Theatre of China has a long and complex history. Traditional Chinese theatre, generally in the form of Chinese opera, is musical in nature. Chinese theatre can trace its origin back a few millennia to ancient China, but the Chinese opera started to develop in the 12th century. Western forms like the spoken drama, western-style opera, and ballet did not arrive in China until the 20th century.
History
Performance in music and dance in China dates back to as early as the Shang dynasty (16th century BC?– 1046 BC). Oracle bone records reference rain dances performed by shamans, while the Book of Documents mentions shamanistic dancing and singing. For the Zhou dynasty ( 1046 BC – 256 BC), evidence from the Chu Ci suggests that in the 4th or 3rd century BC State of Chu, shamans performed with music and costumes. Some scholars have identified poems from the Classic of Poetry as possible lyrics of songs accompanying court dances from the early or mid-Zhou dynasty.
The Zhou royal court as well as the various ancient states employed professional entertainers which included not only dancers and musicians but also actors. The earliest court actors were likely clowns who pantomimed, danced, sang, and performed comedy. One of the most famous actors from this period was You Meng or Jester Meng (優孟), a giant who served King Zhuang of Chu (reigned 613–591 BC). After meeting the impoverished son of Sunshu Ao, the late prime minister of Chu, he is said to have spent a year imitating Sunshu Ao's speech and mannerism. Finally he performed his role at a banquet and successfully appealed to King Zhuang who then granted land to Sunshu Ao's son.
Records of the Grand Historian by Sima Qian contains a passage about Confucius (551–479 BC) explaining the Great Warrior Dance or Dawu Dance (), which told the story of King Wu of Zhou's overthrow of the Shang dynasty in 1046 BC, and how he founded the Zhou dynasty with the help of Duke of Zhou and Duke of Shao. The Great Warrior Dance not only depicted a full story, but was also filled with symbolism, as Confucius explained:
During the Han dynasty (206 BC–220 AD), a wrestling show called Horn-Butting Show () flourished and became one of the so-called "Hundred Shows" (百戲) under Emperor Wu (reigned 141–87 BC). While most probably this was also a spectator sport, both textual and archaeological evidence suggests that performers were dressed in fixed roles and performed according to a plot. One such story the wrestlers re-enacted was the battle between a tiger and a magician named "Lord Huang from the East Sea" (東海黃公). Han-period murals discovered from an aristocratic tomb in Dahuting, Xinmi, Henan, offer strong proof that entertainers performed at banquets in the homes of higher-ranking ministers during this period.
Six Dynasties, Tang dynasty, and Five Dynasties An early form of Chinese drama is the Canjun Opera (參軍戲, or Adjutant Play) which originated from the Later Zhao dynasty (319–351). In its early form, it was a simple comic drama involving only two performers, where a corrupt officer, Canjun or the adjutant, was ridiculed by a jester named Grey Hawk (蒼鶻). The characters in Canjun Opera are thought to be the forerunners of the fixed role categories of later Chinese opera, particularly of its comic chou (丑) characters.
Various song and dance dramas developed during the Six Dynasties period. During the Northern Qi dynasty, a masked dance called the Big Face (大面, which can mean "mask", alternatively daimian 代面, and it was also called The Prince of Lanling, 蘭陵王), was created in honour of Gao Changgong who went into battle wearing a mask. Another was called Botou (撥頭, also 缽頭), a masked dance drama from the Western Regions that tells the story of a grieving son who sought a tiger that killed his father. In The Dancing Singing Woman (踏謡娘), which relates the story of a wife battered by her drunken husband, the song and dance drama was initially performed by a man dressed as a woman. The stories told in of these song-and-dance dramas are simple, but they are thought to be the earliest pieces of musical theatre in China, and the precursors to the more sophisticated later forms of Chinese opera.
The Later Tang (923–937) founding emperor Li Cunxu (885–926) — who was of Shatuo extraction — was so passionate about theatre that he enjoyed acting himself. During his reign, he appointed three actors to prefect-ship and in the process alienated his army. In 926, after just 3 years on the throne, he was killed in a mutiny led by a former actor named Guo Congqian.
Song, Jin, and Yuan dynasties
In the Song dynasty, popular plays involving drama and music began to be developed, and by the 12th century, the term xìqǔ (戲曲) to mean Chinese opera began to be used this new form of theatrical entertainment. The development of theatre during the Song dynasty may also have been influenced by a Tang Buddhist tradition bianwen (變文), which mixed speech with song and used by monks to communicate Buddhist idea to the illiterate masses, but became popular entertainment during the Song dynasty. The narrative ballad and story-telling forms influenced Song dramas. Buddhist stories such as Mulian Rescues His Mother became themes in plays, and the one on Mulian was the first Chinese drama of great length. The Romance of the Western Chamber Zhu Gongdiao (西廂記諸宮調) by Dong Jieyuan (董解元) (later adapted into Romance of the Western Chamber by Wang Shifu) was created from bianwen.
In Southern Song, a form of play called nanxi or Xiwen (戲文) developed in Wenzhou from local folk customs and musical forms. This has a set length and a full narrative, and the actors performed with speech and songs. Nanxi spread widely in the Southern Song, and theatrical entertainment flourished in its capital Lin'an (present day Hangzhou). Among the earliest surviving scripts is Southern Song work, The No. 1 Scholar Zhang Xie (張協狀元). Specialised roles such as Dan (旦, dàn, female), Sheng (生, male), Jing (净,) and Chou (丑, clown) appeared in the Song era, and scripts referred to the roles such as the Dan or Sheng rather than the characters' names.
