On December 11, 2002 (November 8, 2002 in the lunar calendar), Yuan Shihai, the famous Peking Opera performing artist, passed away. Mr. Yuan Shihai, Li Kui, Xiang Yu, Zhang Fei, Cao Cao... Yuan Shihai, the famous Peking Opera performing artist who created a series of classic images in the history of Chinese Peking Opera, died at 10:50 am on December 11 in Beijing at the age of 87 due to ineffective medical treatment. No one expected that the Peking Opera master, who was loved by audiences, would leave so suddenly. Just the day before, he had just returned from a tour in Northeast China and called Wu Jiang, the president of the Chinese Peking Opera Theater, to discuss singing "Niu Gao Recruiting Marriage" at this year's Spring Festival Gala. And this turned out to be the last wish of the master who lived for the drama all his life. Yuan Shihai, who lost his father at the age of two and was poor at home when he was young, loved Peking Opera since he was a child. He studied art at the age of 8 and studied under Xu Deyi, Wu Yanheng, Ye Chunsheng, Ye Fuhai, Qiu Guixian, and Hao Shouchen successively. From practicing martial arts and learning from old students, to changing to practicing the frame of the face, during his academic career, he studied hard and learned from others. Before liberation, he cooperated with famous monks such as Xiaoyun and Mei Lanfang, and performed in Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai and other places. There are more than 300 plays in total. In learning art from teachers and cooperating with artists of various genres, he absorbed the essence of each family and gradually formed a unique performance style. For decades, Yuan Shihai has been active on the Peking Opera stage in our country. Before him, the stage of Peking Opera was dominated by fresh faces and supplemented by flower faces. On the basis of his predecessors, he created the art of "Yuan Pai" with a copper hammer on the shelf, and created a new way of drama with flower faces and supplemented by fresh faces. He is also one of the earlier artists to set foot in modern Peking Opera performances. The different characters created in modern Peking Opera "White-haired Girl", "Red Lanterns", "Linhai Snow Field", "Plain Battle" and other plays left an indelible impression on the audience. Especially in 1964, Hatoyama won praise in "Red Lanterns", which had a great impact. Yuan Shihai's performance style is simple and bold, strong and powerful, and expressive with emotion. The Yuan School art created by him has won the love of the majority of opera fans with its standardized and plump work frame, high-pitched and rich voice, clear and thick recitation, and complete and atmospheric appearance. His representative plays "Farewell My Concubine", "Catch and Release Cao", "General and", "Wild Boar Forest", "Black Whirlwind Li Kui", "Heroic Club", "Poetry of Horizontal Lance", "Huarong Road", "Jiujiangkou", etc., are all classic masterpieces that have been performed on the opera stage in our country for a long time. In particular, Yuan Shihai vividly created the stage images of Cao Cao, Li Kui, Zhang Fei, Lu Zhishen, etc., which were superb and well-known, and were affectionately praised by fans as "Live Cao Cao", "Live Li Kui", "Live Zhang Fei" and "Live Lu Zhishen". At 10:00 am on December 22, the farewell ceremony of Mr. Yuan Shihai's body will be held in the grand auditorium of Beijing Babaoshan Funeral Home. Related introduction: Yuan Shihai (1916--2002) was formerly known as Ruilin. A native of Beijing. When he was a child, he joined the rich Lian to learn opera, a beginner and an old student. Later, he changed his face and learned opera from his senior brother Sun Shengwen. Due to his ingenuity and eagerness to learn, he soon learned the roles of Ma Su in "Lost Street Pavilion", Huang Gai and Cao Cao in "Qunying Club", and Liu Jin in "Famen Temple", and the performance effect was excellent. After Yuan Shihai left the school, he first took Shang Xiaoyun's class to act, and played supporting roles in Shang's "Nine Songs Yellow River Formation" and "Jade Tiger Pendant". In order to get further study, Yuan Shihai studied under Hao Shouchen, and his skills were even more lean. He worked with Li Shifang, Ma Lianliang and Li Shengzao for many years in Li Shifang's Chenghua Club and Ma Lianliang's Fufeng Club successively. He co-starred with Li Shifang in "Farewell My Concubine", co-starred with Li Shengzao in "Heroes of Qingmei Boiling Wine", and co-starred with Ma Lianliang in "Four Jinshi", which became a famous drama. After the founding of New China, he co-founded "Qi She" (theater troupe) with Li Shaochun and joined the Chinese Peking Opera in 1951. Since then, Yuan Shihai has not only organized and performed traditional plays such as "Stealing the Horse" and "On Heroes"; he has collaborated with Li Shaochun to rehearse "General Harmony", "Wild Boar Forest" and "Biography of the Horse", and he has collaborated with Li Hezeng to rehearse "Gift Robe" and "Removal of the Three Evils". He has collaborated with Li Jinquan to rehearse "Li Kui's Mother", and he starred in "Black Whirlwind", "Peach Blossom Village", "Jiujiangkou" and other plays, all of which have been performed for a long time and have caused a sensation in the drama world. Yuan Shihai's voice is wide, bright and thick, and he uses his own unique fried sound and mellow sound in harmony, which sounds strong and refreshing. The pronunciation of biting words is really clear. He is good at using rhythmic singing such as [assembly board] and [allegro] to express the rich inner changes of the characters. Workmanship is the first achievement of the frame face. The so-called "doing" includes not only the body frame, but also the body expression when shaping the characters. Yuan Shihai has both. His body is burly, his movements are steady and practiced, his figure is beautiful and generous, and he pays attention to the perfection of the shape. He portrays the characters in detail, a seemingly ordinary play, but he can grasp the inner activities of the characters and reveal their character characteristics. For example, in the play "Black Whirlwind", he performed a performance of Li Kui watching the scenery of Liangshanbo. It was a one-person play, and there was no outstanding dramatic contradiction. "But he dug out the connotation of Li Kui's character, thoughts and feelings. From the colorful falling of peach blossoms, the hidden singing of fish and birds, thinking of Wu Yong's poems, I want to memorize but can't recite them, and at the same time thinking of someone ridiculing Liangshan for having no beautiful scenery, I immediately want to beat him up. " (Weng Dianhong's" On the Genre of Peking Opera Flowers and Faces ") This performance image vividly reveals Li Kui's simple, straightforward and clear-cut personality characteristics. In the 1960s, he played the role of Hatoyama in the modern opera" The Record of Red Lanterns ", using traditional performance techniques, following the creative principles of starting from life, and drawing on the performance of drama, successfully shaped Hatoyama, an image that has never been seen on the stage of Peking Opera. Made important contributions to the artistic expression of modern life in Peking Opera.