How did Chinese theater develop? What is the relationship between Peking Opera and theater?

Peking Opera is a kind of theater, and theater contains Peking Opera. The development of Chinese opera:

Pre-Qin (budding period)

Mid- to late-Tang Dynasty (formative period)

Song and Jin Dynasties (developmental period)

Yuan Dynasty (maturity)

Ming and Qing Dynasties (prosperity)

Modern era (innovation)

Modern times (contested glory)

Detailed information is as follows:

The first person to use the term opera in history was Liu Ocarina (1240-1319) of the Song Dynasty, who proposed "Yongjia Opera" in his "Biography of the Lyricist Wu Yuzhang", and the "Yongjia Opera" he referred to was what later generations would call the " South Opera", "opera text", "Yongjia miscellaneous operas". From the modern Wang Guowei began, only the "opera" used as a general term for traditional Chinese theater culture.

Opera is one of China's traditional arts, a variety of interesting plays, the performance form of singing and dancing, talking and singing, literature and martial arts, set "singing, doing, reading, playing" in one, unique in the world of theater history, its main features, the collection of classical opera art of the Peking Opera, for example, one is a man dressed as a woman (the Yueju Opera is common for women dressed as men); two is divided into The main features of Peking Opera, for example, are: first, men disguise themselves as women (in Yueju Opera, it is common for women to disguise themselves as men); second, it divides the four major roles into Sheng, Dan, Jing and Chou; third, there is the art of disguise - face painting, which is an exaggeration of the art of disguise; fourth, there are basically fixed patterns and specifications for the "head of the line" (i.e., the costumes and props of operas); and fifth, it is to utilize the "program" for performance. Chinese national opera, from the pre-Qin Dynasty "haiku", the Han Dynasty "Hundred Operas", the Tang Dynasty "military play", the Song Dynasty miscellaneous plays, the Southern Song Dynasty Southern Opera, Yuan Dynasty miscellaneous plays, until the Qing Dynasty unprecedented prosperity of local opera and the formation of the Beijing Opera.

Pre-Qin (budding)

In the primitive society, the clan inhabited villages produced primitive songs and dances, and with the gradual growth of the clan, the songs and dances also gradually developed and improved. Such as in many ancient villages, still maintains a long tradition of song and dance, such as "Nuo opera"; at the same time, some new songs and dances such as "social fire", "Yangge" and other adaptations to the people's spiritual needs and birth. The birth of the spiritual needs of the people. It is these songs and dances, creating a number of skilled folk artists, and a little step in the direction of the opera. The "Ode" in the Book of Songs and the "Nine Songs" in the Book of Chu are the songs and dances sung at the time of sacrificing to the gods. From the Spring and Autumn and Warring States Periods to the Han Dynasty, songs and dances to entertain the gods gradually evolved into songs and dances to entertain people. From the Han and Wei Dynasties to the Middle Tang Dynasty, there appeared "Jiao Dai" (i.e., a hundred operas), which mainly focused on competition, "Senjun Opera", which was performed in the form of questions and answers, and "Tap Shake Niang", which played the role of a small story of life, etc. These are the germinal stages. These are all budding dramas.

Middle and Late Tang Dynasty (Formative Period)

After the Middle Tang Dynasty, Chinese theater developed by leaps and bounds, and the art of drama gradually took shape.

The prosperity of literature and art in the Tang Dynasty was the result of high economic development, which promoted the self-supporting art of opera and gave it rich nourishment, and the maturity of the sound and narrative poetry of poetry gave decisive influence to opera. The prosperity of music and dance provided opera with the strongest foundation for performance and singing. The professional study and formalized training of the Pear Garden in the workshops improved the artistic level of the artists, accelerated the course of dramatization of songs and dances, and produced a number of operatic repertoires that used songs and dances to act out stories.

Song and Jin (development)

The Song Dynasty's "miscellaneous dramas", the Jin Dynasty's "Yuanben" and the "Zhugong tune" in the form of singing, from the music, structure and content, all laid the groundwork for the Yuan Dynasty's miscellaneous dramas. The Yuan dynasty miscellaneous dramas have laid the foundation for the Yuan dynasty.

