Drama, refers to Language , movement , Dance , MUSICIANS , puppet And other forms to achieve the purpose of narrative stage Performing arts The general term for. literature On the concept of drama refers to as Dramatic performance The script that was created, i.e SCRIPT . Theatre is performed in a variety of forms. Common ones include drama , opera , Dance drama , musical , Puppet show , Shadow play Let's wait. The play is composed of ACTORS A type of acting out a story in public on stage Comprehensive art .

The origin of drama is uncertain, and there are many hypotheses. There are two mainstream views: one is Primitive religion the witchcraft Rituals, such as in ancient Chinese," wu "," dance "," wu "The three words homologous, may be on a begging battle victory witchcraft The collective name of activity, that is, the original form of drama. The other is an impromptu song and dance performance during labor or harvest celebration, which is mainly based on Ancient Greek drama It is believed to have originated in the Dionysian sacrifice.

Drama is the art of actors acting out a story or situation in dialogue, song, or action. Drama has four elements, including" ACTORS "," story (situation) proscenium (Performance venue) "and" Spectator ". "Actor" is the most important element among the four, he is the spokesperson of the role, must have the ability to play, the biggest difference between drama and other arts is to play, through ACTORS The play of, SCRIPT If the role of the actor is abandoned, then the performance is no longer a drama.

Chinese name: drama
Foreign name: drama
Chiral segment: Language, movement, dance, music, puppets
nature: Performing arts

categorize: drama , opera , Dance drama , musical Etc.
Elementary element: ACTORS , situation, stage, audience
foundation: SCRIPT
Three elements: Dramatic conflict Stage instructions, lines

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Origin of drama

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Theory of Song and Dance

This can be broken down into three kinds:

(1) Court music and dance say, Qing Dynasty Nalan Xingde "Lushui Ting mixed Knowledge" cloud: "Liang big cloud of joy, as an old man narrated the changes of the Western regions of the gods, the actress began here." In the Original Play, Liu Shipei, based on the fact that ancient music and dance were often dressed as characters, believes that "opera practitioners, who were inspired by ancient music and dance... It is also similar to the opera of later generations." In his book Primitive Music, Dance and Drama in China, Permanent Xia systematically examines the dramatic factors of primitive music and dance and believes that "simple music and dance in primitive society are the precursors to perfect drama later on". Zhou Yibai's" Long compilation of Chinese drama history "Traces the earliest source of Chinese drama to" Zhou Qin The music and dance ".

(2) Ancient songs and dances say, "The origin of Chinese opera can be traced back to songs and dances in primitive times," says the opening sentence of the General History of Chinese Opera edited by Zhang Geng and Guo Hancheng. We know that all art originates from labor, and Chinese song and dance is no exception. The book of Shujing Shundian says: "When a stone is struck and a stone is attached, all the beasts dance." The so-called beast rate dance is not as mystified as later Confucianists, that is, in the time of saints, even beasts come to worship the dance. This kind of dance is to hit the stone or hit the stone by hand to play the rhythm, at that time there is no drum, it is very primitive. It was only later that there were drums, the so-called "dance of drums," which went a step further. It's probably a pre-hunting dance Primitive religion The ceremony, may also be a celebration ceremony after hunting, "Lu's Spring and Autumn Ancient Music" article said: "Emperor Yao, is life quality for joy, quality is the sound of mountains and valleys to song, but to engage in the battle of stone stone like God's jade qing voice, leading to the dance of all animals." This is a legend about ancient music and dance in the Warring States Period. Through the description of this song and dance, we can see a picture of the original hunter hunting in the mountains: a roaring, a variety of pottery, stone tools to intimidate the beast, so the beast ran away and finally caught. This primitive artist "quality" (in fact, not a person, but the whole people at that time) created the hunting dance according to the reality of life, and the so-called "beasts" at this time were actually the scenes of people wearing animal skins and "dancing", but only the pleasant and exciting memories of hunting life. Of course, the scene at this time is already artistic, the music and dance are already rhythmic, this dance with a strong ritual, it is to pray to the clan's protector god or ancestor, in order to go out to hunt for a good harvest, or to hunt back in order to thank the god held. But no matter what kind of ceremony it is, no matter how thick the coat of primitive religion it is, its actual significance is a kind of exercise and exercise for labor, which not only exercises the proficiency of hunters, but also cultivates young hunters. There is a record in the "Shujing Shundian" of the Life Kui ". The annotation of "nobles" is the children of the nobility, but there are no aristocrats in primitive society, I am afraid they are young warriors, using music and dance to teach young warriors, but what is it if they are not trained? Because that's what it says Primitive Man Imitation of hunting action. ^[1]

Since it mimics the movement of labor, it can be said to be the most primitive performance.

Primitive dances are always accompanied by songs; they do not dance silently, but shout and sing as they dance. "Lu's Spring and Autumn Ancient Music" also said:" The joy of Gertian Threesome with oxtail. Make a full and song eight down." You can imagine what it was like.

In the primitive society, there was not only a hunting dance, but also a war dance, which was similar in nature to the hunting dance. When it entered the farming era, a series of rituals related to farming, such as "wax" as "usu", were produced. The wax is held at the end of the year in honor of the eight gods related to farming. On this day, the members of the commune enjoy themselves, drink, sing and dance. This trend remained until the Spring and Autumn Period. " Confucius Jia Yu Guan Xiang said:" Zi Gong Look at wax. Confucius said: Give also, happy? Say: a country of people are crazy, give unknown for joy. Confucius said: a hundred days of labor, a day of joy, a day of prosperity, not well known also." It can be seen that this is entirely the joy of the laboring peasants after a year of hard work.

