Kunqu Opera, formerly known as "Kunshan Opera" and "Kunqiang Opera", is an ancient vocal tune and type of opera in China. It has been called "Kunqu Opera" since the Qing Dynasty, and is now also called "Kunju Opera". Kunqu Opera is one of the oldest traditional operas of the Han nationality in China. It is also a treasure of the traditional culture and art of the Han nationality in China, especially the opera art. It is called an "orchid" in the garden of flowers.
As early as the end of the Yuan Dynasty (the middle of the 14th century), Kunqu Opera was born in Kunshan (Taicangzhou), Jiangsu Province. It, together with Haiyan Tune, Yuyao Tune, and Yiyang Tune, which originated in Zhejiang Province, is known as the four major tunes of the Ming Dynasty and belong to the Southern Opera system.
Kunshan Tune started as a folk song. Its distribution area was limited to Suzhou at the beginning. During the Wanli period, it expanded from Suzhou to the south of the Yangtze River and the north of the Qiantang River. At the end of the Wanli period, it also flowed into Beijing. Thus Kunshan Opera became the most influential vocal opera from the middle of the Ming Dynasty to the middle of the Qing Dynasty.
Kunqu Opera is the most influential vocal opera from the middle of the Ming Dynasty to the middle of the Qing Dynasty. Many operas were developed on the basis of Kunqu Opera, known as "the ancestor and teacher of all operas", and also known as "the mother of Chinese opera". At that time, Wuxi Kunqu Opera Society played a role in promoting Kunqu Opera. Kun Opera is the most complete performing system in the history of Chinese opera. It has a deep foundation and rich heritage. It is the result of the high development of Chinese Han culture and art, and plays an important role in the history of Chinese literature, opera, music, and dance. The performance of Kunqu Opera also has its unique system and style. Its biggest characteristics are strong lyricism, exquisite movements, and the combination of singing and dancing is ingenious and harmonious. In terms of language, the drama was originally divided into Southern Opera and Northern Opera: Suzhou Vernacular was the main form in Nankun, while Duyu Vernacular and Beijing Vernacular were the main form in Beikun.
Kunqu Opera is gorgeous and graceful in singing, elegant in recitation, exquisite in performance, elegant in dance, and perfect in stage setting, which can be said to have reached the highest level in all aspects of opera performance. Because of this, many local operas, such as Jin Opera, Pu Opera, Xiang Opera, Sichuan Opera, Gan Opera, Gui Opera, Yue Opera, and Min Opera, have been nurtured and nurtured by Kun Opera in many ways. Many plays in Kunqu Opera, such as Peony Pavilion, Hall of Longevity, Peach Blossom Fan, are immortal works in ancient opera literature. Kunqu Opera inherits the literary tradition of Tang poetry, Song Ci and Yuan Qu, while many Qupai are the same as Song Ci and Yuan Qu. This has laid a good cultural foundation for the development of Kunqu Opera, and has also created a large number of Kunqu Opera writers and musicians. Liang Chenyu, Tang Xianzu, Hong Sheng, Kong Shangren, Li Yu, Li Yu, Ye Ya, etc. are outstanding representatives in the history of Chinese opera and literature.
From the historical development of Kunqu, the 400 years before the 18th century were the period when Kunqu gradually matured and became increasingly prosperous. During this period, Kunqu Opera has been showing people all kinds of customs in the world in a perfect way. It is this rich and beautiful performance atmosphere and the deliberate pursuit of artlessness that makes Kunqu Opera increasingly elegant and difficult. In the late 18th century, local operas began to rise. Their emergence broke the performance pattern formed for a long time. The development of opera also transited from aristocratic to popular, and Kunqu Opera began to decline.
In the middle of the 20th century, the decline of Kunqu Opera became more apparent, and many Kunqu artists turned to performing popular Peking Opera. In 1949, when New China was founded, it vigorously supported and revitalized the traditional Chinese opera cause, and Kunqu Opera was lucky to be reborn. In 1956, the adaptation and performance of the "Fifteen year Plan" by Zhejiang Kunqu Opera Troupe had a wide impact throughout the country. Premier Zhou once said with emotion that "one play has saved a kind of drama." [2] After that, Kunqu Opera Troupes have been restored in many parts of the country.
On May 18, 2001, UNESCO announced the first batch of "representative works of human oral and intangible heritage" in Paris, including Chinese Kunqu Opera. China became one of the 19 countries that won this honor for the first time.
history
In the Jin and Yuan Dynasties, there was a rise of Zaju in the north at that time, with many roles playing the story. Drama in the south originated around Jianyan's southward crossing. During the reign of Emperor Taizu of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) during the reign of Hongwu, the Southern Opera and the Northern Opera became legendary.
