Research on Traditional Chinese Shadow Play Modeling

Wei Liqun

Shadow play is a folk drama with long standing and rich cultural traditions. Its modeling came from hollowing and paper cutting arts from ancient times. From the No. 1 Tomb of Chu State in Wangshan,Jiangling, Hubei, some “hollowed and engraved leathers” of the Warring States Period (475BC-221BC) were unearthed. As recorded in Shi Ji • Jin Family and Record of Jingchu District, folk women in ancient times were fond of phoenix tree leaves cutting, ribbon cutting and gold leaf hollowing as their ornaments. Since the development of papermaking technology, a variety of patterns of folk paper cutting were created, including paper-cut for window decoration, outturn sheet for embroidery, sweet flowers on gift package as well as paper man for penitent service. Shadow figures at an early stage were made of plain papers, indicating that they belong to paper cutting and exist as a special paper-cut with movable joints for performance use only.

The earliest dated record related with shadow play in our country was from Song Dynasty (960-1279). Most of the books about folk customs and folkways in Song Dynasty detailed shadow play, such as The Dream of Hua in the Eastern Capital, Capital Wonder, Tales of Yi Jian, Meng Liang Lu, and Tales of the Old Capital. In those books, we may find information about performance and shadow play guilds. Shadow plays in that age consisted of paper shadow, sheep-skin shadow, hand shadow, big shadow and funny puppet show. It is said that at around every comer of the street and alley，under every shelter, a small shadow play stage was set up”， “many people crowded the shelter to watch the play”. So we say capital of Northern Song Dynasty (960- 1127) was the earliest flourishing area in the shadow play history of China.

Local shadow plays nationwide varied profoundly in performance patterns, music for voices and controlled performance as well as aesthetic modeling. In early shadow play before Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), modeling was almost conformed and it was until Qing Dynasty (1636-1911) that various local features were formed.

I. Relative Consistency of Early Shadow Firgure Modeling in China

      The earliest record on shadow firgure texture and modeling concepts in China may be found in the Capital Wonder by Nai Deweng from Song Dynasty, “All shadow firgures in the capital were firstly made of plain papers and then changed into colorful leather. The square shooter and official loyal to his sovereign had right appearance while the treacherous and blackhearted had ugly faces. People’s views of characters were shown in folk shadow plays; Wu Zimu also mentioned in his Meng Liang Luthat “some shadow players even made shadow figures with plain papers from Bianjing in early Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368) and later, they engaged some craftsmen to cave on sheep skin and decorated it with colors, so that it would not be damaged”. We fail to find any other shadow puppets or modeling makeup handed down from Song Dynasty other than those records.

From late Northern Song Dynasty to Yuan and Ming Dynasties, due to social unrest, shadow play artists scattered around the country, so shadow art was not much developed in that period. Though Wang Hao, from Yuan Dynasty, once said in his Records of Lintian that “shadow play are quite colorful and diversified” and in the poem of Shadow play by Qu You from Ming Dynasty, it was said that “under the light, shadow figures are dancing and the wind wheels are running…” However, we can’t find any specific features of shadow figure in Yuan and Ming Dynasties in modeling. Based on a lot of investigation on shadow art modeling and their relationship with shadow play , from comparative investigation on a few of original shadow figures of early ages from the whole country, which were said to be from Ming Dynasty, we get to know that in modeling, early folk shadow puppets had no obvious differences.

Cattle leather shadow was mainly distributed in Handan, Cheng’an, Feixiang and Cixian in Southern Hebei and known as the first branch of shadow art in ancient Central Plains. From the shadow play light boxes handed down by several generations, we found that the shadow figures were boorish and unsophisticated with larger bodies reaching about 36.36cm. Roles of scholar and lady usually had one arm while the martial man had two. Riders, lower parts were integrated with the horse and faces were true-life. Main plays included Gods of Honor and the Pilgrimage to the West.

“Blessing Shadow” from eastern Hebei was popular inside and outside of the Great Wall was lost for more than a decade. It was older and popular earlier than shadow play in Luanzhou, eastern Hebei, called “Big Shadow” by the local. The shadow figures was mainly made on cattle leather and was about 50cm high. Riders were integrated with animals and the main play isGods of Honor.

