao Xiangru, Hua Sibao, Bai Yunpeng, Dai Shaofu and Yu Baoquan in Nanshi yanle tea garden Junbo, Hou Baolin and Guo qiru performed together. He performed with Chang Lianan, Chang Baokun, Chang Shutian, Jin Wanchang, Ma Sanli, Hou Yichen, Zhang Shouchen and Wang Peichen in Qingyun tea garden (renamed Republic theater after liberation), from the first few performances to the end of the performance. In the 1940s, he performed in Ping'an tea garden (now known as the Great Wall theater) for a long time, which was the day of Jingdong drum.

Record making

In 1938, Liu Wenbin was invited by the national music record company to make 12 records, including two Guo Ziyi's birthday celebrations, one dismantling the west chamber, two Suiyang emperor's going to Yangzhou, one Chuang Tzu's fan tomb, two Wang Erjie's thinking of her husband, and four Liu Gongan. After the record was released, Jingdong drum spread all over the country, which had a certain impact on the society. Some records are still popular in Hong Kong, Macao, Japan and other places, making it the north

Chinese PinYin : Liu Wen Bin