The origin of China opera is very early, and it has sprouted in the song and dance of ancient primitive society. However, the process of its development and growth is very long. After the Han and Tang Dynasties, it was not until the Song and Jin Dynasties that a relatively complete art form of traditional Chinese opera was formed. Traditional operas in China are mainly composed of three different artistic forms: folk songs and dances, rap and burlesque. Temple Fair and Washe Goulan promoted the formation of traditional operas in China. ?

In primitive society, when people celebrate festivals, they often worship the gods with songs and dances, and at the same time entertain themselves. At that time, there were festivals to commemorate the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, celebrate the harvest, drive away ghosts and diseases, worship ancestors, and courtship between men and women. ?

From primitive society to the Northern Song Dynasty12nd century, rural song and dance has made great progress in art, but it has never formed a more complete drama form.

The Song Dynasty moved south, the commodity economy in the south developed rapidly, commercial cities and ports appeared in the southeast coastal areas, and the life in the nearby countryside changed greatly, and professional art groups appeared. As a result, the early form of China traditional opera-Southern Opera came into being.

Second, the development history

In primitive society, primitive songs and dances were produced in villages where clans lived together. With the gradual growth of clans, songs and dances also gradually developed and improved. For example, in many ancient rural areas, there is still a long tradition of singing and dancing, such as "Nuo Opera"; At the same time, some new songs and dances, such as "Shehuo" and "Yangko", came into being to meet people's spiritual needs.

In the Tang Dynasty, there appeared a "joining the army drama" characterized by funny performances, which developed from the actors' performances in the pre-Qin period. Folk song and dance dramas entered the court and got greater development; Popular rap forms such as "rude words" and "variant characters" have appeared among the people.

Joining the army is an ancient drama form in China. Evolved from an actor. During the period of Wu Hu and Sixteen Kingdoms, an official who joined the army was corrupt and made the hero put on official clothes and pretend to join the army, so that other actresses could tease him, hence the name.

The content is mainly funny and ridiculous. Generally speaking, it has two functions. The name of the joker joined the army, and the name of the joker was the stork (hú). In the late Tang dynasty, the drama of joining the army developed into a multi-person performance, and the plot of the drama was more complicated. In addition to male roles, there are also female roles. The drama of joining the army has a direct influence on the formation of Song and Jin zaju.

Popular speaking is a popular singing method in ancient temple lectures, which was popular in Tang Dynasty. Most of the perfunctory words such as Buddhist stories are popular and simple variants, and the general classics are promoted by rap. Its speaker is called a "vulgar monk".

This popular saying originated from the traditional singing director of the temple, and the monk was regarded as a mage. In the Tang Dynasty, with the support of the emperor, folk discourse reached its peak. Popular speaking skills changed from monasteries to folk, became folk, and finally entered the court, and the audience spread all over the middle-earth society in the Tang and Five Dynasties.

Bianwen is a kind of rap literature rising in Tang Dynasty, which consists of verse and prose. The content was originally Buddhist stories, and later expanded to historical stories and folklore.

For example, Wu Zixu Bianwen and Damu Ganlian found in Dunhuang Mogao Grottoes. From the seventh year (748) to the eighth year of Tianbao in Xuanzong of Tang Dynasty, it was the earliest exact age of Bianwen.

There were horse riding, Jiugong, Baojijing, Fahua and Maitreya in the Six Dynasties. In the early Tang Dynasty, Zhang Hour's "Hell Change" and "Demon Change" were all pictures.

In the late Tang dynasty, there was a poem by Ji's old man, "Seeing Shu women turn to Zhao Jun", and there was a saying, "When the picture opens, the clouds are beyond the Great Wall." It can be seen that changing words and camouflage pictures go hand in hand and can be called change for short. Bianwen can not only tell Buddhist stories, but also sing historical stories and tell contemporary current events.

In the Song Dynasty, the urban commodity economy advanced by leaps and bounds, and many public entertainment places appeared-"Washe" and "Goulan"; Folk songs and dances, rap and burlesque have a comprehensive trend, and "Song Zaju" has appeared.

Goulan Washe is a popular folk art performance place in China in Song and Yuan Dynasties, and it is an important cultural phenomenon in the history of China drama, with a unique position. It is not only related to China's truly complete dramas-Zaju and Nanxi, but also the main venue for national cultural activities in that year.

In some big cities in the Song Dynasty, there were fixed places of entertainment, called washe, also called Wazi and Washi. The performance venue set up in Wache is called Goulan, also called Goulan, Goulan Goulan, which means winding railing. In the Song and Yuan Dynasties, it became a popular custom to build a performance shed in a market like Vacherie.