According to legend, "wax" is the first of the Yi Chi, said that the Yi Chi is God Nong, it is closely related to the custom of agricultural development period. Yu is a sacrifice to pray for rain in dry weather. "Zhou Li Chunguan" under the "Zongbo" recorded: "the wizard...... If there was a drought in the country, we would dance in rite." The record of "Zhou Rites" is Slave society In addition to the customs left over from primitive times, many festivals in primitive communes also held dances. For example, when men and women fall in love, there is also a festival where everyone gets together to sing and dance. The festival is celebrated Han Chinese It is the day of sacrifice to the female ancestor of the clan, the dance is said to be called "all dances."

One of the main characteristics of the original song and dance is its universality. At that time, the sacrificial ceremony was no longer a festival song and dance of the whole people, it became the exclusive property of the slave-owning nobility. Yu, the first to pass the kingdom to his son, when he succeeded in controlling the river and became the leader of the tribal alliance, he immediately "appointed Gao Tao as Xia's (9) percent (9). To demonstrate its merit "(see" Lu's Spring and Autumn · Ancient Music "). The music and dance here had begun to lose the meaning of the whole people, and became a means to boast about his personal achievements, and Yu's son Qi also learned from him, using songs and dances to boast and decorate his majesty. According to legend, he went to heaven three times, stole the "Nine Moves" (that is, "Jiushao") song and dance from the sky, and held a performance in the "Damu Wild". Since then, the slaveholders and nobles have used the songs and dances that belong to the whole people to extol their merits, "Lu's Spring and Autumn Ancient Music" also said in the article: "Tang Ai ordered Yi Yin to be the" Great Protector ", the song "Great Protector". Morning dew ", to revise the "Nine moves" and "Six columns" to see their good." While... Tawu The dance is to sing praises to King Wu of Zhou and Zhou Gong The martial arts of destroying the Shang Dynasty and suppressing the slave rebellion are called "Wu dances", which are dances with shields and weapons in hand, and "Shao dances", which praises the Zhou Dynasty rulers for their orderly governance and peace in the world, which is called "Wen dances".

Now from... Shih Chi · A quote from the Book of Music about the dance of Dawu is as follows:

Bin Mujia sat there Confucius Confucius and his words, and happiness...... Confucius said : "... Fu Le, like into, also, always do and the mountain, the king of Wu also, carry forward, Taigong will also, Wu chaos all sit, Zhou Zhao also, and Fu "Wu", starting from the north, and then into and out of the Shang, thirty and south, forty The South It is a frontier, and it is divided into five parts. Zhou Gong left, calling Gong right, 60% compound fix, to ChongTianzi, clamp vibration and four fars, Sheng Wei in China also, divided and into, things flea Ji also, long standing fix, waiting for the princes will also."

From this explanation of the dance of "Dawu", it contains the content of a story, although the dance is not enough to express its content, but the tendency to play the story also exists.

(3) Western Regions song and dance theory Chen Cun and Huo Xuchu, On the Western Regions Song and dance drama In the Han and Tang Dynasties, with the development of East-West transportation and the frequent economic and cultural exchanges, a song and dance drama of the Western regions culture and art was gradually introduced Central Plains It has become one of the important sources of Chinese drama. Regardless of the Han Dynasty acrobatics The music and dance of the Tang Dynasty, the elements of the western regions accounted for a considerable proportion, especially in the Tang Dynasty, the factors of drama infiltrated into the music and dance, the integration of the Western Regions song and dance drama and the traditional drama of the Central Plains, not only appeared the flourishing varieties of song and dance in the Tang Dynasty, but also had a far-reaching impact on the drama of later generations Ren Bantang Mr. Pointed out: Tang Dynasty song and dance "longitudinal side to undertake the origin of Han, Jin, Southern and northern dynasties, horizontal color of the western region song and dance mood." More than half a century ago, Xu Dishan Mr. Liu elaborated on the six dynasties of the western regions such as Qiuci (a county in ancient China) The Kangguo and other Islamic or Indian music and dance came to the East, and there is a view that "miscellaneous operas" also entered the Middle Earth.

About the Tang Dynasty song and dance drama, "The old book of Tang · Music records" : Song and dance drama Daimian Play, potting head, shaking niang, grottoes and so on. Mr. Ren Bantang believes that all Tang "Haiku song and dance miscellaneous" are song and dance operas. He also pointed out in the second chapter of Tang Teasing "Song and Dance Opera" : "Once the content has a reason, or skill White, although the record is brief, the performance is vague. You have to think of song and dance." In the Book of the Old Tang Dynasty, only the play of "Dial and head" is mentioned, saying: "Dial the head out of the Western region, the Hu people are eaten by fierce beasts, and their son asks the beast to kill them, so the dance is like it." There are many dramas influenced by the Western regions, and it is clearly pointed out that the "drama records" of the Western Regions are "West Liang Chi", "Su Mozha", "Sariputra", etc., and those belonging to the "drama style" are "Alms head", "Brahman" and so on. "Su Mozha" is a representative play in the western regions of the song and dance drama, the record of Su Mozha, Tang Huilin "All Jing Yin Yi" 41 for details: Su Mozha, Xirong Hu language also, is Yunsa Mozha, this drama out of the West Qiuci State To this day, there is still this song, this country hun, big face, and so on, or as a beast face or like ghosts and gods, pretend to be a variety of mask shapes, with mud water soaked pedestrians, or with a rope hook, to catch people, early in July every year, the public practice of this play, seven days is stopped. Local legend cloud: often this method to detest, while Luocha evil ghosts eat the disaster of the people. Su Mozha, also known as the splash Han Hu play, from the literature, Su Mozha in the Central Plains, mostly for rulers to entertain, from the north Emperor Xuan of Zhou The first year of the elephant Emperor Xuanzong of Tang For more than 130 years in the first year of Kaiyuan, it was often listed as a program of amusement in the court, which naturally had to be transformed countless times and changed with the political situation. The clearest example is the reign of Emperor Zhongzong Secretariat of the CPC Zhang said that Tou Zhongzong liked "splash cold Hu opera", made "Su Mozha" song lyrics five, each song with harmony "100 million long live". The same one says that in the first year of Xuanzong Kaiyuan, he again said, "I have not heard any allusions to the Han Hu opera, I am naked and barefooted. Shengde What view, waving water to catch mud, the loss of tolerance is very serious." Please ban this play, Xuanzong loved the music and dance of all ethnic groups, because of political needs Believe in Taoism, to Trimble During the years, the policy of "changing Buddhism into Taoism" was implemented, and the Han Hu opera was banned, but Su Mozha's Qupai was retained. The Han Hu opera of the Tang Dynasty court highlighted the political preaching and playing atmosphere of "Offering loyalty and celebrating longevity" and "Yibang subservience", and completely erased the folk content and the connotation of life in the Western regions. Therefore, it is not enough to study and analyze the Sumozha song and dance drama only from the records seen in historical records. The splashing of water on pedestrians in Sumozha and the activities of worshiping the immortal God for Persian folklore, water symbolizes" Sumo "Holy water. Zhang said that the third song of Sumo Zha has "the oil capsule to obtain the river in the sky, will add the longevity cup, 100 million long live" sentence, is not it with the meaning of "Sumo" immortal wine? It can be seen that pouring water on people is the most crucial plot of Sumozha, which is the essence of the play and the basis of the original form of the play, so although it has been added and deleted in the transmission, this core plot has always been retained.

