In the12nd century and13rd century, South Opera and Northern Zaju appeared in the north and south of China respectively. No matter their ideological content or artistic expression form, they are divorced from the immature traces of China's early dramas and tend to be highly mature. Generally speaking, they are the earliest mature forms of China opera.
Southern Opera, which originated in southern China, is also called "Wenzhou Zaju" or "Yongjia Zaju". Its specific time was first proposed by Zhu Yunming and Xu Wei in Ming Dynasty. Zhu Yunming said in "Talking about Accusations": "After the announcement of peace, the Southern Opera was crossing the South." At that time, he had seen Zhao Hong's "Husband List" banned, "quite famous", as well as "Zhao Zhen's Daughter Cai Erlang" and other southern operas. Wei Xu's view is slightly different from Zhu Yunming's. His Narration of Nanci is an important monograph on the study of China's ancient opera Nanxi. He proposed: "Southern Opera began in Song Guangzong, and Yongjia people were Zhao Zhennv and Wang Kui, which were the first of the two." This is about 80 years later than what Zhu said, "Southern Opera is after Xuanhe". So, who is right and wrong between Zhu and Xu?
At present, it is generally said that southern operas are mostly on the occasion of crossing the south. Zhou listed the above two viewpoints in the Outline of the Development History of China Opera, but judging from his first affirmation that "Wenzhou Zaju originated in the period", he preferred Xu's viewpoint. The General History of China Opera edited by Zhang Geng and Zhu He unified his views and formed a compromise view, that is, when the Southern Opera crossed the border after the announcement of peace, the predecessor of the Southern Opera appeared and the Dynasty made the Southern Opera mature. The reason is that, although the wish may not be unfounded, the house banned from the list with my own eyes is actually a person of the times according to research, so the name of the house banned from the list may belong to the dynasty. From this point of view, the so-called southern opera is somewhat unreliable when it is crossing the south. What Xu Wei said "It started in Song Guangzong" obviously has some truth. However, judging from the prevalence of folk arts such as "song and dance", "ghost worship temple", social fire and storytelling in Wenzhou, it is also possible for the southern opera to go to the south. Xu Wei, a native of Jiajing in Ming Dynasty, was born after Zhu Yunming. His views are somewhat vague. After he put forward that "Southern Opera originated in Song Guangzong Dynasty", he added another statement in the same book: "Maybe there is harmony between clouds, but its popularity crossed from the south." It can be seen that he does not deny that the southern opera may cross the south.
At the same time, Qian Nanyang put forward another viewpoint in his book An Introduction to Traditional Chinese Opera. In his view, Southern Opera, as a mature drama, appeared in the dynasty, and it has entered the city from village opera and spread to Hangzhou. At that time, the government may have banned it from being an official, so the real appearance of Southern Opera was before Xuanhe.
There are few historical records about the early Southern Opera. At present, we can only infer the approximate age of Southern Opera according to Zhu Shuo and Xu Shuo. After all, Zhu Yunming and Xu Wei were both from the middle of the Ming Dynasty. They concluded that hundreds of years had passed since the birth of Nanxi Opera. Their comments on the birth time of Nanxi Opera are so brief and vague that people have all kinds of doubts about their statements. Therefore, according to the fact that there was no relevant record of Southern Opera in the early years of the Southern Song Dynasty and the prevalence of Song Zaju in the southern region at that time, it was suggested that the time of Southern Opera might be in the late years of the Southern Song Dynasty.
In addition, the famous Japanese dramatist Masako Aoki also put forward a completely different view on the concept of South Opera. In his book History of Modern Opera in China, he pointed out that the Southern Song Dynasty Zaju was renamed as Nanxi because it wanted to be different from the northern Zaju, not just Wenzhou Opera in a narrow sense, but Nanxi after Yuan Zaju was the real Nanxi. This confused the Southern Opera with the Southern Song Dynasty Zaju, thus delaying the emergence of the Southern Opera to the Yuan Dynasty.
The question about the formation age of Southern Opera is quite complicated, and it is difficult to unify the opinions of various schools. There are also different views on the age of northern zaju. Generally speaking, there are two types:
Some people think that the northern zaju was formed in the late Jin Dynasty and early Yuan Dynasty. In other words, the Jin Dynasty was the gestation and evolution period of northern zaju. However, at the latest in the late Jin Dynasty, the form of zaju appeared, but it was not independent in the academies of Jin Dynasty at that time, and stood out in the Yuan Dynasty, forming a mature and complete drama style. Therefore, they disagreed with Amin Zhu Quan's statement that Guan Hanqing was listed as "the beginning of zaju" in Taihe Yin Zhengpu. Because Guan Hanqing's plays were quite mature in the early Yuan Dynasty and Yuan Zaju was also very prosperous, there should be a period of development and growth. However, there is still a lack of strong argument about how the Jin and Yuan Dynasties' Northern Zaju evolved.
Some people think that the northern zaju should be produced in the early Yuan Dynasty. Gu Zhaocang pointed out in his book Yuan Zaju that although there were Zaju in the Song and Jin Dynasties, its contents were not pure drama. At the beginning of the Yuan Dynasty, all kinds of conditions were available and mature, and the northern zaju was formally formed.
Many scholars have expressed various opinions on the origin and formation of China's plays. Among them, Ren Erbei put forward the view that "China's drama began in the Spring and Autumn Period and was formed in the Tang Dynasty" in his monograph "Tang Dou"; Xu Dishan put forward the viewpoint that "China Opera is influenced by Indian Brahma Opera" in the article "The Style of Brahma Opera and Its Bits and Bits in Han Opera". Wang Guowei put forward the view that "China opera originated from ancient witches and formed a real drama in Song and Yuan Dynasties" in Song and Yuan Dynasties.
When did China Opera come into being? It should be said that it is still a mystery.