Early Chinese Theatre &

Drama: 1000-1650

THE 215
Theatre in China
Evidence of Indian Influence
Old Sanskrit copy of a portion of Shakuntala
found in Chinese temple in city associated
with Sung Dynasty drama.
Philosophical Influences
Confucianism6th cen. B.C.
Emphasizes duty to superiors and to society.
Taoism6th cen. B.C.
Teaches fulfillment through natural harmony,
patience, and a simple life.
Religious Influences
ShamanismA belief
system in which holy
men use magic to
contact the dead and
keep evil spirits at bay.
Rituals involve
dance, singing, and
colorful costumes.
BuddhismBrought
from India.
Theatre in China
By 1500 B.C., civilization emerges:
Religious ritual
Dance
Music.
C. 1000 B.C. evidence of secular
entertainments for feasts:
Dancing, singing, mimes & jesters.
Evidence of a stage.
Theatre in China
Han Dynasty (206 B.C.-221 A.D.)
As in Rome, many popular entertainments:
Mime, dance, music
Juggling, tightrope walking, athletic feats
Magic acts, fire and sword swallowing.
104 B.C.Imperial Office of Music formed
Supports dance and music
Coordinates courtly entertainments.
Theatre in China
Instruments used in later theatre orchestras
emerge.
121 B.C.Shadow puppets first used for
conjuring/religious purposes.
265 A.D.1st known marionette performances.
Hui Dynasty (589-614 A.D.)
Blending of native, Indian, and Central Asian
elements.
Emperor Yang-ti establishes school for
entertainers.
Theatre in China
Tang Dynasty (618-904)
Emperor Hsuan Tsung establishes training
school, The Pear Garden for court
performers
Dancers, musicians, dancers, etc.
Emphasizes creativity and popular forms.
Chinese actors still call themselves
Students of the Pear Garden.
Theatre in China
Song Dynasty (960-1279)
High point of Chinese culture
Invention of gunpowder, movable
type & magnetic compass.
Thriving art forms:
Novels, poetry (in new style)
Professional storytelling
Shadow and puppet theatre.
Theatre in ChinaSong Dynasty
1st extant Chinese plays from this period.
Professional Performance Artists:
Most talented work at imperial court.
Others form itinerant troupes
Between 5 & 8 members.
Perform in teahouses or other
public spaces in cities and towns.
Playhouses appear in larger cities.
Song Dynasty Entertainers
Theatre in ChinaSong Dynasty

Main character types of Chinese drama

established:
ShengCentral male role
DanCentral female role
JingPainted face, character role
Usually a villain
ChouClown
Quiz Q&A
23. What is the first important era of Chinese
culture? What are its dates? What kinds of
entertainments were popular during that era?
BETSY
24. What is the Pear Garden? About when did
it appear and during which Chinese dynasty?
What is the Pear Gardens significance in
Chinese culture and theatre?
TIFFANY & JAMIE
25. Approximately when and during which
dynasty did the first extant Chinese play
appear? What is the title of that play, and what
are a few of the plays primary features?
LAUREN
Quiz Q&A
26. What is the term for the earliest
known Chinese playhouses? What are
the primary features of those theatres?
GENEVIEVE & WILLY
27. During which dynasty was there a
golden age of drama? What are the
dates of that dynasty, and why are
plays and other literary genres of the
period so well-regarded?
KATIE
Quiz Q&A
28. Describe the typical
characters, themes, and endings
of plays from the period of
Chinese drama referred to in
question 27.
BETSY
29. What are the term for and the
main features of the northern
Chinese variety of drama referred
to in question 27?
TIFFANY & JAMIE
Yan Drama and Theatre
(1279-1368)
Highpoint of Chinese
drama and theatre
With Mongol conquest,
conquest, Confucian
civil servants fired.
1st Mongol ruler
Kublai Khan, grand-
son of Genghis.
Some displaced scholars
turn to drama for
Genghis Khan employment.
Yan Drama and Theatre
Earlier theatre mainly
pop. entertainments.
Yan drama from
northern China
Style spreads south.
Draws on new poetic
style.
Sources are legend,
epics, novels, current
events.
Kublai Khan
Yan DramaStructure
4 Acts
About 10 songs
Each sung by the central character.
Songs selected from 9 modes
All songs in an act in same mode.
All lines of a song use same rhyming
sound.
Rhyme & mode of 1 act not repeated in
others.
Rest of play spoken.
Quiz Q & A
30. Define and describe the term wedge
(chieh jie) as it pertains to the plays of
Chinas golden age of drama.
LAUREN
31. What kind of music accompanied
the plays of Chinas golden age of
drama?
GENEVIEVE & WILLY
32. Describe the typical 14th century
Chinese stage.
KATIE
Quiz Q & A
33. Did women perform in the plays
from the golden age of Chinese
drama?
BETSY
34. Who are three leading playwrights
during the golden age of Chinese
drama and what are the titles of their
best-known plays? Which of those
playwrights is considered the father
of Chinese drama, and how many
plays did he write?
TIFFANY & JAMIE
Quiz Q & A

