The Historical Origin of Shaanxi Opera —— About the Historical Origin of Shaanxi Opera

1. The emergence and development of Qin Opera has a profound historical origin and a heavy cultural background. At every stage of the development and dissemination of Shaanxi Opera, it has a unique cultural background and is deeply branded with a distinctive mark of the times.

2. Shaanxi Opera is a folk song and dance that originated in ancient Shaanxi and Gansu. It grew up in Chang 'an, the ancient political, economic and cultural center of China, and gradually formed through the creation of several generations. Since the Zhou Dynasty, Guanzhong area has been called "Qin", hence the name of Qin Opera. Because jujube bangzi is used as a percussion instrument, it is also called "Bangzi cavity", and because it makes a "dreamy" sound when hitting, it is commonly known as "Bangzi".

3. In the Qing Dynasty, Li's "Rain Village Drama" said: "There are hundreds of folk legends about Qian's home decorations, and there are plays. It started in Shaanxi, with the drum beating as the board, and Qin Yue responded. It is tight and slow, and it is called bangzi cavity, which is called playing indiscriminately. " The word "strumming" has many meanings in China opera tune. In the past, operas other than Kunqu Opera and Gaoqiang Opera were called "random play", and some operas were called "random play". Some operas named after Luantan, such as Wenzhou Luantan and Hebei Luantan, are still regarded as the general name of Bangzi Opera, based on Qin Opera.

4. Qinqiang has a long history. In the legendary copy of Lotus in the Pot during the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty (1573- 1620), a lyric was sung with the voice of "two offenders of western Shaanxi opera", and it was all seven-character style of the upper and lower sentences, indicating that Shaanxi opera was not only formed at that time or before, but also spread to other places.

However, there are different opinions about its origin. Generally speaking, it was formed in Qin dynasty (or pre-Qin dynasty), Tang dynasty and Ming dynasty. Lotus in a Bowl is the work of an anonymous person in Jiangnan, which proves that it has spread to Jiangnan. Jiangnan is far from Shaanxi, and it takes time to spread. According to this, Qin opera should have been formed in the middle of Ming Dynasty. According to another survey, the earliest Shaanxi Opera Class Society in Ming Dynasty was Huaqing Class founded by Zhou Zhiren, which was once famous in Gansu and Shaanxi. Later, in Shaanxi Province, Shaanxi Opera developed into four roads: East, West, Middle and South. East Road is Tongzhou Bangzi, West Road is Xifu Qinqiang, South Road has evolved into Han tune, and Middle Road is Xi 'an, commonly known as Qinqiang. Shaanxi Opera has a long history. According to legend, Li Longji, Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty, opened a pear garden and trained children to sing, including court music and folk songs. Li Guinian, a musician in Liyuan, was originally a folk artist in Shaanxi. His "The Music of the King of Qin Breaking the Array" is called "Qiang Qin" for short. This may be the earliest Qin opera music. Later, influenced by the Song Ci, the Qin Opera became more and more perfect from content to form. During the Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty, the Shaanxi opera in Gansu and Shaanxi gradually evolved into Bangzi opera. During the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty, the famous Shaanxi opera singer entered Beijing from Shu, and made a sensation in Beijing with his moving timbre, popular words and superb acting skills. Now Xipi Xingyun's singing in Beijing Opera comes from Shaanxi Opera.

6. Shaanxi Opera can be divided into two ways: the west road flows into Sichuan and becomes a bangzi; East Road is Shanxi Opera, Henan Opera and Hebei Opera. Shaanxi Opera is also called "Shaanxi Opera", "Random Opera" and "Bangzi Opera". Folk commonly known as "drama", after the mid-Qing Dynasty, Beijing and other places were also called "Western Shaanxi Opera" and "Shaanxi Bangzi". In Shaanxi Province, Shaanxi Opera has evolved into four types due to the differences in dialects and phonetics: Tongzhou Bangzi (East Road Shaanxi Opera), which is popular in Tongzhou (now Dali), the Middle East House in Guanzhong; Popular in the area of Xi 'an in Zhongfu, it is called "Xi 'an random bomb" (that is, the middle road Shaanxi opera); Popular in Fengxiang area of Xifu, it is called "Xifu Qinqiang" (that is, West Road Qinqiang); Popular in Hanzhong area, it is called "Diao Han Da" (that is, South Road Shaanxi Opera). Shaanxi Opera is very popular in Guanzhong, Shangluo and Hanzhong in Shaanxi Province. The popular areas are Longzhou in the west, Tongguan in the east, Yulin in the north and Ningqiang in the south. Now it is popular in Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei, Shandong, Henan, Anhui, Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Hunan, Hubei, Guangdong, Guangxi, Sichuan, Yunnan, Qinghai, Ningxia, Xinjiang and Yunnan. After 1949, it also spread to Taiwan Province province, as far away as Kyrgyzstan.

