The Study Of Opera In The Early Ming Dynasty

XiWen inthe early Ming dynasty is an important part in the development history of the traditional Chinese drama,which inherited XiWen in the Song and Yuan dynasties and followed by Chuan Qi of the Ming and qing dynasties.As a dynastic history,it has long been ignored by the drama researchers.XiWen of the early Ming dynasty not only provides us with a unique research perspective,but also provides a meaningful research object.This paper is divided into 10 chapters and 32 sections.Firstly,the introduction elaborates the connotation and the extension and significance,previous study and limitations,methods and innovations of the research.The first chapter studies the creation background of XiWen in the early Ming dynasty.In 1368,Zhu Yuanzhang,the first emperor of the Ming dynasty,overthrew the brutal Yuan dynasty and established the last han regime in Chinese history.The change of social culture has left an indelible mark on XiWen.In the early Ming dynasty,the emperors implemented the policy of emphasizing agriculture and suppressing commerce in economy,the imperial examination system in culture,and their preference for traditional Chinese opera,which not only limited the content of XiWen,but also promoted the trasitionfrom XiWen to Chuan Qi.Morever,the antiquarian trend,anti-neo-confucianism trend and literary activities had an important influence on the language and theme of XiWen in the early Ming dynasty.The second chapter studies the development of XiWen in the early Ming dynasty.Since the founding of the Ming dynasty emperor Zhu Yuanzhang advocated "Pipaji",and the inferiors always copies the favor of the superiors and goes further,the famous Neo-confucianism scholar and minister Qiu Jun was the first one who consciously participated in the creation of XiWen and wrote "Wulunquanbeiji".His works promoted the feudalist doctrinesby the Chunghsiao story of Wulun Quan and Wulun Bei.After that,Shao Can,an old government student from Yixing,created "xiangnangji" which was full of conceptualized ethical preaching,and established the style of "writing southern melody with the present style",which was the harbinger of the later rhetoric school of Chuan Qi.Later generations,along the path of domestication and parallelism,created a variety of XiWen playscripts.Finally,Zheng Ruoyong’s "Yujueji" formally established the rhetoric school of Chuan Qi,"Zhongyuanyinyun" as a rhyme tool,every fold a tune,every tune a rhyme,completed the trsansition from XiWen to Chuan Qi.The third chapter studies the existance and disappearance of XiWen’s playscripts in early Ming dynasty.At the beginning of XiWen,it only spread in the folk.After gao Ming’s "Pipaji",some literati began to participate in the creation of XiWen in the early Ming dynasty.Then XiWen began to gradually develop from common to the elegance,but its status was still not high and still was looked down upon.In the early Ming dynasty,XiWen was always in a state of being vulgar.Since its playscripts were circulated between dramas troupes and geishas,a lot of playscripts were lost during this period,especially the folk XiWen.So today we can see few playscripts which were only a small part of the works of this period.The fourth chapter studies the creation and performance of folk XiWen in the early Ming dynasty.Folk XiWen playscripts were created by folk artists or shuhui talents in an original or adapted way.They were also acted out by folk drama troupes,showing unique folk aesthetic principles which were vulgar language,source materials close to life,and interesting plot twists and turns.At the beginning of the Ming dynasty,with the prevalence of the four major vocal styles,the scope of folk XiWen performances also gradually expanded and became popular.The fifth chapter studies the creation and performance of literati XiWen in the early Ming dynasty.At the beginning of Ming dynasty,Nanqu XiWen began to split into folk XiWen and literati XiWen.The literati inherited the themes of early XiWen creations,and made breakthroughs and innovations.In terms of aesthetic principles,it is reflected in its ability to select good materials,the language of "writing southern melody with the present style",and the absurdity of the plots.The performance of literati XiWen in the early Ming dynasty was also very popular,because it catered to the aesthetic needs of the common people at the bottom and its high standard to be touching.Chapter six studies the adaptation of the early Ming dynasty XiWen.The playscripts of XiWen in early Ming dynasty are mainly divided into original and adapted.XiWen writers expressed their creative ideas by adapting the dramas from the previous generation.The traditional love marriage theme and the heroic theme were the folk writers’ favorites.In order to give full attention to the domestication function of XiWen,literati in the early Ming dynasty put the adaptation of loyalty,filial piety,integrity and righteousness in the first place.When they adapted the works of previous generations,they mainly started from two aspects which were form and thought,namely the standardization and refinement of the form system and the moral improvement of the theme thought.The works adapted by XiWen writers in the early Ming dynasty not only meeted the needs of performance,but also highlighted the domesticationfunction of XiWen and exposed the darkness of reality in a deeper way.At the end of the chapter studies the XiWen of The Three Kingdoms in the early Ming dynasty.There were three kinds of folk plays,"Guchengji","Taoyuanji" "Caoluji" and a literary play "Lianhuanji".What they have in common is that they only adapted some parts of Za Ju of The Three Kingdoms from the Yuan dynasty,but their adaptation methods and reasons are slightly different.Chapter seven studies the melody of XiWen in the early Ming dynasty.From the perspective of the form of the qu style,XiWen in the early Ming dynasty belongs to the qu pai style,and its qu style mainly refers to the qu characters,qu sentences,qu rhyme and the combination form of the tune and other factors that affect the melody.With the development of XiWen art,its form also has changed.Chapter eight studies the ostentationand roleplay of XiWen in the early Ming dynasty.The ostentation structure of XiWen includes the opening scene,entering and going scene,the hanging scene and the closing scene,which paved the way for the appearance of Chuan Qi of the Ming dynasty.With the development of XiWen,the roles in dramas developed from seven to twelve.There appeared all kinds of roles,they passed the self-conscious combination and adjustment of the stage,some already disappeared,being the intermediate link of transition for new roles.Some are still around today.And in actual performance,It also often happened to play the roles of others.Chapter nine studies the stage dissemination and reception of XiWen of the early Ming in the Ming and Qing dynasties.Through the literati’s records,the qu elections of Ming and qing dynasties,and traditional dramatic prints depicted in scene,we can get in the early Ming dynasty both folk and literati XiWen continued making progress in the performance,and they were always being very popular,and even spread to other countries.Those extracts that were collected most and performed most frequently on the stage were favored by the audiences,because they retained many traditional national virtues in the content and embodied the essence of traditional Chinese drama performance in the form.Chapter ten studies the historical value of XiWen in early Ming dynasty.If we analyze the development of XiWen in the early Ming dynasty from a dynamic and changing perspective,we can find that it not only preserved the performance style and cultural character of XiWen in the Song and Yuan dynasties,but also showed a high historical value of drama in music system,text system,and role system,on the other hand,which laid a foundation for the emergence of Chuan Qi in the Ming dynasty.In a word,through the vertical comparison with XiWen of the Song and Yuan dynasties,Chuan Qi of the Ming and qing dynasties,and the horizontal comparison between the folk XiWen and the literati XiWen,we can know that XiWen of the early Ming dynasty is a transitional stage and has made important achievements in the text,music and performance,which has a very high historical value.