The Development Course of Kunqu Opera

Kunqu Opera, formerly known as "Kunshan Tune" and "Kunqu Opera", is an ancient opera tune and genre in China. It has been called "Kunqu Opera" since the Qing Dynasty, and it is also called "Kunqu Opera" now. Kunqu Opera is one of the oldest traditional operas in China, and it is also a treasure of traditional culture and art in China, especially opera art, which is called an "orchid" in a hundred gardens.

Kunqu Opera was produced in Kunshan, Suzhou as early as the end of Yuan Dynasty (14 century). It, Haiyan originated in Zhejiang, Yu Yaoqiang originated in Jiangxi, and Yiyang Opera originated in Jiangxi. Known as the four major operas in Ming Dynasty, it belongs to the Southern Opera system.

Kunshan dialect began as a folk song ditty. At first, its distribution area was limited to Suzhou, but during the Wanli period, it spread from Suzhou to the south of the Yangtze River and the north of Qiantang River, and also flowed into Beijing during the Wanli period. In this way, Kunshan Opera became the most influential vocal opera from the middle of Ming Dynasty to the middle of Qing Dynasty.

Kunqu opera is the most influential drama from the middle of Ming Dynasty to the middle of Qing Dynasty. Many operas are developed on the basis of Kunqu Opera, and they are called "the father of all kinds of operas, the teacher of all kinds of operas" and "the mother of China operas". Immediately, Wuxi Kunqu Opera Society played a role in the prosperity and promotion of Kunqu Opera. Kunqu Opera is a kind of opera with the most complete performance system in the history of China opera. It has a deep foundation and rich heritage. It is the result of the high development of Han culture and art in China and occupies an important position in the history of China literature, drama, music and dance. The performance of Kunqu Opera also has its own unique system and style. Its greatest characteristics are strong lyricism, delicate movements and ingenious and harmonious combination of song and dance. From the linguistic point of view, the play was originally divided into Nanqu and Beiqu: Suzhou dialect was the main part in Nankun, and Bai Yun and Bai Jing were the main parts in Beikun.

Kunqu opera has reached the highest level in all aspects of opera performance with its gorgeous and euphemistic singing, elegant recitation, delicate performance, elegant dance and perfect stage setting. Because of this, many local operas, such as Jin Opera, Pu Opera, xiang opera Opera, Sichuan Opera, Gan Opera, Guangxi Opera, Yue Opera and Fujian Opera, have been nourished by Kunqu Opera in many ways. Many plays in Kunqu Opera, such as Peony Pavilion, Palace of Eternal Life and Peach Blossom Fan, are immortal works in China's ancient opera literature. Kunqu Opera has inherited the literary traditions of Tang Poetry, Song Poetry and Yuanqu, and many tunes are the same as Song Poetry and Yuanqu. This laid a good cultural foundation for the development of Kunqu Opera, and also brought up a large number of Kunqu Opera writers and musicians, among whom Liang Chenyu, Tang Xianzu, Hong Sheng, Kong, Li Yu, Li Yu and Ye Ya were outstanding representatives in the history of China opera and literature.

Judging from the historical development of Kunqu Opera, 400 years before18th century was a period of gradual maturity and prosperity of Kunqu Opera. During this period, Kunqu opera has been showing people all kinds of customs in the world in a perfect way. It is this rich and beautiful performance atmosphere and arty pursuit that makes Kunqu opera more and more elegant and difficult to understand. /kloc-In the late 8th century, local operas began to rise, which broke the long-standing performance pattern. The development of traditional Chinese opera has also changed from aristocratic to popular, and Kunqu opera has begun to decline.

In the mid-20th century, the decline of Kunqu opera became more obvious, and many Kunqu artists turned to perform popular Peking Opera. 1949 with the founding of New China, China's traditional opera has been vigorously supported and revitalized, and Kunqu opera has been fortunate to be reborn. 1956, The Fifteen Biographies, adapted and performed by Zhejiang Kunqu Opera Troupe, had a wide influence throughout the country. Premier Zhou once said with emotion: "A play saved a play." Since then, Kunqu Opera Troupe has been restored in many parts of the country.

