First, the emergence and development of China's opera.

China traditional opera originated from Xuanhe (1111125) in the Northern Song Dynasty to Shaoxing (115/kloc-) in the Southern Song Dynasty. A few decades ago, there was a misunderstanding that Beiqu was earlier than Nanqu. Personally, I think Nanqu is actually earlier than Beiqu. This refers to the original official opera-Nanxi, which originated in Wenzhou, Zhejiang. Let's talk about the situation before the emergence of formal opera.

When our nation was still in a slave society (Yin Dynasty), songs and dances were already quite rich, which were roughly divided into two categories. One is to imitate life. Like hunting, imitate what you hit. The second is to imitate war. A bronze mask with feathers and animal tails. Later, due to the development of society, it was more prosperous in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, and it was still dominated by songs and dances, music, sports (horns) and antics, which were called acrobatics or acrobatics. In the Han, Wei and Six Dynasties, this was still the case. If rap, doing, reading and playing together are called plays, they are only some incomplete plays. Zhang Heng of the Western Han Dynasty wrote "Ode to Xijing", which said many things, such as "there will always be immortals to preach", playing Nu Wa and singing with actors who play all kinds of immortals; For example, "Wu Huo lifts the tripod", Wu Huo is an ancient Hercules; "Dulu looking for a collision", playing Dulu climbing pole; "Chong Narrow" is about putting a knife in a jar and people running in and out of the jar; "Zhuo Yan" jumps back above a basin of water like a swallow; "Stab in the chest" means that a person stabs himself with the tip of a sword and can't die. Actually, this is a trick. "the luxury of jumping pills and swords" means playing with three projectiles or three swords like modern people and throwing them in the air in a circular way; "Meet on a tightrope", just like walking on a tightrope now. These acrobatics are similar to modern acrobatics. Although it is unique to China, it is not a play.

Qin Ershi is mentioned in Historical Records and Warring States Policy. He is good at irony, and he dares to say what others dare not say. If Qin Ershi wanted to raise deer, the ministers opposed it, but Qin Ershi wouldn't listen. Youyou said, "Good! Well, if the enemy attacks, let the deer raised in the imperial garden go out, and their horns can resist the enemy. " For another example, Qin Ershi wanted to draw a city wall and said leisurely, "Good! All right! The city is beautifully painted, and the enemy is too scared to come when he sees it. " Later, this art of speaking gradually developed into modern cross talk. This is not a formal opera, it can only be regarded as the bud of opera.

After the Northern and Southern Dynasties, there are three things worthy of attention, namely "bedding face", "pottou" and "stepping on a ballad mother".

"Da mian" is also called "Dai mian", but now people in Hunan still pronounce "Da" as "Dai". "bedding face" began in the northern qi dynasty. Lan Ling, a soldier in the Northern Qi Dynasty, was beautiful. He was afraid that he could not shake the enemy during the war, so he put on a ferocious hood or mask to make himself look terrible. In modern Beijing Opera, the jumping official should wear a white mask, while in the Kunqu Opera The Horse Dealer, the owl should wear a hideous hood, like a haunted Lama (but in Beijing Opera, it is dressed with a white beard), which is closer to the "big face". By extension, the facial makeup of Peking Opera can be said to come from "bedding face" without a hood.

"Potou" is called "pulling beans", which is a national name of the Northern Wei Dynasty. The play is about a dutiful son. The father was eaten by a tiger, and the son went up the mountain to find his father's body, crying and singing all the way. There are eight bays in the mountains and eight stacks in the song.

The "stepping mother" came from the Northern Zhou Dynasty. There is a kind of miscellaneous corps commander, and the so-called corps commander is his own official to show his honor. He likes drinking, and has a distiller's grains nose, but he often has no money. Beat your wife if you have no money to drink. My wife danced and shook her body, crying to the neighborhood, as if the popular song said, "My life is so bitter that I can't marry a good husband all my life." When the neighbors heard her crying, they all sympathized with her and said, "Come on, come on, come on!" "

These forms of song and dance performances provide the prototype of China traditional opera.

Formal opera was produced in the Song Dynasty, but the prerequisite of opera existed in the Tang Dynasty.

(1) In the Tang Dynasty (7th-9th century), two people sang military dramas, which were funny or ironic, similar to the cross talk in ancient costume in the north. This kind of drama often has two roles, one is the sub-network and the other is the sub-tail, which is equivalent to getting started and starting.

(2) all kinds of kabuki (such as stepping on a rumor mother, big face). All stories, but not enough.