In Xiaoyi, middle Shanxi, two kinds of shadow play were quite popular: one was the ancient local Piqiang paper window shadow play and the other was Wanwanqiang window screen shadow play from Shaanxi. In the ancient tomb mural in Zhangjiazhuang, Xiaoyi, we found 8 pictures of paper window shadow figures and an inscription of “in the fifth month in the 2^ndYear of Dade in Yuan Dynasty, shadow plays were handed down for everlasting responsibility”; in the tomb of Jin Dynasty (1115-1234) in southern Yushuping Village, Xiaoyi, some relics of shadow figures head murals were discovered. From this we can see that shadow figure families existed in Xiaoyi in Jin and Yuan Dynasties. Amongst those special postage stamps in Chinese Puppet Play published in 1995, we found some shadow puppets (martial man) from Xiaoyi, namely, the modeling of Piqiang paper window shadow in Xiaoyi in Ming Dynasty. From some existing ancient shadow figures in Xiaoyi, we come to a conclusion: shadow figures are generally 50cm tall and engraved on cattle leather. Facial makeup is true-life and rider1 s body shall never be separated with the horse. Main plays include Gods of Honor and some legends from Taoism.

Henan shadow plays were represented by those from Tongbai and Luoshan in southern Henan. Those shadow plays were simple and concise in style. Hollow was less frequently used and colors were taken seriously. Generally those shadow figures were 56cm tall and facial makeup was vivid. Main plays include Gods of Honor.

Hubei shadow play includes “Door-god Makeup”, “Wei Makeup” and “Hankou Shadow Puppet”. “Door-god Makeup”, popular in Jingzhou and Mianyang，is tall and unsophisticated, true-life, known as a relatively older and traditional play.

Northern Sichuan shadow play was divided into three categories as well, including “Local Shadow Play” which was born before the Period of Qianlong( 1736-1795) in Qing Dynasty and was before the transferring of Weinan shadow play of Shaanxi into Northern Sichuan. Shadow figures were about 56cm tall, rough in engraving. Most of the patterns were hollowed and facial makeup mostly consisted of life-size and non-hollowed faces. Less Properties were used as well.

Shadow play in Zhejiang was engraved on sheep skin and colored in early stage and later was replaced by cattle leather, which was a custom left from the “colored leather” in shadow play in Southern Song Dynasty (1127-1279). From existing shadow figure from Qing Dynasty in Haining, Zhejiang, we can still find its distinct feature of more colors and less hollowing. The body is about 36.36cm tall. Except for some martial figures with arms and legs separated, other puppets only have one arm and two concatenated legs which can not be separated. From this we can find out some traces of modeling style of shadow play from Lin’an，Southern Song Dynasty and even see the appearance of Bianliang shadow play from Northern Song Dynasty (906-1127).

Taiwan shadow play originated from Chaozhou and southern Fujian and now the oldest shadow play is the patrimonial shadow play in Cailongxi, Gaoxiong County, which is said to be the traditional Fujian shadow play which died out long time ago. From existing shadow play of early period in Taiwan, we can see that riders are engraved conjoinedly and scholars as well as ladies mostly have one arm. Legs can not be separated and the facial makeup is true-life.

From shadow plays in above areas, shadow puppets modeling at early stage in most areas in China share some similarities, such as simple properties, no large pieces, rough modeling, large body, scholars and lady roles with one leg, life-size facial makeup without any influence from forms of drama facial makeup. So here we come to the conclusion that in early period, at least before Ming Dynasty, shadow modeling in China has no obvious regional differences.