On 2001May 18, UNESCO published the first batch of "representative works of human oral and intangible heritage", including China's Kunqu opera art, and China became one of the first 19 countries to receive this honor.

During the Jin and Yuan Dynasties, there were zaju dramas in the north, and many roles were stories. Southern opera originated before and after Jian Yan's crossing to the south. During the period of Hongwu, the Southern Opera became a legend.

According to the article "Introduction to Southern Ci" written by Wen Zhiming and Wei Liangfu, "Gu Jian was in the Yuan Dynasty. Although he is three miles away from Kunshan, he lives in Qiandun (now Qiandeng Town) and is good at southern ci and ancient fu. Kukuo Timur listened to his good songs and begged again and again to be unyielding. He is good at making Nanyin, and the title was called "Kunshan Tune" from the beginning. Gu Jian of Kunshan was the founder of Kunqu Opera at the end of Yuan Dynasty. There is Gu Jian Memorial Hall in Qiandeng Town, Kunshan today. Kunshan Opera in Ming Dynasty is one of the four major operas. At the end of Yuan Dynasty, after the Southern Opera spread to Kunshan, it was combined with local folk tunes to form a vocal cavity with local characteristics, which was greatly developed under the impetus of musician Gu Jian. According to Zhou Xuanyong's Lin Jingxu, Zhu Yuanzhang, the Ming emperor, also noticed Kunqu opera, which shows that the scale of Kunqu opera was not small at that time. During the period of Zheng De and Jiajing in Ming Dynasty, Wei Liangfu, a Qingqu singer, inherited the ancient tradition of "taking culture as music", improved Kunshan dialect, adopted Zhongzhou rhyme system, and performed it according to the pronunciation, making Kunqu opera delicate and euphemistic, hence the names "Ink and Wash Tone" and "Ink and Wash Drama". Later, the legendary new works of Kunqu Opera, Yu Jun Ji, Feng Ming Ji and Huan Sha Ji, appeared, and the new tune became the dominant opera tune. From Jiajing in Ming Dynasty to Qianlong in Qing Dynasty, Kunqu Opera flourished for more than 200 years, and the stage art of Kunqu Opera also matured in the middle of Qing Dynasty. Since then, the Flower Department has risen, and Ya Bu, represented by Kunqu Opera, has gradually withdrawn from the stage, but his voice and performing arts have profoundly influenced later operas, such as Beijing Opera. The singing activities of folk music clubs have also emerged in an endless stream, becoming the main force to preserve singing norms.

Flower is also called "random play". According to Volume 5 of Yangzhou Original Boat Record, as a general term, it is called "playing around". Xu Fuming pointed out in the article "Talking about Random Bomb" that "Random Bomb" is also called "Random Bomb", "Bad Bomb" and "Random Talk". The musical style of coloratura is lively and noisy. Kunqu Opera is a new kind of drama in China in Ming Dynasty. From the late16th century, it gradually occupied the central position in the drama world and became the most important drama form in the next 200 years. Kunqu Opera has gone through a long process from its origin to its formal formation.

According to the information we have seen, the local operas in Yongjia, Zhejiang Province rose rapidly during the reign of Emperor Song Guangzong. It is called Southern Opera because it mainly sings southern folk music. Southern Opera retains many characteristics of folk art, is not bound by any rules and regulations, and its performance is free, lively and random. In the process of development, Southern Opera gradually absorbed various mature traditional music forms since the Tang and Song Dynasties, and gradually became rich and meticulous. However, due to the lack of the participation of upper-level intellectuals, they were unable to overcome their innate or acquired defects for a while, so that they lingered at the low level for a long time.

At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, on the one hand, Nanxi drew valuable artistic experience from the northern zaju, on the other hand, it also attracted some intellectual elites to join, showing a brand-new look. Zhu Yuanzhang, the founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty, read Gao Ming (? -1359) wrote the southern opera script "The Story of the Pipa", which was well received and specially rehearsed in the court. It can be seen that the southern opera in the early Ming Dynasty has begun to move towards a more elegant artistic realm, which has been positively affirmed by the upper class.

