Qinqiang and Silk Road Culture: A New Creation in Qinqiang Research

Qinqiang and Silk Road Culture: A New Creation in Qinqiang Research

? Chen Gang

(College of Fine Arts, Shaanxi Normal University, Xi'an, Shaanxi, 710119)

In the hundred gardens of Chinese opera art, the Qinqiang has a long history and is profound and profound, which is the fruit of the nation's aesthetic and cultural creativity in an extremely sweet and special way. As a style of opera art originating in the northwest region of Shaanxi and Gansu, Qinqiang is rooted in the vast western land, displaying colorful western flavors, and its dissemination area is exactly superimposed on the ancient and long Silk Road, which has widely absorbed and integrated various artistic elements and civilization factors involved in the exchange and dialogue between eastern and western cultures in the process of its growth, maturity and dissemination. At the same time, as an important type of the ancient clapper chamber system, Qinqiang is the inevitable product of the development of traditional Chinese opera culture to a certain stage, in the process of the development and formation of the art of opera has played a significant role in incubating and promoting, and all of this, and the Qinqiang grows up with the basic cultural soil of the ancient East-West exchange channel that is, on the Silk Road has a close connection. It can be said that the emergence and spread of the Qinqiang is not only a product of the Silk Road culture, but also an aesthetic symbol of the inclusiveness and comprehensiveness of Chinese opera art itself. This is the most basic realization I gained from reading Jiao Haimin's new book, Qinqiang and Silk Road Culture.

The Qinqiang and Silk Road Culture is part of the "Chinese Opera Art and Local Culture Series" (Jiangsu People's Publishing House, 2020 edition), which organically combines opera and local culture, focusing on "history" and "culture". It focuses on "history" and "culture", and explains the distinctive regional characteristics of each type of opera by analyzing the history and culture of the region in which each type of opera is located. Qinqiang and Silk Road Culture is an innovative academic achievement that y reflects the relationship between Qinqiang, an important Chinese opera genre, and the Silk Road culture, the main cultural form on which it is based.

In short, Qinqiang and Silk Road Culture starts from the Tang Dynasty, and explores "Changes and Shadows: Small Opera Courses as Pioneers," "The Story of Gods and Ghosts and Historical Biographies," "Guanzhong Drama of the Tang and Song Periods and Silk Road Culture," "Theatre in Guanzhong and Silk Road Culture," and "The Culture of Transmission" in the Tang and Song Periods. The earliest opera voices on the Silk Road--Xiqinqiang" "Clappers and Huqin: Fusion and Separation" and other key issues in the history of Qinqiang's artistic generation and development. The book does not only discuss the history of Qinqiang. In other words, the book does not only explore the history of the Qinqiang's origin and development as an opera, but more from the aspect of cultural exchanges and influences, discovering the historical situation of the opera's conception, growth and development in Qin, and expounding and revealing the cultural soil and environmental conditions of the Qinqiang's artistic generation. Among them, particularly noteworthy academic insights are concentrated in the following areas:

First, on the Dunhuang text and Qinqiang. It centers on the understanding of the meaning of the character "变". The author believes that it is difficult to adequately express the fact that this is an authentic foreign word that came via the Silk Road, and therefore, it is very important to grasp its meaning. At the same time, with the help of Dunhuang documents rediscovered in modern times, especially a large number of Tang and Song dynasty variant scrolls, a new understanding of the relationship between Chang'an and Dunhuang has been gained, and further stimulated the understanding of the relationship between Qinqiang art and Silk Road culture. The author has searched and sorted out some historical facts to support this point: for example, the inscription and the picture of the emperor painted in Cave 220 of Mogao Caves in Dunhuang in the 16th year of the Zhenguan reign (642) are from the painting samples of Chang'an at the beginning of the Tang dynasty; Dunhuang preserved the poetry collection written by the monk Wuchen of Shazhou, who sang and harmonized with the great virtues of the two streets of Chang'an during his visit to the imperial court in the 5th year of the Great Middle Ages (851), and so on. This shows that the cultural channel from Chang'an to Dunhuang is not only the trunk line of the Silk Road, but also the path of gradual integration of various foreign cultures into the Han Dynasty, and its historical and cultural significance to the Qinqiang art needs no comment.