7. The Qing Dynasty was the heyday of Qin Opera. The heyday of Qin Opera was during the Qianlong period (1736— 1795). During this period, there were many places in China where there were 36 Shaanxi Opera clubs, including Fu Bao Class, Jiangdong Class, Shuangzhai Class and Jinxiu Class. Zhang's Theory of Qinqiang Opera, Yan Changming's Taking Tales of Ying, Wu Changyuan's Biography and Zhou's Film Theory during the Qianlong Period (1736- 1795) appeared around the forty-fourth year of Kangxi, all of which were relatively good. "Biography of Qin Yun's Adoption of English" contains: "There are 36 famous musicians in Xi Anle Department. "These societies are all Shaanxi Opera societies, and each society has a group of influential artists. During the reign of Qianlong and Jiaqing (1736- 1820), Wei Changsheng, an actor of Shaanxi Opera, went to Beijing for three performances, which made Class Six Peking Opera unattractive, and many Kunqu Opera and Peking Opera artists changed to Shaanxi Opera. For more than half a century, Shaanxi Opera has almost always been an important drama on the stage in Beijing, and it is also very popular in many parts of the country. According to the statistics of relevant historical materials in Qing Dynasty, except Shanhaiguan at that time, there was no footprint of Shaanxi opera in the three northeastern provinces, but it was popular in other provinces. In the process of popularity, Shaanxi Opera combined with other opera forms and folk art, and gradually evolved into a variety of Bangzi Opera, and its popular position in various places was replaced and gradually reduced. By the end of the Qing Dynasty, it had become a popular local opera in the northwest.

8. 19 12, Shaanxi Yi Sushe was founded in xi' an with the aim of "changing customs". It made some innovations in Shaanxi opera, music singing, performing arts, directing and stage design, and edited a large number of new plays reflecting the bourgeois democratic revolution. Under this influence, Shandong, Hebei, Tianjin, Gansu, Ningxia and other places have imitated the organizational system of Yi Sushe in Shaanxi and set up traditional Chinese opera groups. For example, Yi Sushe in Shandong, Tianjin in Hebei, Huasu Society, Pingle Society in Gansu and Juemin Society in Ningxia. Yi Sushe has performed in Beiping, Wuhan and Gansu twice. Xi has successively established the Sanyi Society and other Shaanxi Opera Class Societies.

9. During the period of War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression, artists in the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region boldly explored, showed revolutionary real life and created heroic images of workers, peasants and soldiers. The People's Troupe of the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region was established in July 1938. It closely cooperated with the revolutionary struggle of War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression and the Liberation War, and created and rehearsed a large number of new Shaanxi operas such as Revenge of Blood and Tears. In a letter to Ma Jianling, the author of Revenge of Blood and Tears, Comrade Peng said: "Warmly welcome the poor working people and revolutionary fighters and organize powerful weapons to mobilize the masses." 1944, the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region Cultural and Educational Conference also awarded Ma Jianling the title of "People's Artist", and the People's Troupe won the "Special Model" award flag.

10. After the founding of New China, Shaanxi, Gansu, Ningxia, Qinghai and Xinjiang established professional Shaanxi Opera Troupes at or above the county level. By the early 1980s, there were more than 300 Shaanxi Opera Troupes, including Gansu Shaanxi Opera Troupe, Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region Shaanxi Opera Troupe, Qinghai Shaanxi Opera Troupe (later renamed Xining Shaanxi Opera Troupe) and MengMeng of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. In addition, drama schools have been established in various places, which have accumulated a lot of talent resources for the prosperity of Shaanxi opera art.