The Historical Origin of Qiongju Opera

The origin of drama has always been an interesting topic in the history of world culture. Compared with western drama, although China's drama did not directly originate from religious sacrificial ceremonies and its history is not as long as that of western drama, its origin is more complicated and thorny, and there are still different opinions. As one of China's operas, Qiongju can only be originated from China's operas.

1. "On behalf of", whose representative is Hainan Island Records. His ambition says: "The drama is in Hainan. In the Yuan Dynasty, there was a hand-cranked wooden class singing from Chaozhou. In the middle and early Ming Dynasty, natives imitated and local operas flourished. " In other words, Qiongju is an imitation of the popular puppet show in Yuan Dynasty by Hainan people in the early Ming Dynasty. This statement is actually a copy of China's opera Dian Lun. The "dream of a secluded place" in the pre-Qin Dynasty and the puppet show in the Song Dynasty are both considered as the origins of China's traditional drama.

The second is the "theory of foreign affairs", whose followers are mostly old artists of Qiongju opera. Fan Jingle, an old artist in Yacheng, said: "The predecessor of Qiongzhou local opera is zaju, which originated in Fujian. People in the Asian and Zhou Dynasties used to call Qiong Opera Minnan Zaju and Qiongzhou Zaju. " Li Douguang, an old artist in Qiongdong, said: "Qiongju originated from Chaozhou Andrew Opera. After learning Chaozhou Opera, Qiongyin was sung in the literary opera, and there was Mandarin in the martial arts opera." As for the origin of China opera, some people once thought that there was no opera in China, while China opera was influenced by Indian Brahma opera in the Han Dynasty. The third is the "nativism" which is quite influential in the field of Qiong Opera. The person who clearly put forward this statement is the author of An Introduction to Hainan Han Opera, Cen. He believes that Qiongju originated from Hainan local folk songs and is a kind of local art. There are many people who support this statement. He thinks that "there is no middle board, no Qiongju" circulating in Qiongju circles is evidence of this statement. They believe that, as the core of Qiong Opera, "Zhongban" precedes Qiong Opera, and its source is Hainan folk songs. Chen's "A Brief History of Qiong Opera" holds that: "After Hainan local opera came into being, it absorbed local folk songs, songs and dances, and even abandoned the qupai, only retaining the rolling part, thus gradually showing local color." In other words, there are Hainan local operas first, and then local operas absorb and transform Yiyang operas such as Liyuan Opera.

Fourth, "religious theory". When writing this book, the author has repeatedly investigated the origin of Qiong opera to fans of Qiong opera, and almost all of them said, "Qiong opera originated from Taoism." This view is actually Wang Guowei's "witchcraft theory". Wang Guowei pointed out in the Textual Research of Song and Yuan Dynasties: "Later generations of operas should be superior to their own skills." "The difference between witchcraft and superiority: witchcraft delights in God and superiority delights in people; Witches mainly sing and dance, and the best thing is teasing; Witches are made for women, but better for men. " He also believes that the relationship between China traditional opera and witchcraft is closer than that between witchcraft and Excellence: "Although witchcraft is prevalent in the world of emperors, it is far behind." "Witch", in Shuo Wen Jie Zi, is interpreted as "I wish you a good day. Women dance for the invisible, and those who drop their spirits are also." Although the viewpoint that Qiongju originated from Taoism lacks strong arguments, it cannot be ignored.

Although these four views on the origin of Qiong Opera have some truth, they are not necessarily accurate. Just like the origin of China Opera, the occurrence and formation of Qiong Opera can not be attributed to a single factor, but should be understood from the multicultural background. In fact, just as China's traditional opera has matured in the Southern Opera period, Hainan Island, which is in a peaceful corner, still doesn't know what drama is. Su Shi used his concise poetic language to provide us with the historical facts of Hainan folk songs and dances in the Northern Song Dynasty. Su Shi said in his poem: "The wild old man sang for half a year and wanted to banish the minister from the book." Weng Fanggang, a poet in A Qing, wrote a poem about Su Shi's departure: "Ligeman dances to wish the Duke a return." "Folk Songs", "Li Ge" and "Wu Man" are enough to show that there were only songs and dances but no drama in Hainan at that time.