According to Wen Zhengming's manual record of South Ci Yinzheng by Lou Jiang and Wei Liangfu, "Gu Jian lived in Qiandun (today's Qiandeng Town), 30 miles away from Kunshan in the Yuan Dynasty. He was good at writing poems in the south, and was good at writing ancient prose. He was good at singing and unyielding. He was good at developing the mystery of South Opera, so he was called" Kunshan Tune "at the beginning of his country. In the late Yuan Dynasty, Gu Jian of Kunshan was the founder of Kunqu. Today, there is Gu Jian Memorial Hall in Qiandeng Town, Kunshan. Kunshan Opera in the Ming Dynasty is one of the four major tunes of opera. At the end of the Yuan Dynasty, after the Southern Opera was introduced to Kunshan, it combined with local folk tunes to form a tune with local characteristics. With the promotion of musician Gu Jian, it has made great progress. According to Zhou Xuanwei's "Jing Lin Xu Ji", Zhu Yuanzhang, the first emperor of the Ming Dynasty, also noticed Kunqu Opera. It can be seen that the scale of Kunqu Opera was not small at that time. During the Zhengde and Jiajing years of the Ming Dynasty, Wei Liangfu, a Qing opera singer, inherited the ancient tradition of "cultural music", improved Kunshan Opera, adopted the Zhongzhou rhyme system, performed the tune according to the sound of words, and "used the water mill to beat the cold plate", making Kun Opera delicate and euphemistic, which is also known as "water mill tune" and "water mill tune". Later, the legendary new works "Jade Jue", "Ming Feng", "Huan Sha", etc. sung with Kun Opera appeared. The new tune became popular across the country and became a leading opera voice. During the period from Jiajing in the Ming Dynasty to Qianlong in the Qing Dynasty, Kunqu Opera was in its heyday for more than two hundred years, and the stage art of Kunqu Opera also developed and matured in the middle of the Qing Dynasty. Since then, Huabu has risen, and Yabu, represented by Kun Opera, has gradually withdrawn from the stage. However, it has passed on through the ages, and its vocal tunes and performing arts have profoundly influenced later operas, such as Beijing Opera; The singing activities of folk music clubs have also been continuous and become the main force to preserve the singing standards.
Huabu is also called "Luan Tan". According to Volume V of Yangzhou Huafang Record, we can know that Huabu tunes are collectively called "Luan Tan". Xu Fuming's article "Luan Tan Luan Tan" points out that "Luan Tan" is also known as "Luan Tan", "Luan Tan" and "Luan Tan". The music style used in Huabu's melodies is lively and noisy.
Origin and formation
Kunqu Opera is a new type of drama that appeared in the Ming Dynasty of China. Since the late 16th century, it has gradually occupied the central position in the theater, becoming the most important form of drama for more than two hundred years. Kunqu Opera has gone through a long process from its origin to its formal formation.
According to the information available, during the reign of Emperor Guangzong of the Southern Song Dynasty, a local opera in Yongjia, Zhejiang, rose rapidly. It mainly sang southern folk music, so it was called Southern Opera. The Southern Opera retains many characteristics of folk art, and is free from any restrictions of rules and regulations. Its performance is free and lively, with greater randomness. In the process of development, Southern Opera gradually absorbed a variety of mature traditional music forms since the Tang and Song Dynasties, and gradually became rich and meticulous. However, due to the lack of participation of upper class intellectuals, it was unable to overcome its inherent or acquired defects for a while, so that it lingered at a low level for a long time.
In the early Ming Dynasty, on the one hand, the Southern Opera drew valuable artistic experience from the dramas sung with northern tunes, and on the other hand, it attracted some intellectual elites to join in, presenting a new look. When Zhu Yuanzhang, the founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty, read the Southern Opera script "The Story of the Pipa" written by Gao Ming (? - 1359), he was highly praised and specially asked people to rehearse it in the court. It can be seen that the Southern Opera in the early Ming Dynasty has begun to move towards a more elegant artistic realm, which has been positively affirmed by the upper class.
The reason why Southern Opera can make such rapid progress is closely related to its own flexibility, which is mainly reflected in the reproduction and change of its singing tunes. From the Southern Song Dynasty to the Ming Dynasty, the Southern Opera continued to combine with local dialects and folk music, and developed a variety of local tunes with different styles. Kunshan Tune, which combines it with Kunshan local music and Wu dialect, is the predecessor of Kunqu. It must be noted that Kunshan Tune at this time was just a musical form of singing, and it was not used to perform the complete drama plot. Before the middle of the Ming Dynasty, Kunshan Opera was not widely spread, but only in Suzhou. At that time, Suzhou was far ahead in terms of economy and culture, and was the leading metropolis in Southeast China. The economic prosperity has led to the development of culture and art. Under this background, Kunqu Opera has come to the center of the social and cultural stage.