35. What are the main features of

the southern Chinese variety of
drama referred to in question 27?
LAUREN
36. Describe the ground plan of a
typical theatre from the golden
age of Chinese theatre.
GENEVIEVE & WILLY.
Yan DramaStructure
Wedge (chieh tze)
Expository passage
Usually before 1st act
or between acts
Up to 2 arias, not
sung by protagonist.
Allowed for some
flexibility.
Usually a single plot. Pipa, accompanied Yan plays
Yan DramaSubject Matter
Plots of virtue in face of oppression.
Satire of Mongol rule
Stories of separated lovers
Good usually triumphs.
Main subjects and character types:
People who become immortals/gods
Emperors and courtiers
Martyrs/loyal officials
Yan DramaSubject Matter
More Subjects:
Chaste, faithful, incorruptible & filial persons.
Slanderers and maligners punished
Exiles and orphans
Warriors and wandering knights
Lovers
Courtesans
Hermits
People joyous in meeting and sorrowful in parting.
Gods, Buddhist and otherwise.
Yan Plays & Playwrights
About 170 of 700 plays extant.
550 named dramatists
Kuan Han-ching
Father of Chinese drama
18 of 67 plays extant
Injustice Done to Maid Tou
Based on real incident.
Yan Plays & Playwrights

Wang Shifu (late 13th cen.)

Wrote Romance of the West Chamber
Major Chinese play
Unique structure
5 parts, 4 acts each
Subject: separated lovers.
See handout for excerpts.
Romance of the West Chamber
2007 Production
Yan Plays & Playwrights
Chi Chn-hsiang
Orphan of the House of Chao
Revenge play about an orphan raised
to punish general who murdered his
family.
1st important adaptation of Chinese
play in West
Voltaires Orphan of China (1755).
Yan Plays & Playwrights

Li Chienfu
The Story of the Chalk Circle
Solomon-like story about 2 mothers
who claim same child.
Also read and adapted in West
A. H. Klabund, Circle of Chalk (1923)
Bertolt Brecht, The Caucasian Chalk Circle
(1944).
Southern Yan Drama
Developed in & near Hangchow
Less tightly structured than Northern
drama
Could have 50+ acts
1st act usually expository monologue by
supporting character
Multiple plots allowed
Happy endings
All characters can sing, individually or in
groups.
Southern Yan Drama
Ti tzubamboo
flute, main musical
accompaniment
By later 17th cen.,
Southern drama
evolved from
popular theatre
into closet drama.
Southern Yan Drama
Major Southern Plays
Lute Song (c. 1350), by Kao Ming
42 acts
Husband goes to court to pursue fame &
fortune & a new wife.
Faithful 1st wife eventually seeks him out
and regains his favor through her virtue.
Adapted as a Broadway musical after
WWII.
Southern Yan Drama
Peony Pavilion, by Tang Hsien-tsu (1550-1616)
Leading playwright of Ming period.
55 acts (a marathon) play.
Love story of girl who dies over lover she
has seen only in a dream.
After many adventures, including in
underworld, she and lover are united.
Recently revived in China & performed
in America.
Li Y
Popular 17th-Cen. Playwright
Led a troupe of attractive singer-
actresses
With profit in mind
Specialized in realistic comedies
Cleverly and complexly plotted
Witty dialogue
The Neil Simon of his time?
Li Y
Popular 17th-Cen. Playwright
Plays:
Be Circumspect in Conjugal Relations
The Error of the Kite.
Chinas 1st and only important drama
theorist:
A Temporary Lodge for My Leisure Thoughts
(1671)
Yan Theatre

