Among the various types of Chinese opera, the greatest influence is undoubtedly Peking Opera, so much so that it is called Chinese opera. In terms of research, the most concerned and the most fruitful is also Peking Opera, in recent years, some scholars have proposed the concept of "Peking Opera Studies", and strive to make Peking Opera research a specialty, and a number of excellent research results have emerged. Only in terms of the collection, collation and research of Peking Opera literature, it not only started early, but also went in a systematic and in-depth manner, achieved a series of fruitful results, and built a solid foundation for Peking Opera literature.
The Compilation of Historical Documents of Peking Opera edited by Professor Fu Jin is one of the landmark achievements, and the recent publication of the Republic of China volume is an important harvest in the study of Peking Opera.
Compilation of Peking Opera Historical Documents, Republic of China Volume, edited by Fu Jin, Phoenix Publishing House, December 2019 edition.
The publication of the Republic of China volume of the Compilation of Peking Opera Historical Documents has many important values and significance, and it may be more clear to observe this issue in the history of Peking Opera research over the past hundred years.
The collection and collation of Peking Opera literature is a systematic project of continuous accumulation, which requires the unremitting efforts of generations of scholars, and its pioneers include Qi Rushan, Zhou Mingtai, Wang Zhizhang, Wang Cixi and so on. In particular, Qi Rushan, in recent years, has been compared with Wang Guowei and Wu Mei by scholars, and as the three pioneers who pioneered the paradigm of Chinese opera research, it should be said that this view is still very academic.
The pioneering contributions of Wang Guowei and Wu Mei are well known, their academic personalities are very distinct, but the shortcomings are also obvious, Wang Guowei only values Song and Yuan opera, is not interested in the opera after it, and thinks that it is dead literature. Wu Mei only pays attention to Kun opera and has prejudices against Peking opera. Faced with the prosperity of Huabu opera, the two chose to refuse or avoid at the same time, which is actually a common disease of early opera researchers.
In this academic and cultural context, focusing on the study of Peking Opera, consciously collecting and sorting out and preserving Peking Opera literature, Qi Rushan's academic choice is invaluable, through the published "Harvard Yanjing Library Collection of Qi Rushan Novels and Opera Literature Collection" It is not difficult to see the essence of its collection, its "Beiping National Opera Society Exhibition Hall Catalog", "Drama Role Noun Examination", "Chinese Opera Body Spectrum", "Up and Down", "Face", "National Opera Face Map", "Chinese Opera Art Examination" Other works focus on the collection and collation of Peking Opera literature, which has laid a good documentary foundation for the study of Peking Opera.
"Qi Rushan National Drama Series"
In the same period, Zhou Mingtai, Wang Cixi, Wang Zhizhang, and others also attached great importance to the collection and collation of Peking Opera literature, and published important works such as "Historical Materials of Opera in the Dumen Jiluo", "History of Beiping Drama in the Past Fifty Years", "Annals of the Pear Garden System since Daoxian", "Archived Cases of qingshengping bureau", "Historical materials of Yandu Pear Garden in the Qing Dynasty", "Zhiluo of Qingshengping Bureau", "Biography of Lingguan in the Qing Dynasty", and other important works.
Since then, there have been new achievements, such as "Peking Opera Compilation", "Peking Opera Series", "Preliminary Investigation of Peking Opera Repertoire", "Peking Opera Repertoire Dictionary", etc., it can be said that literature collection and collation has always been an important part of Peking Opera research, and has played a positive role in promoting Peking Opera research.
With the continuous deepening of research, the study of Peking Opera has received more and more attention from scholars, and its influence has become greater and greater, and the researchers' requirements for literature are also more and more and higher. The previous collection of literature and materials satisfies the research of that time, but it can no longer meet the new needs, which is manifested in the lack of systematic collection and collation of materials, and most of them are repertoire, and today's Peking Opera research has shifted from the appreciation of scripts, singing voices, and body segments to all-round research, which presents a three-dimensional artistic landscape of Peking Opera.
Therefore, it is necessary to collect complete and systematic works of collection, which is the inherent academic need of peking opera research. The Compilation of Peking Opera Historical Documents edited by Professor Fu Jin is such a large-scale collection of Peking Opera documents compiled to meet the needs of new Peking Opera research.
Compilation of Historical Documents of Peking Opera, Qing Dynasty volume
The book is large-scale, composed of Qing Dynasty volumes, Republic of China volumes, of which the Qing Dynasty volume and its sequels have been published in 2011 and 2013, a total of fourteen volumes, divided into special books, Qing Palace documents, newspapers, diaries, notes, catalogues and other categories of compilation, the Qing Dynasty Peking Opera literature has been systematically and comprehensively collected and sorted, praised by the academic community. Now that the book has launched the Republic of China volume, this is undoubtedly a good thing to celebrate.
Compared with the Qing Dynasty, the Republic of China period was a prosperous period for the development and evolution of Peking Opera, and a number of famous Peking Opera masters such as the Four Great Mingdans emerged, which was all-round, from actors to audiences, from theater to research, and the scope of influence has been extended from domestic to overseas, and mei Lanfang has appeared to be a popular grand event in Japan, the United States, and the Soviet Union.
From the perspective of literature, with the prosperity of Peking Opera and the development of the publishing and periodical industries during this period, the number and scale of Peking Opera literature showed an explosive growth, far from being comparable to the Qing Dynasty. The scope of Peking Opera literature distribution is wider, and its form is also more abundant and diverse, including traditional manuscripts, periodicals, monographs, periodicals and other written documents, as well as many pictures, records, movies, theaters and other new literature, so that the total amount of Peking Opera literature in the Republic of China will be an amazing number, so the workload and difficulty of sorting out are also greater.