"Sumozha" performers wear various masks, is another feature of this play. The "dog's head and monkey face" in the "Youyang Miscella" clearly recorded the mask performance of the Qiuci "Sumozha" song and dance drama. The mask not only depicts the character of the characters in the drama, but also means to interpret the content dramatize The diversification of the masks of the Kuzi "Sumozha" indicates the development of the drama, that is, the development and maturity of the educational function of "being able to move". According to "All Scriptures", in addition to Su Mozha, there are "big face", "Huntuo" and "Potou" in the forms of drama performed by Qiuci in masks. The king of Lanling "Big face is a mask said," Big face out of northern Qi, Lanling king long Kung only and face beauty, often with a mask to the enemy, taste the week division Jin Yong under the city, brave, Qi people strong, for this dance, in order to effect its command of the attack, called the Lanling king into the array song."

The plot of "King Lanling" is mainly to praise "the face of commanding the stab". The masked characters, of course, are not simple dances, but dramatic performances. The "Lanling King" is influenced by the Western regions and called the song and dance drama according to the Western regions, which has been demonstrated by scholars. Wang Guowei He once said, "If the play originated from the country of the play, or entered China from countries such as Qiuzi, then the play should not have existed since the Sui and Tang Dynasties or the Northern Qi Dynasty, and the plays such as The Lanling King and the Tramp Niang are all imitated." In the Tang Dynasty, Cui Lingqin's "Jiao Fang Ji" contained "Step shaking Niang" : some people in the Northern Qi named Su, not official, and since the name of the doctor, drinking and drinking, every drunk and often beat his wife, his wife's sad, complaining in the neighborhood, when people abandoned it. The husband, wearing a woman's dress, slowly entered the field, singing, each stack, others and the cloud: "Step shake and come!" Shake niang bitter and come!" Walk and sing with it. So called this "ballad"; It's called injustice, so it's bitter. And his husband to, then for the shape of the fight, think laughter. Treadmills is a song and dance drama, not a simple dance.

Wizard theory

Wax sacrifice, which was prevalent in the Zhou Dynasty of China, was a very dramatic sacrificial ceremony. It was said earlier in the Song Dynasty Su Shi "Dongpo Lin Zhi" (Volume 2) eight wax, three generations of play ceremony also, the end of the year together play, this human will inevitably also, because with etiquette, also said not merely play, sacrifice must be dead, no corpse said "drink"...... This wax is called "sacrifice" covered with corpses, cats, tigers, who should do it? A deer and a woman, who would do that? Not advocate but who? "Corded hazel stick", to lose the old, things; "Yellow crown" and "grass hat" to respect wild clothing, all play the way also.

Honest man Yang Shen In the Collection of Sheng 'an (Volume 44) The songs of Chu The "Nine Songs" said: "The xing of female music, originally by witches... Look at Chu Ci "Nine songs" said evil to please God, its clothing is different from today's advocate!" Wang Guowei's book Song and Yuan opera examination "Put forward: The prosperity of song and dance, which began in the ancient sorcery? The rise of sorcery also covers the ancient world. "Chu Language" : "The ancient people god is not mixed, the people are not concise, and can be honest...... In this way, God will come down. In men, witches in women, and the decline of Gao, nine Li disorderly de, Mingshen mixed, not square things. The wife is to enjoy, the family is the history of witchcraft." The god of witchcraft must sing and dance. He believed that the ancient witches were singing and dancing to entertain ghosts and gods as their occupation, and at the same time, the ancient ghosts and gods had to employ people to dress up as "Lingbao" or "corpse" as the entity relied on by gods and spirits, and those who dressed up as "Lingbao" were also witches, and he concluded that "among the witches, there must be gods' clothes." This practice is "the seed of later drama". Therefore, Wang Guowei believes that "later drama, when the sorcery, excellent two out."

Wen Yiduo In "What are Nine Songs?" he believes: "Strictly speaking, two thousand years ago," The songs of Chu People in the era of" Nine songs "Attitude, and there is no difference, the same is to appreciate art, the difference is that they are in front of the altar to watch the play - a prototype Song and dance drama . We can only enjoy the songs on paper." He also "suspended" Nine Songs into a large-scale musical drama. Dong Kang "Quhai General Summary · Preface" : "Opera originated from the ancient town Nuo." Nuo is an ancient ritual of exorcising ghosts and disease, especially on New Year's Eve, when dancers wear masks.

