South Anhui Mulian Opera: Its Tune And Tune Name

Mulian Opera is a folk show of sacrificial rites in the form of a traditional opera and with a rich store of cultural menaning. Driving from the Buddhist Scripture, it has a long history and has developed into a Mulian cultural network with local flavours at different places. Involving a variety of thoughts, such as Buddhism, Daoism, Confucianism, and Witchcraft, Mulian Opera reflects the unique nature of the farming culture of the Chinese people in their belief, mode of thinking, mentality, social system, and manner of behaviour. South Anhui Mulian Opera is a miniature of Mulian culture in South Anhui, the birthplace of Zheng Zhizheng, who was a Confucian scholar of Ming Dynasty and the author of the script of a well-known morality play "Mulian Saves Mother". Owing to the relative stability of it's ancient form and way of inheritance, Mulian Opera retains the original form of Nanxi. Its tune and tune name(musical form) are carriers of the troditional Chinese music and the valuable material for researcher into the troditional Chinese music and the troditional Chinese opera music, and their changes also show the development of the traditional Chinese music. The sacrificial rites in Mulian Opera are a modified form evolving from the ancient sorcery but still characteristic of its feature as a primitive culture ——highly synthesized and inseparably integrated. As the embodiment of different cultures, Mulian Opera is a gem in the traditional Chinese culture. So, the knowledge and understanding of it indicates our attitude toward tradition, the inheritance of tradition, and the preservation of tradition.