Yuan Dynasty (Mature Period)

In the Yuan Dynasty, "miscellaneous dramas" were greatly developed on the basis of the original, and became a new type of drama. It possessed the basic characteristics of drama, marking the stage of maturity of Chinese theater. from the middle of the 12th century to the beginning of the 13th century, there gradually arose professional artistic and commercial performing groups and Yuan miscellaneous operas and jin yuanyuanben reflecting the life and views of the citizens, such as Dou'e Grievance created by Guan Hanqing, Han Palace Autumn of Ma Zhiyuan, and The Great Revenge of the Orphans of the Zhao Clan, etc. This period was a time of prosperity for the theater stage, and it was the first time that the Yuan dynasty was able to develop the Yuan dynasty. This period was a prosperous time for the opera stage.

Yuan miscellaneous operas are not only a mature form of advanced theater, but also regarded as the mainstay of a generation's literature because they are the most characteristic of their time and the most artistically original. Yuan miscellaneous dramas were initially centered in Metropolis (present-day Beijing) and were popular in the north. After the Yuan destroyed the Southern Song Dynasty, it developed into a national theater. The theater of the Yuan Dynasty was full of stars and masterpieces.

Yuan miscellaneous dramas to present a generation of prosperity, artistic development and social reality from two aspects provide an opportunity. From the point of view of the development of art itself, the theater after a long period of gestation and slow process, there has been a very thick accumulation, in the internal structure and external performance have reached maturity. It was precisely at this time that traditional poetry and literature, after experiencing the heyday and splendor of the Tang and Song dynasties, went into decline. In the eyes of talented artists, the theater and the art world was a new land waiting for them to cultivate. From the perspective of social reality, the Yuan and Mongol rulers abolished the imperial examination system, not only cut off the intellectuals among the possibility of career, but also relegated them to a low status: only higher than the beggars, living under the ordinary people and prostitutes. These highly cultivated cultured people, was sunk into the bottom of society. In the estrangement of the history, cold poetry and literature of the inexorable, they only to the hook bar tile house to pass the time, to seek a way of life. As a result, the new Yuan miscellaneous operas accidentally gained a number of professional creators one after another. They have a "book club" as the name of the trade organization, join the book club playwrights, called "book club Mr.". Within the group, these downtrodden literati cooperated and competed with each other to create the golden age of Chinese theater. Unlike the poems and lyrics of the past, which favored the expression of subjective moods and interests, the Yuan miscellaneous dramas were responsible for reflecting the society extensively. Obviously, this is due to the writers of the long-term life on the village home in the coccyx, to the reality of a deep understanding and feeling of the reason.

The script system of Yuan miscellaneous dramas is composed of four folds and one wedge. The four folds, is four plot paragraphs, like the article to pay attention to the beginning and end of the same. The wedge is short, usually placed before the first fold, which is somewhat similar to the later "prologue". The Yuan miscellaneous operas are in the form of singing-based, combined with spoken performance. Each section is composed of a number of tunes in the same palette to form a suite. The whole set of only one rhyme, by playing the male protagonist of the main end or play the female protagonist of the main Dan singing. This kind of "one person singing" can give great play to the specialty of singing art, and portray the main characters in a sound manner. The recitation part is influenced by the tradition of the military opera, often gags, rich in humor and fun. The unification of the musical and dramatic structures to achieve institutional regularity indicates the artistic maturity and perfection of Yuan miscellaneous operas.

Ming and Qing Dynasties (Prosperity)

The opera reached the Ming Dynasty, and the legend developed. The predecessor of the Ming Dynasty legend was the Southern Opera of the Song and Yuan Dynasties (Southern Opera is the abbreviation of Nanqu Opera, which is an emerging form of theater developed on the basis of Song Dynasty miscellaneous operas, combined with southern regional tunes. Wenzhou is its birthplace). Southern opera is institutionally different from northern miscellaneous operas: it is not subject to the four-fold limitation, and after the literati's processing and enhancement, such short operas, which were originally not strict enough, finally became quite complete and long plays. For example, Gao Ming's Pipa Tale is a work of transition from southern opera to legend. The subject matter of this work, from folklore, a more complete performance of a story, and a certain degree of drama, has been hailed as "the ancestor of the revival of the southern opera".

