Of course, more than 2000 years ago, there were many drama activities in our Indian subcontinent, and today, ancient Indian drama also left a lot of literature. However, it should be said that both ancient Greek drama and early Indian drama were lost a long time ago, that is to say, their drama documents and scripts have been passed down to this day, but their drama performances have not continued to this day. However, China's plays have continued from the birth of the Song and Yuan Dynasties more than 1000 years ago to the present. From the Song and Yuan Dynasties to the present drama, we can see a very clear vein. It's not that we can still act like the Song and Yuan Dynasties, but the performance style and content from the Song and Yuan Dynasties have been passed down to today, and our present play is a very natural one. However, we can't see similar phenomena in other nationalities in the world. For example, the drama style that was born more than 1000 years ago still exists and is still circulating.
Then we will mention the Southern Opera and Zaju in the Song and Yuan Dynasties, that is, during the Song and Yuan Dynasties, at the turn of the Song-Northern Song Dynasty and the Southern Song Dynasty, there have been a lot of drama activities, which can be seen in these documents. It has been recorded in many documents, and many plays performed at that time are also what we can see today, such as the play Zhang Xie's Champion, which was recently performed in Kunqu Opera. Zhang Xie's No.1 Scholar is a play performed in the Song Dynasty. The earliest script we can find now, the earliest literary script, is Zhang Xie's No.1 Scholar. Historians of traditional Chinese opera confirmed that it was left by the Song Dynasty through textual research. I think everyone is familiar with the story of Zhang Xie's champion. It is about a scholar who was killed on the road. He met a poor woman who saved him and saved him for his study. After he was admitted to the top scholar, he went to Xiangfu to find a wife, and when he came back, he denied his ex-wife. So a very complicated story appeared. Besides such a story itself, we are very interested in it. In the later drama activities, the story itself is repeated, the name of the protagonist is constantly changing, but the basic pattern is constantly reappearing. In addition, its ending is constantly reappearing, which is a typical happy ending. Finally, after emotional twists and turns, the hero and heroine get married, and one good deed deserves another, and the other evil deserves another. This is a very good ending that the people are very satisfied with.
In the Song and Yuan Dynasties, especially in the Song Dynasty, there were some very important scripts besides Zhang Xie's champion. For example, Yongle Dadian recorded many scripts, but because Yongle Dadian was burned during Eight-Nation Alliance's invasion, only some fragments were left after burning, some of which were later discovered. For example, it includes three plays, which were bought from England by the famous drama historian Ye Dejun. He stumbled across three plays, including Zhang Xie's No.1 Scholar, Sun Xiao Tu, Mistakes, and three famous plays. These three famous dramas are also what we see now, which are basically left over from the Song Dynasty or the early Yuan Dynasty.
Of course, when it comes to Southern Opera, more people will think of the following famous operas: Worship and Killing, Jing means Ji, Liu means Liu Zhiyuan White Rabbit Ji, Worship means Moon Pavilion and Killing means Killing Dogs. Jing Liu White Sands are all early plays of China. Their performances in the Song Dynasty have been proved by many documents. These plays were loved by ordinary people at that time, and they were very popular at that time. During the Song and Yuan Dynasties, we said that apart from Southern Opera, Yuan Zaju was more famous and attracted more attention from literary historians. As we all know, several famous figures in Yuan Zaju are Guan Mabai, Guan Hanqing, Wang Shifu, Ma Zhiyuan and Bai Pu. Guan Hanqing's famous Dou Eyuan and Single Knife Meeting are very famous literary masterpieces. The most important reason why Yuan Zaju has a place in the history of China literature is because of dramas, including Wang Shifu's The West Chamber, Ma Zhiyuan's Autumn in the Han Palace and Bai Pu's The Wall. For example, Yuan Zaju has always been dominated by northern music. Of course, it also includes some southern music, but its main music is northern music.
