Characteristics of Sanqu

(1) Sanqu is divided into two forms: poem and divertimento.

(2) Every Sanqu has a Qupai, which belongs to a certain palace tune.

(3) Each Qupai has its own rules in terms of word number, sentence number, level tone and rhyme. Therefore, the front of each Yuan Song is crowned with the category name, Gongdiao name, Qupai name and Quti name. As for the "set number", it is also called "set", "scattered set" or "big order", which is developed from Daqu in Tang and Song Dynasties and Gongdiao in Song and Jin Dynasties. Its customization generally has three characteristics: first, the whole set must rhyme consistently; Second, there is an end; The third is composed of more than two songs with the same palace tune. The divertimento expresses relatively complex content with its long length, either lyrical, narrative or both.

Poems and sets of numbers are two main forms of Sanqu, one is short and pithy, the other is rich and graceful, but in addition, there is another one with music. Band songs are composed of different tunes in the same palace tune, such as Yaner's "Winning by Picking Tea", "Scolding" and "Grateful for Huang En", with no more than three tunes at most. The lead singer belongs to the ditty group, which is much smaller than the number of sets and has no ending. He is just a special form between poetry and sets of numbers. Sanqu and traditional Chinese opera are different, but they are closely related. Wang Shizhen, a critic in the Ming Dynasty, thought that Yuanqu was evolved from the early "Ci". Since the Jin and Yuan Dynasties entered China, the Hu music used has become noisy and fast, and it is difficult to get in tune with the previous words, so a "new voice" has emerged. It can be seen that Sanqu came with northerners entering the Central Plains and became popular in the streets. Later, Sanqu was absorbed by literati and became a professional creation.

Sanqu has a variety of themes, from which we can appreciate the profound Taoism and its ideological significance. First of all, in pastoral landscape works, the spirit of "Taoism is natural" can be said to be full of it. Sanqu writers express their distant interests through the description of natural scenery, so as to integrate themselves with nature. Secondly, in the theme of chanting poems, the author used many images to decorate the fairyland and expressed his admiration for Taoism. Thirdly, on the theme of chanting history, the author praises the quiet life of hermits through longitudinal tracing, which embodies the aesthetic feelings of riding the wind and waves. In terms of artistic expression, Sanqu related to the taste of Daomen is good at setting off the ethereal and indifferent artistic conception, and its style is natural and simple, which is thought-provoking.

The writers who created Sanqu in the early stage can be roughly divided into three categories.

The first category is the talented writers of the book club. For example, Guan Hanqing and his famous copy of Lu Nan's flower "Don't Fu Lao" and Xiao Ling's "Shuang Diao" are intoxicated in the east wind. This kind of writers are very different from traditional literati in the choice of life path, the determination of self-worth and moral cultivation. Most of them have bohemian spirit, but behind their appearances, they contain strong anti-traditional rebellious spirit and life consciousness of pursuing individual freedom.

The second category is civilians and small official writers. This kind of writers don't completely abandon the etiquette and traditional literati fashion like the previous ones, but dare not believe the loss and try to reproduce the traditional literati value. Bai Pu and Ma Zhiyuan are representative writers. Among them, Ma Zhiyuan's Sanqu is the most distinctive and prominent, and is known as the "scholar of Yuefu".

The third category is high-level writers. There are mainly Beijingers Lu Zhi and Luoyang Yaosui.