In the middle of the Ming Dynasty, a large number of legendary writers and plays emerged, of which the greatest achievement was Tang Xianzu. He wrote many legendary plays in his life, and The Peony Pavilion is his masterpiece. Through the story of Du Liniang and Liu Mengmei, the work glorifies the spirit of resistance against feudalism, the pursuit of happiness and love, and the demand for individual liberation. The author gives love the power to bring it back to life, and it overcomes the constraints of feudalism and achieves final victory. This was of far-reaching social significance in a society firmly ruled by feudal rites at that time. The play has been loved by readers and audiences for three hundred years, and to this day, pieces such as "The Boudoir" and "A Dream of Fright" are still active on the stage of opera performances. The Kun Opera emerged in Jiangnan in the middle of the Ming Dynasty in the 16th century. The opera popular with peasants during this period was the Yiyangqiang, which arose in Anhui and Jiangxi, and the Kunqiang was popular with the feudal upper classes.

In the late Ming Dynasty, it became fashionable to stage a series of plays. The so-called folds of the play, refers to the beginning and the end of the entire legendary repertoire extracted from the out of the project. It is only a relatively independent part of the whole play, but in these parts, the scenes are wonderful and the singing is excellent. The standout of the opera is the result of the strong development of the theater performing arts, and the inevitable time and stage washing. After familiarizing themselves with the plot, the audience can enjoy the performance skills of the opera.

The works of the late Ming and early Qing dynasties were mostly about heroes in the hearts of the people, such as Mu Guiying, Tao Sanchun and Zhao Kuangyin. At this time, the local theater, mainly the northern clappers and the southern Pihuang. Peking Opera was created on the basis of the high prosperity of local opera in the Qing Dynasty. In the Tongzhi and Guangxu years, there appeared the first generation of Peking Opera performers listed among the "Tongguang Thirteen Masters" and the patriarchs of different schools, which marked the maturity and prosperity of the art of Peking Opera. Soon Peking Opera developed nationwide, especially in Shanghai and Tianjin, where it became a widely influential genre, advancing the art of Chinese opera to a new height.

Because the legend of the Ming Dynasty was a style of theater that continued into the Qing Dynasty, it was customarily called the Ming and Qing Legends. The Ming and Qing Legends inherited the system of Southern Opera in form, and it is more complete. Most of the scripts were only about 30, often divided into two parts; the writers also paid special attention to the compact structure and the interspersing of Kohun. The music of the saga is also in the form of a set of tunes, but it is more developed than that of the Southern Opera, as it is no longer limited to a single gong tone; the number of tunes depends on the needs of the plot; and all the characters appearing on the stage are allowed to sing.

The legends of the Ming and Qing dynasties include numerous local vocal cadences. Among them, the most widely circulated and far-reaching are the Kunshan accent and the Yiyang accent. The Kunshan accent was reformed by Wei Liangfu (date of birth and death unknown) during the Jiajing period, who created the euphemistic, delicate, fluent and long-lasting "Shuimo Tune", which emphasized Yuqing, Panzheng, and Cavity Pure. The three types of musical instruments, namely, strings, xiao-pipes and drums, were combined together to create a full-scale orchestra to accompany the music. The performance of "The Story of Raccoon Yarn" made the Kunshan Opera become a national opera through the stage. Yiyangqiang, which was produced in Jiangxi Province, was mainly popular among the people, performed by the jianghu opera troupe, and every time it was spread to a place, it was combined with the local language and folk music, and developed into a localized voice. The Yiyang Cavity does not use orchestral accompaniment, but only uses gongs and drums as its rhythm, and adopts the forms of apprentice songs and helpers, with popularity, folklore, and focus on performance effects as its characteristics. It is characterized by its popularity, folklore and performance effect. It forms two different directions within Chinese opera with the elegant and delicate style of Kunshan opera. After a long period of stage practice, the roles of Ming opera were more finely divided. For example, there were 12 roles in the Kunshan accent, and the main characters were not limited to Zhengsheng and Zhengdan, and Jingsheng and Chou were more than just jokes.