A form of theatre known as zaju began to be developed in the Song and Jin dynasties. Song and Jin zaju was a small-scale comic form of theatre, and was distinct from Yuan zaju with its own independent development. Music is incidental to Song Jin zaju with incomplete narratives.
Zaju became the dominant form of theatre during the Yuan dynasty in major cities such as Kaifeng, Luoyang and Lin'an. Yuan dynasty zaju was also known as Northern tune (北曲) to distinguish it from the Southern form nanxi. Zaju in the Yuan dynasty became a more sophisticated form that has a four- or five-act structure with a prologue. Each act is a musical piece based on a different gongdiao. It was performed by courtesans for the amusement of court or local government officials. Zaju plays were focused on the principal male (Sheng) and female (Dan) characters, with the singing courtesans playing the main male or female characters, but some are played exclusively by male actors. Over time subcategories of male and female roles (such as lead and supporting roles, young, old or comic roles) also emerged.
Although the men and women who performed these dramas had very low social positions, writing dramas became a respectable activity among literati of the era. Among the best-known dramatists of the period were Guan Hanqing (many of his works survive, including The Injustice to Dou E), Wang Shifu (who wrote Romance of the Western Chamber), Ma Zhiyuan (whose representative work is Autumn in Han Palace, 漢宮秋), Ji Junxiang (best known for The Orphan of Zhao), and Bai Pu. Verses from Yuan zaju are considered one of the important forms of Chinese literature, yuanqu (元曲).
Ming dynasty
The nanxi of the Song and Yuan dynasties was considered a low art form due to its unsophisticated literary style, and its plays were often written by anonymous authors. The first nanxi work with a known author is Tale of the Pipa by Gao Ming, written in the late Yuan period. Tale of the Pipa elevated the status of nanxi, and was highly regarded by the first Ming Emperor Hongwu. It became a model for Ming dynasty drama. Nanxi and other regional forms, such as such as Haiyan, Yuyao, an Yiyang tunes developed in Zhejiang, gradually replaced the northern zaju, and by the middle of the Ming dynasty, nanxi had developed into a more complex dramatic form known as chuanqi, which further developed into Kunqu Opera.
The Ming dynasty play writers were mostly educated and hold relatively high social status,王园园, “明代戏曲中女性德行意识” (Female Virtue Consciousness in the Opera of Ming Dynasty), 闽西职业技术学院学报(Journal of Minxi Vocational and Technical College) 2018, 20(04), 80-84 (April 2018). and chuanqi works were created mainly by scholars. Wei Liangfu created Kunshan tunes modified from tunes of Haiyan from near Hangzhou and Yiyang of Jiangxi, and he combined the nanxi rhythms which often used flute, and the northern zaju where plucked string instruments are preferred. The first Kunqu opera, Washing Silken Gauze (浣紗記, Huan Sha Ji) was created by Liang Chenyu who used Kunshan tunes. Kunqu was regarded as an elegant part of the culture; it was promoted by scholars, and therefore became highly influential.
In the Ming dynasty, southern yiyang tunes fused with Kunqu and spread widely. Yiyang tunes lacked formal rules, was more uninhibited and exciting, therefore more appealing to the local classes and easily fused with local musical styles and produced many high-pitched tunes in numerous local operas. Another important development was the emergence of Shaanxi Opera in the Northwest with a two-phrase structure and clapper-based instrumentation, introducing a new form of musical style called banqiang (板腔). Its spread was facilitated by a Shaanxi rebel Li Zicheng who ended the Ming dynasty, later influencing the development of Peking Opera during the Qing dynasty.
During the Ming period (1368-1644), Chinese theatre may be divided into three categories by audience: imperial court, social elite, and the general public.Shen, Grant. "Acting in the Private Theatre of the Ming Dynasty," in HIEA 124 Life in Ming China, edited by Sarah Schneewind, p. 289-311 (Imprints, 2019, p. 290. The Ming imperial court enjoyed opera, and Ming emperors generally kept their music entertainments within the palace.Lam, Joseph. Culture, Courtiers, and Competition. p. 290 Ming theatre, however, had less freedom than the previous dynasty, Yuan.Tian Yuan Tan, “The Sovereign and the Theatre,” in Long Live the Emperor, edited by Sarah Schneewind, p. 149-69 (The United States of America: Society for Ming Studies), p. 150 In the Yuan and early Song period, some plays may include a role of the emperor,Tian Yuan Tan, “The Sovereign and the Theatre,” in Long Live the Emperor, edited by Sarah Schneewind, p. 149-69 (The United States of America: Society for Ming Studies), p.151 however, Ming Emperor Taizu prohibited actors from impersonating any imperial members, high officials, or well-respected figures, although such restrictions were not always observed by opera troupes who performed for commoners in public theatre.Tian Yuan Tan, "The Sovereign and the Theatre," in Long Live the Emperor, edited by Sarah Schneewind, p. 149-69 (The United States of America: Society for Ming Studies), p. 154-62