Zaju in Song Dynasty is a comprehensive opera composed of funny performances, songs and dances and zaju. Popular in Tokyo in the Northern Song Dynasty and Lin 'an in the Southern Song Dynasty. Generally speaking, a performance consists of four roles, some of which are added by one person.

Zaju in the Northern Song Dynasty is divided into two parts: "Yan Duan" and "Zheng Zaju". "Yan Duan" is a familiar thing in daily life, which was performed before the drama performance.

"Zheng Zaju" is divided into two sections and performs a complete story, which is the main body of Zaju. In the Southern Song Dynasty, the zaju became three, namely "the end of the performance", "the orthodox zaju" and "the zaju".

"Miscellaneous costume" evolved from folk burlesque, and as an interlude after zaju, it is also called "miscellaneous class" or "zipper". Later, the northern zaju gradually developed into Yuan zaju, and the southern zaju gradually developed into Song and Yuan zaju.

In Jin Dynasty, on the basis of Song Zaju, "Jin Benyuan" appeared in the north and "Southern Opera" appeared in the south.

South Opera appeared on the basis of highly mature narrative rap literature after the complete foot color system of Song Zaju. As far as the form is concerned, it combines many techniques of Ci-writing in Song Dynasty, such as Zaju, Shadow Play, Puppet Show, Song and Dance Daqu, and the advantages of singing, earning and tangling, which is more closely related to Zhu Gong tune.

Folk geisha in Song Dynasty were all absorbed by Southern Opera, and rap literature was the main source of their narrative style. Because it appeared on the basis of the mature development of other geisha, and it can learn from others, it can come from behind.

In addition, because other geisha can communicate with Southern Opera in many places, geisha actors can also master the emerging Southern Opera skillfully. When the Southern Opera was welcomed by the audience, they changed their ways and became Southern Opera actors.

The rapid expansion of the performance team has also promoted the proliferation of Southern Opera in the southeast. South Opera not only uses South Opera, but also absorbs the qupai of North Opera, creating the form of "North-South Combination". The combination of North and South enriches the music of Southern Opera and has a great influence on its confluence.

In the Yuan Dynasty, "Northern Zaju" was formed in the north, and the southern opera was further developed and matured, forming a traditional opera.

The formation of Yuan Zaju is the result of the development of various performing arts in the history of China, and it is also the product of the times. Yuan Zaju is also called North Zaju, North Qu and Yuan Qu. Under the direct influence of Jin Heqiang, Yuan Zaju is a complete drama form which combines various performing arts forms.

He also created mature literary scripts on the basis of scripts, lyrics and aria literature since the Tang and Song Dynasties. This can be said to be a qualitative change compared with the drama of joining the army or the drama of the Song Dynasty, which is mainly funny and ridiculous.

As a mature drama, Yuan Zaju not only enriched the stories that have been sung in traditional folk songs for a long time, but also widely reflected the social reality at that time, and became one of the popular literary forms.

Extended data

Characteristics of China's Ancient Opera

1, starting from the leaver and ending with

China opera is a comprehensive stage art form. Its characteristic is that many art forms are gathered together by a standard, and their respective personalities are reflected in the same nature.

These forms mainly include: poetry, music and dance. Poetry refers to its literature, music refers to its music accompaniment and dance refers to its performance. In addition, it also includes stage art, clothing, makeup and so on. And these artistic factors are all for one purpose in Chinese drama, that is, to play the old; Everyone follows a principle, which is beauty.

2, opera, that is, singing and dancing to play the story.

Traditional Chinese opera and drama in China belong to drama, and they all play characters through actors, and express stories of a certain length through dialogues and actions.

The difference is that traditional Chinese opera is a means to express real life by musical dialogue and dance movements, that is, singing and dancing. Also known as "singing, reading, doing and playing".

3. Get out of the form and take its meaning, get carried away.

China's traditional operas show life in a way of "taking its meaning and abandoning its shape", such as freehand brushwork in Chinese painting, and show all the beautiful things in life with vertical and horizontal strokes.

Therefore, there are red-faced Guan Yu and white-faced Cao Cao on the opera stage; When you were in Long song, you cried and danced with long sleeves; With the spring scenery without flowers and trees, there is no river without waves.

4. Small stage, big stage of heaven and earth

As a dance art, China opera needs to face the contradiction between the narrowness of the stage and the vastness of life. It is to use virtual means to create flexible time and space, and to complete the description of the world in Liao and Zhou Dynasties with the help of the vivid performances of actors and the imagination and understanding of the audience. Therefore, opera can create the illusion of night under bright lights, and it can ride horses and sail on an empty stage.

Baidu Encyclopedia-China Opera