What is the historical background of the birth of Yueju Opera?

In the second half of the 19th century, there were many talented folk singers in Zhejiang Sheng County. Around 1851, Jin Qibing, a farmer from Matang Village in Ganlin, had the ability to sing about people, objects and improvise, and his impromptu songs were so visual and interesting that they made the listeners laugh.

Jin Qibing with his own talent, constantly singing, formed a unique set of Xuanzhu, Buddhist songs, pastoral, ditties and the essence of the four work together in one of the new singing.

It is characterized by simplicity and fluency, the lyrics can be more or less, no rigid format, and easy to learn and remember, loved by the farmers. At that time, there were many young people learning to sing from him.

Later, Jin Qibing, together with his disciples Jin Hualin, Zhang Guoshen, Xiang Laixin and Jin Shuiqing, adapted the folk stories and legends circulating in Sheng County into small plays with one or two characters and simple storylines, such as Ten Pieces of Head and Golden Girl, and sang them door-to-door.

These small operas, with their plots and stories, were very appealing to the people, thus giving rise to the new form of "singing on the ground". This kind of door-to-door music was warmly welcomed by the peasants, and was the main source of Yueju Opera.

Circa 1862, the "floor singing book" began to expand to neighboring counties. By 1875, it had spread to Yuhang, Anji and Lin'an in Zhejiang Province. At that time, the best singers were Jinzhitang and Xianglaixin.

In the Spring Festival of 1879, Jin Zhitang and other singers sang in the Yueyanglou Tea House on Fangjing Street in Yuhang County, sitting at a small stage table. The main singers sat and stood, and sometimes walked around the small table to sing. Accompanied by singers at the table, drums and boards, to help sing. This is the stage of "walking on the table".

Walking table book is named according to the form of singing. Jin Zhitang and Xiang Laixin in the singing of the book after the walk, the official Jin and Lin and Xiang Laixin renamed "Jin Zhitang" and "Xiang Jintang", and the name embroidered in the table on the table surroundings, hanging on the walk table. From then on, Jin Zhitang and Xiang Jintang became famous in Hangzhou, Jiaxing and Huzhou areas.

Jinzhitang originally sang books in the four-worker ensemble, which had a long and rigid drag, and could not be fast or slow. And long plays with many characters, plot twists and turns, tunes are not adapted to the changes in the plot of the play, which formed a contradiction between the content and tunes.

In 1889, Jin Zhitang and others were singing at the Hulubiao river port on the outskirts of Yuhang, when they came across the three jumping actors from Huzhou. They sang a persuasive tune, a soft tune, the help of flexible, can be long or short, according to the singers need, can be used at will. And the hand hit the three jumping board while singing, hit a variety of different rhythms, supplemented by singing.

Jin Zhitang was very happy to hear it, and learned the essence of the persuasive tune, and after continuous practice and improvement, created a new song. The new song was named "Pinkah Tune", also known as "Lake Tune", after the words "Pinkah Tune" and "Pinkah Tune".

The birth of the "Xin Gar Tune" not only greatly improved the art and effect of singing the book, but also laid the foundation for the birth of Yueju Opera in terms of music and singing. The development of the tune, language and performance created the necessary artistic conditions for the evolution of Yueju Opera from opera to theater.

In the spring of 1906, rap began to evolve into a form of opera performed on grass platforms and temple platforms in rural areas, known as the "Small Song and Instrument Class", or "Small Song Class" for short. As the actors were all male, mainly farmers, they were commonly known as "men's class".

In March of this year, when the spring plowing was about to begin, the actors of Sheng County's Singing Book returned to their hometown one after another. As soon as they returned home, the townspeople gathered in front of their houses to listen to the actors' stories about their time outside.

Li Shiquan and Li Maozheng, the brothers from Dongwang Village in Ganlin Township, have their homes filled with people. Once they talked about singing outside the book, feel that the form of singing book is not updated, more people less market, singing book is not good to sing. To this end, Li Shiquan and Li Maozheng brothers thought of learning from Yuyao parrot song class, and proposed a person a role, dressed up to the stage performance, the idea was echoed by the neighboring villages singing book actors.

This year, on the third day of the third month of the lunar calendar, Li Shiquan, Li Maozheng and Gao Binghuo, after careful preparations, successfully performed the opera "Double Golden Flowers" for the first time on a stage made up of four rice buckets and door panels.

"Double Golden Flowers" tells the story of Wang Wenlong, a scholar who, after winning the Beijing examination, goes on a mission to a foreign country and is cut off from his hometown. His wife, Cai Jinlian, and his brother-in-law, Wang Wenhu, flee the countryside and sell songs for a living.

The sisters of a rich family, Talking Golden Flower and Talking Silver Flower, sympathize with Wang Wenhu's life by listening to the songs and ask him to come to the garden at night and send silver to him. However, the matter was overheard by the outlaw Ma Chao, who preceded Wang Wenhu to the garden that night, killed the maid and robbed the silver.

And later Wenhu was sent to the government as a murderer. Jinlian went to the Wuchang Yamen to lodge a complaint for her brother-in-law's wrongdoing. The person who sat in the courtroom was none other than Wang Wenlong, who had already been crowned as a feudal king, so the couple met and Wenhu was cleared of the wrongdoing. Later, Wenhu won the gold medal and married the Jinhua sisters.

This was an official performance with preparation, scripts and roles, marking the birth of Yueju opera, and Dongwang Village became the birthplace of Yueju opera in all but name.

But at that time, this new type of opera was not officially called Yueju Opera, and there were several ways to call the troupe, one was called "Xiaoge Ban", and the other was called "Dudu Ban" for its "Dudu's Dudu" percussion sound.

The performance in Dongwang Village has no red robes and green coats, no dancing figure, and no silk string accompaniment. There is no make-up for the male roles. When a man plays a female role, he spreads the braid at the back of his head, combs it into a bun, and applies rouge and lead powder on his face. Some of the female actors in the grass-roots classes put on makeup, apply blush on both cheeks with red paper dipped in water, and do not draw eyebrows, or use potting ash to draw eyebrows, which is known as "clean water dressing".

The old Shaoxing Taipan of Sheng County wore red and green python robes and skirts, juggled swords and danced with guns, and was accompanied by big gongs and drums, and sang in a high-pitched voice, playing mostly plays for the gods of heaven and earth and the palace.

Dongwang Village to play more family ethics and love stories of children, singing is "Pine Oh Pine Oh" similar to the folk song ditty Pine Oh tune, and singing book tunes. Compared with the Shaoxing Daban, it is quiet and elegant, so it is called "Small Song Book Class".

Small song refers to the tune itself, compared with the content of the Shaoxing Daban show and killing scenes, not only small, but also feel the text, which named "small song and paperwork class", referred to as "small song class".