Mei Lanfang’s luthier and 86-year-old Jiang Fengshan made a special program on Mei Lanfang as a guest at CCTV. He appreciated Mei Lanfang’s performance and acting skills. During this period, he told a story about Mei Lanfang. It was a beautiful mistake, and that mistake has become a classic still in use today.
That was in his early years, Mei Lanfang and others co-starred in “Broken Bridge”, also known as “White Snake Biography”. The plot is a love story between Bai Niangzi and Xu Xian. Mei Lanfang plays Bai Niangzi in the play. In the play, Bai Niangzi had an action that when she was chased by her negative husband Xu Xian and knelt on the ground to plead with her, she loved and hated her, and mixed her flavours with just one finger to poke Xu Xian’s head.
I don’t want to, Mei Lanfang is too hard. The actor who kneels and plays Xu Xian is unprepared and leans back. This is an action not designed in the plot. It may be that Mei Lanfang entered the play too deeply, and gathered all his hatred for Xu Xian on his fingers, which caused such a mistake. Seeing Xu Xian about to fall to the ground, what should I do? Mei Lanfang subconsciously used both hands to help Xu Xian. Xu Xian was held up without falling down. But Mei Lanfang immediately realized that I was the White Lady, and he was the heartfelt Lang Xuxian. I wouldn’t help him. Isn’t this a show? The master is a master, and Mei Lanfang is adapting to him. At the same time, he gently pushed him again.
Therefore, the plot changed from the original one stamp to one stamp, one support and one push, more vividly showing the complicated mood of Bai Niangzi’s love and hatred for Xu Xian. This action made the mistakes that almost caused the stage accident vivid, and was recognized by everyone. Since then, Mei Lanfang has continued to use this action in future performances. Moreover, other dramas have also adopted this action processing, and this action has become a classic.
Jiang Fengshan used a word when speaking here: win by defeat. Not only on the stage, in all walks of life, in all positions, at work, in life, whether it is a master or an ordinary person, mistakes and mistakes are inevitable, the key is how to deal with mistakes and mistakes, how to deal with them . Improper handling can lead to accidents and lead to total failure; when handled properly, they can win from defeat and turn decay into magic. ■