About Shenjiang＞ Roles of Shenjiang

Roles of Shenjiang

The Luzhou Shenjiang can also be classified by roles: Sheng, Dan, Jing, and Chou.
1. Sheng Role: There are old Sheng and young Sheng in this category.
(1) Old Sheng: The Shenjiang of this role are males that look old, wrinkled, and experienced. There are quite a few old Sheng Shenjiang in Luzhou, such as the Civil and Military Judges, Yin-Yang Officer, and General Zhao, etc.

(2) Young Sheng: The Shenjiang of this role are young and good-looking males. Usually they have a chubby face, like kids, or sometimes two dimples, and look cute. Their faces are soft pink or white, and look vivid. General Zhongtan, Erlangshen, and the Thirteen Guards are the young Sheng.


2. Dan Role: The Shenjiang of this role are female. Luzhou has only six Dan Shenjiang statues; the rest are all male Shenjiang. Even though the quantity is much less than the male ones, the Dan Shenjiang are very important in Luzhou. The Dan role can be subdivided into civil and military Dan. The civil Dan look young and neat; the military Dan fight like warriors.

3. Jing Role: In Chinese opera, all Jing faces are painted with many colors for making people frightened. In Luzhou, the Jing Shenjiang are General Gan, General Liu, General Hsien, General Fan, and Zhongkui.

4. Chou Role: There are not many in Luzhou, since most of the Shenjiang who guard main gods are serious. We found one, Zhaocai Boy, in Luzhou. In performances, their dancing steps are cute, without rhythm but very pleasing.

Old Sheng

Young Sheng

Dan

Jing


Afterthoughts:
Yuang-ting Tseng: I knew Shenjiang could be classified as the roles in the traditional opera but I didn’t know what kinds, nor which kinds show up in parades more often. After constantly searching for the answer, I now know that most of Luzhou Shenjiang are old Sheng, and Chou rarely show up in Luzhou.
Po-hung Wang: I used to think that there wasn’t classification in Shenjiang. I never knew they could be divided into Sheng, Dan, Jing, and Chou, neither did I know that the classification is important to Shenjiang. Now, I know how to classify them in terms of their heights or roles. I used to think General Hsieh and General Fan were Sheng Shenjiang; now, I know they are Jing Shenjiang because their faces are painted with many colors in parades.
Ming-hsien Hsu: Now, I know that besides for the height, Shenjiang can also be divided into Sheng, Dan, Jin, and Chou, like those in Taiwan Opera. Most of the Luzhou Shenjiang are old Sheng. I did not expect that the Chou role is the least in number and rarely found in Luzhou. It’s easy to classify Shenjiang by their height. Now, another category of classifying Shenjiang statues is introduced, so we learned one more way to classify Shenjiang. People in ancient times are so smart to create it.

Pin-yu Wu: Now I know that there are elders, kids, beauties, illiterates, face painted men, young men, and so on. The gods’ world does not differ from the human world! I fee it is so convenient that we can tell the age by their role and understand the historical background by their category!
Shun-wei Huang: I just learned that the Shenjiang statues are also divided into different roles: Sheng, Dan, Jin, and Chou, in terms of their looking, education, face painting, and capability of fighting. I learned a lot from the Cyberfair Project. I also discovered what the gods’ world looks like. It’s never too late to learn; there are always things we need to learn in every stage of our life, so we have to seriously take this good learning opportunity. Now, I know a monographic study can teach me a lot.
Kuan-ting Ho: I feel that humans imitate the gods’ world. Why? Humans have the categories of “Sheng, Dan, Jing, Chou”, and Shenjiang have the same categories too. It’s easier to tell a Shenjiang statue’s age, unlike human who need DNA tests to do that. That’s very troublesome!