Peking Opera is known as China's national treasure, do you know how the evolution of Peking Opera?

Peking Opera, also known as "Pihuang", by the "Xipi" and "Erhuang" two basic cadences composed of its musical material, but also singing some local tunes (such as willow cavity, blowing cavity, etc.) and Kunqu music. It was formed in Beijing. It was formed in Beijing around 1840 and flourished in the 1930s and 1940s, when it was known as the "National Opera". Nowadays, it is still a big opera with national influence. It is a representative of modern Chinese opera, with its comprehensive lineage, mature performances and magnificent atmosphere. Peking Opera is China's "national treasure" and has a history of 200 years.

Between 1860 and 1949, Peking Opera went through three stages of development.

The period from 1860 to about 1917 was a time when Peking Opera further matured. In terms of repertoire, the traditional repertoire inherited from Hui, Han, Bang, Kun, etc., became more refined through continuous processing and refining in performance practice. Many of the principal plays were gradually reduced in length and streamlined into self-contained folds, such as the full-length "Cosmic Frontier," which was usually performed only in the two folds of "Xiu Ben" and "Golden Temple. Before and after the Xinhai Revolution, a number of new dramas that were closely related to reality appeared in the midst of social and political changes, such as Wang Xiaonong's Crying at the Ancestral Temple and Melon Seeds and Orchids. In terms of music, there was an increase in the style and tunes, and the character sounds and rhythms were more stereotypical, making the Peking Opera singing euphemistic, melodious, and more distinctive. In terms of stage performance art, it is also more delicate, refined and colorful. Peking Opera history of the first three masters (Cheng Changgeng 1811-1880, Hui; Yu Sansheng 1802-1866, Han; Zhang Erkui 1813-1860, Peking Opera) with the predecessor of the Peking Opera, Hui, Han's local color, passed on to the three masters after the old (Tan Xinpei 1847-1917, Sun Juxian 1841-1931, Wang Guifen 1860-1906), the original kind of local color has gradually melted and sublimated, and the original style has become more and more unique. The local color has gradually melted and sublimated into the Peking Opera's own artistic characteristics.

Since the ninth year of Guangxu (1883), a large number of famous Peking Opera actors and actresses were enlisted one after another as "inner court servants", receiving a certain amount of silver and rice, usually performing in the theater, and irregularly called into the palace on duty, which broke the old system of the palace's rearing troupe since the Qianlong period. Due to the love of the royal aristocracy, both for the performance of the generous material conditions, but also in the art of strict requirements, thus leaving a number of relatively complete repertoire, and for the strict standardization of the art of Peking Opera has laid the foundation for the development of the art. At the same time, the palace performances also brought some negative effects to Peking Opera in terms of the tendency of the repertoire content.

During this period, some Peking Opera artists directly participated in political struggles. For example, in the Hundred Days' Rebellion, the famous artists Yu Yuqin and Tian Jiyun were inclined to reform the country and deliver messages to the Guangxu Emperor. In Shanghai, during the attack on the Manufacturing Bureau by the Xinhai Revolution, Pan Yueqiao and Xia Yuerun directly participated in the battle and were honored by Sun Yat-sen.

In the twenty-fourth year of Guangxu (1908), the first modernized theater new stage appeared in Shanghai. Out of patriotic zeal, Brother Xia Yuerun built a theater with lighting and scenery facilities on the ground outside the "rented area" at that time, changing the traditional square stage, thus promoting the innovation of the stage art of Peking Opera, and influencing other places as well.