It is the most important feature of Yuan Zaju to sing and express its dramatic content by composing divertimento with northern music and Gongdiao, but we say that northern music is more suitable for the emotional characteristics of northerners and has become the most important form of dramatic music in China for a long time. However, after the end of Yuan Dynasty and the beginning of Ming Dynasty, music began to appear in all parts of South China. It began to spread gradually, and southern music became more and more popular. It has been accepted by people more and more in the coexistence with northern music, which has led to a new period. That is to say, in addition to Yuan Zaju-of course, after the end of Yuan Dynasty, people are still creating Zaju works, and many literati are also creating Zaju works, but at the same time, quite a few people have begun to try to write some opera works sung with southern music. When drama spread all over the country and gradually matured, people began to naturally combine drama music and drama content with their local languages. More directly, some changes have taken place in China's traditional opera music, with both positive and negative reasons. The positive reason is that people in many places think it will be awkward to sing this song in my local dialect, and music is closely related to language and music and words. If the same music is sung in different words, the word is sung in Shanxi dialect, and there may not be much difference between singing this word in Henan dialect and singing this word in Sichuan dialect. If you sing this word in Sichuan dialect, it may not be the case at all. The relationship between music and the trend of language and the tone of language is very subtle, because when the same music spreads to different places, people will inevitably make some changes to it to make it more suitable for the characteristics of this local language and local tone. In addition to the changes caused by the influence of language, many local dramatists engaged in drama activities will also actively add the original musical elements to the drama activities, that is, enrich the music from all over the country into the drama. So a lot of local music was produced, and local dramas were created with local music, so some local dramas appeared. From the Ming Dynasty to the Qing Dynasty, there were four major tunes in the Ming Dynasty, Yiyang and Haiyan, including Kunshan. In the Qing Dynasty, there were more and more local tunes and local operas. That is to say, from the Ming Dynasty to the Qing Dynasty, in addition to the legend, Kunqu Opera has been constantly developing and reaching its peak. That is to say, after the mid-Qing Dynasty, local operas have occupied a dominant position in China's dramas. After the mid-Qing dynasty, the main types of operas are all kinds of local operas we see now. Everyone knows Beijing Opera. How did Beijing Opera come from? Beijing opera is a product of the era of local operas. The predecessor of Peking Opera is Anhui Hui Opera and Hubei Han Tune. After the confluence of Hui and Han, Peking Opera came into being. In fact, Peking Opera was also influenced by Bangzi. All these complicated musical elements are mixed together to become Peking Opera. Of course, Beijing opera actors, some excellent actors, in order to show their artistic achievements, then Beijing opera has become a very complicated thing. Although there are only a few Kunqu operas, most of them are sung by Xipihe, and Xipihe is composed of Hui and Han. Then Xipi and Huanger look like a local opera to the Qing Dynasty and the late Qing Dynasty. You are not Kunqu opera, you are not Yabu, you belong to Huahua. In the Qing Dynasty, people distinguished the difference between flowers and elegance. Flowers are popular, and ordinary people and people in lower Ba Li like elegance. There are always fewer things in spring, for example, the number of Balinese people who go down to the dam is always inevitable and irresistible, so local operas are very popular. Relatively speaking, Kunqu opera began to decline after the Qing Dynasty, and there was no music popularization in other places.
There is a sentence that can summarize the situation of local operas in the Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China, especially in the Qing Dynasty. "South Kunming travels to the east, and Liu meets the west" can basically be used to describe an overall pattern of local operas in the Qing Dynasty, such as Kunshan Opera in the south and Yiyang Opera in the north. South Kunming roamed the north, and Yiyang dialect originated in Jiangxi. Why is it considered as the north? At that time, Yiyang Opera spread to the north, mainly in the north, while southerners still liked elegant and delicate music, so there were Liuxi Bang in the East, Liu Zi Opera in the East and Liu Zi Opera in Shandong. The spread of Liu Zi's traditional operas is relatively small, and the clapper is in the west. Now we know that there are many ways to play bangzi. In addition to these big vocal cords, especially like Nankun, Beiyi, Dongliu and Xibang, they all belong to some vocal cords that are widely circulated, and there are many vocal cords that have many local characteristics and are relatively small in various places. In a small place like Shanxi, there are more than 40 operas. (Note) Among them, you are like so many yangko and Taoist feelings, which is enough. Different languages and different local music began to flourish. In many places, the original minor has developed into music and become a complete music. Through such a complete music and drama, such a complete music structure is reflected and matured through drama. So far, there are more than 300 kinds of dramas that we can count. There is a saying that there are more than 360 kinds of operas and more than 370 kinds of operas. Why is the number of operas not particularly certain? This is because the creation of traditional Chinese opera has its complexity. Sometimes it is difficult for us to tell what is a traditional opera and what is a traditional opera, because we know that, as we just said, the dialects in China are very different. We can clearly distinguish between Fujian dialect and Shaanxi dialect, which is no problem, but the dialects of two counties in Fujian and two neighboring counties may sound completely different to us foreigners, but other locals feel different. Maybe there will be differences between two villages, and there will be differences in dialects between two neighboring villages. Even in a village, this paragraph is different from that one, but these are completely incomprehensible to us outsiders, so subtle.
