Kneel to analyze the difference between western ancient drama and China ancient drama! ! !

To explore the differences in plot form between western drama and the legends of Ming and Qing Dynasties in China Square, we must first admit that western drama has complex plots as well as the legends of Ming and Qing Dynasties.

Western drama has always had a tradition of focusing on plot and conflict development. The twists and turns of the plot are the soul of a drama, and it is all the power that a drama can infect and educate people. As early as Aristotle's time, he put forward a complete plot theory, that is, a head, a body and a tail. Diderot also attached great importance to the plot handling in drama, on the one hand, it required the plot to have realistic foundation and social content, on the other hand, it also emphasized the role of creative imagination in handling the plot. Diderot believes that the contradiction arising from different interests in the same thing is dramatic plot development. Hegel inherited the first two viewpoints and further put forward the conflict theory from the perspective of personality. Conflict is the division and opposition of two cosmic forces (life ideals) suffered by characters in a specific situation. Tragedy shows the conflict and adjustment of two opposing ideals or "cosmic forces". In his view, the conflict and collision of the characters' own personalities is an effective means to promote the plot of the drama.

On the basis of Southern Opera, the legends of Ming and Qing Dynasties have divided and added scripts, and widely used the forms of North-South music combination and music collection, and the role division has become more detailed. The evolution of these systems provided more abundant means for the legends of Ming and Qing Dynasties to tell one story or even several stories. Li Yu said in "Follow the Fate": "Singing should have feelings. Aika, the plot in the song is also. If you understand the plot and know its meaning, you will look like this when you sing. " It shows that people have realized the importance of the plot at that time.

In the mid-Ming Dynasty, the adaptation of old dramas was still the mainstream of legendary creation, with such masterpieces as The West Chamber of Cui Yingying (Li Jingyun) and The Sword (Li Kaixian) appearing. This is mainly because at the beginning of the rise of legend, literati writers could not master and use long drama narrative and lyric skillfully subjectively; Objectively speaking, the disorder of Nanqu opera itself is not convenient for writers to learn and create, so they have to sort out and adapt it on the basis of ready-made scripts. In the process of adaptation, some related plots are often combined to make the plot more tortuous. In the late Ming Dynasty, with the infiltration of literati's aesthetic taste, the script system of Ming and Qing legends was gradually standardized. More and more original new dramas began to appear, but they also inherited the rich characteristics of early legendary adaptations.

Let's talk about the differences in plot form between western theater drama and China Square Ming and Qing legends from the perspectives of theater environment, stage style and reception aesthetics.

Judging from the stage style and theater environment—

The stage style of western drama has experienced a long-term development process. In ancient Greece, the theater opened a series of steps along the hillside, officially opened a platform in the open space at the foot of the mountain, established a circus with a diameter of about 66 feet, and gradually added a building named "skene" behind the circus; In ancient Rome, the theater was built on the flat ground, surrounded by long stone walls, and the stage was usually built very high, with two gorgeous back walls as the background. Medieval drama developed from church prayer. Naturally, the most unique theater is the church. The stage is centered on the altar of the cross, with heaven on the right and hell on the left. Renaissance drama entered the room and the frame stage was born. Take the frame stage commonly used in western drama as an example. This is a closed stage style. There is no doubt about the tightness of the three walls. When the Freedom Theatre was born in Europe, Jean Rullan, the screenwriter and spokesman of the Freedom Theatre, had such a talk about the "fourth wall".

The audience must temporarily forget that they are in the theater. To this end, we think it is necessary to turn off the lights immediately when the curtain is opened, so that the stage picture will be more prominent and the audience will be more focused on the stage ... actors should perform as if they were at home, and should not make them applaud or resent the audience's reaction. There should be a fourth wall in front of the stage, which is transparent to the audience and opaque to the actors.

Even after Brecht put forward unfamiliar performance methods, it is necessary to admit the closeness of the frame stage. Brecht proposed that unfamiliar performance methods should establish a dialectical relationship among actors, roles and audiences, that is, actors are above roles and control roles, and there is a separation between them; The audience maintains an independent position of appreciating art and evaluating society. They are no longer any accessories of stage performances, but individuals who think and judge. The purpose of breaking the fourth wall is to get the actors out of the role and keep the audience calm and independent, rather than denying the physical and psychological space between the stage and the audience area.

