Does China's traditional opera originate from witchcraft?

Does China's traditional opera originate from witchcraft?

Can an elegant and dignified Mei Lanfang emerge from the crazy dance of the wizard Nuo God? This is a problem that has puzzled the study of China's ancient drama for many years, and there have been different opinions in international academic circles. Pluralism and monism in the origin of China's drama: the relationship between "sacrificial drama" and "entertainment drama"; The relationship between "big drama" and "small drama" and so on. In fact, these three issues are intertwined and can be summed up as a big debate: religious ceremonies and the origin of China's plays.

Here, it is necessary to review the relevant academic history.

19 13 years, Wang Guowei wrote the History of Drama in Song and Yuan Dynasties, which became the pioneering work of drama research in China's modern academic history and was regarded as a classic. At that time, Wang Guowei had noticed the relationship between religious ceremonies and the origin of drama. In the History of Drama in Song and Yuan Dynasties, he proposed that "the drama of later generations should be superior to witchcraft", and said that "either the position of gods, or the image of gods, or the dance of gods has covered the bud of the drama of later generations, and it has already existed. Although the rise of witchcraft is in the world of emperors, it has fallen far behind. " The essence of drama art lies in dress-up and performance, and the sacrificial activities in ancient society have already included the performance factors of drama.

Although Wang Guowei acknowledged the significance of witchcraft and sacrificial rites to the origin of China's plays, he judged that China's plays were formed in the Song and Yuan Dynasties by the appearance of scripts, and emphasized the literariness of the plays. Since the Wang Dynasty, there have been disputes and lawsuits about the origin and formation of China's plays. In the meantime, there were not only great people in the field of drama and music, such as Ren Bantang, Aoki Masako, Feng, Zhou, Dong Meikan and Zhang Geng. , Cen Jiawu, Chen, Sun Zuoyun, Wen Yiduo, Zhang, Cao Yu and other subjects also expressed their views. Today, a century later, the discussion on this issue is still different, and several representative views are as follows:

Zeng Yongyi, a scholar in Taiwan Province Province, China, believes that China traditional drama refers to traditional opera. "China Opera is a kind of comprehensive literature and art presented in a narrow theater by performing stories, taking poetry as the essence, closely combining music and dance, and adding acrobatics, by speaking and singing literature, by dressing up excellent performers and by the first-person narrator" (New Theory on the Origin of Drama, 2008). Therefore, the origin and formation of China's traditional drama are diverse, and religious ceremony is only one of the factors or ways of the origin and formation of China's drama.

Japanese scholar Tanaka Issei believes that not only drama, but also all literary forms, such as poems and novels, originated from primitive religious sacrifices. China's drama originated from the sacrificial ceremony, and its origin is unitary, because the sacrificial ceremony not only includes the structure of the drama, but also includes drama elements such as songs, dances, stories and costumes.

Kang Baocheng, a scholar at Sun Yat-sen University, holds that "drama" refers to "the art of actors playing roles on the stage and publicly performing the story." Ci Hai is a kind of drama, a product of the development of China's drama to a certain stage, and a mature form of China's drama. As early as 100 years ago, Wang Guowei had clarified the evolution process of China's drama from its origin to its formation and maturity: witchcraft, singing and dancing (origin)-exorcism-the embryonic drama of the story (formation)-Song and Yuan drama (maturity). After several generations of scholars' exploration, the academic circles have more and more understanding of the issue that China's plays originated from witchcraft and witchcraft, and the history of drama has been and is being rewritten.

However, in recent ten years, the voice of questioning the origin of Wang Guowei's drama from witchcraft theory has sounded again. Even put the root of the controversy on Wang's head: "Wang Guowei also had great problems when he investigated the origin and formation of China's plays. He believes that China's plays should be self-defeating and strive for perfection, which is quite misleading to future generations. " (Xie Yufeng: Wang Guowei: Reading Today, Literary Heritage, 2005) When discussing with Japanese scholar Tanaka Issei, the scholar also said: "We can't imagine that an elegant and dignified Mei Lanfang can be produced from the crazy dance of the wizard! Professor Tanaka' regards this kind of sacrificial drama, especially the witchcraft drama combined with witchcraft, as the starting point for China's drama to reconstruct the history of Chinese drama', and its theoretical premise is extremely unreliable. " (Xie Yufeng: Questioning an Alternative History of Chinese Drama —— Reading Tanaka Issei's History of Chinese Drama, the fourth in the series of debates on the history of drama)

After the publication of the discussion article, more and more heated academic debates were triggered: Tanaka Issei wrote an article in response, and Xie Yufeng wrote another article for discussion. Soon after, in 2008, Fu Jin published "Questioning the Origin of China's Drama from Sacrificial Rites" in Literature and Art Research. In the second year, Tanaka Issei issued a document in response to "Re-discussion on the important role of folk sacrifice culture in the history of drama origin"; In the same year, Fu Jin criticized Tanaka Issei's point of view again. Professor Tanaka, you are really wrong this time.

The frequent interaction between international academic circles shows the importance and complexity of this professional problem.

China culture has a long history, and China's plays have gone through a long time from its origin to its formation and maturity. How difficult it is for us to go through the fog of time to restore the truth of history and clearly present the whole process of China's drama development! Although a lot of history has disappeared, isn't it right to look back and study history? Studying the origin of drama is to trace back to its distant and mysterious logical starting point. Of course, Wang's statement that drama originated from witchcraft is mostly from the perspective of actors. However, from the perspective of drama morphology and drama genesis, it is more appropriate to say that China's plays originated from witchcraft.

Among many opinions, I am in favor of one of Professor Kang Baocheng's concluding opinions:

"The origin of China's drama is an unavoidable issue in any Chinese drama history book, and it is also an academic issue with different opinions. Whether it is witchcraft theory, labor theory, song and dance theory, foreign theory, word variation theory, comprehensive theory (pluralism), it is possible to tell a certain truth from a certain side. However, from the perspective of drama morphology and drama genesis, Wang Guowei's theory of drama origin may be the most convincing and should have the longest vitality. " (Centennial Sacrifice to the History of Song and Yuan Dynasties —— On the Origin of China's Drama by Wang Guowei, a paper to be discussed at the 20 14 annual meeting)

Examining the long history of China's plays from witchcraft, we can't help but feel Wang Guowei's profound vision as an academic master again. ;