(3) Daqu Dance-a large musical tune, and drums can be heard from a distance. It is similar to the songs and dances of Uighurs now.

These are not official operas either. Why do you say that? Because a formal opera needs three conditions:

(1) Be sure to sing in disguise.

(2) Be sure to sing in the tone of the live characters, that is, sing in the first person, not in the tone of the storyteller.

(3) Must have a high degree of story (this condition is the most important).

But the song and dance mentioned above are sometimes confused with traditional Chinese opera. Why? The reason is that "joining the army drama" is also called "drama" and "Daqu" is also called "Qu". Although the performances in the pear garden in the Tang Dynasty developed in music, singing and dancing, they did not meet the above three conditions. However, these songs and dances had a great influence on the formation of China traditional operas, although these influences were indirect.

It was the Song Dynasty that had a direct influence on the formation of China traditional opera. In the Song Dynasty, due to the development of urban handicrafts and commerce, people needed culture and entertainment, and all kinds of acrobatics were more developed. For example, there were twenty-two shopping malls in Hangzhou in the Southern Song Dynasty, and each mall had a hook (juggling field). There were many acrobatics in the Song Dynasty, which were related to later operas. The following are the prerequisites for a formal opera:

(1) performance. There are two kinds:

(1) Live-action performance, called "Zaju", has five colors (Mud powder, lead drama, sub-net, sub-end, acting alone). It's short. All it takes is a glass of wine to end the show. Songs will also be sung during the performance, and some of them have storylines. Actors come from the bottom of society and dare to satirize feudal rulers in person. For example, once Qin Gui convened a zaju troupe, and the vice president put the award-winning ring on two headdresses behind his head. The vice president asked, "Why isn't the award-winning ring on his head?" The lieutenant replied, "I only know how to ask for silver silk cloth." As for the second victory ring (the homonym of "the return of double saints", which refers to the second emperor captured by the Jin people), I have long forgotten it! " When Qin Gui heard this, he was very angry and imprisoned two actors, one of whom died in prison. For another example, Song Taizu Zongshen cast a lot of money with one for ten, and ministers were afraid of affecting prices, but the emperor refused to listen. Later, the emperor wanted to see a play. One person plays the role of a tofu brain seller, and the other plays the role of a buyer. He ate a bowl of tofu brain to cope with a penny, but he only had a dime, so he asked the seller to change nine pence. The pulp seller said, "sir, I just picked it out for sale." You are the first customer and have no money to exchange. I'll treat you to nine more bowls! " "Buyers are reluctant to give money away, so they have to let go of their bellies and drink again. He drank the fifth bowl in a row, and he was so paunchy that he couldn't eat any more. He had to admit that he was unlucky and gave five pence to the pulp seller for nothing. He sighed and said, "It's a good thing that the emperor Lao Zi only earns ten dollars. If he earns one hundred dollars, even my stomach will burst.". "These plays have a great influence on later clown plays, which can be said to be the first sound of clown plays.

(2) Puppet performances, including puppet shows and shadow plays. There are many kinds, such as holding hands and lifting wires; They all have a high level of storytelling, and they can play the plot of war, such as the story of the Three Kingdoms, which has a great influence on the later drama. Now its terms are still circulating in the opera team, such as "hanging", because in the past, puppet shows had limited manpower, and some people (referring to puppets) hung beside them.

(2) singing. There are "Daqu" tunes, lyrics tunes, popular tunes and tunes created by folk artists in the Tang Dynasty.

(3) the story. Mainly telling stories and singing stories. At that time, storytelling was very popular, and rap alternated with each other, each with its own emphasis. Among them, singing was the main form, which developed into later operas.

There were many songs sung at that time. Daqu is sung repeatedly with a tune. Zhugongdiao (such as Dong Xixiang) is sung with many gongdiao changing together. There are only three kinds of Zhugongdiao: there are two kinds in Jin Dynasty, namely Zhugongdiao in the West Chamber and Zhugongdiao in Liu Zhiyuan; There is a song in the Yuan Dynasty, which is the tune of Tianbao Legacy Palace.

Other tunes include Entanglement (also known as Zhuan Tread or Zhuan Zhuan) and drum words (such as the story of A Rider's Zhuan sung with more than a dozen songs).

China traditional opera is a comprehensive art, and there are many clues about its origin. It is mainly a combination of performance, singing and stories, the greatest contribution of ancient artists and the crystallization of their wisdom.