"Witchcraft theory" is similar to "religious ritual theory". An earlier systematic argument that Chinese drama originated from "religious ritual" is University of Oxford Professor Peter Loong, in his essay on the Origins of Chinese Drama in Religious Rituals, argues: "In China, as in any part of the world, religious rituals can develop into drama at any time, including in modern times, and the factors that determine the development of drama need not be laid down in the distant past, they are still active today." Zhou Yude In Chinese Opera and Religion in China "The original religion opened up the source of drama, pre-Qin religion gave birth to the embryo of drama, Qin and Han Dynasties Religion has produced the prototype of opera, and the function of religion in the stage of opera is discussed systematically.

Theory of Haiku

Zhang Geng, Kwak Han Seong In the General History of Chinese Opera, it is said that at the end of the Western Zhou Dynasty, there appeared a professional artist named "You", sometimes called "Zhiyou" or "Haiku", which was repossessed by nobles to entertain them exclusively. The "A" is filled by men. It is said that there was an initiative in the Xia Jie era. Liu Xiang It is recorded in the Biography of Ancient Women, Favorite Biography, Xia Jie and Xi Jie: "Jie... Collect and advocate for excellence dwarf The sex apprentices can gather together with those who play with great talent, and create artless joy." The record of you was first found in Guoyu · Zheng Yu. Sper He told Duke Huan that King You of Zhou was a dwarf and Qi Shi was at his side. Wei Zhao Said: "dwarf, Qi Shi are excellent laugh people", can be seen is the Haiku at that time. Spring and Autumn Period, you Meng disguised as sun Sun Shuao The question and answer with King Zhuang of Chu has always been regarded as the beginning of Chinese drama. Gao Cheng of the Song Dynasty quoted the Biography of Lienu as saying: "Jie of Xia abandons etiquette, seeks to advocate dwarves, and is a great drama." Qing people Obsess over Also hold this said: "The best for the chi also, good Xiao people's description, moving laughter, and today no different ears." Wang Guowei's "Song and Yuan Opera Examination" in addition to the "sorcery" as the source of drama, but also think that "sorcery to music god, excellent to music people, sorcery based on song and dance, excellent to banter, sorcery to women, and excellent to men. Even if you Meng is Sun Shu Ao's dress, and the king of Chu wants to think that he is the king, you perform a dance, and Confucius says that he laughs at the king, then in addition to words, his teasing is also done in action, which is quite similar to the excellence of later generations." This leads to the conclusion that "the drama of later generations should come from both sorcery and excellence".

Spring and Autumn Period and Warring States Period Haiku, such as Jin's best, Chu's best Meng, is the beginning of drama. Gu dances and jokes, not historical stories. Since the Han Dynasty, the beginning of the play. In the northern and Southern Dynasties, the song and dance were combined to perform the matter, but with the fact to be simple, only with the contours of a drama, it is called a play, not as called a dance. "(Excerpt from the folklorist Huang Xianfan Author: An overview of Tang society ", The Commercial Press First published March 1936)

Puppet theory

This is seen in Sun Kai Di's" Puppet show "Examination source", he traced the origin of the puppet show to the "gold four eyes" mask worn by the Fangxiang family in the Exorcism of the Western Zhou Dynasty, because the Fangxiang family is decorated with real people, and every time the funeral uses the Fangxiang family to open the coffin, which is linked to the "Grotto" contained in the "Old Book of Tang · Music" : "Make puppets to play, good song and dance, this funeral music also, the end of the Han Dynasty began to be used for Jia Hui" and other words, it is determined that the puppet show immediately by Fang Xiang's epidemic metamorphosis. However, because Fang Xiang's department is decorated with real people, so it is suspended that "there are two schools of contemporary puppet shows: one is decorated with real people, and one is played by a dummy, the nature of the two is different, and all are called puppets." The book also said that "I discuss this article, mainly in the Song Dynasty puppet show, film drama, that since the Song and Yuan Dynasty drama, and even all the later drama, are derived from this."

exoticism

Xu Dishan's" Sanskrit opera From the commonality of the content and forms of expression of Chinese and Indian dramas, the author concludes: "If it is not because of the influence of India, it can be regarded as the coincidence of the situation of the two countries." Zheng Zhenduo The illustrated book "History of Chinese Literature" and Ji Xianlin's "Comparative Literature and Folk Literature" all hold this view.

Folk theory

Tang Wenbiao In the history of ancient Chinese drama, it is believed that: "I think the main origin of Chinese drama comes from the folk, the ancient drama is late, so mixed with countless folk miscellaneous arts, its popular content and popular tone and shape, its mediocre ideas, the theme of worldly wisdom, it is different from the Greek tragedy and the Indian Sanskrit drama in the world, is entirely because it comes from the folk, to meet the entertainment of the common class as the first point. Therefore, its maturity must wait for the outcome of the evolution of Chinese agricultural society. It is impossible for a concrete mass civil society to emerge in the Song Dynasty."

Literary theory

This view holds that literature is the important factor that induces the occurrence of Chinese drama, among which there are several different views:

1.
Lecture and sing literature. Chinese opera art is a synthesis of many kinds of art, its production needs the maturity of various factors, but the decisive role lies in the literature, the Northern Song Dynasty's large-scale drama, originated from the singing literature.
2.
Huang Tianji Speaking at the Seminar on the Origin of Chinese Drama, Yun said: "Talking about Chinese drama cannot be separated from narrative factors... Dunhuang variation Is an important factor in inducing drama... On closer examination, it is actually a very crude source of Chinese drama."
3.
From the novel said. Liu Hui Speaking at the "Seminar on the Origin of Chinese Drama" in Urumqi, he said: "The origin of Chinese opera is closely related to Chinese religion, folk customs, song and dance, especially rap... After Chinese opera is distinguished from the novel, it must be performed in the first person rather than in the third person, without this, there is no Chinese opera, there must be character behavior, without this, it is not opera."