We just said that there are more than ten kinds of yangko in Shanxi, and yangko is also a kind of tune, but it may be divided into twenty or thirty kinds of operas, or even more. Look at the ancient painting dramas in Hubei and the tea-picking dramas in Jiangxi and Hunan, all of which are divided into many parts. The same tea-picking drama is divided into many kinds of dramas, ancient paintings into many kinds of dramas, yangko into many kinds of dramas, bangzi into many kinds of dramas, including your duet in Northeast China, and finally into many kinds of dramas, and so on. Because of this complicated reason, sometimes there are many kinds of tunes, which are merged into one drama, and sometimes one tune is divided into many dramas, so the relationship between reconciliation dramas is very complicated and subtle. It is precisely because there is such a complicated relationship between tunes and genres that we can only roughly say how many genres there are in China's plays, more than 300 kinds, and the exact figures are sometimes difficult to determine.
So what drama are we talking about? Just now we talked about the development history of traditional Chinese opera. In fact, many of our drama artists discovered local music, so they gradually formed and matured. Therefore, to talk about the characteristics of traditional Chinese opera, its main characteristics lie in its music and different musical characteristics. Every local opera and opera will have its own musical characteristics. Sometimes, from a big perspective, this kind of music is characterized by its melody, its musical structure and so on. In addition to these vocal differences, there are also differences in instrumental music. In different places, local operas often develop their own unique instrumental music, such as accompaniment music, such as gongs and drums.
From a big perspective, these operas can be roughly divided into two categories: drama and drama. For example, we all think that Beijing opera is a big drama, Kunqu opera is of course a big drama, and all local operas such as Shaanxi opera are of course big dramas. Therefore, apart from these great dramas, the concept of great drama does not mean that it is widely spread, but generally means that it has a long history, a relatively complete musical means and a relatively complete repertoire accumulation. For example, Huangmei Opera, which we all know now, is a small musical, which used to have Huangmei tune. Of course, we now know that Yue Opera, which is very popular, is also a small play, but it is not a musical, but a rap, which developed from it. As we all know, original music is simple and the story is simple. Usually one person or two people perform. However, after slowly moving to the stage, its music began to gradually enrich, and it also began to absorb some plays from other major dramas to enrich itself, gradually. But even so, it can't compare with those plays. We talk about music such as Yue Opera, Huangmei Opera, Yangko, ancient paintings and tea picking. It's basically a series. Anyway, some operas like this can't compare with Anhui Opera, Han Opera and Shaanxi Opera. This is formed by history, not that there is a difference between high and low, but that there is a historical difference between big dramas and small dramas.
Artistic appreciation value: cultivating sentiment
Sculpture: There are some artworks that can learn from the shapes of traditional Chinese opera characters, such as the clay figurine Zhang in Tianjin, and many traditional Chinese opera shapes.
Music: Some music is more popular because of the elements of traditional opera, such as Li Yugang's songs, and there are several such songs in Wang Leehom.
Literature: Ye Guangqin, a famous writer, wrote The Story of Bean Juice, xiaoyaojin and other works, all of which mentioned the West District, which means that opera is also a good literary creation theme.
Film and Television: Farewell My Concubine, Leslie Cheung, ZhangFeng yi, etc. There are also many film and television works with the theme of expressing the stories of opera actors. Because sometimes opera can often be used as a symbol of a certain era. If you want to create a film and television with that era as the background, opera is essential.