江淮大地如今出現(xiàn)了一個令世人矚目的旅游熱點，它就是以吳承恩故居和猴王世家藝術(shù)館為主要景觀的仿明代園林建筑景區(qū)。誰都知道，吳承恩運用神話、鬼怪、幻想的方式寫出了名著《西游記》，塑造了天馬行空的美猴王形象，而我們章氏“猴王世家”演繹取材于《西游記》的猴戲，扮演美猴王已經(jīng)延續(xù)四代，歷經(jīng)百年。淮安市把兩者連在一起，堪稱是富有想象力的杰作。

上世紀80年代，為了演好電視連續(xù)集《西游記》中的孫悟空，我曾去淮安市楚州區(qū)河下古鎮(zhèn)打銅巷拜謁吳承恩故居。

吳承恩故居布局分為四個院落，由門房、客房、軒廳、書齋以及庭院和后花園等組成，輔以抱廊、假山、亭軒、舫橋及竹木花卉，清新秀麗、古色古香，館名由書法藝術(shù)大師舒同題寫。

館內(nèi)陳列的桌、椅、床、柜等明代家具和生活起居用品以及一頂座轎等，多為難得一見的珍貴藏品。這些生活起居用品，生動地再現(xiàn)了吳承恩生前的生活、寫作情景。園內(nèi)陳列的大量吳承恩生平史料，具有很強的歷史性和考古價值。為了把吳承恩的真實形象展示給游客，館內(nèi)通過考古尋覓到的吳承恩頭蓋骨，運用現(xiàn)代科技手段把頭蓋骨的形狀復(fù)原成塑像，復(fù)原的真實度達到90%以上，這在國內(nèi)尚屬首次。館內(nèi)還陳列著一座吳承恩的巨型漢白玉石雕像，高達兩米多，雕工精細，栩栩如生，石雕把漢白玉的白凈透亮和吳承恩的傲然氣概完美地融合在一起，堪稱驚世之作。

到了2004年吳承恩誕辰500周年和農(nóng)歷猴年之際，淮安市楚州區(qū)政府忽發(fā)奇想，突然與我談及擬在吳承恩的故居旁，添建一座猴王世家藝術(shù)館的事。仔細一想，在吳承恩藝術(shù)大師故居旁，再添猴王世家藝術(shù)館倒是件極有意義的事。

我們章氏猴戲家庭四代人演出《西游記》猴戲已經(jīng)100多年，我的父親六齡童是紹劇一代宗師，被譽為“南猴王”，他主演的《孫悟空三打白骨精》蜚聲海內(nèi)外，毛澤東、劉少奇、周恩來、鄧小平以及多位外國領(lǐng)導(dǎo)人，都曾觀看過此劇，并給予了很高評價。毛主席在觀看此劇后還寫下了《七律——和郭沫若同志》的詩篇。該劇在60年代初由上海天馬電影制片廠拍成彩色戲曲影片，發(fā)行72個國家和地區(qū)，并獲第二屆電影“百花獎”中的最佳戲曲片獎。在該劇中我的哥哥小六齡童章金星也扮演了傳令猴的角色，因表演出色，受到周總理接見并拍照留念。

我繼承了章氏猴戲特色藝術(shù)，中央電視臺電視劇制作中心拍攝的由我主演的大型電視連續(xù)劇《西游記》受到千家萬戶的歡迎，成了當代“美猴王”。如今，江蘇省淮安市楚州區(qū)人民政府要將我們祖輩數(shù)代一直飾演“美猴王”詮釋西游文化的藝術(shù)成就展示出來，我覺得有意義，故樂觀其成。

