A Stady On Yuefu Chuansheng By Xu Dachun

Yuefu Chuansheng was published in 1748,the Thirteenth Year of the Qianlong period in Qing Dynasty.It offers a systematic study of vocal singing on the basis of the opera theories by previous generations of researchers and the observation of singing practice in the early Qing Dynasty by the author Xu Dachun.In Qing Dynasty,it was regarded as an important work on opera.Indeed,it is China’s first monograph on the acoustics of opera singing,which indicates the independence and specialization of acoustics of music study in China.A study on Yuefu Chuansheng possesses great theoretical and practical significance.The publication of this acoustic monograph has expanded the theoretical connotations of qu studies and promoted the prosperity of singing art.Since its publication,its argumentation structure,theoretical coverage and linguistic expressions has had a definite influence on the subsequent vocal singing theories and the development of opera singing practice.By using the methodology of documentation,this dissertation systematically analyzes Yuefu Chuansheng based on Chinese ancient music literature,historical literature and various theories concerning music,singing,qu and drama.The core of the research is voices,Chinese characters,metre,oral skills,notes and tunes of Chinese music,modes of ancient Chinese music and its special linguistic expressions.By doing so,this dissertation strives to make each of its academic viewpoints well-founded and every conclusion objective,scrupulous and scientific.The first chapter of the dissertation examines the life experience of Xu Dachun and the writing of Yuefu Chuansheng.The first section of this chapter is dedicated to the verification of the year of Xu Dachun’s bitth and death by cross check of various historical records.The second section of this chapter describes and comments on Xu Dachun’s research achievements and works on drama,medicine and Taoism.In the third section of this chapter,the author discusses the age in which the book was published,its publication and its evaluation by later generations.The edition referred to by this dissertation is also introduced.The second chapter of the dissertation elucidates the origin and evolution of Chinese drama theory as what is discussed in Yuefu Chuansheng.The first section of the chapter begins with an analysis of Yuan Drama’s music,literary features,artistic presentation and other aspects so as to explain the reasons why Xu Dachun recognized Yuan drama as the source of Chinese drama.In the second section,the author analyzes North drama and South drama and compares them regarding their respective history,development,differences and regional distribution as presented in Yuefu Chuansheng.The third section discusses the development of tunes of the dramas before the middle of Qing Dynasty in the light of the background of the era when Yuefu Chuansheng was published.The fourth section analyzes the seven elements of drama in terms of “variables” and “invariables” as stated by Xu Dachun,namely temperament,song poem,ceremony,octave,mode,pronunciation and oral skills.The fifth section,combining Xu Dachun’s life experience with what is written in Yuefu Chuansheng,makes scrupulous inferences about the observatory objects of tunes in the book.The third chapter makes a detailed analysis of Yuefu Chuansheng in terms of tones,Chinese characters and metre.The first section expounds on Xu Dachun’s theoretical innovation in his “acoustics”studies on “source of voice”,“form of voice”and “five tones and four syllables in drama singing”.At the second half of this section,the dissertation makes a textual research on the source of the Key Tricks to Distinguish the Four Tone,the Key Tricks to Distinguish the Five Tones and the Key Tricks to Distinguish the Tones,which can only be found as appendices to Wu Gui’s re-inscribed edition of Yefu Chuansheng in the Ninth year of the emperor Xianfeng’s reign.Therefore,the above three texts are not created by Xu Dachun but added to Yuefu Chuansheng by later scholars re-editing the work.The second section of the third chapter makes a detailed analysis of the singing of the tones of Chinese characters in Yuefu Chuansheng.To be specific,the specific methods of four-tone singing in Yuefu Chuansheng are elaborated from the following aspects: different singing requirements imposed by South drama and North drama of tones for southern and northern dialects,particular singing methods for the four tones,the internal relationship among the four tones,the relationship between the falling tone and the lyric.The third section of the third chapter discusses the rhythm and drama singing within the domain of Chinese tunes in terms of its history,characteristics and functions to Chinese tunes,its different roles in the South drama and the North drama,the relationship between the rhythm and the euphony characters in the lyric and tones,the correspondng requirements in singing.The dissertation discusses the content concerning rhythm in Yefu Chuansheng and elaborates rhythm and qu singing.The fourth chapter analyzes the oral skills as elaborated in Yuefu Chuansheng.The first section discusses the theoretical innovation Xu Dachun made concerning the oral skills in terms of background that gave rise to these oral skills and the purpose of the skills in singing.The second section of the fourth chapter offers a detailed discussion of a variety of oral skills organized into four categories that concern respectively: the initial consonant,the modulation sound,the final sound and the transitional sound.The third section of the fourth chapter expounds Xu Dachun’s creative theories on the oral skills of singing.The author points out that Xu Dachun completed the last link of the traditional Chinese singing theory on the pronunciation of Chinese characters with his generalization of laws concerning the final sound and rhyming.He proposed the need to keep the same rhyming sound as a requirement for the use of oral skills,which deepened and refined the singing theory of “good transition”.His singing requirement of the starting tone,sentence rhyming and the transitional sound filled the blank in previous theories about the connection among Chinese characters and sentences in drama singing.Chapter Five analyzes what is said in Yuefu Chuansheng concerning modes of the tune,voice and expression,notes and Chinese characters and their relationship with singing.The first section verifies and analyzes Yuefu Chuansheng’s elaboration on the history and development of the mode of Chinese tunes as well as that concerning the South drama and North drama.Moreover,verification of the mode of the tune and the format is also done about “The Copper Bell’s Tail in Huangzhong Tune”,“The Dragon in a Turbulent River in the Xianlv Tune”and “The Grass Pond in Spring in the Nanlv Tune”.The second section begins with a history of studies of drama plot and Xu Dachun’s cotribution to it development.The authors elaborates on Yuefu Chuansheng’s metaphysical pursuit concerning singing aesthetics and drama presentation.From the perspective of the relation of lyric to voice and expression,the third section discusses Xu Dachun’s elaboration on the relationship between voice manipulation,vocal pitch and drama emotions.A verification and note translation is also offered for the melody“I Have a Distinguished Guest”from The Deer Bleat,which is discussed in the passage“A Chinese Character with Uneven Pitches”in Yuefu Chuansheng.This dissertation’s methodology combines theories and practice of drama and singing.It makes a thorough anatomy of Yuefu Chuansheng with an eye on theoretical inheritance and singing practice.Meanwhile,this dissertation also aims at a more systematic,objective and profound understanding of the classic works on acoustics and drama theory,which may help to enhance our understanding of drama theory in Qing Dynasty to a new level.