China's traditional drama has a long historical evolution. The titles of each stage are also different. Ancient song and dance artists used natural terrain to perform at first, and then began to appear earth platforms, called "terraces". "Campeng" began to appear in the Western Han Dynasty. The theater shed is an auditorium building, and the audience is condescending to watch hundreds of plays. This is an unfixed open-air performance venue. The Tang Dynasty was the formative period of China opera, and the performers' performance area began to be built, and a "music shed" appeared. The music studio is made of brick and wood, and the stage is covered with a roof. The design and production are exquisite, but they are not fixed performance venues. During the Song and Yuan Dynasties, a fixed performance venue "Goulan" began to appear. The fixed and concentrated performance venue is called "Washe Goulan". Goulan is a trinity of viewing shed, music shed and terrace, with stage, backstage, viewing mat and sacred building. For the convenience of watching, the audience is low in front and high in the back, all of which are wooden structures, shaped like a theater. The Ming dynasty began to decline and was replaced by "tea gardens" all over the inner and outer cities. At first, there was no special stage in the tea garden, but it was made at the table. Later, large tea gardens began to set up special stage for performances, which was the most popular in Qing Dynasty and was called "tea garden" or "teahouse". After the mid-Qing Dynasty, the tea gardens in Beijing have been quite large. With the formation and development of Beijing's four Huizhou classes and Peking Opera, people don't mainly enjoy tea, but mainly go to see operas. The tea garden was renamed XX Garden, or Opera Garden.

Taking the teahouses and theatres in Ming and Qing Dynasties that accompanied the legendary performances in Ming and Qing Dynasties as examples, we can see that the openness of the theater environment of China traditional operas directly led to the openness of its stage style.

People come and go in the theater, and various external factors will enter from time to time. The performance on the stage becomes a part of the theater, which is different from the western theater. Even if there is a wall at the entrance of the backstage to separate the backstage from the foreground area, when the actors lift the curtain up and down, they can still get a glimpse of the backstage. Therefore, the stage features of China traditional operas are understood as the style of the pictures. People used to say "go to the opera house" instead of "go to the theater". It can be seen that, to some extent, the stage performance at that time has become an ornament of teahouse culture. As for the increasingly popular homework performances in Ming and Qing dynasties, the characteristics of openness are more obvious. From the perspective of reception aesthetics, the differences of audience's position, perspective and attitude in different theater environments.

From the perspective of reception aesthetics—

As mentioned earlier, the Renaissance western drama entered the room and the mounting stage was born. This is a completely closed theater environment, and the stage is the core of the theater. The audience entered the theater to watch the performance. After the opening ceremony, the audience was in a dark field and needed to keep quiet. All the attention is focused on the stage, and the lighting, sound, scenery and dance beauty are all aimed at strengthening the special position of stage performance. Actors who exercise in this range are of course the protagonists. The audience is only in a subordinate position. It's like we've heard of "director-centered theory" and "actor-centered theory" in the theater, but we've rarely heard of the concept of "audience-centered theory". The audience enters the theater as the affected party, and the real actor is the performance of the actor on the stage. The cast performed a "imitation of serious and complete behavior with a certain length", and performed the story and plot. The core position of stage performance determines the importance of the plot.

At the same time, it is undeniable that the audience's reaction has a certain influence on the stage performance, but all the audience can do is applaud or reflect indifference, and there can be no more actions. The long history of western drama has left us not only rich text and performance experience, but also a set of established rules for watching drama. These rules make many dissatisfied audiences lose their outlet. They may belittle the play anywhere outside the theater, but in the theater, they must abide by the rules of the game in the theater.

In China, the subordinate position of the stage has a long history. In the evolution of the former theater, we can see that the "viewing shed" appeared in the Western Han Dynasty, which is a kind of auditorium building. The performance was held in the open air, and the audience sat in the "viewing studio" to watch the performance. It was not until the Tang Dynasty that the actors' performance area began to be built, and a "music shed" appeared.