江蘇淮安猴王世家藝術(shù)館占地2789.5平方米，由正廳、門廳、西臺、復(fù)原的同春舞臺和元代道觀遺物“三王石”等幾部分組成，集藝術(shù)、歷史、趣味和娛樂于一體，收藏了我家四代人百年來積存的與西游記文化、猴戲表演藝術(shù)有關(guān)的400多件極其珍貴的藏品，如四代猴王的演出臉譜和使用過的金箍棒，以及從古至今國內(nèi)外各種文字和版本的《西游記》小說和連環(huán)畫等。我們傾盡畢生珍藏，把極富紀念價值的藏品都捐給了展館，其中包括毛主席、董必武、郭沫若等的詩詞手跡和喬石、李鵬、田漢、關(guān)山月、沙孟海、劉海粟、陸儼少、程十發(fā)等題詞以及周總理接見我父親和小六齡童，鄧小平、吳邦國、溫家寶等接見我的照片也捐了出來。館內(nèi)還有由政府出資為我父親塑造的半身銅像，還有一對景德鎮(zhèn)特級瓷器大師贈送的西游記巨型花瓶，館內(nèi)陳列的一個巨型紫砂壺，是由宜興工藝大師精心制作的。

館內(nèi)展出的每一件展品，都記錄了我家祖孫四代的從藝經(jīng)歷，也有許多值得回味的故事。

我與夏衍先生在書房里的那張合影，最讓我難于忘懷。記得當時我去拜訪夏衍先生，他當時已經(jīng)年過八旬，但他非常熱情地接待了我。寒暄之后，夏公很高興地對我說：“我看了試片，我和我們?nèi)胰硕紴榇伺氖纸泻?把《西游記》拍成電視連續(xù)集，把這部古典文學(xué)名著完整地搬上屏幕，是一個很艱巨的任務(wù)；這是我國電視事業(yè)一個良好的開端，在國內(nèi)外影響很大?，F(xiàn)在國外都在搞《西游記》，我們?yōu)槭裁床桓?一定要搞，而且一定要搞好，讓我們古典文化的瑰寶通過當代先進的電子技術(shù)大放光彩?！毕墓脑捵屛掖笫芄奈?，我又問：“您看了試片之后覺得還有哪些不足?”夏公略作思考說：“總的印象是好的，是比較滿意的。提幾點想法供你參考。第一，孫悟空、豬八戒的表演除了真實以外還可以再夸張些，不能太生活化，要加強文化色彩?！段饔斡洝分晕?，神話色彩濃厚是一個主要原因。因此，孫悟空、豬八戒的表演要做到幽默、風(fēng)趣；第二，試片的特技攝影粗糙了點。《西游記》是以神話見長的一部古典小說，拍起來特技鏡頭會很多，因而還可以在這方面多下些功夫。第三，豬八戒的造型應(yīng)該扮得再好些?！睂τ谖业谋硌荩墓笮χf：“你的表演還是有猴氣的，希望你繼承父輩在猴戲表演上的傳統(tǒng)，虛心向各劇種的以演猴戲見長的專家們學(xué)習(xí)，有所發(fā)揮，有所進步，讓廣大觀眾耳目一新?！蔽腋孓o時，夏公親切地把我拉到身邊合了影，爾后走到寫字臺前用顫抖的手寫下贈言：“愿在熒光屏上大顯神通?！?/p>

館內(nèi)還有一張我與老上海風(fēng)華絕代影后胡蝶女士合影的照片。那是1988年我隨團去加拿大溫哥華訪問，很想拜見胡蝶女士。這事說來也巧，也算是猴緣吧，那天我表演完之后，讓禮儀小姐送禮物給臺下的觀眾，當時有一個小金箍棒恰好送到了胡蝶的兒媳陳比莉的手里，她回家之后就將這禮物給了婆婆，因為胡蝶是屬猴的。胡蝶很為高興，并答應(yīng)和我見個面。見面時胡蝶說自己有兩個酒窩，是美人窩；又說我下頜有個槽是美男子的標志，還說她看過我父親演的戲曲電影《孫悟空三打白骨精》。我與胡蝶女士合影之后，還得到了一本胡蝶寫的回憶錄。

Ming Novelist and Modern Monkey Kings

By Six-Year-Old Junior

Wu Cheng'en， a novelist and poet in the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644)， authored a novel named The Journey to the West， a timeless classic in Chinese literature. He was born in Huai'an， Jiangsu Province. Full of fantasies， myths， gods and devils， The Journey to the West depicts the Monkey King as a hero and has made the name a household word in China for centuries. Our Zhang family has been depicting the Monkey King on the opera stage for four generations. We are known as the family of Monkey Kings.

