The Boxer And Traditional Chinese Opera

The dissertation aims to study the relationship between the Boxer Movement and the plays. It mainly covers five aspects: the dramatic element in the ceremonies of the Boxer Movement; the drama life of the Boxer Movement, the plays and the folk vocal art forms on the Boxer Movement; the local color of the dramatic characters of the Boxer and the relationship between the Boxer Movement and the Gods and Spirits plays as well as the Swordsmen plays.The dissertation is composed of three books. The first book includes the first three chapters. Beginning with the elaboration of the martial arts which the Boxers practice, Chapter one expounds its playfulness, arguing that the playfulness incorporates the nobility and performance. It focuses on the influence which the Swordsmen plays, Witchcraft and Sideshow exert on the Boxer Movement. Chapter two is concerned with the genealogy of gods in the Movement, relating that the rituals of the Movement originate from the countryside witchcraft, which is made up of three parts: invoking gods, uttering spells and conjuring up. The Boxers invoke totally seventy-six gods, most of whom are the characters in the plays and fictions. Their spell has the nature of performance, with the same source as the dialogues in the plays. And the haunted performer's behavior is similar to the dancing in the plays. Chapter three studies the drama life of the Boxer Movement, dealing with the dramatic life of the leaders of the Boxer Movement and Hong DengZhao as well as the occasions on which the Boxers start their rebellions while performing plays. Furthermore, it also involves how the Boxer Movement and its adherents take the plays as the means of courtesy and use them as playful punishments. All these materials are never uncovered before.The second book includes chapter four, five and six, concerning the plays on the Boxer Movement and presenting an unprecedented comprehensive elaboration of them. Among the plays The Whip Flower is composed by the country folks of LiYuanTun, which was prohibited shortly after it was on stage. Since the play is never published, I only figure out its plot from the historical materials and investigations. In doing so, I also discover some special relationships between LiYuanTun and some local plays. This book also illustrates some other categories of the play, such as PiHuang, Legend, Northern type drama and Stage play, which have different focuses in their creating principles and discrepant achievements in their artistic performance. Among these chapters, the second part of Chapter four, which is about the dramatic activities in the Peking area in Gengzi year, is abstracted according to the first-hand materials. And in Chapter six which elaborates The Clapper Talks on the Gengzi National Coup written by Li Boyuan, the identification of the truth of the events according to the historical records, the exploration of its artistic characteristics and illustration of its thematic meaning are also very original, especially the argument on the cultural connotation of the play, on the worth of the historical materials and the concept of gentry Boxers.The third book consists of chapter seven and eight. Chapter seven relates the uniqueness of the influence of the Gods and Spirits plays on the Boxer Movement, revealing the deeper reasons of the Boxers' adoration towards these plays. There are three reasons for that. First, there are many adolescents in the Boxers who still retain their naivety. Second, the Boxers' craft contains the ritual of appealing to God in which the actor must change his identity on the spot. And this provokes their preference for Sun Wukong. Third, Sun Wukong's rebellious spirit and capricious conduct cater to the interests of the Boxers. Chapter eight concerns the chivalry of the Boxer Movement, which is under the influence of two kinds of plays. One is the Swordsmen plays of the local theme, for example, Conquering Dengzhou. The other is the plays on GuanGong. The Boxers' preference for the Swordsmen plays can be explained by the hometown complex as well as the social customs, while there are some other reasons for their liking for the plays on GuanGong. First, GuanGong is a divine god in the Qing Dynasty, officer and civilian combined together. So the Boxers can change their identities in paying tribute to him. Second, the players in the later Qing Dynasty worshipped GuangGong, which exerted a great influence on the boxers' aesthetic tastes and value judgments. Third, GuangGong is a war god who is famous for his loyalty, which accommodates to the boxers' gallantry honoring. In addition, there are some ritual elements in the plays on GuanGong, which are similar to the ceremonies of the Boxer Movement. All in all, the Boxers take part in the war against the foreign invaders by means of parody, which not only incorporates the spiritual power of the gods in the plays, but also expands and makes concrete the unique Chinese dramatic activity—"Amateur performance".