Second, China's two major systems of ancient opera

After the appearance of China opera, two systems were formed in the Yuan Dynasty in the13rd century. A kind of Song Dynasty that existed a long time ago, originated in the south and sang Nanqu (also known as Nanxi Opera). The other was later produced in the north. Sing the Northern Song Dynasty (also known as Northern Zaju). These two kinds of music are combined into a big system, which is called the North-South Music System.

The dramas of the northern and southern music departments are all "couplets", and the number of words in the singing sentences is uneven and the same words are similar. Later, the "banqiang" was different. The banqiang was basically a seven-character singing or a cross singing.

There are two main musical differences between Nanqu and Beiqu: one is the difference of scales. Nanqu has only five notes. That is 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, without four or seven semitones. Beiqu has seven tones: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7. (2) Different tone. The southern music is soft and the northern music is magnificent. The charm and style of Nanqu are different from that of Beiqu.

The "Southern Opera" of Nanqu system originated in Wenzhou. From12nd century to19th century, * * * has been circulating for about 700 years. Wenzhou was one of the eight important trading ports at the beginning of 12 century. At that time, the business was quite developed, and it was in this commercial city that Nanxi emerged and developed. It originated from folk songs, inherited all kinds of acrobatics in the Song Dynasty and carried out reforms. Its situation in Wenzhou is not very clear.

At that time, there were four conditions for the emergence of southern opera: the development of urban industrial and commercial economy; (2) The political and geographical environment, with Lin 'an (Hangzhou) as the center and close to Wenzhou in the Southern Song Dynasty; (3) the need of art appreciation; (4) The artist's continuous efforts. This promoted the development of Southern Opera.

Soon, the Southern Opera spread to Hangzhou, the capital of the Southern Song Dynasty, where handicrafts and commerce were well developed. Both citizens and urban working people need entertainment, which promotes the maturity of southern opera. In the Yuan Dynasty, due to the prosperity of northern zaju, although Nanqu once declined, it quickly revived.

Every drama in Nan Opera has its own length, ranging from about ten to thirty or forty. Every play is played in a different tune. The tune has a palace tune. When singing, the backstage should help (the jargon is "chorus"). At that time, the audience under the stage can also "harmony" (chorus) and integrate with the stage. It can be seen that South Opera does have a broad mass base. The musical instruments of Nanxi Opera are very simple, mainly drums and flutes, with low tones.

Twelve scripts of Southern Opera written by people in the Yuan Dynasty are still preserved today, leaving only some fragmentary lyrics (see Qian Nanyang's Song and Yuan Opera Collection for details). The four most famous ones are: the story of Chai Jing, the story of Liu Zhiyuan White Rabbit, the Moon Pavilion, and the story of Cai Bo's Pipa. These twelve books have good aspects, but they also have dross. For example, the story of Yue Fei breaking the tiger's window should not be affirmed that Yue Fei suppressed the peasant uprising led by Yang Yao. However, this drama also exposes Qin Gui's murder of Yue Fei, betraying the country for glory, and the sin that the rulers of Song Dynasty made peace with the enemy and betrayed the interests of the country, praising Yue Fei's resistance to foreign aggression, which is worthy of recognition. Another example is Pipa Story, which exposes the luxurious life of Niu Taishi's family and writes the poor life of Cai's family. This is a clear contrast between the two lives, but it is not advisable to try to excuse Cai Bo for his true treachery.

Southern Opera was more developed in Jiajing period of Ming Dynasty, but its name was also renamed Legend. Legend is basically the same as southern opera. Its change lies in singing. There are many kinds of vocals in the Ming Dynasty, mainly two kinds:

(1) Geyang cavity: It originated in Jiangxi. The accent is high, and soon, there will be singers. Because there are only percussion instruments and no orchestral music, it looks monotonous, but the lyrics are popular and articulate, with special emphasis on martial arts, which is deeply loved by the public. In the Qing dynasty, there were various changes, so that they no longer existed independently, but remained in local operas. Up to now, there are still high-pitched tunes in Sichuan Opera, xiang opera and other operas.

(2) Kunqu Opera: produced in Kunshan, Jiangsu. The melody is slow, delicate and melodious. It is accompanied by orchestral music, accompanied by many ancient dances, singing and dancing, which is very beautiful. Because singing is slow, a word is divided into several syllables, and the sentence is profound, which is not easy for ordinary people to understand. This was a shortcoming, so it also declined in the Qing Dynasty. But it has a great influence on Pi Chun Opera.

The system of Beiqu Opera is called Zaju, also called Yuan Zaju. It came into being in the Yuan Dynasty in the middle of13rd century, about 130 years later than the Southern Opera. It was produced in the metropolis of the Yuan Dynasty (now Beijing), and most of it was the commercial and handicraft center at that time. The appearance of zaju adapts to the needs of urbanites. At that time, many folk professional literati wrote many excellent works, which further promoted the development of zaju.