II. Formation of Regional Features of Chinese Shadow Art Modeling

Central Plains shadow play and Jiangnan shadow play in ancient China had their heyday in capitals of Northern and Southern Song Dynasties, and shadow art modeling was basically grounded on “plain paper engraving” in ancient Central Plains shadow plays and then spreaded southward, northward and westward. Since the end of Northern Song Dynasty, due to social unrest, shadow artists scattered around the country. Some of them were captured by soldiers of Jin Dynasty to northern area and established northern shadow play school in Northeast China; some moved to Shaanxi and Gansu westward to run away from social upheaval in Jingkang and later developed western shadow play school; most of them immigrated to Lin’an southward and later moved to Guangdong, Fujian and Taiwan, and formed south central shadow play school in Shandong, Hubei and Hunan. Those three schools spreaded to various places from Central Plains.

Caused by frequent wars and continuous natural disasters in Jin and Yuan Dynasties, population density plunged to its lowest level. Under such circumstances, it was impossible for significant development to be made. It was until the establishment of capital in Beijing by Chengzu of Ming Dynasty, when in order to recover and develop economy as soon as possible,required many rich families in Jiangnan to  move to northern areas to contribute to economic boom and exchange of southern and northern  cultures. On top of that, as governors of Ming Dynasty paid more attention to the publicity and education function of drama, most scholars engaged themselves in the compilation of Zaju and legendary drama. Meanwhile, a large number of scholars compiled a large amount of literature scripts for shadow plays, which played an important role in the prosperity of shadow play in the capital and surroundings, Shadow play in China, through years’ development and integration. formed three schools with regional features since Ming and Qing Dynasties.    

Northern shadow play in China included those from eastern Hebei, Inner Mongolia and three provinces in Northeast China. Donkey skin was applied with strict, process requirement. From skin scraping, starching, stock cutting, hollowing & engraving, coloring, oiling to assembly, all procedures were linked with each other. Starching and engraving were the key points. Superb starching process could ensure shadow figure as smooth as before after hundreds of years and sophisticated engraving technique could achieve beautiful and powerful, changeable and well-spaced cuts by pushing, swiveling and chiseling, achieving excellent and different rhythmicity and exquisite manufacturability. Northern shadow plays were are characterized by exaggeration, deformation, simplicity, beauty, strong adornment and out-and-out local flavor. Also on such shadow figures you can find influences from folk paper-cutting, temple sculptures, murals and theatrical costume and they formed their own stylized facial makeup and decoration patterns. The most typical features were that the white faces of male and female roles were hollowed faces of liberal style. An exceedingly high symbolic nose bridge was used to cover the side face lines from forehead to the tip of the nose, together with crescent-moon-like ring hook eyes and a lip simplified into a red line. Such unique facial makeup modeling shall be the typical features of northern shadow play.

Western shadow play included those from Shaanxi, Gansu, Qinghai, southern Shanxi and Sichuan. Most were engraved on cattle leather and extravagant in body and beautiful in lines. The most distinct feature of facial makeup was the high forehead for male, female, painted face and down, which was called as -Rock Skull" locally. Another important feature of western shadow art modeling was a lot of large pieces such as palace, mansion, and garden, immortal's cave, the underworld and so on. Those delicate pieces were in great amount, and make the stage splendid. They were made by strict, and elaborate workmanship. Sets of engraving and hollowing techniques were available and the most representative were“万”(a Chinese character pronounced as Wan)shape and snowflake.

Shadow plays from South Central Part of China included those from Henan, Shandong, Hubei, Hunan, Zhejiang, Guangdong and Taiwan. Most of them reserved the true-life feature of shadow play facial makeup in early period of China and “colored leather” from Southern Song Dynasty. Meanwhile, some unique modeling systems have formed in some areas gradually. Take Hunan shadow play as an example. In early period, cattle leather was used and later replaced by paper board made of 7-layer handmade paper. Quintuplet facet with side face shown 50% was changed into heptamerous facet wit half of the side face shown, forming a unique style.

In summary, shadow puppet modeling in our country from various places presents different artistic features. Inheritance and evolution of folk shadow art modeling relied on sample manuscripts held by traditional artists, which were the lifeblood and secrete of people making a living out of arts. Most of the shadow play samples manuscripts in folk, namely shadow play plates, adopted line drawing or were treated with smokes. Some shadow play engraving artists acknowledged that those shadow plays produced by them were just the imitations of samples from the older generations. Only some intelligent artists could show the influence of temple arts and theatrical costume on the basis of traditional types of facial makeup, thus forming new types. So those types were not inventions of a certain people but perfected and finalized artistic forms based on long-term accumulation and creation by several generations.

