Research On The Narration Of Chinese Classical Drama

The Chinese classical drama has its own literary form and construction which deeply effect its narration and make it somehow unnatural. The Chinese classical drama has its own culture tradition, too. So we should take the cultural environment into our consideration. The literary form and construction together with the culture tradition determine the narration style of the Chinese classical drama.Considering the literary form and construction, we can divide the Chinese classical drama into three types. They are Xi-wen, Yuan-za-ju and Beijing opera.Xi-wen should use Sheng, Dan, Jing, Mo and Chou what we call Jiao-se to construct its narration. Different Jiao-ses enter on the stage in turn and cooperate harmoniously which makes much difference between the Chinese classical drama and the novel even sharing the same stroy.The authors of Xi-wen are usually literati, so Xi-wen has strong literary interests. The part of songs are very elegance. The part of dialogues are full of verses, too. The literary character of Xi-wen can be a huge hold-back for story-telling. The word Chuan-qi has had a long-time spread. The concepts of Chuan-qi also influence the creation of Xi-wen very much.Yuan-za-ju are mainly composed by four sets of songs. A set of song does not mean a part of story. The authors’consideration focuses not on telling stories but on how to make their songs fit the rules and whether they have expressed their own interest.The author usually offer only the whole songs. A lot of dialogues and actions are completed by the actors. So there must be many perform patterns in Yuan-za-ju which are also not all for the interest of story-telling. The scripts of Yuan-za-ju we can see today have actually had been reformed by the royal music workers and script collectors of the Ming dynasty. There are also their traces in the narration of Yuan-za-ju.The narration of the Beijing opera is mainly determined by its organization structure. After the mid-time of Qing dynasty, commercial theaters sprang up. Actors of profession became the main part of the drama activity. In the impetus of the newspaper industry, traditional organization structure collapsed and star-actor/actress became the center of the whole theater. So the play-writing and the play-design are all for the shining of the stars.In the influence of the Beijing opera, the organization structure of the theaters of other smaller cities all reformed. The type of Chinese classical drama has changed fundamentally in modern times.Xi-wen, Yuan-za-ju and the Beijing opera are the three main types of Chinese classical drama. The others which can not be included are Lian-tai-ben-xi, Xiao-ben-xi, Ming-qing-Za-ju and Zhe-zi-xi.Lian-tai-ben-xi does not have instability. Its stories are usually from the popular novels. Its stage performance is extemporaneous. So it can hardly have any narration rules. Xiao-ben-xi is composed by a series of Zhe-zi-xi which are from the whole drama. Most of them are of the folk, so their scrips can hardly be handed down. We do not have the basic condition to study on them.Ming-qing-Za-ju mixed the elements of Yuan-za-ju and Xi-wen. As a whole they have very obviously literal character which is not only in the stories but also in the narration. Zhe-zi-xi is a part of a whole drama, but it is relatively integrated.Each Zhe-zi-xi has its own drama point. The actors did a lot of changes in order to highlight the drama point which has made it so different from its original appearance.