A Study On Qi Rushan's Chinese Opera Theory

The contribution of Qi Rushan, who is an opera composer and opera theorist and was up and doing at the first half of the last century, lies on three respects including his ontology of opera art, reform theory of opera art and audience study of opera art. Therefore, the core, highlight and value of this dissertation are focally the "narration" and "comment" on his ontology of opera art, reform theory of opera art and audience study of opera art, especially the study on his ontology of opera art is the "core" in "core". In addition, this dissertation briefly narrates Qi Rushan's life experience, in detail researches the cooperation in opera field between Qi Rushan and Mei Lanfang for probing into the influence on Qi Rushan's achievements in opera aesthetics from his life experience. Evaluation on Qi Rushan's ideas of opera direction and opera reform etc. is subject to the research on the cooperation between Qi Rushan and Mei Lanfang, and in this dissertation many new findings are put forward in the their cooperation. Concretely this dissertation consists of six parts.The part of Introduction demonstrates three issues: the first, foundation of subject choice; the second, summarization of existing academic achievements studying Qi Rushan's opera aesthetics, analysis on their defects for founding a study point for this dissertation; the third, a profile on the thinking route of study and innovation of this dissertation. From the view of quantity and quality of his opera theory, as well as his influence in opera circle at the first half in the past century, no doubt, Qi Rushan is a greatly achieved opera theorist, and his theory of opera aesthetics is worth studying. But it's a pity that the study on his opera aesthetics is insufficient so far, for example, there are no importance attached by the academic circle to his theories of "noumenon for aesthetic pursuance in opera", "reform of opera art", "composing of opera" etc. Therefore, it is significant and valuable to integrally and accurately present the original appearance of Qi Rushan's theory of opera aesthetics on the base of thoroughly reading his opera theory, and put it into the "historical river" of concerned theories to excavate its theoretic value and evaluate its practice significance.The first chapter, Research on Qi Rushan's Life Experience and Cooperation with Mei Lanfang, is to solve two issues: the first, brief introduction of Qi Rushan's life experience; the second, detailed research on the cooperation in opera field between Qi Rushan and Mei Lanfang in the time of the Republic of China. Qi Rushan liked watching opera in all his life, composed and recomposed more than forty opera plays, studied opera theory for more than fifty years, wrote more than thirty works of opera theory. His cooperation in opera field with Mei Lanfang brought him up as "opera playwright" and further made him "opera theorist". In his cooperation with Mei Lanfang for composing, he was chief writer and chief maker; in his cooperation for rehearsal with Mei Lanfang, he was not only general director but "shape designer", so the direction idea and direction theory of these operas (rehearsed from their cooperation) are not of Qi Rushan, but the opera reform realized in these operas is practice base for his raising the theory of opera reform; in his assisting Mei Lanfang for visiting America for performance, he played the role like a "general designer" and actively took part in the choice play lists, determination of performance style, design of stage etc.The second chapter, Qi Rushan's Ontology of Opera Art, focally studies Qi Rushan's ontology of opera art, i.e., the theory summarized as "all sound made into music, all action made into dance, real articles on stage not permitted, realistic style not permitted". With theoretic reference to the western realistic drama and on the base of wide induction and demonstration, Qi Rushan concluded the art term's feature of opera art as "all sound made into music, all action made into dance": every sound in opera art must be in the bearing of music, the "sing" in opera is made into song, so are "narrate", even "cry", "laugh", "cough" etc. in opera, but those kinds of "songs" are different in respect to "song's art form", "song's aesthetic nature" and "song's melodious degree". So the "songs" in opera art are divided into four levels; every action in opera art must bear the rhythm of dance, the collective dances etc. in opera are dance, so are individual dances etc. in opera, even "walk", "hand pat", "gusset flirt" and "point", the actions in opera are from daily actions by making into art and dance, and the main methods of making daily actions into art and dance in opera are "making into curve", "making into aesthetic", "substituting" and "omitting"; the "song" and "dance" in opera art are not separated from each other, but elucidate each other and are harmonious and integral, furthermore, the mutual elucidation, harmoniousness and integrity of song and dance must be perfectly united with plot, and cannot be separated from plot, for this purpose, the song and dance of an single actor must elucidate each other and unite organically, and the song and dance of all actors on a stage must work in concert with each other and be put into harmoniousness and integrity. With theoretic reference to the western realistic drama and on the base of wide induction and demonstration, Qi Rushan educed that the aesthetic pursuance of opera art is impressionistic beauty, and concluded it as "real articles on stage not permitted, realistic style not permitted": he found that the stage art of opera art pressured impressionism, i.e., "real articles on stage not permitted" for stage layout, "realistic style