Cultural Connotation of Kunqu

On May 18, 2001, UNESCO announced the first batch of "Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity" (hereinafter referred to as "Masterpieces") in Paris, and 19 projects were selected, including China's Kunqu opera. China is one of the 19 countries to receive this honor for the first time.

Reasons for the election of Chinese Kunqu:

Originated in Kunshan, Jiangsu Province, Kunqu, which has a history of more than 600 years, is known as "the ancestor of a hundred operas, the master of a hundred operas", and many local operas, such as Jin Opera, Pugu Opera, Shangdang Opera, Xiang Opera, Sichuan Opera, Gan Opera, Guiyu Opera, Yong Opera, Vietnamese Opera and Cantonese Opera, Fujian Opera, Wu Opera, Dian Opera, etc., have been influenced by the Chinese Opera and its masterpieces. Yunnan Opera, etc., have all been nurtured and nourished by Kun Opera.　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　Overview of Kunqu: Kunqu, originally known as "Kunshan cavity" or simply "Kunqiang", has been called "Kunqu" since the Qing Dynasty, and is now known as "Kun Opera". "Kunqu is one of China's traditional operas. Kunqu is one of the oldest types of traditional opera in China, and is also one of the treasures of China's traditional culture and art, especially opera art, and is known as an "orchid" in the hundred gardens.　　As early as the end of the Yuan and the beginning of the Ming Dynasty (in the middle of the 14th century), the Kunshan accent arose in the area of Kunshan, Jiangsu Province, which, together with the Haiyan accent and Yuyao accent originated in Zhejiang Province and the Yiyang accent originated in Jiangxi Province, are known as the four major vocal cadences of the Ming Dynasty, belonging to the Southern Opera system.　　The Kunshan cavity began as a folk tune and a small song. Its distribution area was limited to the area of Suzhou at the beginning, but during the Wanli period, it was expanded to the south of the Yangtze River and the north of the Qiantang River with Suzhou as the center, and gradually spread to Fujian, Jiangxi, Guangdong, Hubei, Hunan, Sichuan, Henan and Hebei, and flowed into Beijing during the Wanli period. In this way, Kunshan Opera became the most influential vocal theater from the middle of the Ming Dynasty to the middle of the Qing Dynasty.　　Kunqu has accumulated a large number of repertoire in its long performance practice. Among the influential and frequently performed repertoire are Wang Shizhen's The Tale of the Sounding Phoenix, Tang Xianzu's The Peony Pavilion, The Tale of the Purple Hairpin, The Tale of the Placeholder of the Hand, The Tale of the Nanke, and Shen Jing's The Tale of the Righteous and the Chivalrous, and so on. Gao Lian's The Jade Hairpin, Li Yu's The Kite Mistake, Zhu Suchen's Fifteen Guan, Kong Shangren's The Peach Blossom Fan, Hong Sheng's The Palace of Eternal Youth, and other famous operas, such as A Dream in the Garden, Yang Guan, Three Drunkennesses, The Autumn River, Sifan, The Broken Bridge, and so on.　　The music of kunqu belongs to the structure of the song form, which is called the "song form" for short. According to incomplete statistics, there are more than one thousand kinds of tunes used in Kunqu. The sources of tunes from the north and the south include not only the ancient song and dance music, but also the big tunes and lyrics of the Tang and Song dynasties, the singing of songs in the Song dynasty, the songs of the Gong Gong, as well as folk songs and songs of the ethnic minorities, etc. It is based on the southern tunes, and also uses the southern tunes. It is based on the Southern Quartet, and uses the Northern Quartet as well, and creates with the techniques of "violating the tune", "borrowing the palace", and "setting the tune", etc. The accompanying instruments of the Kunqu are the same as those of the Song dynasty.　　The accompanying instruments of Kunqu are mainly flutes, supplemented by sheng, xiao, suona, sanxian, pipa, etc. (percussion is available).　　The performance of kunqu also has its own unique system and style, which is characterized by strong lyricism, delicate movements, and a clever and harmonious combination of singing and dancing figures.　　Yu Zhenfei is an outstanding kunqu artist, he has a certain degree of ancient literature training, and is also proficient in poetry, calligraphy and painting, he not only studied kunqu, but also a Peking Opera performance artist. Therefore, he was able to integrate Peking Opera and Kun Opera into one, forming a style of elegance, elegance, strength and strength, especially famous in the theater world for his richness of "bookishness". His representative festivals which are highly respected at home and abroad include Li Bai in Taibai Drunken Writing, Liu Mengmei in The Garden of Dreams, Emperor Tang Minghuang in The Mutiny of Burying the Jade, Pan Bizheng in The Pick of the Piano, Jianwenjun in The Eight Suns, and Xu Xian in Broken Bridge, etc., which are all performed with a lifelike style.　　Kunqu has a very high level of skill