The reason why Southern Opera can make such rapid progress is closely related to its own flexibility, which is reflected in the reproduction and change of its aria. From the Southern Song Dynasty to the Ming Dynasty, the Southern Opera was constantly combined with local dialects and folk music in the process of communication, and a variety of local tunes with different styles were developed. Kunqu opera is the predecessor of Kunqu opera, which is formed by combining Kunqu opera with Kunshan local music and Wu dialect. It must be noted that Kunshan dialect at this time is only a musical form of oratorio, and it has not been used to perform a complete drama plot. Before the mid-Ming Dynasty, Kunshan dialect was not very popular, and it was only popular in Suzhou. At that time, Suzhou was far ahead in economy and culture, and it was the leading metropolis in southeast China. The prosperity of economy has promoted the development of culture and art, and Kunqu Opera has come to the center of the social and cultural stage under this background.

Wei Liangfu, a folk musician, has developed the artistic potential of Kunqu Opera, making it an important singing form (the date of birth and death is unknown). Like many outstanding folk artists in the history of China, Wei Liangfu's life is very short. According to some materials in people's works at that time, we can know that he lived in Jiajing and Qin Long years of Ming Dynasty, originally from Zhang Yu, Jiangxi Province, and lived in Taicang for a long time, taking singing folk tunes as his profession. This occupation exposed Wei Liangfu to all kinds of music from the north and the south. Through comparative study, he is increasingly dissatisfied with the insipid and simple tunes of Kunshan dialect, lacking ups and downs. So he worked closely with a group of like-minded artists and began a comprehensive reform of Kunshan Opera.

This reform is divided into two aspects: singing and accompaniment. Wei Liangfu and other folk musicians, on the basis of the original Kunshan accent, have combined the advantages of various tunes in the north and the south, and at the same time borrowed the minor music of Jiangnan folk songs to blend a new tune different from the past. When they sing, they pay attention to the coordination of the tone and melody of the lyrics, and at the same time lengthen the syllables of the words, producing a soothing rhythm and giving people a special musical aesthetic feeling. This is Kunqu opera, which has been handed down to future generations. Wei Liangfu is good at singing, but not proficient in musical instruments. In the process of reforming Kunshan dialect, he got great help from Hebei native Zhang (the year of birth and death is unknown). Zhang is a very talented folk musician. He gave full play to his expertise, helped to absorb the northern tunes into the southern Kunqu opera, and at the same time reformed the three-stringed accompaniment instruments of the original northern tunes, and used them together with Xiao, flute, piano, pipa, gongs and drums in the accompaniment of Kunqu opera, making its singing euphemistic, delicate and smooth, which was called "ink and wash cavity".

The success of Kunqu Opera reform has brought great fame to Wei Liangfu. Once this new song came out, it immediately conquered the audience with irresistible artistic charm. A group of folk musicians learned the singing skills of Kunqu Opera from Wei Liangfu, which made this beautiful tune spread rapidly in the surrounding areas. The earliest drama performed in the form of Kunqu Opera is generally considered as "The Story of Shaving the Yarn" by Liang Chenyu (about 152 1- about 1594) from Kunshan.

It is said that Liang Chenyu once won the Biography of Wei Liangfu, and he has high attainments in singing Kunqu Opera. He is highly respected in Kunshan, and the surrounding singers and actresses rushed to the door to ask him for singing skills. Some people even traveled thousands of miles to learn from their teachers. In cooperation with some folk musicians, Liang Chenyu further processed the reformed Kunqu Opera in Wei Liangfu, and created the script of "The Story of Huansha", which was put on the stage in the form of Kunqu Opera.

After Wei Liangfu's reform and Liang Chenyu's artistic practice, the influence of Kunqu Opera is growing, and it soon spread to Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces, becoming the main drama form in these areas. Folk artists played a key role in the initial formation of Kunqu Opera. After obtaining a relatively complete drama form, Kunqu opera began to develop to a higher level. At this time, many first-class writers and scholars participated and wrote a lot of scripts with beautiful poems and vivid plots. At the same time that Liang Chenyu wrote The Story of Waving Yarn, two other equally influential works were born in the drama circle of Ming Dynasty, namely Sword by Li Kaixian (1502- 1568) and Ming Story of Ming Dynasty. They were not originally created for the performance of Kunqu Opera, but later they were sung in Kunqu Opera and became an important repertoire of Kunqu Opera.