Secondly, the influence of the Silk Road on China's local culture, including the art of opera, is not all Buddhism. At that time, in addition to Buddhism, there are three barbarians, as well as a large number of Western music and other arts and culture. For example, Manichaeism and Buddhism are often confused in doctrine and practice. Specifically to the Chinese opera, to the Qinqiang art, just say that the influence of Buddhism is obviously not enough, therefore, the title of the Silk Road culture is more accurate. What is more, a great deal of foreign music, including musical instruments, entered the Middle Kingdom, some of which belonged to Persian culture, and obviously not to Buddhist culture. At the end of the Tang and the Fifth Dynasties, the Changwen was suppressed and gradually declined in the Song Dynasty, but it survived in the oral performances of the folklore. "The name 'Changwen' even survived in oral performances until the early 20th century. In old Beijing, there was an entertainment center called the Southern Brothel. The entertainers there were said to come from southern China. The most interesting thing about ...... was their performance of 'Baolu', which was called 'Xuanju' in the south and 'Singing Changwen' in the north. How this latter name was preserved for five dynasties until the 20th century is a mystery." (See Mei Weiheng, "Tang Dynasty Changwen: A Study of Buddhist Contributions to the Production of Chinese Vernacular Novels and Operas," Zhongxi Bookstore 2011)

Once again, the Meilian Opera, which has been a constant throughout the history of traditional Chinese opera, has remained in the north as an even older group. The Meilian Opera is an important form of opera performance that was directly converted from "transformation" when Buddhism was introduced to China. It first appeared in Bianliang, the capital city of the Northern Song Dynasty, where it was performed for several days in a row and inherited not only the seven words of the Buddha's praises, but also the reason why the Meilian Opera has grown in strength is that it is closely attached to the folk festivals in which the traditions of Buddhism and Taoism were blended, and the performance of the Meilian Opera has brought richness to the opera. The performance of Meilian Opera brings rich stage performance (such as repertoire and various kinds of vaudeville skills) to the opera. The Meilian Opera is performed in both large and small plays, but in the north it is mostly performed in shadow plays, for which the shadow plays of Guanzhong in Shaanxi Province have attracted particular attention and are still very active today. Huayin Old Cavity Shadow is one of the focuses of the book, and its origins and formation, performance system, and even the transformation in the new era, etc., are all rich in cultural value, as shown in the title of an article by a local scholar of Huayin discussing the art of Old Cavity, which reads: "Myths of Shadow Opera Deduced from the Weihe River Horns". Inspired by the outstanding "eight questions" in the history of opera raised by Prof. Zeng Yongyi (New Theory on the Origin and Flow of Opera, Culture and Art Publishing House, 2001, p. 7), the author analyzes that the poetic praise style need not necessarily be later than the emergence of the quqi style, and regarding the later change from quqi to panels in the music of operas, the author thinks it should be is to follow the general law of the development of Chinese opera art, and plays mainly on the viewpoint of Wang Yiqun, a famous scholar, who believes that Wang's doctrine is an inseparable organism, which should be interpreted in terms of local phonetics, folk music, specific musical instruments, and methods of playing and singing, and should not be biased.

Repeatedly, outside the system of variant texts, Tang and Song miscellaneous operas also existed in the Guanzhong region of Shaanxi, which can be corroborated by some of the important unearthed relics, including the brick carvings of kabuki music in the tomb of Li Maozhen in Baoji in the period of the Five Dynasties and the brick carvings of music and dance in the tomb of Feng Hui in Xianyang, which were excavated in recent years, and the recently unearthed mural paintings of miscellaneous operas in the tomb of Song miscellaneous operas in Panglue in Hancheng, etc. What these opera relics show is that Shaanxi opera and Chinese opera have the same development path, while the special features are concentrated in Shaanxi folk theater (or puppet theater). This also further confirms the famous scholar Sun Kai Di's point of view: "Qin opera, although I don't know when it began, but its sound since the Ming Dynasty, that is, with the north and south of the song parallel, seems to have a long history of its origin, on some of the inheritance, is by no means a late start, and look at the syntax of the words of the body style, the real and the singing of the scripture changes in the text of the verse of praise for the proximity of the suspected sound of this lineage." (See Sun Kai Di: "Puppet Theater Kao Yuan", Shanghai Shangmai Publishing House, 1953)

