Chapter 21 The first quarter of the battle of Huaya

Opera in the Qing Dynasty can be divided into "flower" and "elegance".In this regard, Li Dou's "Yangzhou Painting Boat Record" made it very clear: "The two Huaihuai salt affairs routinely store two elegant parts for the big drama. The elegant part is Kunshan tune, and the flower part is Beijing tune, Qin tune, Yiyang tune, Bangzi tune and Luo tune. Luoqiang and Erhuangdiao are collectively referred to as Luantan." It can be seen that Huabu refers to all vocal operas other than Kunqu Opera, including all ethnic minorities' operas. Huabu local operas originated among the people, and some operas were formed as early as when legends and Kunqu Opera were still quite prosperous.However, due to its euphemistic singing, rich, delicate and moving tunes, and the solid literary foundation of legends and dramas, Kunqu opera has won widespread love from the emperors and generals to the common people, and has formed a widely spread from the palace to the market temples. situation.The Qing court even tried its best to support Yabu, and explicitly banned the performance of Huabu, so that Kunqu Opera has always been the leader of the theater circle, and its influence spread all over the country.Huabu local opera has always been in the status of vassal and foil, and failed to form a climate.

After Qianlong, Kunqu opera and legends began to decline.From the perspective of the external environment, with the unification of the country and the stability of the regime in the Qing Dynasty, the rulers of the Qing Dynasty continued to strengthen ideological control, and the entire feudal culture entered a period of consolidation and summary.The government has used a lot of manpower and financial resources to collect, collate, revise, examine and compile the vast number of ancient books and cultural relics for thousands of years.Thus, textual research (Pu Xue) flourished.Under the strict literary network, there are many playwrights who look at the wind and look at the scene and avoid three points; the prosperity of textual research can be said to provide them with a way out of escaping reality and avoiding disaster.Although there were a lot of legends in the Qing Dynasty, most of them were desk tunes, which were not suitable for reproduction, and the ideological content of the works became increasingly empty and thin.

Legends and Kunqu opera flourished for nearly 400 years from Ming to Qing, and their forms became more and more solidified and rigid, and their regulations became more and more complicated.The entire play is too long to be finished.Selecting excerpts for performances makes it difficult for lay audiences to see the whole picture.Legend adopts the music structure of Qupai Liantai, and has accumulated rich experience in the method of Qupai Lianxing, artistic processing of vocal cavity, music theory and singing methods, reaching an exquisite level, but at the same time it has gradually exposed many disadvantages.For example, the rhythm of Qupai is even and steady, and it is difficult to express warm and unrestrained emotions.Long and short sentences are filled in lyrics, and the metrical restrictions are too strict, so it is difficult to master.The lyrics are difficult and difficult to understand.The later it is, the more serious these ills are, and they are far away from life and audiences.

The decline of legends and Kunqu opera forced the art of opera to undergo continuous changes in order to survive and develop.As a result, Huabu local operas sprung up like bamboo shoots after a spring rain, blooming like wild flowers, forming the third climax after Yuan Zaju and Ming and Qing legends, opening a very brilliant chapter in the history of Chinese opera. At the beginning, most of the flower parts were popular in rural wild shops, performing in temple fairs and grass stages. It is called "earth opera" or "miscellaneous opera".After they gradually matured and gained a firm foothold, they flowed into towns along commercial roads, waterways, and official roads.During the reign of Qianlong, two drama centers in Beijing and Yangzhou were formed.Especially in Beijing, because Emperor Qianlong was a fan of theater, he held large-scale birthday celebrations continuously, and famous actors from all over the country gathered in the capital, which made the Beijing theater world full of tunes, and there was no shortage of plays, competing for novelty and beauty.At that time, there was the so-called "Nankun, Beiyi, Dongliu, Xibang".

The vigorous and growing Hanabe competes fiercely with the powerful but declining Masabe.Huabe continued to attack Masabe, and at the same time absorbed artistic nutrition from Masabe to strengthen himself, and finally replaced him. The "Hua Ya Controversy" generally went through three major rounds: The first is the competition between Yiyang tune and Kunqu opera. Yiyang tune was spread to the capital and entered the court as early as the Wanli period of Ming Dynasty.Since Yiyang Opera is also a combination of Qupai, and most of the Qupai are the same as Kunqu Opera, the scripts created for Kunqu Opera can be sung in Yiyang Opera with slight changes, and sometimes there is almost no need to modify them.As a result, the historical dramas performed in the palace gradually changed from all Kunqu operas to Kunqu and Yi, and Kun and Yi simultaneously.In this way, Yiyang tune was differentiated from Huabu, which was restricted and banned by the Qing court, and became one of the tunes used by the royal family. It became the "Yabu" which is also known as Kunqu Opera, and is no longer banned.Yiqiang gradually became Beijingized, elegant, standardized and stylized, and was called "Jingqiang".During the Qianlong period, the "Thirteen Wonders of Jingqiang" drawn by He Shikui appeared, which caused a sensation.The result of the competition between Beijing Opera and Kunqu Opera is only to weaken the influence of Kunqu Opera, gain an equal status, and pave the way for the development of Qin Opera and Pihuang Opera. And various high-pitched tunes derived from it are widely popular.Although Kunqu Opera can no longer dominate the opera world, due to its long history, rich family background, and deep love of bureaucrats and bureaucrats, it has always occupied a place in the opera world of the capital, and continues to exert extensive and profound influence on various local operas.Various genres of Kunqu opera produced during the fusion of Kunqu opera with languages ​​from various regions are still circulating.

After Yiyang Opera, it is Qin Opera that competes with Kunqu Opera.The sensation of Qin Opera in Beijing began when Wei Changsheng, a performing artist of Qin Opera, came to Beijing.Wei Changsheng went to Beijing to perform several times in the last years of Qianlong's reign, which was a sensation and had the potential to overwhelm Kun and Yi.As the Qing government repeatedly issued notices to support Yabu and force Wei Changsheng and other Qin opera artists to learn Kunyi, Wei Changsheng was forced to go south, but it also had a huge impact in Yangzhou, Suzhou and other places. The third round of the "Hua Ya Controversy" is between Huiban and Kunyi Opera.Not long after Wei Changsheng left Beijing, it coincided with Qianlong Hongli's 80th birthday.Four famous Anhui troupes, Sanqing, Sixi, Hechun and Chuntai, which originated in Anqing and were active in Yangzhou, successively came to Beijing to perform.Sanqing is good at performing big axis operas with twists and turns, Sixi is good at singing songs, Hechun's martial arts skills are amazing, and the children of Chuntai are very good actors.The four major Anhui troupes have excellent skills, and they also gather well-known actors such as Cheng Changgeng, Zhang Erkui, Yu Sansheng, etc., so they are very popular among Beijing audiences.During the Daoguang period, Hui troupe artists cooperated with Han melody artists from Hubei, based on Erhuang in Anhui melody and Xipi in Han melody, and continuously absorbed the nutrition of Beijing opera, Kun opera, Qin opera and other local operas and folk tunes, and melted them into Pihuang. Mainly Peking Opera.The formation of Peking Opera marked the end of the "Huaya Controversy", and Huabe won a decisive victory.Under the strong support of Cixi, the supreme ruler of the Qing Dynasty, Peking Opera won the love of the masses and laid a deep foundation. It caused writers to emerge one after another and repertoires increased rapidly, and won the crown of the theater circle. It has become a "national drama" that has spread all over the world.