Chinese Opera is taking Shape
(960–1279)
After the Tang dynasty the empire split
into several smaller states. A new cultural renaissance took place from c. 1000
onwards when the Song dynasty rose to power. At the beginning of the dynasty
the capital was Kaifeng in the middle regions of the country, some 500
kilometres to the east of the earlier Tang capital, Changan. Later, because of
enemy attacks, a new capital, Hangzhou (Hang-chou),
was founded in the south-eastern coastal area. The period was politically
unstable.
“The Romance of the Song Dynasty”
Theatres and Teahouses
In the theatre houses and in the teahouses it was possible to see
mimes, dance spectacles, acrobatics, circuses with animals, and magic shows.
Prostitutes lured customers by singing and dancing, and the alleys were lined
with fortune-tellers and street musicians.
The
popular repertory included several dances reflecting the traditions of foreign
cultures and earlier times. They encompassed powerful male dances related to
the martial arts, popular drum dances, and numbers imitating animals, such as
butterflies and peacocks.
Dancing lions appeared on the streets during
festivals. Ordinary people enjoyed the shows of yangge (yang-ke) village music groups. Their performances
featured familiar stock characters such as monks, young scholars and sturdy
villagers. Female dancers added their gracefulness to these shows, which were,
more or less, improvised kinds of commedia
dell’arte.
Continuation of the Court Tradition
At
court the performing traditions inherited from the Tang court were continued,
although on a reduced scale. Adjutant
plays were still popular and the most spectacular dance performances
could almost evoke those of the Tang period and the smaller-scale performances
gave pleasure even to connoisseurs. The process of merging together different
forms of performing arts intensified further and resulted in theatrical genres,
which had already many of the distinguishing features of later Chinese opera.
Zaju, an early Form of Opera
During the Song period, a new form of
theatre was born. It was zaju
(tsa-chü), which combined drama, music and dance. It gradually evolved
into two forms, the southern and the northern. The northern one, characterised
by its string accompaniment, continued to be performed for a longer period. A
performance started with a music and dance “prelude”, after which the actual
dramatic action followed. It combined acting, speech, declamation and singing.
The show ended with a comic number and instrumental music.
"Song Dynasty show , Zaju”
No
complete Song zaju scripts
exist today, although it is known that there once were hundreds of them. Some
of them were, however, assimilated into some of the later theatre forms.
Certain stock characters of zaju had their roots in the clowns of the earlier adjutant plays, but the gallery of
characters expanded further. Instead of two characters, several actors
performed on stage. The male lead was called moni, and a kind of narrator or the primus motor of the play was called yinzi (yin-tzü).
“An
actor who could play officials and female roles was called zhuanggu (chuang-ku). The characters
derived from earlier adjutant plays
were the clowns with painted faces, fujing
(fu-ching) and fumo (fu-mo).
The
stories covered a wide range and featured ghosts or heroes and villains of
ancient times, who made their dramatic entrance onto the stage in their
elaborate costumes. Love stories were also popular. Many of the plots were
loosely based on earlier story material, such as religious or historical
legends, and stories about the supernatural. The plots often involved a young
scholar who was forced to leave for the capital to attend the imperial
examination. Young lovers are separated and they have to go through many
hardships and adventures – a basic theme for countless later operas.
Nanxi, the early Southern Opera
In 1125 the northern Song capital, Kaifeng,
was conquered and the Emperor was captured. Part of the court fled to the
south, where a new capital, Hangzhou, was founded in 1138. The southern regions
had their own local drama form, called nanxi
(nan-shi), which combined indigenous dialect and melodies with mime and
dance numbers. Nanxi was
popular in southern parts of China from the 11th to the 15th
centuries.
Some twenty nanxi
scripts exist today and almost three hundred titles of plays are known. The
stories were more or less similar to those of the northern zaju plays. The play started with a
spoken introduction while the number of acts varied.
The Earliest Existing Complete Play Script
Top
Graduate Zhang Xie, Zhang Xie zhuangyuan (Chang Hsieh chuang-yüan) is so far
the earliest known complete Chinese play script (synopsis). It represents the nanxi style and it was written in the city of Wenzhou (Wen-chou)
in the south-eastern coastal region in the middle of the 13th
century. It recounts the hardships and cruelty of a young selfish scholar who
is determined to attend the imperial examination in the capital. According to
the nanxi convention the play
was performed by seven actors, all of them specialised in their own particular
types of role.
The
male lead, called sheng, acts
the role of the selfish scholar, Zhang Xie. The female lead is called dan. She plays the role of the poor
orphan girl, who becomes the first wife of Zhang Xie. The clown character or chou, distinguished by his make-up, a
white patch round the nose and eyes, appears, for example, in the roles of a
fortune-teller, a villain, a servant god, and the Prime Minister.
The
role category, which is distinguished by its extremely stylised and usually
colourful make-up, is called jing
or painted face. In this play the jing
actor appears in the roles of a friend of Zhang Xie, the mountain god, an
elderly lady, and a prison guard. An actor of the mo type acts as a kind of master of ceremonies introducing the
play and the main actors to the audience. Furthermore, he is seen in several
minor roles. The supporting female actor, tie, plays the role of the Prime Minister’s daughter, who
becomes Zhang Xie’s second wife. A second supporting female actor, wai, plays the role of the Prime
Minister’s wife.
Seven
actors in all are seen in the eighteen different roles. Acting styles vary
according to the character portrayed. The sung “arias” and the spoken dialogue
as well as the stylised dance-like movements, postures and gestures are all
accompanied by music while the orchestra is present on the stage all the time.
The
music of the northern zaju was
dominated by its quick and rhythmic accompaniment, whereas the music of nanxi was softer, characterised by
its lyrical, lingering melodies. The music of the present opera styles, of
course, differs from the music of zaju
and nanxi; however, this
regional stylistic difference is still very much the same. The northern style
is usually quicker and more accentuated, while the southern style is generally
softer and more lyrical in character.
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