The means of expression of opera is the synthesis of singing, reciting, acting and playing (dancing). These four aspects and their synthesis are the most demanding in kunqu. Kunqu performers must be able to perform in all these aspects. The stage presentation is also the most perfect and outstanding. In order to improve their skills, actors of other operas have to learn kunqu. For example, Mei Lanfang, an actor of Beijing Opera, has a deep knowledge of Kunqu and can perform Kunqu. The masterpiece of Hebei Opera actress Pei Yanling, Lin Chong Night Run, is in the form of Kunqu.　　Kunqu's magnificent singing, elegant recitation, delicate performance and elegant dance, together with the perfect stage setting, can be said to have reached the highest level in all aspects of opera performance. Because of this, many local operas, such as Jin Opera, Pu Opera, Xiang Opera, Sichuan Opera, Gan Opera, Gui Opera, Yue Opera, and Min Opera, have been nurtured and nourished by the art of Kunqu Opera in many ways. Many of the plays in Kunqu, such as The Peony Pavilion, The Palace of Eternal Youth, and The Peach Blossom Fan, are monumental works of ancient opera literature. The texts of the Kunqu pieces follow the literary traditions of Tang poetry, Song lyrics and Yuan operas, while many of the pieces are identical to Song lyrics and Yuan operas. This laid a good cultural foundation for the development of kunqu, and at the same time created a large number of kunqu writers and musicians, among which Liang Chenyu, Tang Xianzu, Hong, Kong Shangren, Li Yu, Li Yu, Ye Ya, and so on, are outstanding representatives in the history of Chinese opera and literature.　　The means of expression of opera are the synthesis of singing, reciting, acting and playing (dancing). The requirements for these aspects of kunqu are the most stringent of all theater genres. An excellent kunqu actor must be skillful in these aspects in order to create a perfect characterization on stage. Many actors of other styles have taken the initiative to devote themselves to the study of kunqu in order to improve their skills and artistic cultivation. Mr. Mei Lanfang, the world-renowned master of Peking Opera, had been studying Kunqu for a long time. In many of the plays he performed, we can find the expressive techniques of Kunqu. Mr. Mei's performances were sublimated through the art of kunqu, and kunqu was able to follow Mr. Mei across the ocean and spread its fame to the world.　　In terms of the historical development of the Kunqu, the 400 years before the 18th century was the golden period when the Kunqu gradually matured and became more and more prosperous. During this time, Kunqu has been showing people the world's flavors in a perfect way. At that time, it was a regular guest in the palace and a fashion for the literati. It is this kind of rich and gorgeous performance atmosphere, attached to the deliberate pursuit of elegance, making the Kunqu increasingly towards the elegant, complicated situation. In the late 18th century, the local opera began to rise, their emergence broke the long-established pattern of performance, the development of opera from the aristocratic to the transition to the masses, the Kunqu began to go downhill. To the middle of the last century, the decline of kunqu is more obvious, many kunqu artists turned to perform the popular Beijing opera. The founding of new China in 1949, for the development of kunqu provides an important opportunity, our party and the government to overcome the difficulties just after the establishment of the regime, vigorously support and revitalize China's traditional opera, kunqu is fortunate enough to regain a new life. In 1956, the Zhejiang Kun Opera Troupe adapted and performed "Fifteen Guan", which had a wide impact on the whole country, and Premier Zhou once said with emotion, "A play has saved the life of a kind of opera." After that, Kunqu troupes were restored in many parts of the country, and a large number of performing artists returned to the stage, of which Mr. Yu Zhenfei, a master of the art of kunqu performance, was one of the representatives.

Kunqu is a "living fossil" Chinese opera has been circulating on the stage since its formation, and with the changes of the times, it has been constantly changing from the scripts to the vocal cadences and the performances, while kunqu has changed less, retained more of the traditional characteristics of opera, and has a rich repertoire, which has been called a "living fossil". "The Kunqu opera has fewer changes.