Plays such as Huansha Ji, Sword Ji and Feng Mingji mainly focus on political themes, while other plays before and after this, such as Xu Lin's Embroidery (1462- 1538) and Gao Lian's Jade (date of birth and death is unknown). Since then, politics and love have become the two major themes of Kunqu Opera, which are sometimes independent and sometimes closely combined.

In the Wanli period of the late Ming Dynasty, another great playwright, Tang Xianzu, was born in the history of Kunqu Opera (1550- 16 16). He was 15 years older than Shakespeare, a great British dramatist (1564― 16 16), and they both died in the same year. Tang Xianzu's Peony Pavilion boldly put a boudoir girl's love dream on the stage, and once it was performed, it immediately caused a huge sensation. When Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream won bursts of laughter in the Elizabethan London Theatre, the mysterious and beautiful dream in The Peony Pavilion was also intoxicating in China's rich gentlemen's family performance places or folk open-air theaters. The Peony Pavilion breaks through the conflict between emotion and reason in China's traditional ethics and tries to pursue an ideal view of love, that is, "the living can die and the dead can live".

In the Ming Dynasty, there was also a Kunqu Opera playwright with the same status as Tang Xianzu. His name is Shen Jing (1553 ――1610), and he is from Wujiang, Jiangsu. Shen Jing is obviously not as fierce as Tang Xianzu. His thoughts are orthodox and conservative, and he takes a completely positive attitude towards the current social system, which is very obvious in his Kunqu opera. From the perspective of artistic practice, Shen Jing's creation of Kunqu opera pays attention to the artistic characteristics of the drama itself, and provides a standard sample suitable for stage performance for playwrights at that time and later generations, which has its own undeniable positive significance. Shen Jing's Chivalrous Man is based on the story of Song Wu in Water Margin. It objectively reflects the social reality of traitors, judicial disorder and corrupt officials, and holds that these are concrete manifestations of moral corruption, and the struggle between Song Wu and hooligans and bullies is a just act worthy of affirmation. The end of the play shows that only by consciously maintaining the normal social order centered on the emperor can the moral standards destroyed by a few people be restored. Shen Jing led and influenced a group of playwrights in the same area with his own artistic ideas, and formed a group of Wujiang writers in the field of Kunqu opera creation.

The emergence of drama masters such as Tang Xianzu and famous works such as Peony Pavilion and the formation of powerful playwrights such as Wujiang School marked the beginning of the heyday of Kunqu Opera creation. Under the impetus of Tang Xianzu and Shen Jing, the creation of Kunqu Opera in Ming Dynasty changed with each passing day, with fruitful results and a large number of famous dramas. Even some dramas of the Yuan Dynasty were absorbed and transformed into Kunqu scripts, which were performed in the form of Kunqu opera.

With the appearance of drama, the performance of Kunqu opera is extremely prosperous. The most concentrated areas of Kunqu Opera performances are Jiangsu, Anhui and Zhejiang. In order to meet the needs of society, during the Wanli period, many folk professional troupes appeared in these areas, among which Ruixia and Wu Huizhou in Suzhou, Hao Kecheng and Chen Yangxing in Nanjing, Yushan in Changshu and Cao Chengban in Shanghai were the most famous. During the Apocalypse and Chongzhen, the number of folk Kunqu Opera Troupes increased rapidly, and there were dozens of Kunqu Opera Troupes in Nanjing alone.

Compared with folk troupes, Kunqu Opera troupes formed by private families of literati have more numbers and more frequent performances. Due to the careful guidance of writers and scholars and sufficient economic security, the performance of family Kunqu Opera Troupe is generally exquisite, and the overall level often exceeds that of folk operas.

