Chapter 4 Chapter Two: Mountains, Heavy Waters, and the Long Road to Recovery——Confluence

Qin Shihuang unified China and established a feudal order.However, due to the implementation of tyranny, the Qin Empire collapsed in an instant.In the Western Han Dynasty that followed, the feudal system was increasingly consolidated, ushering in the stability of the "rule of Wenjing" and the prosperity of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty: "The money of the capital is huge, and it is irreversible. The millet of Taicang is Chen Chen. Because of this, it is full and exposed and accumulated outside, until it becomes corrupt and inedible." ("Historical Records Ping Zhun Shu") Wufu Minfeng is conducive to the prosperity of art.Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty set up a huge "Yuefu" official office to collect alley songs, make music scores, and train musicians, which promoted the development of music and dance.The music and dance at that time were divided into six parts: Advocacy Songs, Xianghe Songs, Miscellaneous Songs, Qing and Shang Songs, Hengfeng Songs, and Miscellaneous Songs and Ballads.There are many kinds of court dances, including Wentan Dance, Wude Dance, Five Elements Dance, Four Seasons Dance, Zhaode Dance, Shengde Dance, Yunqiao Dance, and Bayu Dance, which describes King Wu’s conquest of Zhou. Yu Tiao danced with his sleeves up and his waist down.As well as the ancient Nuo dance to exorcise evil spirits [rang] disasters, they all contain a certain story and drama.Folk entertainment activities flourished, competing for novelty and beauty.All kinds of music, dance, acrobatics, martial arts, illusion, and comic performances that can provide people with pleasure, such as swallowing knives, spitting fire, carrying a tripod, searching for a tree (tongtong), rushing, swallowing, jumping balls, walking ropes, swinging Swords, mausoleum heights, walking ropes, protruding breasts, fractal changes, galloping a hundred horses, opera chariots tall, fish and dragons, etc., are collectively referred to as "hundred operas" (San Yue).

Among the dazzling array of "Hundreds of Operas", the ones that contain more drama elements are the role-playing (didi) operas.Jiaoba means gladiatorial fighting and competition, which was developed from Chiyou opera.It is said that Chiyou has horns on his head, and when he fought with the Yellow Emperor, he used the horns to attack people, so someone created Chiyou drama.The most famous character play in the Han Dynasty is "Donghai Huang Gong".According to legend, there is an old man surnamed Huang in the East China Sea. When he was young, he was very magical.When he was old and weak, and he drank too much alcohol, his spells failed. Not only did he fail to subdue the tiger, but he was eaten by the tiger instead. (See Ge Hong's "Xijing Miscellaneous Notes" and Zhang Heng's "Xijing Fu") During the performance, one person pretends to be Huang Gong and the other pretends to be a tiger, and fight each other.This play takes wrestling as the main content, showing the people's struggle against nature during the Qin and Han Dynasties, full of sense of tragedy.

"Baixi" (Sanle) also has a large-scale singing and dancing.For example, Zhang Heng, a great scientist and writer, once described the performance scene of "General Assembly Immortal Advocacy" in "Xijing Fu": The Huayue is so high, the hills and mountains are uneven;The general meeting advocates immortals, playing with leopards and dancing with pipi; the white tiger plays the zither, and the blue dragon plays the chi (chi chi).Nv'e sits and sings long, with a clear and winding voice; Hong Ya stands up and directs, surrounded by delicate feathers.Before the end of the song, the clouds are rising and the snow is flying. At first, they are fluttering, and then they are falling.Complex Lu Chongge, turning stone into thunder.The sound of the thunderbolt increased sharply, and the pounding [ke Ke] seemed like Tianwei.

look!The majestic peaks, the overlapping hills, and the sacred trees and spiritual grasses are dotted with bright red fruits.In this charming fairyland, actors dressed up as many gods gather together.Some of them danced to imitate the dance of tigers, leopards and bears, and some dressed up as white tigers and black dragons playing music.Ehuang and Nvying sit and sing long songs, their singing voices are clear and melodious.Hong Ya was wearing clothes woven from brightly colored feathers, standing there commanding.Before the end of the song, the clouds suddenly rose and the snow flew... Obviously, this is a grand song and dance performance with characters, stories, scenery, lighting, props and effects.The gorgeous colors and majestic momentum fully demonstrate the power of human beings to conquer nature, and embody the aesthetic ideal and artistic pursuit of the people of the Han Dynasty.

