In which dynasty did Kunqu flourish?

Ming and Qing Dynasties

Origin and Formation

Kunqu was a new style of theater that appeared in China during the Ming Dynasty, and from the late 16th century onwards, it gradually occupied a central position in the theater scene, becoming the most important form of theater for more than two hundred years thereafter.

Kunqu has gone through a long process from its origins to its formal formation.

According to the information available, around the time of Emperor Guangzong of the Southern Song Dynasty, a small local opera in Yongjia, Zhejiang Province, which used southern folk music as the main singing tunes, was rapidly emerging, so it was known as the Southern Opera.

The Southern Opera retains many of the characteristics of folk art, and is not subject to any puritanical constraints, and the performances are free and lively, with a greater degree of arbitrariness.

In the process of development, Southern Opera has gradually absorbed a variety of mature traditional music forms since the Tang and Song dynasties, and has become increasingly rich and detailed.

However, due to the lack of participation of upper-class intellectuals, it was unable to overcome its own congenital or acquired defects, so it hovered at a low level for a long time.

In the early years of the Ming Dynasty, the Southern Opera, on the one hand, from the northern tunes sung in the miscellaneous operas to draw valuable artistic experience, on the one hand, to attract some of the intellectual elite to join the show a new look.

Zhu Yuanzhang, the founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty, read the Southern Opera written by Gao Ming (?).

It can be seen that the early Ming dynasty of southern opera has begun to move towards a more elegant artistic realm, and thus get the positive affirmation of the upper class.

The reason why the southern opera was able to make such rapid progress has a close relationship with its own flexibility, which is centered on the multiplication of its singing tunes.

From the Southern Song Dynasty to the Ming Dynasty, the Southern Opera combined with local dialects and folk music to develop a variety of different styles of local tunes.

The Kunshan accent, formed by combining it with the local music of Kunshan and the Wu language, was the predecessor of Kunqu.

It is important to note that at this time, the Kunshan accent was only a form of music that was sung in a clear voice, and was not yet used to perform full-length theatrical episodes.

Before the middle of the Ming Dynasty, the Kunshan accent was not very widespread, and was popular only in the Suzhou area.

At that time, Suzhou was far ahead in terms of economy and culture, and was the leading metropolis in the southeast.

The economic prosperity led to the development of culture and art, and the Kunqu opera came to the center of the social and cultural stage in this context.

It was the folk musician Wei Liangfu (b.d. unknown) who developed the artistic potential of the kunqu and made it an important form of singing.

Like many of the great folk artists of Chinese history, Wei Liangfu's life is very briefly documented.

Combined with some of the material in the writings of the time, it can be known that he lived in the Ming Dynasty during the Jiajing and Longqing years, was originally from Jiangxi Yuzhang, and lived in Taicang for a long time, singing folk tunes as a profession.

This occupation brought Wei Liangfu into contact with a variety of tunes from the north and the south, and through comparative study, he became increasingly dissatisfied with the straight and simple tunes of the Kunshan opera, and the lack of ups and downs, so he worked closely with a group of like-minded people in the arts, and began a comprehensive reform of the Kunshan opera

Scenes of a Kunqu Opera performance in the Ming Dynasty's "South China's Prosperous Meetings"

This reform was divided into two aspects: singing and accompaniment. This reform was carried out in two aspects: singing and accompaniment.

Wei Liangfu and other folk musicians, on the basis of the original Kunshan accent, brought together the strengths of various tunes from the south and the north, and at the same time drew on the music of the folk songs of Jiangnan, integrating a new style of tunes that differed from the previous ones, and paying attention to the tone of the lyrics and tunes to match the singing, and at the same time prolonging the syllables of the words, resulting in a soothing rhythm, which gives people a special sense of musical beauty, which is handed down to future generations of the Kunqu opera.

Wei Liangfu was good at singing, but not good at musical instruments.

In the process of reforming the Kunshan opera, he was greatly helped by Zhang Yotang (birth and death dates unknown), a native of Hebei.

Zhang Yutang was a very talented folk musician, he gave full play to his expertise, assisted Wei Liangfu to absorb the northern tunes into the southern kunqu, and at the same time to the original northern tunes of the accompaniment of the instrument Sanxian to transform it with xiao, flute, beat plate, pipa, gongs and other instruments *** with the accompaniment of the kunqu, so that it sings become a euphemistic, delicate, fluent and long-distance, known as the "water mill cavity". It is called the "water-mill accent".

The success of the kunqu reform brought Wei Liangfu a great reputation, and this new style of tune, once introduced, immediately conquered the vast audience of the time with its irresistible artistic charm.

A group of folk musicians learned the techniques of kunqu from Wei Liangfu, and the beautiful tune soon spread in the surrounding area.

The earliest play to be performed in the kunqu form is generally considered to be The Tale of the Raccoon Veil by Liang Chenyu (c. 1521-c. 1594), a native of Kunshan.

