The Canonization And Reproduction Of Traditional Opera

The orphan of Zhao, the miscellaneous drama in the Yuan Dynasty, has the most adaption in traditional Chinese operas. It was looked as a masterwork in its own era, and was canonized constantly in subsequent eras. It was selected into anthologies and adapt into all types of traditional drama. It was performance as Eight Heroes in Kunqu opera and Searching and Rescuing the Orphan of Zhao in Peking opera which were looked as canon on the stage. In academic history, Wang Guowei took the orphan of Zhao, the miscellaneous drama and Snow in Midsummer and few other dramas as the representative of Chinese tragedies and contended with the classic tragedies in the world, thus completed the canonization of this drama.The Orphan of Zhao was the first Chinese drama which was introduced to foreign counties and was adapt by several foreign writers, so it has become one of the most importance topic of comparative literature and has been looked as a window to show Chinese tragedy and Chinese culture. This dissertation systemizes the process of canonization and reproduction of the story of the Orphan of Zhao from its prototype to a miscellaneous drama masterpiece, to the canon on the stage and screens, discusses the discipline of the development and spread of traditional Chinese operas.The first chapter discusses the spread and acceptance of the story of the orphan of Zhao from fragments in historical records to the miscellaneous drama in the Yuan Dynasty, analyzes the classical characteristics of this drama, the canonization process in the anthologies in Ming Dynasty, and the formation process of southern opera in later Yuan Dynasty and legendary opera Eight Heroes in Ming Dynasty.The second chapter, with the drama performance history in late Qing Dynasty and The Republic of China as the guide line, analyzes how the Peking opera highlights Searching and Rescuing the Orphan of Zhao stand out from all the operas which take elderly men as leading roles, discusses the relationship between this drama and the type of drama, the type of role, the system of troupe and the mode of transmission.The third chapter starts with systemizing the background and the creative process of Peking Opera the Orphan of Zhao which was scripted and performance by Beijing Peking Opera Troupe in1959, discusses the process of Chinese Opera modernization and the gain and loss in national policy of "get rid of the stale and bring forth the fresh". The fourth chapter starts with analyzing the ecological form of traditional Chinese opera and divides the form into two types as culture heritages and modem creations. Based on the affirmation of the dividing lines, the dissertation discusses the opera characters of several newly organized Chinese opera titled the orphan of Zhao and evaluates two opera titled the orphan of Zhao.The fifth chapter discusses the modern drama adaption of the Orphan of Zhao. The artistic form of modern drama was referenced from the west, so the ideology of modern drama was imprinted by west culture. Therefore, most of the adaption in modem drama of the Orphan of Zhao was disruptive. There was intentionally or unintentionally misreading of the original works in these adaption and they deconstructed the canon to some degree.The sixth chapter introduced the production of movie and TV plays, analyzes the special problem of visualizing product process of a traditional Chinese opera canon.The seventh chapter discusses the spread of the Orphan of Zhao overseas. The climax of adaption of this drama was in two eras, one is in the eighteenth century and the other is in the twenty-first century. This chapter mainly introduces four adaption of the orphan of Zhao, summarizes their thinking and art characters and discusses their use for reference to Chinese drama production.