III.  Folk Custom Awareness in Shadow Art Modeling

Shadow plays, unique in artistic modeling style, are affected by folk paper-cutting, temple sculptures, murals and theatrical costumes and they have formed their own stylized facial makeup and decoration patterns. Origination of shadow arts once was influenced by necromancer’s thaumaturgy and publicity done by monks via pictures and other religious culture. In subsequent development, shadow art modeling never departs from traditional religious concepts and folk custom awareness.

It was widely circulated in old shadow play troupes that northern shadow play originated from publicity and education of Avalokitesvara in northern area. Therefore, shadow play troupes in northern area considerd Avalokitesvara as the Founder of Shadow Play. The facial makeup of some positive characters, including little female, little male, the old, was engraved according to the straight nose bridge, ring eyebrows and thin eyes. Such modeling became a unique style in northern shadow play.

There are two types of very special shadow art modeling in northern China, one large and one small, nicknamed big brother and little brother by shadow play artists. One of their hands is as big as a fan and the other shrinks into a spasm. They assume no role in any of the play, but can come on the stage at any time. There was a legend about the two figures which was like the disabled children shed in a temple, and they, went out begging for their sick master. They went everywhere and every family with a paper cut representing the master. They sang and danced to depict their master^ merit and kindness. Some old artists say this is the founder of northern shadow play, and in honor of them, shadow play artists of later ages engraved the two shadow figures, whenever the performance needed to pause or to do some change, the two would debut. They made impromptu comic gestures and remarks like the clowns in acrobatic performances for string. Usually at the end of the show, the general people would unload the head stubble, and then put them into the box in classification, but the two would not be picked down, indicating immortalization, and they were always put on top of the shadow box. Other shadow figures were made of donkey skin but only the two used dog skins for carving because in folk customs, a dog's skin could ward off evil.

There was a kind of shadow play dedicated to a God, worship, and redeeming, called "May Shadow Puppet". Whoever suffered from disease or disaster, they shall pray to the God, and then called a shadow troupe to present a show. Such a custom entertaining and amusing both the God and the people still run throughout the ages. May Shadow Play was mainly focusing on “Immortal、Blessing”,“Child from the Immortal”, “Glorious Return” and other short dramas. On the shadow window, some immortals and Heavenly God, Lucky Boy, Lishi Fairy, the three fortune bodies for happiness, emolument and longevity would appear, some combination of characters was hung, such as Five Sons for the Top, Best in All, Promotion, Happiness as Immense as the Eastern Sea, as Longevous as the South Sea. In case of disasters caused by insects and mice in Longdong Area, a shadow play about killing the evils would be presented with special colorful pieces.

Auspiciousness, since ancient times, was taken as the spiritual pillar of people as well as the cohesive force in traditional culture and the forever pursuit to be handed down from generation to generation. Folk artists, by words of double meanings, applied many folk auspicious words and folk pictures into shadow art modeling. By this way, the modeling was enriched and beatified while blanks and hollowed cuts were filled and connected. Generally the costume for scholar role was decorated by“playing, chess, calligraphy, and painting”，“peony, yulan magnolia and begonia”， “pine，bamboo and plum blossom” and other pictures. Costumes for the old male and old female were decorated by “felicity and longevity”， “good luck and happiness”，and “swastika”. On tables, chairs, carriages and palanquins, generally we could see “safety and as one wishes” (jade ruyi in vase), “wealth and safety”(peony and sweet-scented osmanthus in vase), “promotion to three level higher”（three halberds in vase), “five fortunes with longevity”（five bats (Pinyin: Bian Fu) encircling the Chinese character寿（Shou，indicating longevity), “a prevailing mood of harmony”（a large cloud) and “heavenly horse running”, “sea horse admiring the cloud”, “rivers, mountains and the run and the moon”, “lion playing with a big-leaf hydrangea”, “five dragons playing with a luminous pearl”, “unicorn looking at the moon”, “phoenix flying toward the sun” and other indicative ornaments. Such a custom of “pictures with connotation of auspiciousness’’ reflected in shadow puppet was the ingenuity of those folk artists and those ornaments were loved and talked by audiences all the time.