The laws of Yuan Zaju are very strict. One is a 60% discount on a book, which is roughly equivalent to four acts of modern drama. Secondly, each play has only one foot color to sing, and it is sung by one person, Mei Zheng or Zheng Dan, and each song is a set. All the songs are northern songs, with fast and clear rhythm, accompanied by pipa, Zheng and so on. Due to the rigid form, this kind of zaju with strict rules was eliminated by the stage after the prosperity of Nanqu in Ming Dynasty.

We can see the history of China's drama development in detail from Wang Guowei's Drama History of Song and Yuan Dynasties (textual research on Song and Yuan Dynasties, included in Wang Guowei's Drama Collection), Japanese Aoki Changzi's Modern Drama History of China and Zhou's Long History of China's Drama.

There are many masterpieces handed down from ancient times in Southern Opera, Northern Zaju and Ming and Qing Legends. Southern operas, such as Pipa. Wang Shifu's The West Chamber, Guan Hanqing's Opera Collection (of which Yuan is the most famous) and Yuan Zaju Selection are northern zaju. Legends in the Ming and Qing Dynasties include Tang Xianzu's Collection (including Peony Pavilion, Purple Hairpin, Handan and Conan), Li Yu's A pinch of snow, Biography of Man and Animals, Forever Reunion and Zhan Huakui (including Feng Menglong's The Legend of Mo Han Zhai Ding Ben).

Third, how did China's traditional opera develop into its present form?

Most of the local operas in Qing dynasty were "banqiang", and the most important one was Pihuang opera. Because Pihuang Opera originally developed from local operas, now local operas and Pihuang Opera are related by blood and are brothers, and they are integrated with each other. The accents of local operas in Qing Dynasty are complicated and can be roughly divided into two categories.

(1) Southern Opera-including Yiyang Opera (popular in the early Qing Dynasty), Chui Opera (probably the predecessor of Chun Er), Siping Opera and Chun Er Opera.

(2) Beibangzi (also known as "random opera", popular in Shaanxi, Shanxi and Hebei) and Xipi (Xiangyang dialect). There are also Liu Zi operas, including Spring on the Beach and Flower Drum Opera. Fujian and Guangzhou also have ancient operas.

Peking Opera evolved from two kinds of tunes, namely, Huang Er in the south and Xipi in the north.

There are three theories about the origin of Huang Er: First, it originated in Anhui, and the fine tune was accompanied by a double flute, which was called Huang Er because it had two springs; On the other hand, the Yihuang tune originated in Jiangxi; Re-discussion on Huanggang and Huangpi Counties originated in Hubei, so they are not called Huang Er, but Huang Er.

Xipi originated from Gansu cavity and Xiangyang cavity.

The formation of Pihuang Opera (that is, Peking Opera) has gone through three stages:

(1) In the early 120 years of Qing Dynasty (1644- 1766), Yiyang and Kunqu Opera coexisted. Kunqu opera declined because it was difficult to understand.

(2) Bangzi Opera and Huanger Opera competed for hegemony, resulting in a mixed and dominant position, gradually replacing Kunqu Opera and Yiyang Opera. There are two key changes: one is represented by Wei Changsheng, a famous Shaanxi opera actor. At that time, Qin opera was all the rage, which reduced the color of Yiyang opera in Beijing opera. The big change is the second time. After Gao Langting, a famous Hui opera actor, went to Beijing, he promoted the integration of Bangzi and Peking Opera (Yiyang dialect is called Peking Opera after combining Beijing pronunciation and local opera tone).

(3) 1824, the Han tunes of Huanger Opera, Hubei Bangzi and Xipi (possibly with other components) were mixed with other Beijing dialects (that is, Xipi and Chun Er were mixed), and other Qin dialects were absorbed, forming the early Pihuang Opera. Because it absorbed some Kunqu Opera, there are still some Kunqu Opera and Kunqu Opera in Beijing. The whole history of the formation of Peking Opera is only 150 years now.

Summarizing the 900-year history of the development of China traditional opera, although there are different ideas, the context is still clear. From the North-South Opera System to the Local Opera System. All this was created by the people (including ancient actors). Features of Cantonese Opera can be found here: Cantonese Opera/View/View/16733.htm.

Chaozhou opera/view/21111.htm

Tea-picking opera /view/2463 1.htm

Guangdong hanju /view/95934.htm

Lei Ju/view/1097126.htm

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