Who is the originator of cross talk?

Zhu Shaowen, the originator of cross talk, has a stage name of "Be Not Afraid of Being Poor". Zhu Shaowen (1829-1904), native place: Shaoxing, Zhejiang, cross talk artist. The first is Zhu Shaowen, whose stage name is Qiong Bu Ai. He is a native of Beijing, a bannerman of the Han Army, and his ancestral home is Shaoxing, Zhejiang. He learned to sing Peking Opera Harlequin when he was young, and once performed with Song Zhicheng Opera Troupe. In the last years of Daoguang's reign in the Qing Dynasty, he changed his studies and was not afraid of being a "front face" (harlequin). During the Xianfeng period, Shi Bu Xian Lian Hua Luo was declining day by day. Forced by life, he changed his career to Tianqiao where he performed stand-up comedy and sang Taiping lyrics. The bamboo board he used to play the beat during his performance was engraved with the words "If you are full of articles, don't be afraid of being poor, but if you have five carts of books and history, you will be poor." This is where the name "Don't be afraid of poverty" comes from. He carved four five-character poems on another bamboo board: "Eat a thousand meals a day, stay in an ancient temple at night, and don't do anything illegal, even if you meet the king." There is a poem on the door of his house that contains his name. The couplets related to the stage name, the first couplet is "Always be afraid of poverty and the bright head", the second couplet is "strength (encourage) energy (emotion) food (arrow) ambition and noble body", and the horizontal line is "tongue governs heart plowing". Li Xianggu, a native of the Qing Dynasty, wrote a poem "Giving to Zhu Shaowen": "I have made a living as an artist for decades, and I have given a few past events to Brother Zhu. I wrote that Zheng Yuanhe was a great hero who was not afraid of poverty." Zhu Shaowen often carried a small bag of white sand and two blocks of four Take a small bamboo board an inch and a half wide, hold a small broom, walk from Di'anmen to the overpass, find a place where there are many people, draw a large circle with white sand, then point one knee to the ground, pinch the white sand with the thumb and index finger of the right hand, and use the left hand to Beat the knots on small bamboo boards and sing while scattering. The characters he scattered include single characters, three or five characters connected together, couplets, poems, etc. Sometimes he also scatters double-hook characters such as "Fu", "Shou" and "Tiger" that are one foot long. Occasionally, small characters are sprinkled under the big characters, such as "to attract wealth and treasure", "to make money every day", "to Zhao Qian and Sun Li", "to attract wealth" and so on. There is a couplet he often spreads: "The book boy grinds the ink and wipes the book boy's ink, the plum fragrance adds the coal coal and the plum fragrance two eyebrow coals." After finishing writing the words, one might break down the strokes, explain the pronunciation and meaning, quote the ancients, or refer to current affairs, and the result will be a hard bag that will make people marvel. Sometimes I sing while saying the words, and I also provide explanations.

Zhu Shaowen is one of the founders of cross talk. His "Character" satirizes corrupt officials and is a representative piece of early stand-up comedy.

Zhu Shaowen's artistic career spanned three generations: Xianfeng, Tongzhi and Guangxu. Zhang Shouchen's article "Reviewing the Career of Our Artists" published in the 14th volume of "Tianjin Literary and Historical Materials Collection" mentioned that "On the 60th birthday of Empress Dowager Cixi in the 20th year of Guangxu (1894), all walks of life gathered outside the Summer Palace on October 10th. , set up a temporary stall for viewing, Zhu Shaowen went there and was named one of the 'Eight Monsters'", "Zhu set up a stall in Huguo Temple, Prince Gong Yixin once invited him to go to the palace garden to spread a pair of hooks to 'learn' The prince was very pleased with the character, the structure and the style, and immediately gave him a share of money and grain (three taels of silver every month, and three stones and three measures of grain in each season), and later received a share of money and grain from Prince Luo's Mansion." At that time, the "King of Luo" (Luobu Zangdorji) hired Zhu Shaowen to perform at the palace every day. According to what Chen Yinrong, a Beijing storytelling artist, heard from his teacher Pin Zhengsan, when he was in Prince Luo's Mansion, one day, it was snowing heavily. King Luo found him and went to his room and said: "They say that when you look up you get an idea, when you look down you get an insight. Today I want to Give it a try, if you can get me out of the house on such a cold day, I will reward you with a piece of silver." Qi Bu Ai blinked and said with a look on his face: "This is not easy. If you walk out of the house, I will give you a silver coin. I can tell you to come in." King Luo said, "It's too cold and it's too late." Qiong Buwei said, "Don't worry, it won't take more than a bag of cigarettes." King Luo just walked out, fully dressed. At the door of the room, Qi Bu Ai saluted behind him and said, "Thank you for the reward!" King Luo asked, "What reward do you want to thank you for?" Qiu Bu Ai smiled and said, "Aren't you out now?" He caught King Luo by surprise.