Modern Period

Before and after the Xinhai Revolution, a group of accomplished opera artists engaged in the improvement of the art of opera, including Wang Xiaonong, Pan Yueqiao, Xia Yuexan, etc., who accumulated valuable experience for the improvement of opera in the future. From the May Fourth Movement in 1919 to the founding of the People's Republic of China, a number of artists reformed the opera during this period. Mei Lanfang on the eve of May Fourth performed "Deng Rough Aunt", "A Wisp of Hemp" and other fashionable new operas to publicize the idea of democracy, and Zhou Xinfang, Cheng Yanqiu and others also created a lot of works. Yuan Xuefen, on the other hand, held high the banner of reform of Yueju Opera, starring in Lu Xun's masterpiece "Sisterhood of the Xianglin", and was the first to form a comprehensive artistic mechanism integrating choreography, directing, dancing, sound and beauty in Chinese opera. "The first to begin the mechanism of combining capitalization and realism in Chinese opera art.

Modern (Contest for Glory)

After the founding of New China, a number of excellent plays emerged, such as the Peking Opera "The Generals and the Harmony" and "The Legend of the White Snake", the Pian Opera "Qin Xianglian", the Yue Opera "Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai", and the Kun Opera "The Fifteen Guan", etc. The renowned historian Wu Han also authored the historical Peking Opera "Hai Rui Strikes Down the Officials". Later, a series of excellent works were released, such as the Peking Opera "The White-haired Girl", "The Tale of the Red Lantern", "The Strange Attack on the White Tiger Regiment", the Yueju Opera "The Story of the Western Chamber", the Chinese opera "Liu Qiao'er", the Shanghai Opera "The Spark of the Ludang", and the Yu Opera "Chaoyang Gully", etc. The Peking Opera "The Gang of Four" was crushed by the Chinese government. After the "Gang of Four" was crushed, the opera team was quested for, and a large number of traditional operas that were loved by the public but were suspended or criticized, such as the Peking Opera "Xie Yaohuan", the Putu Opera "Chuncao Trespassing", and the Lu Opera "Sisters Marrying Easily", etc., were also re-staged. The development of opera art today, through different eras, constantly adapting to the new era, the needs of the new audience, to maintain and carry forward the traditional artistic characteristics of the nation, the opera community puts forward the "modernization" and "opera" problem, has become a new historical period of active exploration and active practice of the problem. The issue of "modernization" and "operaization" has become a matter of active discussion and practice in the new historical period.

Chinese opera is a synthesis of three different art forms: folk song and dance, rap and burlesque. It originated from primitive song and dance and is a comprehensive stage art style with a long history. It is only after the Han, Tang, Song and Jin that the more complete art of opera is formed, which is synthesized by literature, music, dance, fine arts, martial arts, acrobatics and performing arts, and there are about three hundred and sixty kinds of them. It is characterized by the aggregation of many art forms by one standard, reflecting their respective personalities in the *** same nature. Chinese opera and Greek tragedy and comedy, Indian Sanskrit drama and known as the world's three major ancient theatrical culture, after a long period of development and evolution, and gradually formed a "Peking Opera, Yueju Opera, Huangmei Opera, Review Opera, Yu Opera," the five major types of opera as the core of the Chinese Opera Garden. There are many kinds of Chinese opera, according to incomplete statistics, there are more than 360 kinds of Chinese opera in various ethnic areas, and there are tens of thousands of traditional repertoires. Other more famous types of opera are: Kunqu opera, drop play, Cantonese opera, Huaiju opera, Sichuan opera, Qinqiang opera, Shanghai opera, Jin opera, Han opera, Hebei opera, Henan Yuezhong, Henan Luzi, Hunan opera, Hunan flower-drum opera, and so on.