In which period did China's opera face painting first appear?

Face painting is the art of make-up modeling used for stage performances by painting on the faces of traditional Chinese opera performers. Face painting varies for different professions. For the "Sheng" and "Dan", the facial makeup is simple and slightly powdered, called "Junzheng" and "Suifang", "Clean Face". The "pure line" and "ugly line" face painting is more complex, especially the net, are heavily applied oil color, complex patterns, so called "flower face". The face painting in opera mainly refers to the face painting of Jing. The "clowns", who play theater roles, put a small piece of white powder on the bridge of their noses and are commonly called "small flower faces".

Origin

On the origin of stage face painting there are several ways of saying, one is from China's Northern and Southern Dynasties and Northern Qi, thriving a variety of face painting

In the Tang Dynasty song and dance theater, also known as the big face or generation of the face, in order to glorify the king of Lanling's war and virtues of the men's solo dance, said the king of Lanling, Gao Changgong, fierce and good at war, the appearance of a woman, every time out of the battle, are wearing a ferocious false masks, and repeated He was victorious in every battle. In order to glorify King Lanling, people created a solo dance for men, also with masks. Opera actors on the stage sketching face is used to help increase the character character traits, appearance, identity status, to achieve rich stage color, beautify the effect of the stage, stage face is people's minds the concept of harmony and unity of perception.

Almost all human groups have had totem worship in their tribal times. Chinese forefathers depicted some object or concept they worshipped, and worshipped it with certain rituals. The Book of the Later Han Dynasty - Zang Hong Zhuan (臧洪传): "Sitting in a line of witch-historians, 禜 prayed to the gods." The wizards in charge of the rituals had to wear certain masks. The world-famous Sanxingdui unearthed dozens of bronze masks, according to evidence is held in ancient Shu ritual supplies. Another example is the "Nuo ritual", which is since the pre-Qin era, there is a welcome to the gods to expel the epidemic ghosts of the customs and rituals. Nuo ceremony several times a year, Nuo held before the wax. The Analects of Confucius - countryside party ":" countryman Nuo, and standing on the steps of the door." Nuo ritual performers to wear a certain mask, the Qing dynasty Zhaolian "Xiaoting continued to record - hi up Qinglong two dances" said: "and in the court outside the Danjiang between, for the tiger and leopard beast shape, dressed as eight people riding Yu Ma for shooting, quite along the meaning of ancient Nuo rituals, known as the "hi up dance"." Visible ancient Nuo ceremony, people must wear a mask. Song Dynasty Mei Yaochen "send Zhengzhong Duguan Zhi Mushu" poem "I'm ashamed of the lowly husband, is not different from Nuo with a face," can also prove that people in the Nuo rituals are required to wear a mask. This masked religious dance has a great influence on folk dance.

Face painting has a long history. Facebook originated in the mask, the face will be painted directly on the face, while the mask will be painted or cast in something else on top of the graphics and then worn on the face, in ancient China, the ritual activities of the witch dance and Nuo dance, the dancers often with masks. In Sichuan, north of Chengdu, the ancient Shu ruins "Sanxingdui" unearthed artifacts, there are dozens of bronze masks, is 4,000 years ago, the ancient king of Shu fish mallard rituals held supplies. Lanling King Changgong of Northern Qi Dynasty, the temperament of the brave and strong martial arts, but handsome like a woman, he fought the war with a mask, to help its power. In the Tang Dynasty's song and dance "King Lanling's Entry Song", the actor playing King Lanling had to wear a mask. This may be the origin of face painting in theater.

Related Records

Ancient masks featured simple symbols, "idea symbols" and ""expression symbols,"" which were used to express a particular idea or expression. To the theater, these symbols are painted directly on the face to express more complex and rich ideas and expressions. In the Tang Dynasty, there was a record of "painting the face", and Meng Jiao wrote in "Song of Strings": "Driving the stalls and beating the drums and blowing the flute, the skinny ghosts dyed their faces but their teeth were white", which indicated the use of dyeing and painting of the face to express the image of the ghosts and gods. In the sixth volume of "Qingkang Zhongchixi" of Xu Mengxin's "Three Dynasties of the North Gate" of the Song Dynasty, it is recorded that two sycophants of Emperor Huizong of the Song Dynasty used "powder and ink to make a play", uttering obscene and vulgar words in the marketplace, to bewitch the emperor. Song Dynasty "face painting" is divided into "clean face" and "surface" two categories, flower face is also very simple. Painted a white nose, red eye circles, the purpose of "business in the funny". Because the Song Dynasty miscellaneous dramas, gags accounted for a large proportion. Yuan dynasty miscellaneous dramas prevailed, in the "Daxing scattered music Zhongdu Xiu in this do field" in a large mural, appeared in the Yuan miscellaneous dramas in front of the character of the "whole face" of the spectrum, breaking through the past vice net kind of white and black line of the basic tone, with some kind of character color.

The Ming Dynasty was already the world of legendary plays performed by the Kun Opera, with rich performances and a fine division of labor, with the Jing divided into the Pure (big face), the Vice-Pure (two faces) and the Ugly (three faces). Pure and ugly are all painted faces, and each character has a specialized face. The background color is mostly designed according to the depiction in rap literature or the actor's own imagination. For example, Guan Yu's base color is red and Bao Gong's is black. Its basic spectrum is the exaggerated eyebrow and eye part. In the Ming Dynasty, people kept their hair and their faces were drawn below the forehead, while in the Qing Dynasty, people kept their hair in braids and their heads were shaved above the head, and their faces were also drawn above the head. The proportion of the patterns also changed. Compared with the Ming Dynasty, the face painting was complicated and simple, with the same base color. In the middle of the Qing Dynasty, the rise of local theater, the face of the net clowns in each place is very different, there are obvious local characteristics and folk art breath, a variety of local theater about more than 300 types of plays, mostly in the 18th century after the rise. The prosperity of the local theater, making the repertoire of the subject matter of the increasing number of characters and roles, the line division of labor more detailed. In addition to the Jing line, there was the addition of the Wu Jing. The colors of blue, green, yellow, gray and orange were added.

The Formation of Peking Opera Face Painting

Peking Opera face painting was gradually formed after the formation of Peking Opera at the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th century. In the process of formation, Peking Opera face painting drew on the face paintings of many local opera genres. On the basis of the local opera faces, the advantages and disadvantages were taken. After several generations of famous actors and opera artists continued to explore, research and reform, the formation of Peking Opera face painting. Peking Opera face painting is also the most complete face painting system with the most faces on the opera stage so far.

The Peking Opera face painting is a branch of the traditional Chinese face painting, which has a general character of face painting and its own characteristics. Peking Opera face painting draws on the experience of Hui, Han, Kun, Qin, and all kinds of theater. From the beginning of a more complete system, face painting is an inherent part of all the stage art of traditional Chinese opera, leaving the stage and the characters in the play, the face painting will lose its fundamental significance.

The net in the opera, the ugly hook face and the raw corner of the color, Dan corner beat powder is the same nature of the facial make-up means. Must be harmonized with the line, cut the end of the mask and other character style, and singing, reading, doing, playing, turning and other forms of performance coordination, so acting is the front and back stage of the integration of the art of opera work. A face of the spectrum, a play in the face with, must be embedded in the overall stage art, which is the face of the art of wholeness.