When you are a wizard, you are excellent.
1 965438+April, 20031day, the ninth issue of Oriental Magazine was published by the Commercial Press, and the words "Examination of Song and Yuan Dramas" suddenly appeared on the cover. Wang Guowei raised his arm, followed by "a million scholars", and the study of traditional Chinese opera finally grew from an unpretentious "path" and "stunt" to a prominent school. Although the study of China's traditional operas is "a late bloomer", the development of traditional operas has a long history, which can be traced back to the pre-Qin or even more primitive society. After work, the ancestors will perform songs and dances that entertain themselves, and then gradually develop into "witches" who provide sacrifices and "excellent" who provide entertainment for the ruling class, and finally develop into today's drama.
Witches in pre-Qin period
When Wang Guowei put forward that China's plays originated from witchcraft, it was only a bold assumption at first, so he said cautiously: "The prosperity of song and dance began with ancient witchcraft?" Then start rational verification. He cited the literature evidence of the prevalence of ancient witchcraft and analyzed the relationship between witchcraft and dance and drama.
Wang Guowei first demonstrated the relationship between witchcraft and dance. He said, "Witches must sing and dance to make things happen." "Shuo Wen Jie Zi":' Hello, Witch. Women can do invisible things. They can dance to God. Just like a person dancing with two sleeves, this is consistent with the workers. "So Shangshu said:' Dancing in the palace and singing in the room is called witchcraft.' ..... is an ancient witch, who takes singing and dancing as her duty and takes pleasure in others. "That is to say, in Wang Guowei's view, the ancient wizard was a man who died of singing and dancing. In fact, the early songs and dances were combined with witchcraft, and later songs and dances were separated from religious ceremonies and assumed the function of entertaining people.
Chen Yinque summed up Wang Guowei's research methods in the preface to Mr. Wang Jing 'an's suicide note. He thought that the examination of Song and Yuan operas was "learning from foreign ideas and inherent materials". Wang Guowei's inference that China's plays originated from witches in the pre-Qin period can be said to have a profound international academic background.
1At the end of the 9th century and the beginning of the 20th century, cultural anthropology was born in Europe and America. The biggest feature of this subject is to use the method of field investigation to conduct field investigation in uncivilized nations or tribes far away from modern civilization, so as to understand the development of human society. After decades of efforts, scholars have achieved fruitful results. Works of different opinions and schools emerge one after another, and everyone has a fairly consistent understanding of the relationship between witchcraft and art, that is, early human art and witchcraft are chaotic. Wang Guowei's research on China's plays is carried out under such an international academic background.
Textual research on traditional Chinese opera in Song and Yuan Dynasties quoted and analyzed the theory of Hanshu Geography;
"History of Han Geography" said: "Chen Taiji is a noble daughter, good at offering sacrifices and using historical books as a witch, so she is a vulgar witch ghost." "Chen Shi" said: "Kan Qi plays drums, and there is no winter and no summer under the autumn, so he treats his heron feathers." He also said,' The East Gate is a symbol of Wan Qiu, the son of Zi Zhong, dancing under the door.' This is the wind, too. "Zheng's" Poetry "also has a cloud. He is an ancient wizard, who takes singing and dancing as his own duty and takes pleasure in others. Businessmen are ghosts, so Yi Yin has a unique ring witchcraft. The Duke of Zhou made a ceremony, arranged a hundred gods, and decided to worship it. Officials have regular duties, rituals, music and festivals, and ancient witches are slightly killed. However, the rest of the habits still exist: Fang wants to drive away the epidemic, and everything is one thing in wax. Therefore, Zigong cares about wax, saying that if people in a country are crazy, Confucius will tell them to be open but not relaxed, and civil and military can't. It is not an exaggeration for later generations to regard the Eight Waxes as the drama ceremony of three generations (Dongpo Zhi Lin).
The dancing women in this article are witches who entertain the gods by dancing. These witches either waved flags made of heron feathers in their hands or inserted heron feathers on the ground as decorations. It can be seen that songs and dances originated from witchcraft, and ancient drama songs and dances all originated from witchcraft.
From Witch to Excellent
The above-mentioned "Eight Waxes for Three Generations of Drama Rites" comes from Su Shi's Dongpo Linzhi: "Eight Waxes for Three Generations of Drama Rites converge at the end of the year. This favor is inevitable, because it is accompanied by courtesy and righteousness, and it is not just a drama. Sacrifice must have a corpse, and drink without a corpse. It is also true that there is wine to drink in the first death and wine to drink in the release. Today, wax figures are called "sacrifices" and covered with corpses. Whose body should the cat or tiger belong to? Who should the deer and the woman be? Who doesn't advocate Excellence! Ge took a hazel stick to mourn the past; Huang Guan straw hat, with respect for wild clothes, is also a gameplay. "
According to the Book of Rites, every December, the Emperor of Zhou held a wax festival, and the priests not only wore hazel sticks, but also straw hats. According to Su Shi, this is "the way of drama". Not only that, the "Big Roche", who is in charge of birds and animals for the Emperor of Heaven, also invited the "deer girl" and treated them as guests. Su Shi speculated that since "there must be a corpse in the sacrifice" and cats, tigers, deer and women are all animals or people, who will be the "corpse" in the sacrifice? Must be advocating Excellence. The original meaning of the corpse is display, and here is the person who plays the role of the deceased during the sacrifice. In bronze inscriptions, the word "corpse" is like a kneeling person. Because it looked like a lying corpse, it was later used as a corpse. Later, with the gradual disappearance of the body sacrifice system, the original meaning of the body was forgotten. It is remarkable that Su Shi can recognize the relationship between drama and sacrifice and put forward the concepts of "drama ceremony" and "drama way", but it is inaccurate for Su Shi to infer that the person who plays the body of a cat and tiger is "advocating Excellence". According to Wang Guowei's inference, the "corpse" is actually a witch. "Although the rise of witches was in the emperor's world, it was far behind."
So, how is drama performance separated from religious activities? Western scholars take ancient Greece as an example. Because of the appearance of the audience, most people became bystanders, and only a few people performed, so the sacrifice evolved into a play. The textual research on the Song and Yuan operas points out that witches play the role of corpses in sacrificial ceremonies, but not all of them are professional witches.
According to He Xiu's note in "Three Years of Ram Biography Gong Xuan": If God is the son of heaven, Qing is the corpse; God is a vassal, and doctors are corpses; Dr. Qing regarded Sun as the body below. From this perspective, the vast majority of people who play with corpses should be "grandchildren", that is, boys. "Zhou Li Chun Guan's Notes" said: "If you sacrifice, everyone will get a corpse and his services." Zheng Xuan's note: "A corpse should serve a pawn and be like a life." It means that the actor of the corpse should wear the clothes of the deceased to accept the sacrifice on behalf of the gods of the deceased. However, after walking down the altar, the corpse-changing actors changed into ordinary clothes and lost the sacredness of sacrifice. It can be seen that the role of the corpse driver is temporary, hypothetical, performative and convertible, which is very similar to the role-playing in drama.
From witchcraft to drama, there seems to be only a small difference, but the process is very long. Some people say, "We can't imagine that an elegant and dignified Mei Lanfang can be produced from the crazy dance of the wizard and god", but this theory of drama origin is indeed the most convincing and has the longest vitality.