Said the cradle of drama

Wishing auspicious year Peng Longxing wrote in his book "Hundred Dramas are the Cradle of the Formation of Chinese Opera" that "theater was formed in the midst of" hundred dramas, "and" Horn drama "directly nurtured the matrix of drama." Wu Guoqin In "Vashe Culture and the Formation of Chinese drama" clearly said: "I think opera was formed in the Han Dynasty, in the Han Dynasty, drama entities have appeared, such as" East Sea Huang Gong "and" General Xiansing "such programs, is the early drama, they are a kind of drama performance, there are actors, there are stories throughout, there are audience participation. Zhang Heng "Xijing Fu" is recorded as follows: Huanggong of the East China Sea, red knife Yue Zhu, by hate (Fu) white tiger, the pawn can not save, narrow evil for cup, so do not sell. The Eastern Jin Dynasty (917-907) Ge Hong There is also a record in the "Xijing Miscella" : Huang Gong of the East China Sea, as a child, can control snakes and tigers... At the end of the Qin Dynasty, white tigers were found in the East China Sea, and Huang Gong hated them with his red sword. The art is not good, is killed by the tiger. Common use as a play, the Han emperor also took the Angle of the play. Directly in the Donghai theater, where actors wore white tiger masks in wrestling wrestling stories, it was clearly not just a competition but theater, because Di was written in theater Settings where victory and defeat were determined long before. Baixi in the Han Dynasty, also called SAN Le, was a folk performance of song and dance, opera, acrobatics Vaudeville Opera is born in this kind of "mixed drama" performance environment, it absorbs the strengths of various sister arts, and forms its own genes in the matrix.

Synthesize into a theory

1.
Li Gang's "On the Comprehensive Characteristics and Rules of Chinese Opera Art" article said: "Since Chinese opera art is a comprehensive art including singing, chanting, dancing, band accompaniment... Each of these arts has its own characteristics, and when they are combined, their own characteristics change and develop..."
2.
Zhou Yibai's article "The Origin and Development of Chinese Drama" said: "The origin of Chinese drama, in my personal opinion, is to use 'haiku' and 'advocating' to dress up characters and make story performances, and then combined with other arts to form a comprehensive development."
3.
Ren Guangwei's Analysis of Mulian Opera in the Northern Song Dynasty says: "Chinese opera art is a synthesis of many kinds of art."

Development history

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EDITOR

The birth of western drama

A Doll's House

The dawn of Western drama, it is generally believed Ancient Greek Tragedy, and ancient Greek tragedy is rooted in the ancient Greek city-states Dionysus The cult of Dionysus. During the festival, people play the role of Dionysus, sing the "Ode to God", and do the "satyrs dance" (the sheep is the animal representing Dionysus). Ancient Greek tragedies are all poetic dramas, rigorous and elegant, solemn and atmospheric. There is a chorus accompanying the performance, and historical facts show that the chorus existed before the actors. For this origin, we can also refer to the early philosophical work of the German philosopher Nietzsche. The birth of tragedy ".

Birth of Chinese drama

By Western definition, China has no tradition of "drama". However, when discussing Chinese drama in general, if we do not divide it by strict definition, Chinese ancient opera should be classified into the category of drama.

Stage quality project: Huai drama "A river of spring water flowing east"

Chinese opera has its roots in witchcraft rituals dating back to the pre-Qin to Han Dynasties, but the Song Dynasty Southern opera The earliest existing Chinese ancient drama script is "The Southern Song Dynasty". Zhang Xie No.1 ". The Yuan Dynasty was dominated by Dadu, Binh Duong With Hangzhou as the center, the Yuan opera shines brightly. Later generations have formed many opera forms, that is, various kinds of operas. Ming dynasty Kunqu opera After development, it was first sought after and loved by the scholastic officials, who created a large number of scripts, constantly revised the score, and revised the drama theory of Kunqu opera, and made the legendary script a new kind of drama mainstream Literary form. Later, Kunqu Opera was loved by the royal court in the late Ming Dynasty and Qing Dynasty, became a part of the life of the nobility, and became an officially recognized drama art, so it was called "elegant". Local operas based on local dialects, widely loved by the people, are called "flowers". Therefore, in the Qing Dynasty, the "flower and elegant dispute" was formed, which was actually a situation of common prosperity of opera. This has enriched the categories of opera art, but also formed their own Artistic characteristics .

Tseng Yongyi, a scholar of drama studies in Taiwan, put forward a set of arguments that when discussing the origin of Chinese drama, we should distinguish between "big drama" and "big drama". playlet The big play is a mature opera, and the small play is the prototype of the drama. The opera was not developed until the Jinyuan Zju, and the previous Zju of the Song Dynasty, Daimian of the Tang Dynasty, Treadang Niang, Alms Tou, Army play Fan Kuai platoon Jun difficult, etc., can be included in the ranks of small plays, and China has a small play very early.

Before China had cultural contact with the modern West, there was no tradition of "drama" (mainly drama) in the Western sense. Traditional Chinese drama is a kind of drama, "song and dance to play the story", a comprehensive art form of music, singing, dancing, martial arts and acrobatics, that is, opera Qu Yi.

Development of Chinese opera

Pre-qin period → Han and Wei Period → Tang, Song and Jin Period → Yuan Dynasty → Late Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties → Modern times

1 Lyrics: The lyrics to the music. 2 White: It refers to the Taoist expression in ancient opera. 3 disciplines: Opera routine action. 4 palace keys: Music tune.