Shadow art modeling in various places, in accordance with the requirements the story, would use symbolic ornaments to supplement the contents and enrich figures. Such as Guan Yu, red face, five tufts of long beards, highly tied hair decorated by a piece of doth were used to show his mightiness, loyalty and braveness; the unscrupulous figure Wang Mang, large eye balls and broom brow with threatening gestures were adopted to show his intention of usurping the throne; Taoist nun was headed by leaves to show that she was practicing in deep mountains; the fox on the head of the demon Da Ji showed her original form. In those images we find the love and hatred of those folk artists and audiences. The so-called “indicating the good and bad, differentiating the kind from the evil” is just the reflection of people’s wishes in shadow art modeling.

Different ornamental methods were adopted in some water demons and monsters, such as crab monster with a crab on its head, fish monster with a fish as its head while frog monster was the combination of frog shape and facial makeup. Such indicative modeling, while according with the story, satisfies audiences’ aesthetic requirements. Such a structure with true in false and true combined with false was the high-level embodiment of supposition and extravagation, making up the shortage of shadow play being expressionless.

Color enriches the beauty in form in shadow art modeling. From the t4five colors decorating shadow figures” recorded under the “Chapter of Lamp Products” in Tales of the Old Capital from Song Dynasty, we get to know that shadow puppets in Song Dynasty were in 5 colors. Coloring rules of traditional shadow art were restricted in the five colors, including red, yellow, blue, white and black, the contrast and coordination among which were well embodied in colors of shadow art. But in northern shadow plays, blue was replaced by green because oil lamp was used the most in the past, under the lights of which blue turned close to black. Green in lieu of blue could increase the contrast between red and green, causing the modeling more bright and forceful. Thus, colors used practically were red, green and black. With cuttings as the boundaries, those colors were applied and concatenated.

Colors in facial makeup in shadow plays of our country share some similarities with other opera facial makeup, for example, red represents loyalty and braveness, black indicates frankness and straightforwardness, white face shows treacherousness and green is usually used in robbers and monsters. Thanks to such harmonious matching of traditional colors, shadow art modeling generates a colorful and changeable artistic effect.

IV.  Dynamic Shadow Art Modeling in Controlled Performance

The artistic beauty of shadow art modeling is not only showed in exquisite engraving, but also controlled performance. Shadow puppet itself has no facial expression, so changes in the thoughts and feelings of the characters shall rely on the speaking and singing in shadow play control, thus it will have life, so the controlled performance is the perfect embodiment of shadow play figures.

In shadow play performance, controlling techniques play an important role in the performance effect of shadow play. In controlling, controllers must have sharp eyes and agile hands to achieve accurate acts. Each subtle act shall comply with the requirements on the figure in specific environment of the story and match with the music and music for voices strictly and seamlessly.

In our country, there are a number of people proficient in shadow play controlling, who attract and conquer all audiences with their extraordinary controlling skills and often are reputed as “The King of Controller”（controller means the controlling rods), “King of Rod”, “Master in Take-up”. Through years’ practice in performance, they have created a unique and liberal-style expression mean combined with stylization: a rod on the shadow window symbolizes the door separating the inside and outside; spraying smoke to the shadow window supplements changes of the ghost and the immortal as well as soul out of body or person in dream; several shadow puppets may represent thousands upon thousands of horses and soldiers while several interludes indicate that ten thousand crags and torrents have been passed. Controlled performance in shadow play is quite unique, wonderful and fantastic.