Mainly outdoor stages, often

roofless
Bare stage, no sets
2 doors for entrances
Decorative fabric wall hangings
between doors
Rural Yan Theatre
Yan Theatre
Spectacular
costumes
Like those in later
Peking Opera
Elaborate make-up
Functional props
Tiered seating. See
p. 67.
Peony Pavilion
Yan Theatre
Men and women acted.
Could act across gender.
Actresses could be celebrities
Some companies led by women.
Many prostitutes (both genders)
worked as actors, dancers, or
musicians.
Not all actors were prostitutes.
Chinese Stage (1694)
Yan TheatreMusic
Primary Instruments
Wind
Ti Tzu (flute)
Shng (pipes)
Strings
Pipa (lute)
San Hsien
Chin

Shng
Yan TheatreMusic

Percussion
Lo (gong)
Pan
(clappers)
Ku
(drum)
 End of Yan Era
Southern Yan
drama & theatre
fade out in late
18th cen.
Peking Opera
gradually
emerges.
Changyinge Theatre, Imperial Palace, Beijing
Application
Set up
classroom
like Yan
theatre.
See p. 67.
Application
Act out scenes from The Orphan of Chao, by
Chi Chn-hsiang & The Soul of Chien-N
Leaves her Body, by Chng Teh-hui:
Tu-an KuWilly
Chao Shuo & Wang Wen-Chu (2)Jamie
Messenger & SoldierGenevieve
PrincessTiffany
ChEng Ying & Mei-Hsiang (2)Katie
Han Chueh & Mrs. Chang (2)Lauren
Soul of Chien Nu (2)Betsy.
Watch DVD on Chinese shadow puppet
theatre.
Image Sources
Shaman: www.shamans-
sf.org/images/shaman.jpg
Song Entertainers: www.xabusiness.
com/images/china-resources/classic-
paintings/large/1-7-24.jpg
Genghis: timthorn.files.wordpress.
com/2008/02/417px-genghis-khan_2.jpg
Kublai: www.harpers.org/media/
image/blogs/misc/kublai_khan.jpg
Image Sources
Pipa: library.thinkquest.org/05aug/
00514/images/pipa_1_big.jpg
Romance: images.china.cn/images1/
200709/405365.jpg
Ti tzu Performer: farm3.static.flickr.com/
2017/2336032373_8fbe341994.jpg?v=0
Yan stage: ascc.artsci.wustl.edu/
~rhegel/chtheater/mingrural1.jpg
Image Sources
Peony Pavilion: lh5.ggpht.com/_
RiRhfhOFi9E/R1Hhc5XQ5yI/AAAAAAAAB
QY/yWgCLGsQv8Y/DSC01390.JPG
Chinese stage: ascc.artsci.wustl.edu/
~rhegel/chtheater/kangxiriver1.jpg
Shng: cache.daylife.com/
imageserve/0eHkgLS8AW9Mp/340x.jpg
Image Sources
Drums: assets.asiasprout.com/
system/images/large/AKA038X01.jpg
Changyinge Theatre: ascc.artsci.wustl.edu/
~rhegel/chtheater/changyinge.jpg
Chinese theatre: lh3.ggpht.com/_-
9JDTrTNwE8/Rh3q7p0_nKI/AAAAAAAAAL
0/N1-pzbEV12o/070+Beijing+Opera+
Stage+and+Dinner+for+some.JPG