In the Ming Dynasty, in addition to the performances of folk Kunqu Opera Troupe and family Kunqu Opera Troupe, the performances of amateur performers on the stage were also an important part of Kunqu Opera performances. These amateur actors include writers, scholars, well-off civilians, folk musicians, freelancers and prostitutes with high cultural literacy.

At the end of the Ming Dynasty, Kunqu opera entered the court and became a new form of entertainment for emperors. At the same time, Kunqu opera broke through the geographical restrictions, spread widely in the north, and was truly and thoroughly accepted by the whole society. At this stage, there are many famous Kunqu artists in Ming Dynasty, which embodies a kind of overall strength. Whether it is a playwright, a scholar or a folk Kunqu artist, they are diligent in thinking and brave in practice, relying on their own abilities and talents to constantly lead Kunqu opera to a higher level.

After entering the Qing Dynasty, Kunqu opera still maintained the momentum of sustained prosperity. At the end of Ming Dynasty and the beginning of Qing Dynasty, following Wujiang School, a group of Kunqu writers appeared in Suzhou, later called Suzhou School. Compared with their predecessors, they pay more attention to reality and try to save the times and correct the deviation of human nature with their own creations. Although Suzhou school playwrights did not completely get rid of the influence of bureaucratic gentry, they also brought a lot of fresh breath to the field of Kunqu opera. The political scenes in different periods of the Ming Dynasty and the thoughts and living conditions of the emerging citizen classes have been reflected in their works to varying degrees. In art, they surpassed the aesthetic tradition of Kunqu Opera and showed a grand narrative style. Among the playwrights of Suzhou School, Li Yu (the year of birth and death is unknown) has achieved the greatest success. He fully grasped the characteristics of Kunqu opera performance, combined the stage and literariness in his creation, and wrote more than 30 outstanding Kunqu opera works, such as Zhong Qingpu, Qian Zhongshu Zai, A handful of snow and Zhan Huakui, which won the love of a large number of audiences at that time and later generations and had a great influence on the Kunqu opera stage in the late Ming and early Qing Dynasties.

Soviet playwrights who spanned two dynasties paved the way for the creation of Kunqu opera in the early Qing Dynasty. During the Kangxi period, the Palace of Eternal Life by Hong Sheng (1645- 1704) and Peach Blossom Fan by Kong (1648- 1765438) were collected twice.

There was also a very important playwright Li Yu in the early years of Qing Dynasty (1611-1680). Li Yu is a gifted writer. Li Yu wrote ten Kunqu operas in his life, and also wrote "Casual Notes", which occupies an extremely important position in the history of China opera theory. He has many novel ideas in art, but his political thoughts are conservative. He believes that playwrights should deal with the ideological content of their works artistically, so that the audience will be unconsciously influenced by feudal ethics in the aesthetic process.

The masterpiece of Li Yu's Kunqu Opera creation is The Kite's Mistake. The hero is a scholar named Han Shixun, whose parents died young and lived alone with his father's good friend Qi Tianqi. Qi, the son of the Qi family, is ugly and vulgar. One day he was flying a kite outside, and the kite fell into a family named Zhan. When I got the kite back, I found that Miss Jangar had written a poem on it. Han Shixun specially put another kite into the exhibition hall for testing, and soon received an invitation from Miss Zhan Jia. He went to Zhanfu for an appointment, but he didn't expect to meet an ugly and stupid Miss Zhan Jia, so he ran away in a hurry. Later, the ugly Miss Zhan Jia married Qi Shi, and Han Shixun won the first place in the civil service. Qi Tianyi told him to marry the beautiful Miss Zhan Jiaer. Han Shixun mistakenly thought that he was going to marry an ugly girl he had seen before and resolutely refused. It was not until I met the bride in the bridal chamber that the misunderstanding was completely clarified. This is a humorous customized comedy with mediocre ideas and skillful skills, and the stage performance effect is very ideal.

