The characters reflected in the shadow puppets have complete professions and distinct personalities, including raw, small, bearded, big, ugly, etc. They have different shapes, and their faces are the richest and most delicate. According to the storyline, conflicts and the psychological stereotypes of the Chinese audience, the two parties in the conflict are divided into pros and cons. This is mainly reflected in the facial carvings. "Those who are loyal to the public are carved with The true appearance, the evil person is carved into the ugly appearance." Moreover, the characters are carved with ringed eyebrows and phoenix eyes, closed mouth and red lips, and a "6-character" nose that reaches into the sky. The shape is abstract, simple, and elegant.

The head shape of a shadow puppet character is the head shape of the shadow puppet. Its face is connected with the hairstyle and hat (except for certain characters). Most of the face is a five-point profile, and the hairstyle and hat are a seven-point profile or More. Moreover, there are front, back and overlooking angles. The purpose of this composition method is to show the beauty as much as possible. Most of the hairstyles and hats are inscribed (removed to leave lines), and their lines are dense but not empty, complex but not messy, and simple but not empty. In particular, the incised hairstyle and hat form a sharp contrast with the hollowed-out face that is engraved (remove the threads and leave the skin), making it look harmonious and unified.

1.1.2 A complete range of delicate and realistic jimo shapes

The so-called jimo refers to the collective name for all shapes except shadow puppet figures, also called jimozi. It includes animal shapes, various scenery and prop shapes.

The scenery and props are exquisitely carved and highly decorative. The scenery is divided into two parts: indoor and outdoor. The indoor scenery has decorative patterns and colorful curtains hung on the upper part of the shadow window to symbolize the typical environment. Outdoor scenes include the Golden Palace, Dragon Palace, General Gate, Commander's Mansion, pavilions, gate towers, attics, colorful buildings, courtyards, teahouses, city gates, cloud caves, inns, bridges, rivers, rocks, flowers, plants, trees, etc. Props are divided into indoor furnishings, such as tables, chairs, wardrobes, beds... and some utensils, such as various weapons, cars, boats, sedans, chariots, various lamps, wine sets, ceremonial guards, etc.

These scenery pictures and props are generally inscribed with bright colors. The large color blocks and the hollow parts form a strong contrast and reflect each other, making them appear gorgeous, solemn, bright and elegant. The design requires structure. Rigorous and well-organized. In terms of processing, the carver is required to be complex but not chaotic, dense but not complex.

Animal carvings include the shapes of some birds, livestock and beasts. They are usually incised. If they are small, they can be carved as a whole; if they are large, the head, tail, limbs and body can be broken down and carved. Then bind it with thread.

1.2 Full display of dramatic art

1.2.1 Shadow puppet script creates typical dramatic conflict

Tangshan shadow puppet drama script, originally called "Shadow Sutra" Renamed "Shadow Scroll", there are traditional plays and modern plays. When digging for traditional plays, the Tangshan Shadow Puppet Troupe collected more than 130 operas with multiple plays. It is still unclear how many single-excerpt plays there are. An old artist has this saying: "You can't tell me the name of a fish if you play fish all your life, and you can't tell the name of a shadow if you sing shadows all your life." It can be seen that there are many shadow puppet plays. Among the traditional repertoire, plays such as "Five Feng Hui", "Second Plum Blossoms", "Qingyun Sword", "Jeweled Hairpin" and "The Legend of Three Sages" are highly praised and are representative works of shadow puppetry. These scripts have twists and turns and fascinating stories, creating many flesh-and-blood characters with distinctive personalities. Use popular language to vividly describe characters from all walks of life.

In addition to the above-mentioned plays, there are many others that are widely popular in the eastern Hebei region. Their content is roughly the same as the drum lyrics and storytelling sold in bookstores in the past. What about conquering the east, conquering the west, leveling the south, sweeping the north, a certain public case, a certain general, etc. The contents of these scripts are extremely in line with the characteristics of dramatic art. They develop plots and shape characters by expressing conflicts and conflicts. Without conflict, there would be no drama. Drama uses plot to impress the audience. It has great artistic appeal and artistic aesthetic value and is easily accepted by the masses.

Human beings’ aesthetic demand for art is indeed endless. It is not enough to have plastic art that can meet visual needs. We also need sound art that can meet auditory needs; Spatial art is not enough, we also need time art that can satisfy the dynamic time experience; it is not enough to have representational art that can meet the need to reproduce objective reality, we also need expressive art that can meet the need to express subjective emotions... Truly excellent dramatic art works There is no scene with only narration but no expression, and there is no plot with only expression but no narration.

1.2.2 The interpretation of drama art by shadow play performance

Shadow play is a kind of puppet art. Its performance method is to use lights to map the shadow figures on the shadow screen. The puppeteer is manipulated inside the scene, and with the cooperation of dubbing, musical instruments, lighting and scenery, various scenes in life are expressed through the puppeteer's body movements (plus accompanying singers).

Since both the figure and the scene are designed in a flat plane, without layers or depth, and the gaps between the patterns are hollow, the figure and the scene cannot overlap. These are the inherent limitations of shadow puppet art. However, based on their unfavorable characteristics, film and television artists use their strengths and avoid weaknesses, take advantage of the favorable conditions of behind-the-scenes operations, and create a method of expression that suits them. Touching.