Chinese drama flourished in the Yuan Dynasty, forming an artistic peak. The reason?

First of all, from the Song Dynasty to the Jin Dynasty, and then to the Yuan Dynasty, the birth of the drama followed the inherent development of art law. After a long period of artistic accumulation, it has finally formed a drama performance form with Chinese national characteristics, which is characterized by singing, reading, doing and playing. Among them, Sanqu plays an important role in the final setting of the structure of Zju. As far as music is concerned, the Qu styles selected in each Gong tune of Yuan Zao Opera are much richer than those of other Gong tunes, which can fully perform a plot and conform to the structure of dramatic conflicts from formation to development, to climax and then to resolution.

Secondly, the city is unprecedentedly prosperous, and the number of amusement venues has increased, especially the emergence of a large number of Vashe hurdles. As early as the Song Dynasty, there was a "book club" organization, generally composed of lower-level scholars and experienced old artists, designed to provide scripts for various forms of performance in the hook. The maturity of the Yuan drama objectively raised the requirements of the book club, and it was in urgent need of readers to compete for new chapters to meet the needs of the audience. This led to more theatrical productions.

Third, the rulers of the Yuan Dynasty did not set up imperial examinations, so that scholars lost the rank of advancement, so they found a place to live in the Vashe Gulan. Guan Hanqing, Wang Shifu, Ma Zhiyuan, Bai Renfu, Zheng Dehui and other outstanding writers of Zju really went deep into the lower stratum of society when they had no livelihood. The encounters, awakenings and revolts of those at the bottom, especially those who advocate, are deeply infected with them, so they can play out a song and cry story in their works, and shape a flesh-and-blood character. Some people say that the Yuan drama is angry art, in a sense, is not too much.

Current situation of drama

Chinese classical opera is Chinese national culture An important part of that World drama circle Kamiyo Ancient Greek tragicomedy , Sanskrit and Known as the world's three ancient operas . The Peking Opera system of Mei Lanfang and Brecht's Berlin Theater and Stanislavsky's Bolshoi Theater, as the quintessential Chinese opera system, are called the three major theatrical systems in the world, while another type of opera, Kunqu Opera, is World cultural heritage For one thing, history and experience are sufficient to show that the influence and irreplaceable status of Chinese drama in the world can not be ignored, and from this we can draw a conclusion that drama should be brilliant and prosperous in Chinese society. The fact is that from the 1980s to the present, drama in China has suffered a "low ebb". The annual "Plum Blossom Award" selection, the biennial "Wenhua Award", the Chinese Drama Festival, and the international drama exhibition are dizzying, but the real crisis is hidden behind the glitz and glory, that is the sharp decline in the number of audiences. The traditional Chinese drama in their minds is old, can not keep up with the trend of The Times, there is no new at all.

Objective cause

The door of the country has gradually opened to the world, and while the economic construction has taken off rapidly, it has also been impacted by many foreign cultures. Blockbusters, American, Japanese and Korean dramas fill our eyes. In contrast, the requirements of Chinese traditional drama for actors are high, and the literary and artistic requirements of the script are also relatively high. From an economic point of view, although the initial investment of a play can not exceed those of the average degree of film, but Input-output ratio But far less. Another point is the dependence of theater drama on theater, and it is precisely because it is performed in this relatively small space, the audience coverage can not be compared with the above two art forms.

Subjective factor

Most of the actors were trained during the "catastrophe" of the decade, when there were only eight dramas in the country, and the diversity of traditional Chinese drama suffered serious damage. Natural learning actors don't learn the best plays either in terms of quantity or quality. Most actors belong to a theater, that is, a unit. Big productions and big scenes have become the necessary conditions for winning awards, local theaters would rather not perform in the local, but also to Beijing to participate in the competition, Plum Flower Awards, Mandarin Awards, Golden Lion Awards have become their only goal, which is obviously divorced from the meaning of the drama and the original intention of the theater people. There is also the fact that the theatre is dependent on state funding.

Art form

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EDITOR

In ancient Greece, art was divided into music, painting, sculpture, architecture, and poetry, with drama falling under the category of poetry. But, really Dramatic art It should include many artistic elements such as poetry (literature), music, painting, sculpture, architecture and dance, so it is called Comprehensive art .

Each kind of art has a special means of expression, thus constituting the external form of the image. As a comprehensive art, drama melts a variety of artistic expression means, and their direct and external expression in the complex is:

1.
Literature. Mainly refers to the script.
2.
Plastic arts . Mainly refers to the scenery, lighting, props, costumes, makeup.
3.
Music. Mainly refers to the sound, interlude, music, etc., in the opera, opera, also includes tunes, singing and so on.
4.
Dance. It mainly refers to the dance elements contained in dance drama and opera art, which are transformed into the performing arts of actors in drama.

Beijing Opera film The Legend of the White Snake

Various artistic factors in drama play different roles respectively, and their positions in the integrated whole are not equal. In a drama complex, an actor's Performing arts Occupying the center and leading position, it is the noumenon of dramatic art. The means of performing art -- physical movements and lines are the basic means of dramatic art. Other artistic factors are melted by the noumenon. Script is the basis of drama performance, which directly determines the artistry and ideological nature of drama. As a literary form, although it can be read like a novel, its basic value lies in its playability. A script that cannot be performed is not a good drama work. The value of the musical component in the drama performance, whether it is the episode, the soundtrack or the sound, mainly lies in the synergistic effect of the actors in shaping the stage image. The plastic arts components in drama performances, such as scenery, lighting, props, costumes, makeup, also play a specific auxiliary role in shaping the stage image of actors from different angles. Taking the performing art of actors as its main body, it absorbs and melts various artistic components and constitutes the external form of dramatic art.