From the Three Kingdoms to the Southern and Northern Dynasties, the society experienced severe turmoil.However, Baixi Sanle is endless.During the Cao Wei period, there appeared the witty and funny "Say Fat and Thin" and the "Liaodong Enchantress" in which men disguised themselves as women and played obscenely (xiexie) excessively (see "Wei Shu·Qi Wang Ji" Pei Note cited Sima Shi's "Abolition of the Emperor" ").In the Kingdom of Shu, "Xu Hu Ke Fa" was reproduced, in which two doctors, Xu Ci and Hu Qian, were suspicious of each other and had endless disputes.In the Jin Dynasty, "Gongmo Dance", "Xia Yu Carrying the Ding", "Giant Elephant Walking Breasts", "Dance of the Turtle", "Carrying Lingyue", "Osmanthus White Snow", "Painting the Land and Chengchuan" appeared in the Jin Dynasty. The joy of ", there are also retrograde and continuous falling, head and foot into the 筥 (juju) and so on.During Emperor Liang Wu of the Southern Dynasties, there were "Shangyun Le" and "Old Hu Wenkang Dance".Old Hu Wenkang is the legendary half-human, half-god old birthday star. He either wears a mask or makes up makeup with a high nose and white hair when dancing.During the Northern Dynasties, the content of Baixi Sanyue was richer, the form was more novel, and the types were more diverse, including five soldiers and horns, unicorns, phoenixes, immortals, long snakes, white elephants, white martial arts, ichthyosaurs, evil spirits, deer and horses, There are more than 100 kinds of fairy chariots, tall musk deer, 趫 [qiao Qiao] buildings, jumping pills, comedian dwarfs, mountain cart giant elephants, pulling wells to grow melons, killing horses and stripping donkeys, etc. There are more than 100 species.Songs, dances and dances with dramatic factors appeared in the Northern Qi Dynasty, such as "Dai Mian" (the first work is "Da Mian", also known as "Lanling King Entering the Battle"), "Botou", "Ta Yao Niang" ("Su Zhonglang"), etc. puppet making.

"Representing Face" is a mask dance.Although Chang Gong, the king of Lanling, had unstoppable courage, he was too delicate to deter the enemy.So, he carved a hideous and terrifying mask and put it on before the battle.Based on this, the people of the Northern Qi created the Daimian Dance to perform the story of his conquest and killing.His appearance is "purple clothes, golden waist, and whip" ("Yuefu Miscellaneous Records"), wearing a mask, creating a ferocious beauty. "Botou" is similar to "Donghai Huanggong" in the Western Han Dynasty. It tells the story of a Hu man who is eaten by a tiger, and his son goes up the mountain to fight the tiger to avenge his father.Its appearance is "draped hair, plain clothes, crying face, covering the appearance of mourning" ("Yuefu Miscellaneous Records"), and added arias to enrich the performance.There are eight folds in the mountain, so there are eight folds in the song.The tragedy of man being eaten by a tiger has become the ending of man conquering nature.

"Treading Mother" shows a beautiful and kind woman, but she is married to a man with a drunken nose, drinking and beating his wife all day long, and calling himself a doctor.The woman couldn't bear the humiliation, so she walked and sang bitter words to her neighbors, showing the painful life of women under the oppression of husbands under the feudal patriarchal system.During the performance, the man "wears scarlet clothes, wears a hat, and has a red face to show that he is drunk"; Tayao Niang is "the husband wears women's clothes, and walks slowly to the stage to sing. Zhiyun: "Tayao Niang and come, Tayao Niang come together with bitterness!" Because it walks and sings, it is called "Ta Yao", and because it calls injustice, it is called "bitterness". And when the husband comes, then It looks like a fight, and I think it's a joke..." (Tang Cui Lingqin's "Jiaofang Ji"). "Treading Girl" condenses the ugly and the beautiful, producing a strong contrast effect.

In the Sui Dynasty, the scale and momentum of Baixi Sanle became larger.Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty was very pleased with his achievements and pursued ostentation.He opened canals, took dragon boats, and traveled south of the Yangtze River.Build fan towers and watch songs and dances to satisfy sensual entertainment.In order to show off the power and wealth of the dynasty, every year when all nations come to the court in the first month of the lunar year, they gather in the eastern capital of Luoyang to gather music from all directions.Tens of thousands of musicians in splendid clothes, flower arranging and wearing rings, sang and danced to the sound of gongs and drums, filling the eight-mile-long theater.Huanglong Bian, Shenao Negative Mountain, Illusory Man Breathing Fire, etc. are ever-changing, all night long.The scale is huge and the atmosphere is warm, which is unprecedented.

Baixi Sanyue is not necessarily drama, but it provides the environment and conditions for the birth of Chinese opera.It is in this fertile soil that opera forms an indissoluble bond with other sister arts such as singing, dancing, acrobatics, and martial arts, and absorbs nutrients extensively to form its own unique expression method.Therefore, some people call Baixi Sanyue the cradle of Chinese opera.