Compilation of Historical Documents of Peking Opera, a continuation of the Qing Dynasty volume
In the face of such a huge amount of Peking Opera literature of the Republic of China, how to start, this requires not only determination, but also wisdom. In this case, limited by time and energy, the Republic of China volume of the Peking Opera Historical Documents Compilation can no longer collect all types of documents at once like the Qing Dynasty volume, and can only be based on the principle of priority and urgency, step by step, first selecting the special books and special journals that researchers need more, and compiling and publishing them in a centralized manner.
The book includes nearly 130 Peking Opera books and special issues published between the Republic of China. In addition to the common writings of Qi Rushan, Zhou Mingtai, Xu Muyun and others, and a very small number of people who could not be included due to special reasons, the special books and special publications on Peking Opera in the Republic of China period were exhausted in one net, with a total of 16 volumes of more than 8 million words, and the scale was also considerable.
From the content point of view, the whole series of books can be described as rich and colorful, involving various trades of Peking Opera, from the compilation of scripts to the biographies of actors, from the repertoire examination to the discussion of literature and art, from the recording of performances to the title of the drama club, systematically and vividly showing the original ecology of Peking Opera art and its social and cultural environment in the Republic of China period, and its value is not limited to Peking Opera, it is multifaceted.
From the perspective of literature collection and collation, the following two characteristics of the book are commendable.
Compilation of Historical Documents of Peking Opera, Republic of China Volume
First, the book uses collation rather than photocopying.
As far as the usual situation in recent years is concerned, the collation and publication of large collections of materials mostly adopts the method of photocopying. The advantages of this kind of collation method are obvious, that is, the original information of the document can be preserved more completely, and the collation speed is faster.
But its shortcomings are also obvious, that is, it is not convenient to read and use, limited to the material conditions at that time, the printing quality of books in the Republic of China period is generally not high, and the age is long, the paper is brittle and fragile, the text fades, and the handwriting will become blurred. After photocopying, it is even more difficult to identify, and many photocopied collections of materials cannot be used. Moreover, collections of materials published in photocopies are often huge and expensive, which is difficult for the average reader to bear.
In this case, according to the original collation, for the user, reading and use is undoubtedly much more convenient. Naturally, this kind of deep sorting requires more manpower and time, and the workload and difficulty are multiplied, so there are not many people who use this method of collation.
The collators of the "Compilation of Historical Documents of Peking Opera" hold the sincere attitude of the reader's consideration and insist on adopting the method of collation and collation, which should be highly affirmed. Although there are not many scholars who hold this idea, there are still some, such as the "Rare Ming Dynasty Opera Series" edited by Liao Kebin (Oriental Publishing Center 2018 edition), which is also a convenient way to abandon photocopied publishing and adopt the in-depth collation method of collation and collation.
Rare Ming Dynasty Opera Series, Oriental Publishing Center, October 2018.
The second is a rigorous and serious attitude towards study.
On the surface, compared with photocopying and publishing, because there is more than one collation procedure, it is inevitable that some errors will occur, which can be described as a thankless effort. But this is only one aspect of the problem, as far as the researcher's daily reading is concerned, as long as it is not a comparison of versions and the verification of specific texts, it is still mostly based on proofreading and collation. Just a general browsing, to hold a photocopy of the blurred handwriting, eye-catching, laborious, very inconvenient. In fact, as long as the finisher has a rigorous and serious attitude and a proper method, it can effectively avoid new omissions and minimize errors.
As we all know, during the Republic of China period, the requirements of the publishing industry for standardized formats were not uniform, often doing their own thing, and some professional terms, personal names, etc. often had different names and writings. Whether to unify when organizing and publishing is a more difficult issue. The way the book is handled is to respect the original book, retain the original form, and not force unification.
The author believes that this is a more prudent way to deal with it, because these inconsistent terms and words have their own unique connotations and intentions, and there is a process of development and evolution, if forced unification, it will artificially erase these important literature information.
Therefore, the treatment of literature collections is different from the publication of general books, and it is necessary to comply with general academic norms, and at the same time, appropriate treatment methods should be selected according to the content and form of the literature, and a certain degree of flexibility should be maintained. In this regard, the book provides a good example.
History of Chinese Peking Opera
In general, the "Compilation of Historical Documents of Peking Opera" edited by Professor Fu Jin is rich and informative, properly arranged, and easy to use, which is undoubtedly a gospel for researchers. The literature of Peking Opera in the Republic of China period is extremely rich, and the collation and publication of the book constitutes a good academic accumulation, which will surely write a strong and colorful stroke in the history of Peking Opera research.
The construction of Peking Opera is a huge academic project, which requires the collective wisdom and efforts of many scholars, and the collection and collation of literature is one of the irreplaceable links and basic work, which potentially determines the characteristics and direction of Peking Opera. The book "Compilation of Historical Documents of Peking Opera" edited by Professor Fu Jin makes up for the weak links in it, and the positive role of promoting the study of Peking Opera is obvious.
The collection and collation of literature is an endless work, always on the road, more complete, more complete, more perfect, more convenient and practical, this is the eternal pursuit of researchers, "Peking Opera Historical Documents Compilation" The Republic of China volume will be monographs, special issues into one compilation, for the collation of the Republic of China Peking Opera literature has made a good demonstration, I hope that more researchers will continue to work hard, the journals, images, cultural relics and other types of literature for a comprehensive and systematic collation, step by step, consolidate the literature foundation of Peking Opera.