Research On The Rhythm Of Traditional Pu Opera

Pu Opera was formed in the Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty.It is an art form rooted and popular in southern Shanxi and loved by the common people.There are many plays in Pu Opera,and the plays contain a large number of phonetic and lexical materials,which are of great value to the study of Chinese history,linguistics and drama.Up to now,the study of Pu Opera has mainly focused on the theoretical study of drama,such as Pu Opera musicology,literature and art,and culture,etc.The study of phonology is very weak.Based on the analysis of the rhyming phenomenon and language features of Pu Opera scripts,this paper examines the phonological pattern of Pu Opera,hoping to be helpful to the study of the southern Shanxi dialect and the development of Pu Opera.Based on the 20 episodes of Compendium of Traditional Plays of Puzhou Bangzi published by the Drama Research Office of Shanxi Province and 209 complete plays and 80 rhymes of Selected Traditional Plays of Pu Opera published by Yuncheng Municipal Bureau of Culture,this paper makes an exhaustive investigation of all 17100 rhymes in the selected plays,and studies the rhymes system of traditional Pu Opera by referring to the thirteen rhymes system of northern folk arts and combining with dialects in southern Shanxi Province,using a variety of research methods.Through the analysis of the rhymes in Pu Opera,every rhyme word in the script is found out,and all the rhymes are sorted and summarized by means of rhymes combination.After investigation,this paper finds that the rhymes used in Pu Opera can be summarized into 13 rhymes,namely,the rhymes of Fahua(发花辙),Suobo(梭波辙),Miexie(乜斜辙),Gufu(姑夫辙),Yiqi(衣期辙),Huailai(怀来辙),Huidui(灰堆辙),Yaotiao(遥条辙),Youqiu(由求辙),Yanqian(言前辙),Renchen(人辰辙),Jiangyang(江阳辙),Zhongdong,(中东辙),At the same time,we find that the rhyme system of traditional Pu Opera is very similar to the thirteen rhymes of northern opera3 but at the same time it has its own characteristics,which are mainly manifested in the following two aspects:First,the attribution of individual characters:①The characters of Yushe(遇摄)close-mouth first-class Yuyu rhymes(鱼虞韵)with initial groups of Zhuang(庄组),Mumu rhymes(暮模韵)with Ni(泥组)and Jing(精组)initial groups,are classified as Youqiuzhe(由求辙).②The characters of Dangjiang rime groups(宕江摄)with entering tone,Duo Yao Jue(铎药觉)three rhymes,are classified as Suobo rhymes(梭波辙);③The characters of Xie rime groups(蟹摄)open-mouth second-class rhymes,Jia rhymes(佳韵)are classified as Huailai rhymes(怀来辙);④The characters of the third-class Zhu rhymes(烛韵)with initial groups of Jing(精组)and the third-class Zhi rime groups(止摄)are included in the Yiqi rhymes(衣期辙).⑤The characters of the opening of the third-class Ma rhyme(麻韵)are classified into the Fahua rhymes(发花辙);⑥The characters of first and second-class rime groups Zeng Geng(曾梗摄)with entering tone,and the characters with Mo Mai rhymes(陌麦韵)are classified as Suobo rhymes(梭波辙).Second,there is the phenomenon of rhymes mixed with rhymes in traditional Pu Opera,which mainly includes:Zhongdong rhymes mixed with Renchen rhymes,Renchen rhymes mixed with Huidui rhymes,Suobo rhymes mixed with Miexie rhymes,Yiqi rhymes mixed with Huidui rhymes,Yiqi rhymes mixed with Gufu rhymes,Gufu rhymes mixed with Youqiu rhymes.On the basis of summing up the rhyming parts of traditional Pu Opera,this paper compares the rhyming system of Pu Opera,19 parts of central plains rhyme and 13 parts of northern opera,and discusses the phonetic changes and development laws reflected by the rhyming system of Pu Opera.The main phonetic features of the rhymes used in Pu Opera are summarized as follows:①There are different pronunciations between literary and colloquial language in the phonetics of the third-class characters of Ma rhymes(麻韵)and the open-mouth third-class characters of Jiejia rhymes(皆佳韵)in dialects;②The pronunciations of these characters of Yuyu rhymes(鱼虞韵)with initial groups of Jing(精组),Mu rhymes(模韵)with initial groups of Ni(泥组)and Jing(精组),Mu rhymes(暮韵)with initial groups of Duan(端组)are the same as those of Liu rime groups(流摄).③There are two readings of[ai/ei]in the southern Shanxi dialect for the characters of Xie rime groups(蟹摄),first-class Zeng rime groups(曾摄),Geng rime groups(梗摄)with initial groups of Bang(帮组)and Zhi Zhuang(知庄组),④The pronunciations of the characters of close-mouth third-class Xie rime groups(蟹摄)with initial groups of Jing(精组)and close-mouth third-class Zhi rime groups(止摄)with initial groups of Bang(帮组),Ni(泥组),Jing(精组)and Zhizhang(知章组)are the same as those of close-mouth third-class Yu rime groups(遇摄);⑤The finals of five mid-ancient rime groups Zeng,Geng,Zhen,Shen,Tong(曾梗臻深通五摄)have been merged.We also found that other characters used in Pu Opera besides the rhyme part can also reflect some phonetic features of the southern Shanxi dialect.For example,Zhizhao(知照)initials refers to the confluence of initials and labial dentition,and "Yan"(“言”)is pronounced as "η" initial,and the words of five mid-ancient rime groups Zeng,Geng,Zhen,Shen,Tong(曾梗臻深通五摄)are same rhymes.The language foundation of the traditional Pu Opera is Puzhou vernacular,which reflects the phonetic features different from the thirteen points of northern opera on the rhyme.Comparing the rhyme system of the traditional Pu Opera with Central Plains Rhyme and the southern Shanxi dialect,the phonetic evolution and historical features of the southern Shanxi dialect are summarized,which has important reference value for studying the phonetic features of the southern Shanxi region in the Ming and Qing dynasties.