As a traditional art category, Xiqu is a treasure of Chinese culture and is unique in the world cultural garden because of its distinctive national characteristics and aesthetic style. Opera has a deep folk foundation, which is not only popular with the general public, but also has many fans among literati and inkers. Many modern writers have an indissoluble relationship with opera, traditional opera has given them enlightenment education, and their literary accomplishment and inspiration are mostly obtained from the "theater". At the same time, they also have different perspectives and degrees of participation and contribution to the creation and inheritance of opera.
Tian Han wrote plays
Tian Han
As one of the early founders of Chinese drama, Tian Han created many famous dramas such as "The Death of Famous Excellence" and "The Song of Rejuvenation", and at the same time he also had a deep attainment in opera literature, creating opera scripts represented by "The Tale of the West Chamber", "The Legend of the White Snake", "Xie Yaohuan" and "Guan Hanqing", which became a new classic of traditional opera. Among modern writers, Tian Han is regarded as the first accomplished and influential classical traditional opera writer.
When Tian Han was studying at a private school, he came into contact with some classical novels and operas, such as "The Tale of the West Chamber" and "Dream of the Red Chamber". He said: "I love drama so much that I have felt inseparable from it since I was young. His hometown of Changsha County, Hunan Province, was popular at that time, Such as Xiang opera and shadow puppetry, and when he was five or six years old, he followed his elders to see temple operas more than ten miles away. After growing up and studying, he came into contact with new and old opera works such as "Three Niang Godsons" and "Peach Blossom Fan". In 1912, at the age of 14, Tian Han wrote a script for the "New Godson" in imitation of the traditional Peking Opera origami play "Three Niangs Godson", which was published in the then "Changsha Daily".
During his study in Japan, while creating dramas, he did not forget about opera, and had a lot of contacts with some famous opera artists. During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Tian Han participated in the initiation of the Theater Industry Salvation Association, reformed old plays, created plays, and actively organized training performances to help the War of Resistance. He is a pioneer of opera reform and a pioneer of opera education in New China.
Tian Han's opera creations were mainly concentrated during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and after the founding of New China. His opera literary creation is based on the advantages and characteristics of local traditional art, and at the same time, it is eclectic, extensively drawing on ancient and modern Chinese and foreign artistic experience, and forming his own style. He not only has a profound cultivation in classical literature, but also has considerable achievements in the fields of poetry, words, books and paintings, and has a solid artistic foundation. His opera works have a strong national style, and have achieved creative inheritance and development of national opera art. In view of the problems of traditional old dramas highlighting the "famous role system", lack of literature, and neglect of the script itself, Tian Han and other people of insight actively advocate the return of opera to literature and advocate the script-centered system.
Stills from "Guan Hanqing"
In this regard, Tian Han himself promoted and practiced. His plays not only express new ideas and new directions, but also have considerable innovations in the dialogue and lyrics, structure and character shaping of the opera. Many famous opera artists favored his plays, and The Peking Opera master Zhang Junqiu once said: "Tian Hanlao's "The Tale of the West Chamber" is the most satisfactory play in my life. "Tian Han's opera creation has improved opera literature in the overall sense, and also made opera more contemporary. He made indelible contributions to the development of traditional opera art, as Xia Yan said: "Tian Han is the modern Guan Hanqing, and I privately call him China's 'theatrical soul'. ”
Lao She changed the play
Lao She
In the past, when people talked about Lao She, they often talked about his novels and dramas, but in fact, he also made achievements in opera. Shu Ji, the daughter of Lao She, once said: "My father loves Beijing opera, he has not only studied And sung Beijing opera, but also understands opera very well. "Lao She has written many plays, including Peking Opera, Commentary, etc., and has also thought and explored in the theory of opera. In contrast to these, Lao She's adaptation of traditional opera repertoire and his point plays are also part of his artistic contribution, and the academic circles have not paid enough attention to this.
Lao She loves traditional arts and is enthusiastically committed to the use of the past for the present. During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, he said in his article "How I Write Popular Literature": "Whether it is old plays or drum lyrics, although they are all old things, they are still alive. We have come to write in order to give these living things some new blood, to make them progress, to make them effective in the war. In plays such as the Peking Opera "Zhonglietu", which was adapted for the War of Resistance, Lao She transformed the traditional idea of loyalty to the king, transforming loyalty in the traditional sense into the wartime concept of "national supremacy" and loyalty to the country and the nation, and stimulating people's enthusiasm for defending the country.
Peking Opera "Zhonglie tu" comic ▲
After the founding of New China, in order to meet the needs of cultural construction, the whole country launched a reform movement of opera and opera art with "changing drama, changing people, and reforming the system" as the core. Among them, "changing the play" requires the removal of the old rotten elements of the opera script and the opera stage.