It is Wei Liangfu, a folk musician whose birth and death years are unknown, who developed the artistic potential of Kunqu Opera and made it an important form of singing. Like many outstanding folk artists in Chinese history, Wei Liangfu's life record is very brief. According to some materials in the works of the people at that time, he lived in the Jiajing and Longqing years of the Ming Dynasty. He was originally from Yuzhang, Jiangxi Province. He had lived in Taicang for a long time and sang folk tunes as a career. This profession made Wei Liangfu come into contact with a variety of tunes in the north and south. Through comparative research, he became increasingly dissatisfied with the situation that Kunshan tune is flat and simple, lacking of ups and downs. So he worked closely with a group of people with similar artistic aspirations and began a comprehensive reform of Kunshan tune.
This reform is divided into two aspects: singing and accompaniment. Wei Liangfu and other folk musicians, on the basis of the original Kunshan tune, gathered the advantages of various tunes in the south and north, and at the same time learned from the minor music of Jiangnan folk songs, to integrate a new type of tune that was different from the past. When singing, they paid attention to matching the tone of the lyrics with the tune, while lengthening the syllables of words, creating a soothing rhythm, giving people a special musical beauty, This is the Kunqu Opera that has been handed down in later generations. Wei Liangfu is good at singing, but he is not proficient in musical instruments. In the process of reforming Kunshan tune, he received great help from Zhang Yetang, a Hebei native (whose birth and death years are unknown). Zhang Yetang is a very talented folk musician. He gave full play to his expertise to help Wei Liangfu absorb northern tunes into Kunqu in the south. At the same time, he transformed the original accompaniment instrument of northern tunes, Sanxian, and used it together with xiao, flute, clapper, pipa, gongs and drums in the accompaniment of Kunqu to make its singing euphemistic, delicate, fluent and distant, It is called "water mill cavity".
The success of Kunqu Opera reform brought Wei Liangfu great reputation. Once this new tune came out, it immediately conquered the audience with irresistible artistic charm. A group of folk musicians have learned the singing techniques of Kunqu Opera from Wei Liangfu, making this beautiful tune spread quickly in the surrounding areas. The earliest drama performed in the form of Kunqu Opera is generally believed to be Huansha Ji by Liang Chenyu (about 1521 - about 1594), a Kunshan native.
It is said that Liang Chenyu once got the true biography of Wei Liangfu. He has high attainments in Kunqu opera singing and is highly respected in Kunshan. Song girls and singing girls from surrounding areas scramble to ask him to give advice on singing skills, and some even come all the way to learn from him. Liang Chenyu, in cooperation with some folk musicians, further processed Wei Liangfu's reformed Kunqu Opera, created the script of Huansha Ji and performed it on the stage in the form of Kunqu Opera.
After the reform of Wei Liangfu and the artistic practice of Liang Chenyu, Kunqu Opera became more and more influential and soon spread to Jiangsu and Zhejiang, becoming the main form of drama in these regions.
Development and prosperity
Folk artists played a key role in the initial formation of Kunqu Opera. After Kunqu Opera acquired a relatively complete form of drama, it began to develop to a higher level. At this time, many first-class writers and scholars joined in and wrote a large number of plays with exquisite poems and vivid and tortuous stories. At the same time when Liang Chenyu created Huansha Ji, there were two other works with the same great influence in the drama field of the Ming Dynasty, namely Li Kaixian's (1502-1568) Sword Story and Anonymous's Ming Phoenix Story. They were not originally created for the performance of Kunqu Opera. Later, they used Kunqu Opera to sing and became an important reserved repertoire of Kunqu Opera.
Dramas such as Huansha Ji, Baojian Ji and Mingfeng Ji mainly revolve around the political theme, while other dramas before and after this period, such as Xiuru Ji by Xu Lin (1462-1538), and Yuzan Ji by Gao Lian (whose birth and death years are unknown), mainly revolve around the love theme. Since then, politics and love have become the two major themes of Kunqu Opera, which are sometimes independent and sometimes closely combined.
Tang Xianzu (1550-1616), another great dramatist in the history of Kunqu Opera, was born during the Wanli period at the end of the Ming Dynasty. He was fifteen years older than the British dramatist Shakespeare (1564-1616), and both died in the same year. Tang Xianzu's Peony Pavilion boldly put the love dreams of girls on the stage. Once performed, it immediately caused a great sensation. When Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream won bursts of laughter in the Elizabethan London Theater, the mysterious and beautiful dream in the Peony Pavilion is also making people drunk in the family performance venue of the Chinese rich gentry or in the folk open-air theater. The Peony Pavilion breaks through the conflict between love and reason in Chinese traditional ethics and tries to pursue an ideal love concept of "where love comes from", "the living can die, and the dead can live".