Also, the main instruments of the Qinqiang, the clapper and the huqin, are not only a full manifestation of the fusion of cultures, but also an important symbol of the later division of the Qinqiang. The two seem to have parted ways at first blending, and this could essentially serve as a path for exploring the sound of clappers and pihuang. The book suggests that bangkas and pihuangs belong to the plate-type variation, and come from the same source. In Shaanxi, the second largest opera voice in the country, Erhuang, belongs to the Pihuang voice, which, according to research, was gradually crowded out from the Xi'an area. Therefore, the author especially emphasizes, Guanzhong hometown early two yellow cavity circulation, can be said to be deep-rooted, while many people later ignored or did not notice this point.

Jiao Haimin's book "Qinqiang and the Silk Road culture" can achieve so many valuable academic insights, is inextricably linked with a number of subjective and objective conditions, such as the author's own broad academic vision, rich academic accumulation, mastered a lot of vivid first-hand information, the use of more advanced research methods. Among them, it is especially necessary to emphasize Jiao Haimin's love for Qinqiang art and traditional culture, his dedication to academic research, and his idealism in the spirit of humanism. From the references listed in the book, it can be seen that in order to write this work, Haimin searched, read and studied hundreds of relevant ancient books, monographs, theses, archaeological excavation reports, including extremely rare handwritten documents, etc.; from the book attached to the relevant precious pictures, images, etc., it can be seen that the Haimin query, sorting, integrating the results of many, many arduous field investigations, and many of the work! A lot of work is difficult to realize only by personal strength, but he even did it. Here is an example: so far found the old script of the earliest Qianlong ten years (1745) handwritten copy of the "Empty City", there are two paragraphs of Zhuge Liang's lyrics are extremely special, does not conform to the general format of the lyrics. Exactly how to sing, has been a mystery. Old script for private collection, not easily shown, this is especially valuable. To this end, Jiao Haimin many times tirelessly visit the late Zhang Quan-sheng son of the old cavity artists Zhang Xinmin, sincere, gold and stone. Finally, once, Zhang Xinmin and another old artist **** with the repeated pondering, think up Zhang Quansheng when the singing method for the "slippery work ruler" (as if singing the same read out). On this basis, Jiao Haimin believes that "slippery work ruler" should be the name of a popular song circulating in the Guanzhong region, which also confirms the traces of this type of opera influenced by Song and Yuan lyrics.

Something like this is reflected in the book, but it is rather limited. In fact, in the process of face-to-face exchange and discussion with the author Jiao Haimin himself, I know that Haimin can be said to be fully devoted and committed to the study of Qinqiang art and culture. In such a fast-changing, quick success and quick profit era, Jiao Haimin has truly achieved the "bench to sit ten years cold, the article does not write an empty sentence." Thus giving us such a dedication to the new era of Qinqiang art research landmark works.

This work, love of opera, the study of opera people do not want to miss, love of Qinqiang, the study of Qinqiang people do not want to miss, because you can take this to know what it is, but also to know why; love of traditional culture, the study of traditional culture people also do not want to miss, the Qinqiang culture of the past life and present life, the ancient art of opera history of transmutation, in this work has been exceptionally in-depth and vivid outlining, discovery. At the same time, because of the Silk Road culture from this novel perspective to explore the Qinqiang art, naturally, the book has also become an important achievement of the Silk Road culture research.

Qinqiang, opera is naturally not only like the book is presented in these, the ancient Qinqiang, a long history of national opera art all the way full of hardships. But fortunately, the Chinese opera, which comes from the people and lands on the soil of the broad national life, and the Qinqiang art, which has absorbed multiple cultures and is rooted in multiple cultures, still has a vivid charm until today. I believe that Haimin and other contemporary scholars rich in academic value of the relevant research will be conducive to further excavation of opera art, including the Qinqiang, y rooted in the foundation of the regional culture, the reason, but also will deepen the study of the art of opera, enhance the renewal and development of contemporary opera art play an important role.

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