Fu Hanzhang

Fu Hanzhang was a Shandong drum-song performer of the Daoguang reign whose dates are unknown. Three accounts compete for the origin of Shandong kuaishu, naming Liu Maoji in the Wanli era, Fu Hanzhang in the Daoguang era and Zhao Dawei in the Xianfeng era; judging by performers' lineages, Fu Hanzhang is the most credible. According to kuaishu performers speaking in 1957, he tightened the rhythm of the erxing measure of Shandong drum-song, dropped its drawn-out endings, beat time with plum-blossom plates or a large bamboo clapper, and set the story of Wu Song to rhymed recitation, first performing it at the Linmen fair in Qufu in 1829. Because it told only of Wu Song, second son of his family, the form was called Wu Laoer; most later performers descend from Fu and his fellow pupil Zhao Zhen.