From the early years of the Qing Dynasty to the middle of the Qing Dynasty, Kunqu continued to maintain a relatively strong momentum, and various families and professional troupes were still the main force in the performance. The performance of court Kunqu opera has also developed. The early Qing Dynasty was mainly a place to perform various classic plays. During the Qianlong period, some cultural officials were ordered to create some long dramas, and Kunqu opera performances were completely included in the palace culture. Kunqu opera from the folk once surpassed other simple and rough operas with its beautiful and fresh style and reached the peak of the art of the times. Unfortunately, in the middle of Qing Dynasty, after a long period of prosperity, Kunqu opera gradually lost its original vitality and began to decline. As we all know, the prosperity of Kunqu opera can not be separated from the full investment of many writers and scholars. It was not until Tang Xianzu, Li Yu, Hong Sheng, Kong and other intellectual elites who led the trend of the times disappeared from the historical horizon that Kunqu opera fell into unprecedented silence. It is difficult for mediocre successors to reach the artistic level of the previous generation of masters, but they only know how to create according to increasingly rigid norms and launch one work after another with the same face and no new ideas.

In art, the exquisite and elegant Kunqu opera has also begun to show a side far away from public appreciation. Too carved lyrics, too long singing and too slow rhythm make it more and more difficult for ordinary audiences to accept.

The ban issued by the Qing government, including prohibiting officials from owning the family opera troupe, made the family Kunqu opera troupe disappear, and the close relationship between literati and Kunqu opera was fatally destroyed. Kunqu opera has lost its last and most important social foundation and can only continue to decline through hard support.

After the mid-Qing Dynasty, various local operas gradually emerged. They are rough in style, vigorous in vitality and diverse in forms, and are called "flower parts". Under their fierce impact, Kunqu opera gradually withdrew from the mainstream stage, which also announced the arrival of a new era in the history of China drama. These new operas are often folk operas with simple plots and mainly songs and dances, or adaptations of traditional operas such as Kunqu Opera. Compared with Kunqu Opera, which is called "Ya Bu", its language is rough and messy, and even has the shortcomings of logical confusion and syntactic errors. This is because the writers of these plays are mostly folk artists with low educational level. They don't know the rhythm of poetry and haven't systematically studied traditional classic works, but they have some incomparable advantages, that is, they are quite familiar with folk art and popular language, they know the mentality of ordinary audiences and they know how to attract their attention. The local operas they created are close to life and audience, thus subverting the elegant aesthetic tradition of Kunqu opera and showing its simple, simple and stirring artistic charm. It can be said that one of the important reasons why these local operas can defeat Kunqu Opera is that they have the sincerity and simplicity that Kunqu Opera possessed when it conquered the audience. In other words, the decline of Kunqu opera is precisely because it betrayed the successful artistic creed and went to its opposite side.

In order to compete with local dramas, Kunqu Opera Troupe has made some reforms. In the Qing Dynasty, folk performing artists no longer performed complete Kunqu opera on the stage. On the basis of the original Kunqu opera, they picked out some wonderful scenes or paragraphs and recreated it by genius. In the performance, they gave full play to their singing skills, enhanced the aesthetic feeling and difficulty of the dramatic movements, and added some funny and interesting plots to dilute the gap brought by elegant lyrics to the audience. This gave birth to the "passbook drama". In the long-term performance process, these Kunqu Opera "Zhezi Opera" have been enriched and developed in both content and form, enriching many vivid details, making the content of the play more perfect and the characters more vivid, thus having lasting artistic charm and making people never tire of watching it.

In addition, folk performing artists in Qing Dynasty specially created some short plays with popular content and martial arts dramas with hot scenes, and performed on the same stage as traditional plays. These new dramas are full of life, fresh and lively, lively and interesting, and are deeply loved by the audience at that time. In this way, after the mid-Qing Dynasty, Kunqu opera continued to be active on the stage with its classic repertoire "Zhezi Opera" and newly edited short plays, and it regained its artistic vitality in the competition with various local operas.

On the other hand, in the competition of stage performances, the artistic elements of Kunqu Opera were absorbed by various local operas, which contributed to the prosperity of local operas and the birth of Peking Opera. The emerging Peking Opera has inherited some of Kunqu Opera's repertoires and qupai, followed Kunqu Opera's business and performance system to a great extent, and overcame the limitations of Kunqu Opera's language, thus winning the support of the audience and becoming an important drama after Kunqu Opera.