From 1917 to 1937, Peking Opera was at its peak. In terms of repertoire, traditional plays were continuously processed and renovated, while a large number of newly created plays emerged. The range of themes expanded, and the number of plays expressing patriotic and democratic ideas increased. The repertoire was more tightly integrated with the performance characteristics of the actors, and there appeared repertoires that were unique to certain artistic genres. In terms of stage art, the art of genres developed greatly. Earlier, the Peking Opera stage was dominated by the Lao Sheng, and the Lao Sheng school was relatively obvious. By this period, Mei Lanfang, Cheng Yanqiu, Xun Huisheng, and Shang Xiaoyun were determined to innovate and actively rehearsed new plays. Mei Lanfang, in his new "costume plays" such as "Chang Moth Runs to the Moon", "Farewell My Concubine", "Xi Shi", etc., absorbed China's traditional classical dance art into Peking Opera, and enriched the singing tunes and accompanying musical instruments with a lot of innovations in costumes and make-up. Cheng Yanqiu, Xun Huisheng, and Shang Xiaoyun also gave full play to their creativity and staged new plays that reflected their own artistic characteristics, such as Cheng Yanqiu's Spring Leap Dream, Xun Huisheng's Hairpin Phoenix, and Shang Xiaoyun's Concubine Han Mingfei, etc., and the situation of the "Four Famous Dancers" vying for the balance of power arose on the stage. This not only makes the art of Dan role glow with unprecedented luster, but also drive other lines, competition, a variety of genres. Such as the old man line, Yu Shuyan, Ma Lianliang, Gao Qingkui, Yan Jupeng, etc. are in the inheritance of tradition on the basis of the development of their own schools. In Shanghai, Zhou Xinfang (Kirin Tong) with "Xiao He chased Han Xin under the moon" and other new plays, unique and influential across the south of the Yangtze River, known as the "Ki School". In the Wusheng line, Yang Xiaolou and Shang Heyu, together with Li Chunlai and Gai Zhaotian from the south, also formed a school with distinctive artistic characteristics. In addition, the flower face, the young, old Dan, ugly, etc., are also talented, the Peking Opera stage has reached an artistic peak.

Since the 1920s, a large number of Peking Opera plays have appeared on the stage in Shanghai. This form of drama structure, originally characterized by vivid plot, beginning and end, and easy to understand, was welcomed by the general audience, and gradually became popular in the major cities in Jiangnan, and later spread to Beijing. Some of these pieces also became independent single-fold performances. However, some of the plays went astray on the commercialization of capitalism. Sometimes the theme of the first play is still clear, but when the play continues, the more the number of books, the farther away from the topic.

In the same period, a large number of female artists appeared on the stage of Peking Opera, and some of them had high artistic achievements. Since the Dao, Xian years since the formation of Beijing opera, Beijing opera actors, regardless of raw, Dan, pure, ugly, all played by male actors. About the Tongzhi years (1862-1874), Shanghai began to have young girls composed of the troupe, used to be called "funky children's theater"; after the Xinhai Revolution, Beijing, Tianjin also appeared in the female class, some actresses, quite famous, but due to the social conditions of the limitations of the majority of the short-lived. 20 years later, many excellent actresses have come to the fore, the art of maturity and can be independently picked class. 1930 in Beijing Guangde House, the implementation of co-educational theater, and some of them have achieved great artistic success. In 1930, co-educational performances were organized in Guangde Building in Beijing (slightly earlier in Shanghai). These outstanding actresses, in addition to the earlier veteran En Xiaofeng, Shiaolanying, Dan role Wang Keqin, Liu Xikui, etc., after the 20s, there are veteran Li Guifen, Meng Xiaodong, Dan role Xue Yanqin, new Yanqiu, etc..

This period, in the cultivation of talents, received more attention and took new measures. From the Guangxu six years (1880 founded small Rong Chun class, to the Guangxu thirty years founded Fu Liancheng class, are practicing hard young, technology first teaching methods. 1919 the southern establishment of the Nantong actor school (Ouyang Yuqian as director), established in 1930 in Beijing, China Opera College (Jiao Juyin, etc., principal), founded in 1934 Shandong Province Theatre, founded in 1938, Shanghai Theatre School, and the same year the establishment of the The Shanghai Theater School, founded in 1938, and the Xia Sheng Theater School, founded in Xi'an in the same year and relocated to Shanghai after 1945, were all reformed on the basis of inheriting the tradition, focusing on cultural courses in addition to the basic skills, and teaching music and other artistic knowledge. This educational system and teaching methods, although still in the groping stage, but to improve the new generation of actors and actresses in the arts has received a certain effect.