It is said that Liang Chenyu had received the true teachings of Wei Liangfu, and that he had high attainments in kunqu singing, and was highly respected in Kunshan, with singing boys and girls from the surrounding areas clamoring to come to his door to ask him for guidance on singing skills, and even people traveling thousands of kilometers to learn from him.

Liang Chenyu collaborated with some folk musicians to further process Wei Liangfu's reformed kunqu, creating the script of The Story of the Raccoon Veil and performing it on stage in kunqu form.

After Wei Liangfu's reforms and Liang Chenyu's artistic practice, the influence of kunqu became greater and greater, and it soon spread to the vast areas of Jiangsu and Zhejiang, becoming the main form of theater in these regions.

Development and Prosperity

Folk artists played a key role in the initial formation of the kunqu.

After acquiring a more complete theatrical form, Kunqu began to develop at a higher level, when many first-rate writers and scholars took part, writing a large number of plays with exquisite verses and vivid twists and turns.

During the same period when Liang Chenyu was writing The Tale of the Raccoon, two other equally influential works were born in the field of Ming drama: The Tale of the Treasure Sword by Li Kaixian (1502-1568) and The Tale of the Sounding Phoenix by Anonymous.

They were not originally written for kunqu performance, but were later adapted for kunqu and became important repertoire for the genre.

The Raccoon Veil, The Treasure Sword, and The Tale of the Sounding Phoenix focus on political themes, while others before and after them, such as The Embroidered Jacket by Xu Lin (1462-1538) and The Jade Hairpin by Gao Lian (d. unknown),

focus on the theme of love.

From then on, politics and love became the two major themes of kunqu plays, sometimes independent of each other, sometimes closely integrated.

Around the end of the Ming Dynasty, during the Wanli period, another great playwright in the history of kunqu, Tang Xianzu (1550-1616), was born.

He was 15 years older than the great English dramatist Shakespeare (1564-1616), and both died in the same year.

Tang Xianzu's The Peony Pavilion boldly brought to the stage the love fantasies of a young girl in a lady's house, and when it was performed, it immediately caused a huge sensation.

While Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream was winning laughter in Elizabethan London theaters, the mysterious and beautiful dream in The Peony Pavilion was also making people drunk in the family performance venues of the rich Chinese gentry or the folk amphitheaters.

The Peony Pavilion breaks through the conflict between love and reason in traditional Chinese ethics, and tries to pursue an ideal concept of love in which "the living can die and the dead can live".

There was another kunqu playwright in the Ming dynasty who was as important as Tang Xianzu, Shen Jing (1553-1610), a native of Wujiang, Jiangsu province.

Shen Jing was obviously not as radical as Tang Xianzu. He was more orthodox and conservative in his thinking, and he took a fully affirmative attitude towards the current social system, which is very evident in his kunqu plays.

From the point of view of artistic practice, Shen Jing's kunqu creation focused on the artistic characteristics of the theater itself, and provided a normative sample for stage performances for the playwrights of the time and later generations, which has its own positive significance that cannot be erased.

Shen Jing's The Book of the Righteous is based on the story of Wu Song from the Water Margin.

It objectively reflects the social realities of the traitors, the judicial disorder, and the government's corruption of the law, and argues that these are concrete manifestations of ethical and moral corruption, and that Wu Sung's fight against the rogues and bullies to the end is a righteous act that deserves to be recognized.

The end of the play shows that only by consciously upholding the normal social order centered on the emperor can we restore the moral standards that have been destroyed by a few people.

Shen Jing drove and influenced a group of playwrights in the same region with his artistic advocacy, forming the Wu *** group of writers in the field of kunqu creation.

The emergence of masters such as Tang Xianzu and masterpieces such as The Peony Pavilion, as well as the formation of a group of powerful playwrights such as Wu ***, marked the beginning of the heyday of kunqu creation.

Driven by Tang Xianzu, Shen Jing and others, the creation of kunqu in the Ming Dynasty was ever-changing and fruitful, producing a large number of famous plays.

Even some plays of the Yuan Dynasty were absorbed and transformed into kunqu scripts, which were performed in kunqu form.

Along with the proliferation of plays, there was an extraordinary boom in the performance of kunqu.

The most concentrated areas for kunqu performances were in Jiangsu, Anhui, and Zhejiang.

In order to meet the needs of the community, during the Wanli period, there were a number of professional folk opera groups specializing in the performance of kunqu in these areas, among which Rui Xia Ban and Wu Hui Zhou Ban in Suzhou, Hao Kecheng Ban and Chen Yang Xing Ban in Nanjing, Yushan Ban in Changshu, and Cao Cheng Ban in Shanghai are the most famous.

Tianqi, Chongzhen years, the number of folk kunqu opera classes increased rapidly, only in Nanjing, kunqu opera classes up to dozens of more.

