The Evolution Of The Story Of "Li&Yang" In Traditional Chinese Opera

The popular legend involving Li Longji and one of his lovers,Yang Yuhuan has been passed on from generations.It explores the depths of love and heart break set in the Royal palace.The story is winds through the late Tang Dynasty,Li&Yang where it depicts vivid imagery of the periods literature and art genres.This paper will dissect the story Li&Yangs story as depicted in the theatre performance.Historians have been able to piece together Performance Texts“The Phoenix Rain”and“The Hall of Longevity”are the two surviving stories of Li&Yang.However,from the Jin Yuan to Qing Dynasty,there is quite a collection of texts available.Based on the texts I've been able to review and study there are many texts available the story line doesn't alter except for minor details.Unfortunately,with amount of time that has passed many of Li&Yang's story have begun to disappear with only 1-2 of them remaining in their entirety.Compared with the traditional Chinese opera,the drama of li&Yang's story on the Peking Opera stage is much more than before.The three dramas of The Drunken Beauty,The legend of Taizhen and The Princess of The Tang Dynasty respectively represent the act in different periods of the same theme."Drunkenness"was a popular drama of Mo Chen Jian in the Ming dynasty.with time goes by,till the late Qing Dynasty,Drunkenness has been the most popular drama among the proformances by the Peking Opera actors in folk.However,such factors as vulgar and immoral affect the style and development of the play.Director Mei Lanfang developed and refined the performance to it's current stage of standard plays of Peking Opera.The period of Republic of China bought along the new costume drama“The Legend of Taizhen”which has become synonymous of the Mei faction.In 21^st century Mei Langfang son,Mei Baojiu used the first two plays?Tang Dynasty and The Imperial Concubine?to combine western musical elements to allow a connection with the new era of art.In the thousand years of Li&Yangs'story evolution,it constantly absorbed and integrated new characters and plots.The story of Concubine Mei is one of the most representative stories.In the continuous evolution of the story of Concubine Mei,we can see the change of mindset of Chinese literati.From the original supporting role,Concubine Mei has gradually replaced Concubine Yang and played a leading role.Because of the rehearsal of Peking Opera,The Concubine Mei created by Mr.Cheng yanqiu,Concubine Mei became more popular than Concubine Yan for a while.Overall,in the story of Li&Yang that carried by the opera,the leading character has undergone subtle changes in different periods as the time goes by.The story of li&Yang is no longer a simple Royal Palace love story,but carried profound reflections of the literati on the history and revealed how folk people interpreted the history.