The so-called fineness and fineness are to absorb the most exciting and contagious things in life, refine and process them, and turn them into artistic images, giving life and soul to the unconscious shadow people, singing and dancing on the screen, and touching the heartstrings of the audience. , making them fascinated. In this way, shadow puppetry makes full use of its own strengths and becomes a superior feature that cannot be compared with the opera stage. For example, birds and animals, cannons, tanks, cars, ships, etc. can all be displayed realistically. You can also move natural scenes such as surging sea water, raging fire, clouds, rain and lightning to the shadow window. Filmmakers can be ever-changing, immerse themselves in the sky and the earth, soar in the clouds and mist, and their performance themes are very wide-ranging. Of course, there are also things that cannot be expressed, such as the grinding in "Double Pushing the Mill", the grinding in "The Mill", and the spinning in "Liu Qiaoer". These actions are difficult to express in film.

2 Harmonious unity of formal beauty and content beauty

2.1 Shadow puppet carving - an art of great formal beauty

Shadow puppet carving uses livestock skin as the material, such as cowhide , sheepskin, horsehide, etc. Tangshan shadow puppets are carefully carved from the finest donkey skin. In the mountainous area in the northern part of Tangshan, there are many donkeys and rich resources of donkey skins. Moreover, donkeys in mountainous areas eat more grass, and their cortex is whiter and more transparent than donkeys fed grain and other feeds. There is a saying that the skin of a donkey in Beishan Mountain is as bright as a mirror. The shadow figures carved from this donkey skin are transparent, moist and of high quality. Senior artists have left many tips on the use and carving of donkey skin, such as: "A piece of donkey skin is wide and wide, so you must be careful when using it. The ribs are the most transparent, and the carved head is brightly colored. The skin on the buttocks is easy to recover. The back is suitable for carving curtains, and the neck skin is used for carriages, horses and boats..." This most intuitively reflects the strict requirements for donkey skin material selection and carving.

Tangshan filmmakers mainly use straight knives for their carvings, and use negative and positive carvings according to the needs of the content. The carving style of Tangshan shadow puppets emphasizes large relationships, pays attention to performance effects, and has the right density and density of the knife edge. The head, face, hands and feet all contain the principle of perspective, so that the characters appear transparent, bright and vivid on the shadow window. Experts look at shadow puppets to see whether there are round lines between the joints, and then see whether they are easy to operate. Therefore, the exquisiteness of the sculpture art is directly related to the beauty and ugliness of the shadow puppet art.

The art of shadow puppet carving is an art of great formal beauty. It is based on traditional folk painting. It does not deny the reproduction and realistic functions of painting, and integrates this function into its aesthetic expression and emotional experience. Among them, there is the "similarity of dissimilarity" between similar and dissimilar, and the "truth of unreality" between true and unreal. " product. The richness and changes of its colors, lines and shapes allow people to sincerely acknowledge and praise its exquisite skills, and affirm that it is a representative of plastic arts created by human genius.

2.2 Aesthetic orientation in the content creation process

Most of the stories reflected in Tangshan shadow puppets are based on history and legends, promoting a kind of punishing evil and promoting good, joining hands with others. Good wishes for reunion. For example: the popular traditional play "Five Summits" is one of the "Four Oldest" shadow puppets, and its ideological nature has been deeply studied and affirmed by shadow puppet artists of all generations. "Five Summits" consists of three single parts: "Qiantian Sword", "Baolong Mountain" and "Pingxi Book". It describes the story of the Song Dynasty and praises the patriotism of the old hero Cao Kerang and his family. As a representative of traditional repertoire, its vivid writing and beautiful lyrics fully embody the unique charm of shadow puppet art and provide people with beautiful enjoyment.

The creation process of shadow puppet art is a complex process of spiritual activities and production activities. It includes two interdependent aspects: one is the experience, observation and summary of social life. and aesthetic understanding; the second is to use material materials and technical means to express this aesthetic understanding, make it materialized and visualized, and coupled with performances on the stage, the value of shadow puppet art will be truly reflected. The perfect expression of the value of shadow puppet art should be: first, from the aesthetic understanding of life to aesthetic reproduction, and finally using special artistic expression techniques to embody it in the actual shadow puppet art works. In layman's terms, it means: with rich life feelings As a starting point, through the creative activities of spiritual thoughts to the communication activities of physical works, it is finally embodied into visual art works in the form of comprehensive art.

The development process of any art from low-level to high-level is a process of continuous diversification of art types. This is rooted in the richness and variety of objective social life and the richness and diversity of aesthetic sensibility. Different expression means and modes of expression are used to reflect different objects, creating a variety of art worlds, and maximizing human visual and auditory aesthetic abilities. great development. For many years, shadow puppet art has been playing a positive role in meeting people's entertainment needs, enriching people's spiritual life, and spreading cultural knowledge. It not only has a great influence in China, but also has been continuously spread abroad. At present, the whole country is excavating, collecting, sorting and studying the national folk cultural and artistic heritage. Tangshan shadow puppets, a representative folk cultural heritage, still has many rich connotations that need to be discovered.

The fusion of vulgarity and elegance, beauty and ugliness, ancient and modern is displayed in the shadow puppets. We look forward to its continuous innovation and development