What is the opera in Suzhou called?

Kunqu. Kunqu (Kun Opera), also known as Kun Opera, Kun Qiang, and Kunshan Qiang, is one of the oldest types of Chinese opera and a treasure of traditional Chinese culture and art. It originated in Kunshan, Suzhou, and began to flourish after the middle of the Ming Dynasty, when most of the legendary plays were sung in Kunqu.

The Kunshan Opera, or Kunqu for short, started in Kunshan at the end of the Yuan Dynasty and is a branch of the Southern Opera. According to the Ming - Yufeng (Kunshan) Zhang Guangde's "true record of the day" volume two in the text of the record has "the Yuan Dynasty, there are Gu Jian, although away from the Kunshan thirty miles, living in a thousand duns, good at the South, good at making ancient fugue. Expansion Gou Timur heard its good song, repeatedly recruited not to give in.

With Yang Tiedi, Gu A Ying, Ni Yuanzhen as friends, the self-proclaimed moon and wind scattering. He wrote "Tao Zhen Yaji" 10 volumes, "wind and moon scattering people music" eight volumes in the world, good hair of the South Song of the Olympic, so the beginning of the country is known as the Kunshan cavity."

Kunshan cavity in the Ming Dynasty before the Wanli, but also popular in Wuzhong "small set of southern singing" of the Qingqu. This "soft and clear fold" of the Kunshan cavity of the change and development, is in the middle of the Ming Dynasty later. In the Jiajing (1522-1566), Longqing (1567-1572) years, Jiangxi Yuzhang (Nanchang) Wei Liangfu (word Shangquan, a word on the spring) living in Taicang Nanguan (the Yuan Dynasty Kunshan jurisdiction).

Wei Liangfu was originally a northern opera singer, but after he came to Wuzhong, he devoted himself to southern opera.

He thought that some of the southern opera singing at that time "rate of flat and straight without meaning", so based on the original Kunshan cavity, reference to the advantages of Haiyan, Yuyao and other cavities, and absorbed some of the singing of the northern opera, and good with the Dongxiao Zhang Meigu, Xie Linquan, as well as Zhang Xiaoquan, Zhou Monshan, Ji Jingpo, Dai Meichuan, Bao Langlang people They formed a creative collective with the same opinion and ideal in art, and reformed and developed the Kunshan accent greatly.

Expanded Information:

Origin and Development

Kunqu is a new style of theater that appeared during the Ming Dynasty in China. Kunqu is a new style of theater that appeared in China during the Ming Dynasty. From the late 16th century onwards, it gradually occupied a central position in the theater world and became the most important form of theater for more than two hundred years after that. Kunqu has gone through a long process from its origin 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 tune, was rapidly rising, so it was called the Southern Opera. The Southern Opera retained many of the characteristics of folk art, was not subject to any puritanical rules and regulations, and was performed freely and vividly, with a large degree of randomness.

In the process of development, the Southern Opera gradually absorbed a variety of mature traditional music forms since the Tang and Song dynasties, and gradually became richer and more detailed. However, due to the lack of participation of upper-class intellectuals, it was unable to overcome its own congenital or acquired defects, so that 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, drew valuable artistic experience from the miscellaneous operas sung in northern tunes, and on the other hand, attracted some of the intellectual elites to join it, presenting a brand-new outlook. Zhu Yuanzhang, the founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty, read the Southern Opera written by Gao Ming (?). -1359) wrote the southern drama book "Pipa Tale", greatly appreciated, specifically called for rehearsals in the court. It can be seen that the early Ming dynasty of the South 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 continued to combine with local dialects and folk music in the process of circulation, and developed 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 the Kunqu opera. 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 spread of the Kunshan accent was not very large, and it was only popular in the area of Suzhou. 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 such a background.

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 outstanding folk artists in Chinese history, Wei Liangfu's life is very briefly documented. Combined with some of the material in the writings of the people 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, which lacked variation in ups and downs, and so he worked closely with a group of like-minded people in the arts to begin a comprehensive reform of the Kunshan opera.

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 the south of the Yangtze River, integrating a new style of tunes different from the previous ones, and paying attention to the pitch of the lyrics and the tunes to match the singing, and at the same time lengthening the syllables of the words and creating a soothing rhythm, which gave people a special sense of musical beauty, and this is the kunqu, which was handed down to the future generations.

Wei Liangfu was good at singing, but not good at musical instruments. In the process of reforming the Kunshan opera, he received great help from Zhang Yotang (birth and death dates unknown), a native of Hebei.

Zhang Yotang 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 the original northern tunes of the accompaniment of the three strings to reform, with xiao, flute, clapboards, pipa, gongs and other musical instruments*** used in the accompaniment of the kunqu, so that its singing became euphemistic, delicate, fluent and long-distance, known as the "Shui Mu Cavity". It is known as the "water-mill accent".

References:

Baidu Encyclopedia-Kunqu