Each piece of shadow figures is generally connected with a controller in the neck and hand, and the bar iron on the neck is called the "main rodn and the other two provided on two hands respectively are called “hand rod”. Controlling the neck rod can require the shadow figure to move forward and backward, sit and lie down, turn over and jump, controlling the hand rod can express flick of sleeve, covering mouth, brandishing and other acts. Controlling a hand rod requires the five fingers to grip tightly, being powerful and flexible in dancing, keeping the shadow figure in balance, not oblique, showing accuracy and dexterity in action. The so-called “grip as supremely, move like a feather” is the truth. Often the controller has to control several shadow figures and each subtle act shall comply with the requirements on the figure in specific environment of the story and match with the music and music for voices strictly and seamlessly. In the martial arts, in addition to the two hand rods, mounts, weapons, romals and other rods shall be added, sometimes as many as six or seven.

The commonest skill in shadow play is fighting against pike, sticks and swords, which are divided into two kinds: on the horse and on the ground, both enjoying the same controlling methods. Controllers of weapons are combined with the two hand rods of the shadow figure respectively. Through the opening and closing of the two combined rods, together with the subtle rotating done by the thumb and forefinger, the pike would prick forward and backward, the cudgel would move in rotation and the broadsword would be brandished upward and downward. The controller shall concentrate his mind and use his fingers, eyes and heart together. Nimble fingers are the most important.

Compared with the stage, the performance space for shadow play is limited, but it can be used to perform many contents that can’t be expounded on stage, such as riding on a cloud, rising in the sky and drilling into the underground, soul out of body, flying sand and rolling pebbles, beheading, bleeding caused by a butting, doing up hair and washing face, mirroring and revealing, revealing, snatching a horse, etc., sometimes even raging flames, clouds, raindrops and lightning could be showed. In modem times, many shadow play artists conquer audiences with ultra-high controlling techniques.

In northeastern shadow plays, there are still some special effects taking people’s breath away. For example, in Cross Slope, flag rod, trough, desks, chairs and wine jars in the house were damaged on the screen by Wu Song, but audiences can not find out the flaw. Another example, when fighting with Wu Song, those servants were hit by axe, hand hay cutter, scissors and so on, bleeding on face and soon after they took out of them, they recovered to original forms. Those properties and head crowns adopted mortise and alternative head, which through the excellent performance of artists, became mysterious.

Shadow play artists in Shaanxi, Gansu and other places, via practice in the performance, have created many special artistic techniques, to enrich the representativeness of shadow play arts. For the expression of far-near, firm-empty, overlapping of shadows, clever use of the rods, with imagery performance with nothing, smoke pervasion, fire spitting skills, scene changes, dream expression, riding on a cloud, beheading and blood face, a complete set of stylized artistic expressions has formed.

The Punting from Shaanxi Huaxian includes a section about a boatman rowing. There is no water and boat on the window surface, but the controller relies on nothing and takes the imagination as the true things, holds the main rod and feet of the shadow figure to move upward and downward with one hand rod showed on the surface to represent the quant, but what audiences see is the boatman rowing a boat in the waving water. On a shadow window without waves, audiences could feel the waves of water via the controlling of shadow figures and that is the visual and imaginary modeling expression of traditional folk shadow plays.

Traditional rod controlling performance in Taiwan shadow play stresses “stability, accuracy, powerfulness, solidity and speed”. One shadow play controller could control 8 figures at the same time with his both hands. Also getting on and off the horse, changing helmet and armor, throwing weapon, snatching pikes and swords could be presented, taking audiences’ breath away.

Shadow modeling arts in China are the results of wisdom and perspiration of shadow play artists of past generations. Relying on leather to form its shape and forming shadow by lights, integrating stylization, decoration and performance, shadow art modeling is quite welcomed by the public and shall be entitled as a wonder in traditional Chinese folk modeling arts.

● Wei Liqun

A committee member from National Intangible Cultural Heritage Protection Expert Committee and professor from Art & Design Academy of Hebei Normal University, has published books such as History of Chinese Shadow Play Arts, Shadow Play Arts from Tangshan, China, Folk Shadow Play, Journey of Shadow Play and The King of Controller in Shadow Play.

The article reproduced from “The 21st UNIMA Congress & World Puppetry Festival Thesis Compilation”