The Communication Of Guan Hanqing’s Plays On Contemporary Stages

Guan Hanqing is a representative playwright of Yuan Zaju(drama of Yuan Dynasty). Among his 18 plays,11 of them have been performing frequently on contemporary stages. Dou E Yuan, for example, has been adapted more than 80 times.Fei Yi Meng,Dan Dao Hui, Jiu Feng Chen, Wang Jiang Ting,Lu Zhai Lang, Hu Die Meng and many other plays are also adapted and widely performed in China.The study of Guan and his plays is one of focuses of the research of traditional Chinese opera. The communication of Guan’s plays in nowadays, however, has generally been neglected by researchers. On one hand, a systematic study of the modern communication of Guan’s plays is helpful to the creative composition of Chinese opera and to preservation of cultural heritage. On the other hand, it is helpful in discovering the influences of ancient plays in modern times, in understanding the their vitality as well as their meaning for the construction of contemporary culture, and in enriching the research of ancient Chinese opera.Among many channels,the stage is the major communication channel for Guan’s plays. The modern stage communication of Guan’s plays has a history of more than 60 years that can be divided in to 4 periods:prelude, climax, winter and convalescence.The rise and fall, acceptance of refusal and the classicization of Guan’s plays were taken place within the context of political culture.In the 50th-60th of last century, "populism","class conflicts"and"class analysis" were the key words of political culture. In this context,the rebellious spirits, the political implications, the educational value of plays were markedly emphasized.Guan, therefore, was entitled "Artist of the People",because many of his plays, especially Dou E Yuan,Lu Zhai Lang, Jiu Feng Chen, Wang Jiang Ting, Hu Die Meng, Diao Feng Yue, concerned with the social inequity and rebellion of the oppressed against elites. In this period, adaptors of Guan’s plays were upholding a "dichotomy" called "take the essence,discard the scum". In this "dichotomy", the rebellion of common people was highlighted, the usefulness of good officials and ghosts against injustice was reduced. In another word, the educational and political function of Guan’s plays was amplified.Communicators’understanding of Guan’s Plays has been changed dramatically since the China’s opening to the world. The political vocabularies such as "populism"and"class conflicts" disappeared and the words such as"tragical", "comedic", "theatrical" and "grass-roots" became popular in the descriptions and analyses of Guan’s plays. The artistic and aesthetic value of Guan’s plays has been widely appreciated in recent years.The classics of Chinese opera can be validated from literary approach or theatrical approach. In most cases, a good play is literary classic as well as theatrical classic,i.e, Dou E Yuan,Jiu Feng Chen,but sometimes theatrical classic is just theatrical classic. Fei Yi Meng, for example, which is generally recognized as one of Guan’s "vulgar" play script, has been performed and adapted constantly ever since Yuan dynasty. Some of the adapted versions of this play, such as Xue Shou Yin of Yue opera, Huo Yan Ju of Qin opera, Da Ji Zhuang of Yu opera and Mai Shui of Beijing opera, have become the classics of theater. These consistence and inconsistence suggest that theatrical literature and stage performance are interrelated but also distinct. Literary classicization and performing classicization have their own different logics.Guan’s Plays are widely disseminated through "national operas"such as Beijing opera or Kun opera, but many provincial operas, such as Qin opera, Pu Opera,Yue opera,Ping opera,Chuan opera,Xiang opera,Yu,Huang Mei opera, Cantonese opera, also play a vital role in the process. The communication of Guan’s plays has a constructive meaning for Chinese operas:Various adapted versions of his plays enriched the content of national and provincial operas, strengthened the influence of these operas. The endeavor of adaptors and performers endowed regional characteristics to his plays. Preeminent Performers Cheng Yanqiu,Zhang Junqiu,Qi Yaxian,Xian Lingxia created different genres of Chinese operas through the stage performance of Guan’s plays, and their disciplines are trying their best to keep these genres alive by performing Guan’s plays. Guan’s Xi Shu MengKu Cun Xiao,Dan Bian Duo Shuo, Chen Mu Jiao Zi, Yu Jing Tai, Xie Tian Xiang, Jing Xian Chi are rarely performed on modern stage because of their discordance with contemporary political culture. Xi Shu Meng is mainly a ghost story, Chen Mu Jiao Zi exhilarates the spirit of imperial examinations system, Yu Jing Tai is about an old man marry a young girl. These stories, which were considered inappropriate in 1950’s and 1960’s, are examples of Guan’s "class limits" and "historical limits",and therefore are abandoned by modern Chinese stages.