There is a drama (doll play) in Hainan, which should be the earliest in the late Song Dynasty and early Yuan Dynasty. The nomads from the south and the establishment of the Yuan Dynasty increased the number of Qionglai immigrants who fled the war. Among mainland immigrants, puppet actors, who wanders the Jianghu, is not allowed to set foot in it. Simple props and easy-to-master performing arts make it easy for puppet shows to land in Hainan Island. Puppet puppetry originated in Kaifeng in the Northern Song Dynasty and then flowed into Lin 'an. On the verge of extinction in the Southern Song Dynasty, he drifted to southern Fujian with Jianghu artists, and finally passed through Qiongzhou Strait in eastern Guangdong to Hainan Island. At that time, it was difficult for us to know the popular form of puppet show in Hainan Island, but from today's Wenchang and Qiongshan areas, puppet show was still used to worship ancestors, worship gods, marry and bury, which shows that puppet show at that time was nothing more than appreciating gods and entertaining people. However, the puppet show at that time was definitely different from the present Hainan puppet show. The former is a part of Zaju in Song and Yuan Dynasties, and the latter is already a part of Qiongju culture, and its language singing, business, gongs and drums are no different from Qiongju. It was the fact that puppet shows were popular in the Yuan Dynasty that gave birth to the theory of "imitation" that Qiongju originated from puppet shows. "Hainan Island Records" holds that: "Therefore, today's local drama class is called wood class as teacher history." Before Qiongju appeared, Hainan people prayed for peace mainly by singing and dancing "Nuo". After entering Hainan, "wood lessons" replaced the original songs and dances and became the main form of "fasting" for Hainan people. Because the origin of drama is closely related to religion, people mistakenly think that the object of learning Qiongju is puppet show. According to the law of drama, it can only be said that puppet show has an important influence on the formation of Qiong opera, but it is not the source.

Secondly, let's take a look at the "foreign theory" of Qiong Opera. Za Wan Li appeared in Hainan only after the puppet show. Around the middle of the Ming Dynasty, there were "Zaju" performances in Hainan. In the Ming Dynasty, Zheng Deqiong's Records of Taiwan said: "Every Spring Festival, the government guards go to Yingchun Pavilion in the eastern suburbs, and Wuyi each gives a play." On May 11th, Weisso disguised himself as Guan. "Fu Wei" and "Wei Suo" were military camps in Hainan during the Yuan and Ming Dynasties, and there are still villages and towns named after Wei Suo and Tun in the west of Hainan Island. Of course, it is impossible for soldiers stationed in Joan to play professional zaju. Their purpose is only to entertain themselves through the performance of zaju, so as to alleviate their anxiety about the hometown of the Central Plains. The zaju they performed belongs to the same system as the Zaju in Song and Yuan Dynasties, which is a kind of drama performed in "Mandarin", with no emphasis on tone and simplicity. Because it is a military performance, this kind of "zaju" which emphasizes science and martial arts is called "legionary teleplay"

In addition to Miscellaneous Wan Li, many operas belonging to the Southern Opera of the Song and Yuan Dynasties were introduced into Hainan. In particular, Liyuan Opera, Minnan Gaojia Opera, Andrew Opera and Yuedong Chaozhou Opera were widely called "Huguang Opera" at that time, which had the greatest influence. After the middle of Ming Dynasty, Fujian and Guangxi businessmen who came to Qiong benefited a lot. In order to ensure the safety of trade, they invited the gods of their hometown to Hainan, and invited the troupe of their hometown to perform during the festival. According to records, the commercial atmosphere in Haikou in Ming Dynasty was extremely prosperous. "The vast number of ships in Fujian call at Baishajin, and Huguang Opera often sings all night." Hainan Han people originally came from southern Fujian and eastern Guangdong, so these performances are very popular. Foreign artists not only act, but also run classes and museums, collect and spread art, and cultivate the earliest drama inheritors in Hainan. "Geography of Haikou" said: "Ding 'an County has always been the hometown of local operas, and opera masters from Fujian and Chaozhou have come here to teach and settle down". Cen, who advocates that Qiong Opera originated from Hainan ballads, also said: "1932, the author visited Wu Fafeng, an old writer of Tujia Opera in Hainan. According to the cloud, the original Tujia opera in Hainan really sang the four-character board of Chaozhou, and the narrative style of Tujia opera today still uses the four-character board. "There is no doubt that Qiong Opera is closely related to dramas circulating in southern Fujian and eastern Guangdong.