There are many forms of theatre performance, common ones include drama, opera, Chinese opera, dance drama, musical, Puppet show Let's wait. Due to the difference in cultural background, the drama forms produced by different cultures often have unique traditions and procedures, such as Western drama, Chinese opera, and Indian opera Sanskrit opera , Japan Noh Lok , kabuki Let's wait.

The modern concept of drama emphasizes the unity of all performance elements on the stage to achieve comprehensive artistic effects. Performance elements include actors, stage, props, lighting, sound effects, costumes, makeup, and SCRIPT , director It also includes the relationship between on-stage performance and off-stage interaction (generally referred to as "performance relationship").

In Taiwan, drama is a wide range of terms, such as The stage play All forms of drama, such as TV dramas and movies, which are performed with scripts as the core, are collectively called dramas.

Dramatic language

Dramatic language includes Character language and Stage instructions .

Character language: Also known as lines (The opera calls it" The spoken part of a Chinese opera "). Lines are the words spoken by the characters in the play, including dialogue, monologue , Voice over Let's wait. Dialogue is the words spoken by two or more characters; A monologue is a monologue in which a character expresses his or her feelings and desires alone. A narrator is something a character says to the audience from the side, behind the backs of other people on stage. The script mainly promotes the development of the plot and expresses the character through the lines. Therefore, the line language requires that it can fully express the character, identity and thoughts and feelings of the character, to be popular and natural, concise and clear, to be colloquial, and to be suitable for stage performance.

Stage description: Also known as stage cue. It is an indispensable part of the script language, and is some of the explanatory words in the script. Stage instructions include the list of characters in the play, the time and place of the plot, costumes, props, scenery, and the characters' expressions, actions, up and down, etc. These instructions play a certain role in depicting the characters' personalities and promoting the development of the drama plot. This part of the language requires writing concise, concise, clear. This part of the content usually appears at the beginning of each act (scene), the end and the middle of the dialogue, usually surrounded by brackets (square brackets or parentheses).

SCRIPT

The concept of drama in literature refers to the script, or script, created for dramatic performance.

Dramatic text (i.e." SCRIPT ") is an essential element of a play, a prerequisite for a play.

The most important thing about a play is that it can be performed on the stage. The dramatic text is not the completion of the art until after the stage performance (the "performance text") is the final artistic presentation. Some writers in the past have written plays that were not suitable for the stage, or even could not be performed at all. Such dramatic texts are called desk plays (A.K.A Study drama ), more famous such as Wilde The poem drama Salome ". There are also examples of unscripted performances in modern dramas.

The literary text of a play, when not performed, can be enjoyed as a separate literary form.

theater

As long as it is a space, it can become a place for drama performance, generally known as" theater ". Historically, there have been many places dedicated to theatrical activities, some outdoors and some indoors. These places for drama performances include theatres, theatres, stages, etc.

In ancient China, the so-called stage was first used in singing and dancing ceremonies, and dancers stood on a high platform made of earth when performing the ceremony. With the development of drama, it gradually matured into a theater shed, stage, pavilion and pavilion. hurdle And other performance venues.

The performance of Western drama has developed from the Greek open-air theater and the ancient Roman amphitheater (that is, the "arena") to the modern "theater". Frame stage The "Black Box" (or Black Box, black box) suitable for pioneering experimental theatre performances, Little theatre (Experimental Theater).

Drama classification

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EDITOR

Main classification

By volume, dramatic literature can be divided into A play of many acts , One-act play and opuscule ;

According to the form of expression, can be divided into drama , opera , Drama in verse , Dance drama , Traditional Chinese opera Etc.;

According to the theme, can be divided into Mythological play , historical drama, Legendary drama , Civic drama , sociodrama , Family drama Science fantasy, etc.;

According to the nature and effect of drama conflict, it can be divided into tragedy , comedy and Serious drama .

However, the most basic and most used categories are tragedy, comedy, and drama, where tragedy occurs earlier than comedy, and drama is also called drama tragicomedy .

Tragedy: The essence of conflict: "The inevitable demand of history and the practical impossibility of this demand." The aesthetic value of tragedy: "To destroy the valuable things of life for others to see".

Comedy: Aesthetic value: "To tear the worthless to show others".

Drama: A deeper way of reconciling tragedy and comedy into a new whole.

Ancient Greek drama

Opera Group (Pink Ink Chunqiu)

world Dramatic art It first appeared in ancient Greece on the Aegean Sea about 2,400 years ago. In addition to the main actors, there was also a chorus that commented on what was happening in the play. Interestingly, in Pericles' time, in order to encourage people to go to the theatre, there was even a theatrical allowance. It is worth learning in promoting and protecting culture.

ACTORS

Ancient times Greek drama In all the roles are made by men act These actors are all professional and have a high social status. In the same play, an actor may play several roles, and a role may be played by several actors. Because of the distance between the actors and the audience, the actors had to change their costumes and masks frequently to attract the audience's attention. Actors wore thick-soled boots to make themselves appear taller, and sometimes wore brightly colored gloves to make their gestures recognizable to the audience.

theater

The earliest ancient norms Greek drama The venue was simple: a "theatre" made up of steps built on a piece of compacted hard earth and a wooden board. In the fourth century B.C., a new kind of theater appeared: it was roofless, semi-circular, built of stone, and had a stepped, sloping auditorium. The Greeks called it" amphitheatre ".