not permitted" for garment and face dress, he found that the performance logic of opera is not for realistic pursuance, i.e., "realistic style not permitted" for the evolution logic of plot and representing way, he also found that the contents of opera art exceed historical reality, that's to say, it's unnecessary to be realistic for contents, and unnecessary for real articles on stage, therefore he judged that opera art is a comprehensive stage performance art which pursues for impressionism and lifelikeness and aesthetic-logically achieves self-sufficiency and perfection in the general pursuance of impressionistic beauty. In the history of opera theory, Qi Rushan is a theorist who firstly took the ontological features of opera which is a comprehensive state performance art as special study object, also a theorist who at early time researched opera art from trans-cultural view, furthermore a theorist who integrally and accurately deduced the ontological features of opera as comprehensive stage performance art, therefore, he is the synthesizer in ontological study of ancient Chinese opera art. This academic contribution of Qi Rushan is greatly valuable for us to comprehend the noumenon of opera art and further facilitate the reform of opera art and so on.The third chapter, Qi Rushan's Reform Theory of Opera Art, focally researches Qi Rushan's two theories on the reform of opera art: the first, the theory on what can be reformed and what cannot be reformed, the second, "opera art's representing modern life theme" theory. Qi Rushan's reform theory of opera art is closely concerned with his ontology of opera art, and is a theoretical output from holding the ontology of opera art in opera evolution. Aiming at the old guard of opera at that time, Qi Rushan thought that the reform is the only way for opera art to survive and greatly develop in the changing times; aiming at the denying school of opera at that time, Qi Rushan thought that the precondition of reform is to get to know what can be reformed and what cannot be reformed, the former should be reformed and the latter should be reserved. The ontological feature of opera art which is representatively in the "integration of song, dance and story", is the fundamentality for opera art being opera art, and is the reason for and precondition of art standardization of that opera art stands firmly in the world's dramas and never gets behind, therefore, to reserve and strengthen the nature of song and dance and impressionism of opera art should be the precondition for opera reform, that's to say, the opera art's ontological feature "with song and dance as art term and impressionism as aesthetic pursuance" should not be "reformed". Qi Rushan's theory on what can be reformed and what cannot be reformed has not only doctrinally at early time pointed out the partiality of reform which commonly existed at the first half of the last century and represented in "making opera art realistic", but also theoretically supplied various possibilities for opera reform. Starting from the noumenon of opera art, Qi Rushan rationally deduced that "original and traditional opera art is capable of representing modern life". But "original and traditional opera art is capable of representing modern life" is correct only in theory, and is not feasible realistically, because Qi Rushan neglected the decisive role of audience's recognition or not on opera reform's success or not. Anyhow, his theory being "correct only in theory" is greatly worth studying, because this theory itself and its route of demonstration may supply a brand-new thing route for us to solve the issue that "how can traditional opera art represents modern life theme harmoniously and conformingly" which has been not solved till new, for example, it's unnecessary to use fashion in the play of opera lists in modern themes. The fourth chapter, Qi Rushan's Audience Study of Opera Art, focally studies Qi Rushan's three theories in respect to opera audience: relationship between opera and audience, relationship between opera actors and audience, relationship between playwright and audience. In the theory history of opera art, Qi Rushan is a person who systematically discussed audience of opera art early, his Methods for Watching Opera Art is the first monograph which consciously and theoretically carries out study in light of the status of opera audience of China, his demonstration on opera audience of China symbolized the birth of study of opera audience in China. In Qi Rushan's opinions, opera's educational function and aesthetic amusing function are dialectically united, the development and change of opera styles and features are closely related to the change of opera audience's majority; audience and actors, audience and playwrights are in a dialectic and mutual-influencing relationship, the success of actors and playwrights lies on resolving the contradiction between "accommodate themselves to audience's aesthetic interests" and "take their stage leading role of themselves into play". Qi's theories of opera audience have not only history significance but also realistic inspiration.The last part, epilogue, focally makes a brief and conclusive comment on the achievements and limits of Qi Rushan's opera aesthetic theory. Besides ontology of opera art, reform theory of opera art and audience study of opera art, Qi Rushan's view on the history of other opera types including Pihuang, Kunju, Yiqiang etc., comment on opera actors as well as methods for studying opera are also in saving grace, and the overall limits of Qi Rushan's theory of opera aesthetics may be concluded in "lack of preciseness of theory expression", "lack of clearness of academic induction" and "insufficiency of reflecting academic improvement on materials".