When I made preparations in the 1980s for my role in a television version of The Journey to the West， I tripped to Huai'an to visit the author's former residence.

The restored house is now a museum in the architectural style of the Ming Dynasty. The courtyard is divided into four sections， with an encircling corridor， a garden with rockery， trees and flowers， a pavilion and a bridge. A lot of exhibits and documents are on display to tell the life story of the author. There is a portrait of the author， recreated with today's high technology on the basis of the skull of the author.

2004 was both the 500th anniversary of the author's birthday and the Year of the Monkey according to Chinese tradition. The Huai'an government conceived an idea of setting up a museum of our monkey kings beside the author's museum. I gladly embraced the proposal.

Four generations of our Zhang Family have been acting as the Monkey King on stage for more than 100 years. My father， nicknamed Six-Year-Old， enjoyed a national reputation as the Monkey King in the South. State leaders and many visiting foreign leaders watched his performances. Mao Zedong even wrote a poem after he watched my father acting as the Monkey King. In the early 1960s， he starred in a movie entitled Monkey King's Three Defeats of the White-Bone Demon. The film was distributed to 72 countries and regions all over the world. My brother also appeared in the movie， as a monkey who delivered messages.

The television play of the Journey to the West made by CCTV was a national blockbuster after it was released. I am the new Monkey King. Now the local government wanted to set up a museum to display how the monkey king， first created by Wu Cheng'en， became alive through stage performances by actors from our family over generations.

Now the Monkey King Museum has been set up next door to the author's residence. The museum covers 2，789.5 square meters. In addition to the exhibition halls， there is an opera stage erected in the ancient style. On display in the museum are more than 400 exhibits that our family has collected over 100 years， including different types of facial makeup and the gold-ring sticks used by the monkey kings of the four generations. The museum also features various editions of the novel and picture-story books in various languages. Our family also donated inscriptions by state leaders and prominent artists and photographs. In the museum there is a half-length bronze statue of my father financed by the government， and two huge vases with Journey to the West images， gifts by a porcelain master based in Jingdezhen， Jiangxi Province.

Each exhibit tells a story of our family's performing careers.

The most memorable photo to me is the one taken of me with Mr. Xia Yan (1900-1995) in his study.When I paid the visit to Mr. Xia， the former vice president of China Federation of Literary and Art Circles and president of China Film Artists Association was in his 80s. The master said that he had watched the series before it was officially released and he thought it was a great success. He commented， \"It must have been a very arduous task to recreate the classic into a television masterpiece. The series marks a good beginning for the country's television. The series is popular both at home and abroad. We should use electronic special effects to capture the unique brilliance of our cultural heritage.\" I was greatly encouraged. When asked to make comments on possible improvements， Xia said that the image of the Monkey King should have more artistic exaggeration and the monkey should have a stronger sense of humor and wit. He also said that the special effects could have been better.

Another memorable photograph on display was one taken on my trip to Vancouver in 1988. I was a member of a delegation of artists. I had wanted to pay a visit to Butterfly， a famed movie actress in the pre-Liberation Shanghai. After a performance in Vancouver， we distributed gifts to the audience. Butterfly's daughter-in-law happened to receive a mini-sized gold-ring stick. The gift was later presented to the actress， who was born in the Year of the Monkey. She was very pleased with the gift and agreed to see me. When we met， the actress said she had watched the movie in which my father starred as the monkey king. We posed for a picture and I received a copy of her memoir.

(Translated by David)