What are the artistic characteristics of Chinese opera?

The art of opera has a magnificent charm of beauty. It is a collection of the beauty of traditional art, containing the beauty of character, the beauty of dramatic mood, the beauty of dance, the beauty of music, the beauty of art, the beauty of language, and the beauty of rhythm, which systematically and comprehensively embodies the aesthetic concepts and the aesthetic psychology of the Chinese people. The aesthetics of opera is produced and developed in this broad and deep artistic vein with a long history, forming a unique aesthetic tradition. It is of urgent significance to systematically organize the idea of opera aesthetics and explore the basic features of the classical opera aesthetic tradition for the development of the red-like national cultural tradition and the art of opera.

Classical opera aesthetics, as a theoretical discipline, is mainly a study of the aesthetic consciousness of the theoretical form of classical opera, that is, a study of the insights and expositions of the ancients on the aesthetic nature and aesthetic laws of opera. Most of these insights and expositions are embodied in classical opera aesthetic categories and propositions, so classical opera aesthetics is to study the association and development of classical opera aesthetic categories and propositions as the main content. In the vast number of theoretical and quasi-theoretical writings on opera (including monographs, preface and postscripts, commentaries, notes, shakuji, etc.), we can see that the predecessors of the past generations have put forward many aesthetic categories and assertions of the opera, such as: Dao, reason, qi, qi, god, form, meaning, interest, taste, understanding, emptiness, reality, truth, falsehood, emotion, scene, chemical industry, painter, chi yun, wind and spirit, imagery, nature, and dangxing. The categories such as "the song can be Xing Guan Qun Grudges", "Legends are all fables", "fill in the lyrics are still true color", "fill in the lyrics need to use the original color language", "because of the shape of the object", "copying the feelings of the more true", "cheap phase color, expensive color", "more false less real, half of the true and false", "gas and tone and clean, God condensed ZhiYi", "the beauty of the work without work" and other assertions. Some of them are not theorized to a sufficient degree, but they belong to the category of aesthetic consciousness of the theoretical form. It is the creation, connection, development and transformation of these categories and assertions that constitute the aesthetic system of classical opera in China. It is in the exploration of opera aesthetics that opera aestheticians of all generations have put forward these categories and propositions, enriched and developed them, and gradually completed the theorization of opera aesthetic consciousness. Our identification of the basic features of classical opera aesthetics is a preliminary understanding of the aesthetic consciousness of these theoretical forms.

It is worth noting the close connection between classical opera aesthetics and its parent traditional Chinese culture. The aesthetic consciousness of opera is rooted in the deep soil of traditional culture, and the aesthetics of opera has been y influenced by ancient Chinese philosophical thought. Ancient philosophy as the theoretical foundation of opera aesthetics, not only some opera aesthetics categories come directly from ancient philosophy, such as: Taoism, rationality, qi, form, god, etc., are extended from philosophy to aesthetics, and opera aesthetics related to the nature of aesthetics, aesthetic experience, aesthetic interest, aesthetic way and aesthetic realm, etc., are all subjected to the decisive influence of ancient philosophy, and have an inextricable link. At the same time, since opera, though originated in ancient times, was formed in the Song and Yuan Dynasties in the late feudal society, various literary and artistic varieties that preceded the formation of opera, such as poetry, lyrics, prose, music, dance, fine arts, novels, and operatic arts, etc., had developed and matured into systematic and rich aesthetic ideas, and the art of opera as a synthesis of various arts could not help but be affected by the aesthetic ideas of various arts. As a matter of fact, most of the aesthetic categories of classical opera aesthetics were introduced from classical poetry, literature, music, painting and dance. For example, imagery, mood, and interest were introduced from the theory of poetry, God, form, emptiness, and reality from the theory of painting, and truth and falsehood from the theory of fiction. This situation requires that the understanding and clarification of the categories and propositions of classical opera aesthetics must first be carried out from the perspectives of traditional philosophical thought and aesthetic thought, and only after clarifying the basic features of traditional philosophy and aesthetics is it possible to correctly understand the basic features of opera aesthetics. And on this basis, it is possible to further clarify the changes that have taken place in the connotation of these aesthetic categories and ideas when they were introduced into the art of opera, to study the specific meanings they contain in the aesthetic approach to opera, and thus to examine the uniqueness of them and of the aesthetic system of opera constituted by them.

The content of classical opera aesthetics roughly contains the following three aspects: the aesthetics of opera ontology, the aesthetics of opera creation and the aesthetics of opera appreciation. The aesthetics of opera ontology mainly explores the basic aesthetic characteristics of opera art. The aesthetics of opera creation and the aesthetics of opera appreciation, on the other hand, mainly discuss the regular aesthetic problems in the process of opera creation and appreciation. Classical opera aesthetics has a close connection with opera sociology and opera aesthetic psychology. Influenced by Chinese classical philosophy, classical opera aesthetics attaches great importance to the social value and role of opera, therefore, the exploration of the close connection between opera and social life has become an important aspect of aesthetics. Classical philosophy emphasizes on enlightenment, not on formal and detailed argumentation, and emphasizes on the actual proof of life or inner mysterious proof, not on logical argumentation. After a long time of experience, one suddenly realizes something, and the doubts and difficulties are dissolved, i.e., one writes directly what one has realized, without careful proofs. Classical philosophy believes that the empirical and practical fit is the real proof. As a result, the form of Chinese philosophical writing was often fragmentary, and philosophers did not consider a long systematic treatise to be more valuable than a fragmentary discourse; instead, they often regarded a long exposition as a kind of superfluous wart. Influenced by classical philosophy, the aesthetics of opera also has this characteristic. In addition to a few writings on opera aesthetics with a more systematic exposition and internal system, most of them are summaries of opera creation practice and appreciation experience, and are often descriptive and intuitive. As these contents are mostly the products of an epiphany, these epiphanies are more often integrated with the psychological functions of representation, emotion, imagination, and understanding, and thus are rich in psychological content and have prominent psychological characteristics. The discussion of psychological experience and feeling occupies an important position in the aesthetics of opera, and many aesthetic writings involve the content of aesthetic psychology. Therefore, classical opera aesthetic psychology has become an important part of opera aesthetics. Ontology of opera, sociology of opera and aesthetic psychology of opera constitute three important aspects of classical opera aesthetics. The basic features of classical opera aesthetics discussed below in this paper are a rough summary of these three aspects.