The theater is a completely open space. Lights are on everywhere in the stage and auditorium. People come and go, runners and snacks sellers, "throw hot handkerchiefs", bring tea and water and welcome them. From time to time, various external factors will enter. The stage is different from the attention of western theaters. It is embedded in the theater and becomes a part of it. The real protagonist is not the stage or the actor, but the audience sitting under the stage. This is related to our tradition of despising actresses since ancient times. The entertainment of the ancients was originally limited. People come to the theater for entertainment and killing time. It can even be regarded as a very popular social place like a French cafe. The play on the stage is like the tea they drink and the melon seeds they knock. This is a form of entertainment. The only difference is that the existence of opera performances can bring them more sense of accomplishment. Many people have followed the older generation to the theater since childhood, and have their own presuppositions on the outline of the play, the costumes of the actors, the advance and retreat, and the singing. The process of going to the theater and the opera house is a process of measuring the performance of actors by their own standards. Of course, we often hear the saying of "holding the horn", but what these people value is "I" to "hold the horn", not the horn itself.

Therefore, after analyzing the theatrical features of western drama and the square features of China's drama, we can specifically talk about the differences in plot styles between western drama and Ming and Qing legends.

Differences in plot styles

Western drama and Ming and Qing legends have complicated plots, but their purposes of rendering plots are not the same.

When Aristotle mentioned the function of tragedy in the sixth chapter of Poetics, he said that tragedy is "to cultivate this emotion by arousing pity and fear". The original text of "Xiu" is "Tasis", which means purification and catathers. There are many stories about Ka Tasis. No matter what its interpretation is, we can be sure that it is the core position of western theater performance. The core position of stage performance determines the importance of the plot. The process of drama performance is a process in which a small plot promotes a big plot, and the closed theater environment provides the possibility for the creation and accumulation of drama atmosphere. Aside from the educational function of drama, purely speaking, people go to the theater to see the play, which is what we call the plot. Therefore, it can be considered that drama creates complex plots because it is the art of plots.

Although Ming and Qing legends also have complicated plots, the open theater environment and the dominant position of the audience in the theater determine that the plots of Ming and Qing legends are in a subordinate position in catering to the audience's appreciation interest. Under the bondage of feudal ethics in China, the hierarchy is very strict, with benevolence, righteousness, courtesy, wisdom and faith, and strict men and women. However, the theater is an exception. Many truths hidden in ordinary life are expressed here in a special way. The audience is not watching the plot, because these operas have been familiar to them since childhood. What they expect, on the one hand, is a certain situation in the opera, which has the sound of their previous experience in watching drama, on the other hand, it is to satisfy their own selfish desires in an aboveboard place and intellectually. This kind of snooping is often between subjective and objective, conscious and unconscious. Love, joys and sorrows, poverty and lust between men and women ... things that usually exist under feudal ethics but can't be seen enter the room in the name of drama and enter the vision of ordinary people.

Therefore, it is precisely because of the differences between drama and legend in theater environment and main position that they have different rhythms in plot style. Western theaters have the characteristics of being closed. By virtue of the external form of the theater, some people are gathered together, and their behavior is bound by the rules of watching the drama. During the performance, all kinds of stage means further focus people's attention on the smaller scope of the stage, on the performance of the actors, on the plot of the turntable and the development of conflicts, thus ensuring that the drama rhythm can be carried out in an orderly way in its own way. The rhythm of drama must be reasonable and directional. It's like sitting in a cinema and watching a movie. It was dark and all the attention was focused on the only flashing screen. No matter what the plot is, it is a purposeful and related linear communication, whether it is to alleviate pedantry or nervousness. Like the waves of the sea, one wave pushes another, showing a gradual upward trend. The previous plots are all for the climax of the last one. At the same time, the rhythm of drama is also closed, and there is no room for interference from any external factors. It is necessary to provide a completely self-contained environment to condense the power of the plot. Emotion, psychology, behavior and state ... slowly condensed until the last point suddenly broke out. The closeness of the theater makes the cohesion of the drama possible.

Legend is more like sitting at home watching TV, which is more random. As a drama, you don't need too much concentration to adjust your mood. The legendary rhythm requires that the audience can walk in and out at any time. It's better to listen to the voice and articulate than to look at the figure. The legendary rhythm is even, and this moment is very important. But every moment when the audience applauds has a rich background, and where the background comes from is contained in the complex plot. When people come to the theater, there is always a collective unconscious voyeurism. The more twists and turns the contradiction behind each moment, the more clues and the more complicated the psychology, the higher the gold content of this moment, and the more satisfied people are when watching the play. Few theaters really sing a legend from beginning to end, so there is a saying that the point of the play is an instant, and the story behind it has been completely presupposed in our childhood. Anyone who appears at this moment can directly bring * * * songs without complicated and long preparation.