As a member of the drama reform group, Lao She, with full patriotic enthusiasm and profound artistic accumulation, and with the original intention of "self-transformation of intellectuals and arousing the awakening of the masses", actively put forward various opera reform plans and opinions, and published articles exploring opera reform such as "A Little Talk on the Problem of Drama Reform", "Look Wider", "Drama Talk", etc. He opposed the old dramas and old performances, emphasizing that we should extract the essence according to the development of the times and introduce the old and the new, so as to arouse the emotional resonance of the audience in the new era. Lao She believes that drama reform should try to avoid the two extremes of "roughness" and "conservatism", "we must have a very serious attitude when compiling historical dramas", and opera reformers should "use great strength to sort out the script, first remove what does not make sense, and then slowly make the words wonderful."
His proposition is also reflected in the creative practice, in the adaptation of the traditional drama "Fifteen Guan", "Qingxia Danxue" and "Wang Baojun", he strives to integrate the mainstream discourse of society and folk aesthetic tastes to varying degrees, and create a new "people's literature and art". It can be said that the "Lao She Ben" opera eliminates feudal consciousness such as superstition, strengthens the theme orientation of lashing out at the adulterers who squeeze the people and calling for the clean officials who love and care for the people, praises the loyal martyrs who ask for the people's lives, creates many loyal images of safeguarding justice and fearless life and death, and embodies Lao She's strong feelings of home and country.
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Manuscript "Dingjun Mountain"▲ ▲
Manuscript "Qin Qiong Selling Horses"▲
In addition, Lao She's drama change also includes his act of point play. Dian opera also originated from the reform of opera, that is, in the 1950s, Lao She personally drafted 68 manuscripts of the classic repertoire of Peking Opera, including "Zhan Fan Cheng", "Wen Zhaoguan", "Qunying Hui", "Dingjun Mountain", "Qin Qiong Selling Horses", etc., and adapted these classic plays. Each play uses about 250 words, concisely and concisely writes the outline of the story, including literary drama and martial arts. Lao She regarded the writing of the outline as a "big project", which fully demonstrated his lofty feelings and patriotic feelings of loving Peking Opera and carrying forward the essence of the country.
Zhang hates the water ticket play
Zhang hates water
The famous modern Zhang Hui novelist Zhang Hexhui was born in Qianshan, Anhui, the hometown of Peking Opera, and was fellow countrymen with Cheng Changgeng, the "leader of the Huiban Class", and Yang Xiaolou, the "Wusheng Taidou". He loves Peking Opera, not only loves to listen, watch, talk and love to comment on opera, but also describes the life and fate of opera artists in the old era in many works. What is particularly interesting is that in Beiping, he has appeared in the Beijing opera many times and starred as a ticket friend. Among his many pen names, one is called "Chonggong Dao", which is also related to his special fate with Peking Opera.
Fascinated by drama, this is fully reflected in Zhang Hexhui's life and writing. It is said that at that time, his income was limited, and when he paid the rent for the house, the family, etc., there was only one ocean left, and he also had to devote everything to see the joint performance of Mei Lanfang, Yang Xiaolou and Yu Shuyan, and was jokingly rumored by friends as the "pouring out of the big move" of "one dollar to see three stars". In the creation, Zhang Hexhui also paid special attention to the theme of opera artists and invested a considerable amount of energy. In the 11 years from 1929 to 1940, there were more than ten novels such as "Si Ren Ji", "Laughing Cause", "Silver and Han Double Star", "Man Jiang Hong", "Tianhe Match", "Deep Night", "Qin Huai Shijia", "Zhao Yuling Benji" and so on. With the keen social insight of journalists and the thinking and perception of novelists, he describes the various tragic and happy lives of those dramatists and entertainers who survive at the bottom of society, condenses his profound depiction of the social situation in the Republic of China period, has rich literary and artistic connotations and social and historical values, and has produced a wide range of social influences.
Regarding Zhang Hexhui's ticket play, his son Zhang Wu once wrote a special chapter in the memoir "Remembering His Father Mr. Zhang Hateshui" with the title of "Acting". In 1931, the Beiping press launched a flood relief charity performance, and Zhang Hexhui played the kind and funny Chonggong in the finale play "Female Solution". At that time, Zhang Hexhui was the editor of Beiping's World Daily and World Evening News, and at the same time a well-known writer, coupled with his serious dedication to his performances, it became the "explosive news" of the time and was published by various newspapers and periodicals. In addition, in the 1930s and 1940s, he also played the clown Zhang Wenyuan in "OolongYuan" and the lieutenant in "Famen Temple" in the 1930s and 1940s, which was widely known in the cultural circles at that time. Zhang Hexhui, whether in life or in creation, is inseparable from the interaction with opera, and has a strong pear garden complex, which is rare among modern writers.
Whether in their life world or artistic life, these writers have personally and wholeheartedly paid their own enthusiasm and efforts for the inheritance and innovation of Chinese opera, and their literary careers have benefited from opera and also given back to opera, adding glory and color to the development of China's excellent traditional culture.
Source: China Social Science Daily
EDIT: Mingming
Review: Yang Yao
Final Judge: Wang Mei