Chinese opera

A still from "Chinese Princess Durandot" at Yale Theatre, Taiwan

Traditional Chinese opera (traditional opera, also known as drama in history) is a traditional art of the Han nationality in China, which consists of literature, music, dance, fine arts, martial arts, acrobatics and performing arts. There are many interesting kinds of operas, and the performance forms include singing and dancing, reading and singing, literary and martial arts. It integrates "singing, acting, reading and fighting". It is unique in the history of world drama, and its main characteristics are composed of Han classical drama art Beijing Opera For example, one is a man dressed as a woman (in Yue opera, it is common for a woman to dress as a man); The second is division raw , denier , net , The ugly The four major industries; Third, the clear corner has exaggerated makeup art -- Facial makeup ; The four is" outfit (that is, opera costumes and props) have basically fixed patterns and specifications; The fifth is to use the "program" to perform. Chinese national opera, from the pre-Qin" A surname ", Han Dynasty" acrobatics "Tang Dynasty" Army play ", Song Dynasty zaju The Southern Song Dynasty Southern opera The Yuan Dynasty, until the Qing Dynasty local opera unprecedented prosperity and the formation of Beijing Opera. ^[2]

Although Chinese opera came into being later than Greece and India, there were records of Chinese opera as early as the Han Dynasty, and it entered a mature stage in the 13th century, and its heyday was in the Qing Dynasty. At the beginning of the founding of New China, it has developed to more than 300 kinds of operas, and the repertoire is difficult to count. In the world, it is called the three ancient dramatic cultures together with Greek tragicomedy and Indian Sanskrit drama. Opera has always been rooted in the Chinese people and is popular with the people. And among them, Beijing Opera , Yu opera , Shaoxing opera , Huangmei Opera , Pingju, a local opera of northern China It is called five kinds of Chinese opera in turn. ^[3-4] Every other local drama has its own audience. People far away from their hometown even listen to and watch national opera as a form of homesickness.

Dramatic features

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EDITOR

Opera Lady of Yangmen (Chen Fang)

1. Begins with the separated, finally with;

2. In a word, "called song and dance story also;

3. Leave form and take meaning, get "meaning" and forget "form".

The artistic characteristics of drama

Theater brings together many art forms in a single standard: poetry, music, and dance. Poetry refers to literature, music refers to musical accompaniment, dance refers to performance. In addition, it also includes stage art, costume, makeup and other aspects. At the same time, the opera takes singing, reading, doing and playing as the basic means, and almost all kinds of performing arts components are gathered in one. Opera actors must master the "four skills and five methods" (the "four skills" are singing, reading, doing and fighting, and the "five methods" are mouth, hand, eye, body and step).

In the 4th century BC, Aristotle In... poetics The understanding of the essence of drama has been expressed in ". He believes that all art is imitation, and drama is the imitation of the actions of various creatures.

Later, India's first book on drama theory, Dance theory "Theater is imitation." After the 19th century, the research on the essence of drama has appeared a variety of opinions, mainly The audience says , Conflict theory , Cataclysm theory , situation, Laboratory theory Let's wait.

What the audience says: The recognition of the audience is the necessary condition of drama, and also the essence of drama. French drama theorist F. Sasse is the representative of this concept, he asserted that no matter what kind of drama work, it is for the audience to see. "Without an audience, there can be no drama," and therefore all the elements of the drama must be adapted to the audience's appreciation.

Conflict theory: It is represented by the French drama theorist Bruntell. At the end of the 19th century, Bruntell pointed out that the stage is the place where people's conscious will is exerted, and the character's conscious will will inevitably encounter obstacles, and the subject has to fight against them in order to overcome the obstacles, which constitutes the "will conflict", and the essence of drama lies in this. American drama theorist J.H. Lawson classified the essence of drama as "social conflicts in which conscious will plays a role". He thinks: as drama is dealt with Social relation And man's conscious will must be restricted by social necessity, so the real dramatic conflict must be social conflict. The idea can be expressed in a phrase: "No drama without conflict." Xu Shen in the Eastern Han Dynasty ^[5] In "Shuowen Jiezi" put forward: "the play, starting from fighting soldiers, wide than fighting force, and overflowing in the battle of wits, extreme in the fight mouth." He thinks that drama is the sublimation of the most conflictual scenes of life.

Cataclysm theory: British drama theorist W. Archer denied Bruntell's "conflict" theory, he compared fiction with drama, and believed that fiction is the art of "gradual change", while drama is the art of "crisis", and drama deals with human beings Fate And a radical change in the environment, that's the essence of drama.

The situation, the laboratory says: Back in the 18th century, the French philosopher D. Diderot He once regarded "situation" as the basis of dramatic works. Hegel When talking about the characteristics of drama, "situation" and "conflict" were linked together, and the ontological significance of situation was emphasized. existentialism Philosopher and playwright J.P. Satyr He called his play "situational drama" and said that the object of the drama was the choice of people in the situation. B. Brecht He regarded theatre as a scientific method, and believed that the theatre was a laboratory for testing human behavior in a given situation. This concept also defines the essence of drama from a specific perspective.

Drama organization

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EDITOR

China

China National Theatre

Beijing People's Art Theater

Shanghai Dramatic Art Center

Performance workshop

Geek troupe

List of Taiwanese modern theatre performing groups

List of Taiwanese traditional drama performing groups

Theatre group

Read the 20-sided chart

Hong Kong Repertory Theatre

Zhongying Theatre Company

Asia Link (Shanghai) Cultural Development Co., LTD

Life in Seven Acts. Musical

Zigong Sichuan Opera Art Center ( Zigong Sichuan Opera Troupe ) ^[7]

Europe, North America

Britain Royal Shakespeare Company

Britain West End

America Broadway

Greek Song Federation Peking Opera Troupe

Art college

Central Academy of Drama

Shanghai Theatre Academy

National Academy of Chinese Opera

Drama teaching

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EDITOR

The problems of "three education" (teaching materials, teachers and teaching methods) in China's performance teaching system, the investigation of humanistic quality in the enrollment of performance majors, the adjustment of teaching plans and the reform of performance teaching management have been paid attention to. Performance teaching should adopt the "student-centered" model, the performance element teaching should run through the whole time, and the general education and professional education should be combined to meet the needs of social development. ^[6]

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