The International Golden Age
“Perfect Coordination - Thousand
Arms Buddha”
The
Tang dynasty is often regarded as the classical period of Chinese civilization.
It was a relatively peaceful phase in Chinese history. Literature, the visual
arts, and music flourished and the theatrical arts were evolving towards their
present forms. The most influential capital of the dynasty was Changan (C’hang-an) (currently Xi’an, Hsi-an) in Central China. During the
Tang dynasty it was the world’s biggest metropolis. A vast network of caravan
routes, generally known as the Silk Road, connected Changan with Central Asia,
India, Persia and finally with the Mediterranean world. The influence of Tang
culture spread to Korea as well as to Japan, where two of its capitals, Nara
and Kyoto, were built according to the city plan of Changan.
Buddhism,
brought from India via Central Asia, became the dominant religion. Nestorian
Christianity, Manichaeism and later Islam were also practised. During liberal
times they lived peacefully side by side with the traditional indigenous belief
systems and ideologies, Taoism and Confucianism. In the visual arts the
pan-Asian Buddhist style was combined with the refinement of Tang court
elegance. Tang China was open to outside influences and the trade routes
brought to Changan monks, scholars, artists, musicians and dancers from all
over the then known world.
Changan,
with its approximately one million inhabitants, was a well organised
cosmopolitan city, where international embassies and traders had their own,
designated quarters. The city bustled with Central Asian horsemen,
international traders, many in their national costumes, as well as elegant
beauties with tiny, painted lips, all of them immortalised in the Tang-period
terracotta statuettes. The terracotta figurines also give enlightening
information about the many forms of music, dance, mimes and other entertainment
which were in vogue during that time.
Court Performances
Earlier theatrical forms were further
developed during the Tang period. However, the traditional ceremonial chorus
dances with their large orchestras were also performed. Their stories included,
among others, earlier play scripts, such as Mask and The Dancing,
Singing Wife. Perhaps echoes of these kinds of ceremonial performances
can still be captured in the Japanese bugaku
court dances. Acrobats, jugglers and clowns, on the other hand, entertained the
audience in the less serious spectacles, as had been the case in the earlier baixi or hundred entertainments shows.
The
spectacles could reach megalomaniac proportions. Literary sources mention a
performance organised in the 7th century in honour of a Turkish
embassy from Central Asia. There were some 30 000 spectators.
On
the stage, which covered a square kilometer, acrobats, magicians and dancers
demonstrated their skills.
There
were even grander shows. Literary sources mention a festivity with 18 000
performers and, it was told, the accompanying music was heard kilometres away.
With
its keen interest in other cultures, the Tang court received musicians and
performing arts groups from many regions. Several terracotta statuettes show
Central Asian performers and the court annals record visitors from even farther
away. Southeast-Asian groups were popular and it is known that performances by
a Pyu group from present-day Myanmar was greatly appreciated at the court in
the 7th century. At approximately the same time a group of Champa
dancers, from present-day Vietnam, was employed at court.
Indian
music was said to have accompanied a grand-scale court dance performance called
Costumes decorated with feathers of
the colours of the rainbow. The graceful swings and spins of the
colourfully dressed dancers were greatly applauded by the court annalists. More
serious scholars, however, had a critical attitude towards these kinds of mass
spectacles.
The
scholarly audience preferred intimate performances with artistic refinement.
Dances were divided into two groups, energetic jian (chien) dances and softer ruan (juan) dances. The dances of the former group were often
based on the martial arts or the traditions of foreign nations and they were
frequently performed by male dancers. The soft ruan dances were performed by female dancers and these
small-scale performances often took place at the intimate parties of
connoisseurs.
The “Adjutant Plays” and Early Story
Material
At
court a new form of entertainment gained popularity. It was the so-called canjun xi (ts’an-chün hsi) or
the adjutant play, which
probably evolved from earlier, more or less loose, clown and jester numbers. It
consisted of short comic skits and featured two comic characters, a more or
less dumb courtier, canjun
(ts’an-chün), and a slightly cleverer character, canggu (ts’ang-ku). The “adjutant play” has been seen as a
forerunner of the fixed role categories of later Chinese opera and particularly
of its comic chou characters.
The Fusion of Singing, Lyrics and Prose
The
merging together of several literary forms such as lyrics and colloquial
language seems to have happened for the first time in the didactic Buddhist
stories introduced by Buddhist monks in connection with their missionary work.
Verses were combined with colloquial prose in order that the ordinary audience
could fully comprehend the morality of the stories. The monks, who were the
storytellers, employed different devices to visualise their stories, such as
picture rolls or panels, a tradition with its roots in early India, from where
Buddhism was adopted.
Emperor Ming Huang and the School of the
Pear Garden
One of the most illustrious emperors of
the Tang dynasty was the emperor Ming Huang (who was called Xuanzong (Hsüan-tsang) when he came
to power, 712–756). He was an active patron of the arts. At his court he had
several orchestras, dancers and actors including Central Asian artists.
From
the beginning of the Tang dynasty it was customary to have two state offices
for administering the training of performers needed in official rites and
ceremonies. In addition to these two offices, Ming Huang founded a third
school, which trained musicians, dancers and actors.
It is
generally regarded as the first “theatre school” in the history of China,
although in reality it probably concentrated on Buddhist ceremonies. According
to tradition emperor conceived this idea from a dream he had had in which he visited
the moon, where he saw performances of heavenly musicians and dancers.
The
school got its poetic name Liyuan
(li-yüan) or the Pear Garden
from the location in which it was established in the palace grounds. Even today
actors and actresses may call themselves “the children of Pear Garden”. At the
school, it is said, the training was occasionally overseen by the Emperor
himself. Ming Huang is still today regarded as a kind of patron god or spirit
of the art of theatre and his small portrait was often placed at the lower part
of the stage, in front of the audience.
Besides
the emperor Ming Huang, his dear concubine Yang Guifei (Yang Kuei-fei) is also
immortalised by Chinese literature and theatre. The Emperor’s love for her,
which nearly caused the collapse of the whole empire, is the subject of many
poems and plays. Their tragic love is described in a 17th century
play called Changsheng dian
(Ch’ang-sheng tien) or The
Palace of Eternal Love.
Another
side of the concubine’s personality is portrayed in a popular drama script
called Guifei zui jiu (Kuei-fei chui
chiu) or The Drunken Concubine.
It relates the events of an evening when the Emperor leaves Guifei alone in
order to have an encounter with another girl. The angry Guifei consoles herself
by drinking and the play concentrates on describing the different stages of her
drunkenness.
In
the turmoil of Chinese history, the Tang dynasty shimmers as a kind of lost
Golden Age. It was a period when China was exceptionally open to outside
influences. Many forms of Chinese culture, such as poetry, music and painting,
produced masterpieces still regarded as classics. As has been discussed above,
theatre and dance also flourished. Ming Huang founded his theatre school, adjutant plays experimented with
fixed role categories, and, according to some scholars, Chinese dance had
already attained its quintessential characteristics.
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