Compared with the folk opera troupe, the kunqu opera troupe organized by the private families of the literati and gentry class was much larger in number and performed more frequently.

Because of the careful guidance of writers and scholars and sufficient financial security, the performances of family kunqu troupes were generally more exquisite, and the overall level of performance often exceeded that of folk troupes.

In addition to the performances of folk and family kunqu troupes, amateur performers were also an important part of the kunqu performances of the Ming Dynasty.

These amateur actors include writers, scholars, more affluent civilians, folk musicians, freelancers, and *** culturally literate.

In the late Ming dynasty, kunqu performances entered the court and became a new form of entertainment for the emperor.

At the same time, kunqu broke through the regional restrictions, in the north has been widely spread, really thoroughly for the whole society **** with acceptance.

At this stage, there were many famous artists in the field of kunqu in the Ming Dynasty, reflecting an overall strength.

Whether it is theater writers, scholars or folk kunqu artists are diligent in thinking, the courage to practice, with their own ability and talent will continue to lead the kunqu to a higher level.

After the Qing Dynasty, the kunqu still maintains the momentum of continuous prosperity.

In the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, after Wu ***, a group of kunqu writers appeared in the Suzhou area, which was later called the Suzhou School.

Compared with the previous generation of playwrights, they paid more attention to reality and tried to use their creations to save the day and correct the deviation of human nature.

Although the Suzhou School playwrights did not completely get rid of the influence of the bureaucratic gentry class, they also brought a lot of fresh air to the field of kunqu, and the political picture of the Ming Dynasty and the thinking and living conditions of the emerging civic class were reflected to varying degrees in their works.

Artistically, they transcended the aesthetic tradition of the kunqu, which over-emphasized grace, and displayed a grand narrative style.

Among the playwrights of the Suzhou School, Li Yu (date of birth and death unknown) had the greatest achievement. He fully grasped the characteristics of kunqu performances, combined stage and literature in his creations, and wrote more than thirty excellent kunqu works such as Ching-chung Spectrum, Thousand Loyal Killings, A Handful of Snow, and Occupy the Flower Leader, which won the hearts of a large number of audiences at that time and in later generations, and produced a not inconsiderable influence on the kunqu stage at the end of the Ming Dynasty and the beginning of the Qing Dynasty. The influence of the kunqu stage in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties was not insignificant.

The Suzhou School playwrights across two dynasties opened the way for the creation of kunqu in the early Qing Dynasty. During the Kangxi period, Hong Sheng (1645-1704)'s The Palace of Eternal Youth and Kong Shangren's The Peach Blossom Fan came out one after another, marking the arrival of a new round of kunqu creation.

The Qing Dynasty was a time of great change for Kun Opera.

There was also a very important playwright, Li Yu (1611-1680), in the early years of the Qing dynasty.

Li Yu was a genius writer.

Li Yu wrote ten kunqu plays in his lifetime, and he also wrote the book "Puppetry of Idle Affair", which occupies a very important place in the history of Chinese theater theory.

He had many novel insights into art, but his political thinking was conservative, believing that playwrights should deal with the ideological content of their works artistically, so that the audience would unconsciously accept the inculcation of feudal ethical and moral thinking in the aesthetic process.

Li Yu's masterpiece of kunqu creation is The Kite Mistake, in which the protagonist is a scholar named Han Shixun, whose parents died early, and who lives in the home of his father's lifelong friend, Qi Tiangun.

Chi's son, Chi Shi, is ugly and vulgar, and one day he is outside flying a kite, which unexpectedly falls into the house of a family named Zhan.

When he recovered the kite, he found that the second miss of the Zhan family had inscribed a poem on it.

Han Se Hoon intentionally flies another kite into the family's house to test the waters, and soon receives an invitation from the Zhan family's second young lady.

He went to Zhan's house to attend the appointment, but he didn't expect to meet the ugly and stupid Miss Zhan, and fled in fear.

Later, the ugly Miss Zhan married Qi Shi, and Han Shihun got the first place in the civil official examination, and Qi Tiangun told him to marry the beautiful Miss Zhan.

Han Shih-hun mistakenly thinks he is marrying the ugly girl he saw the previous time, and adamantly refuses to agree.

It is not until he meets the bride in the bridal chamber that the misunderstanding is completely cleared up.

This is a humorous comedy of manners, banal in thought and skillful in technique, and ideal for the stage.

From the early years of the Qing dynasty to the middle of the Qing dynasty, kunqu performances continued to maintain a relatively strong momentum, and a variety of family troupes and professional troupes are still the main force of the performance.

Court kunqu performances have also been developed, the early years of the Qing dynasty is mainly the performance of a variety of classic plays, the Qianlong period, some cultural officials were ordered to create a part of the longer play, the kunqu performance fully into the scope of the court culture.