However, even if mainland drama artists set up a museum in Hainan to teach drama, they would not teach the later Qiong opera. At that time, Hainan Island was actually a testing ground for various operas. Imitation is not creation. Imitate any kind of "foreign" drama, there will be no new drama. Only starting from the actual life of Hainan people and according to their favorite habits, can "imported" operas introduced into Hainan, such as puppet show, orthodox opera, Liyuan opera, Gaojia opera and Chaozhou opera, be combined with local dialects and folk songs and dances in Hainan, and all kinds of original sounds can be comprehensively deployed. After a long historical evolution and artistic actual combat, it is possible to form a local opera-Qiongju opera. Qiong opera can't be completely foreign. From the fifth year of Qingganlong (1740) to the fifty-eighth year of Qingganlong (1793), Fujian, Gaozhou, Chaozhou and Wuyi (Nanhai, Panyu, Foshan, Jiangmen and Xinhui) clubs were successively built in Haikou. There are fixed stone platforms in front of these clubs, and every year, they raise funds to hire hometown troupes to perform in Haikou. Some troupes also set up classes to teach apprentices, and some artists settled in Hainan Island. For example, during the Guangxu period (1875- 1908), the ancestor of Huang Kuangsheng, a famous playwright in Qiongju, settled in Hainan during the Qianlong period. These foreign troupes have promoted the development of local operas and made them a gradually mature performing art. The period from Xianfeng (1851-1861) to Guangxu was a period of great prosperity and great change. After the failure of the Taiping Revolution, Cantonese opera artists were persecuted by the Qing government and flowed into Hainan Island, becoming close friends with Qiongju artists. Some of them run classes to teach traditional Chinese opera, and some switched to acting, which greatly promoted the prosperity of Qiong opera. At this time, Huang Er, Bangzi and other tunes of Cantonese Opera, as well as eighteen new and old "Jianghu" books, were absorbed by Qiongju Opera, and on the basis of these tunes, Hainan Opera and other banqiang operas were created, so that Qiongju Opera gradually changed from Qupai style to banqiang style, and the original gongs, drums, ditties and bangqiang operas were also abandoned.

After the May 4th Movement, under the influence of civilized drama, writers of Qiong Opera, such as Wu Fafeng and the famous Zhang Dan Jin Lu, organized the Qiongya Tuxi Reform Society, and created and performed such progressive and novel plays as Saving the Nation from Death, Newlywedly Married and Guangdong-Hong Kong General Strike. More than a dozen other class clubs have also created and performed a number of plays with patriotic ideas, such as Song Zhengqi and Song Zhengqi. During this period, both music and stage art were reformed. After 1927, Qiongya Tuju Reform Society was dissolved, and Qiongju was influenced by the commercialization of capitalism. Some class clubs compete to cater to low tastes with absurd dramas and low-taste performances, and gradually lose their original characteristics. After the outbreak of War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression, many class clubs went into exile, and there was only one large civil and military class and several middle and small teams (specializing in literature and drama) on the island.

After the founding of People's Republic of China (PRC), under the guidance of the Party's policy of "letting a hundred flowers blossom and bringing forth the new", Qiongju has been reborn and developed greatly. At the beginning of 1950, there were only seven troupe activities on the island. At 1952, the separated artists have all returned to the team. Returning to the stage, more than 20 private theatrical troupes have been set up in various counties and cities to carry out performance activities normally. 1953, carry out the movement of changing drama, replacing people and restructuring, and abolish the monitor system. Artists are the masters of their own affairs, and their social status is valued and improved. At the same time, after getting rid of the bad habit of performing "all-night drama" and "outline drama", on the one hand, we actively rehearsed outstanding plays recommended by the central and provincial governments, on the other hand, we excavated and sorted out outstanding traditional plays, and created and adapted outstanding historical plays and modern plays, and the stage of Qiong Opera took on a new look. 1955, registered as a professional troupe. After the reform and rectification, the troupe was placed under the leadership and management of the county and city people's governments. 1956, Guangdong Qiong Theatre was announced to be established in Guangzhou. 1959 Guangdong Qiong Theatre was reorganized and expanded. At the same time, the theaters in the whole region have been reorganized and various cities and counties have been established. /kloc-at the beginning of 0/960, Hainan Art School (later renamed Hainan Qiongju School) was established. In addition, training courses of various scales are held to train new people in Qiong Opera, and the new generation of Qiong Opera artists and the older generation of artists work together. After a series of organizational construction, institutional work and management improvements, the art of Qiong Opera has made great progress. During this period, outstanding historical dramas and modern dramas such as Poems on Red Leaves, Red women soldiers and Qin Xianglian were sorted out successively. In the aspect of dance art, a choreography system and a rehearsal system based on scripts have been established. From 1966 to 1976, during the "Cultural Revolution", Qiong Opera was devastated and most of its troupes were dissolved. Qiongju School was closed, and the opera institutions were paralyzed. Artists are either sent to work, forced to change careers or sent back to the countryside. All kinds of precious artistic materials collected in more than ten years after the founding of the People's Republic of China have been destroyed.