The artistic repertoire of Kunqu Opera is rich and colorful, the words are gorgeous and elegant, the tunes are graceful and euphemistic, the dance movements are delicate and graceful, the martial arts are exquisite, the performance is sincere and poetic. His painting style combines drama, literature, music, song and dance, and occupies an important position in the history of literature, drama, music and dance in China. Kunqu Opera has a far-reaching influence on later Peking Opera and many local operas, so it is known as the representative of China national opera, the father and teacher of hundreds of operas, and the master of China opera art.
On 2001May 18, Kunqu Opera was declared by UNESCO as the first representative of human oral and intangible heritage in the world.
In the long-term performance practice, Kunqu opera has accumulated a large number of stage plays. Among them, Wang Shizhen's Feng Mingji, Tang Xianzu's Peony Pavilion, Zi Chai Ji, Handan Ji, Conan Ji and Shen Jing's Hero have great influence and are often performed. There are also Hosta, Kite Mistake by Li Yu, Fifteen Passes by Zhu, Peach Blossom Fan by Kong, Palace of Eternal Life by Hong Sheng, and other famous discount plays, such as Dream in the Garden, Yangguan and Sanzui.
The music of Kunqu Opera belongs to the antithetical couplet structure, referred to as "Qupai Style". According to incomplete statistics, there are more than 1000 kinds of qupai used, including ancient song and dance music, Daqu and Ci tune in Tang and Song Dynasties, aria and Zhu Gong tune in Song Dynasty, as well as folk songs and national songs. Based on Nanqu, it composes music by means of "breaking the tune", "borrowing the palace" and "picking songs" with the number of sets of Beiqu.
The accompaniment instruments of Kunqu Opera are mainly Sheng, Xiao, Suona, Sanxian and Pipa (percussion instruments can be used). The performance of Kunqu Opera also has its own unique system and style. Its greatest characteristics are strong lyricism, delicate movements and ingenious and harmonious combination of song and dance. Kunqu Opera originated from Kunshan Opera (the other three: Yu Yaoqiang Opera, Haiyan Opera and Yiyang Opera);
Kunshan dialect: only circulated in Wuzhong area. Wei Liangfu's "Introduction to Southern Ci" records: "There are several kinds of sounds, and there are different kinds ... Only Kunshan is the correct accent, which was handed down by Huang Zanzhuo, Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty. In the Yuan Dynasty, there was Gu Jian, who lived in Qiandun, though 30 miles away from Kunshan. Be good at Nanci, be good at making ancient poems ... be good at reading Nanyin's Olympics, and the country was originally named' Kunshan Tune'. " After the literati reform led by Gu Jiegang, the post-Kunshan accent was called the new Kunshan accent. During Zheng De and Jiajing in Ming Dynasty, Wei Liangfu, a traditional Chinese opera musician, reformed and innovated Kunshan Opera and developed it into an exquisite and elegant Shuimo Opera, which finally made Kunshan Opera "beautiful and far-reaching, surpassing the three operas". Since then, Kunshan Opera has developed rapidly after the reform. With rich performance forms, it has become the most influential two loud operas together with Yiyang Opera, and gradually surpassed Yiyang Opera, and finally became the dominant music player. With the development of vocal cavity, performance form and script, Kunshan cavity has grown into Kunqu opera.
Kunqu Opera is the most mature and rich in cultural connotation among many ancient operas in China. Many relatively young operas have borrowed from Kunqu opera to some extent. Kunqu Opera is known as "Kunqu Opera, the ancestor of all kinds of operas" (formerly known as "Kunqu Opera"), and it is an ancient opera tune and genre in China, formerly known as "Kunshan Opera" or "Kunqu Opera" for short, and has been called "Kunqu Opera" since the Qing Dynasty. The accompaniment instruments of Kunqu Opera are mainly Sheng, Xiao, Suona, Sanxian and Pipa (percussion instruments can be used). The performance of Kunqu Opera also has its own unique system and style. Its greatest characteristics are strong lyricism, delicate movements and ingenious and harmonious combination of song and dance.
On May 6th, 2006, the play was named "Masterpiece of Oral and Intangible Heritage of Mankind" by UNESCO. The state attaches great importance to the protection of intangible cultural heritage. On May 20th, 2006, Kunqu Opera was approved by the State Council to be included in the first batch of national intangible cultural heritage list.
Kunqu Opera has a long history. It originated in Kunshan at the end of Yuan Dynasty and has a history of more than 600 years. Since the Song and Yuan Dynasties, China's operas have been divided into north and south, and their singing styles are different from place to place. At the end of Yuan Dynasty, Gu Jiegang and others sorted out and improved the original tune of Nanqu, which was popular in Kunshan, and called it "Kunshan tune", which was the embryonic form of Kunqu opera. During the Jiajing period of Ming Dynasty, Wei Liangfu, an outstanding opera musician, reformed and innovated the melody and singing method of Kunshan tune, absorbing the advantages of southern tune such as Haiyan tune and Yiyang tune, giving full play to the beautiful and distant features of Kunshan tune and absorbing the rigorous structure of northern tune. He used the singing method of northern tunes, accompanied by flute, flute, sheng, pipa and other accompaniment instruments to create a delicate and elegant "ink and wash song" that combines the length of northern and southern tunes. Later, Liang Chenyu, a native of Kunshan, inherited Wei Liangfu's achievements and further studied and reformed Kunqu Opera. At the end of Qin Long's life, he wrote the first Kunqu legend "Huansha Ji". This legendary performance expanded the influence of Kunqu Opera, and more and more scholars competed to create legends and learn from Kunqu Opera. Therefore, Kunqu Opera, together with Yu Yaoqiang, Haiyan and Yiyang, is known as the four major tunes in Ming Dynasty. By the end of Wanli, due to the extensive performance activities of Kunban, Kunqu was introduced to Beijing and Hunan through Yangzhou, ranking first among all kinds of operas, and became the standard aria of legendary scripts: "Songs from all directions should be directed at Wumen". In the late Ming and early Qing Dynasties, Kunqu Opera spread to Sichuan, Guizhou and Guangdong, and developed into a national opera. The singing of Kunqu Opera was originally based on Wu dialect in Suzhou, but after it was introduced to other places, it was combined with local dialects and folk music and evolved into many schools, forming a colorful Kunqu Opera system and becoming a representative drama of the whole nation. During the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty, the development of Kunqu opera entered its heyday. From then on, Kunqu Opera began to dominate the pear garden, which lasted for 600 to 700 years, and became the oldest traditional opera form in China and even the world.
In the form of oratorio, Kunqu opera is beautiful and melodious in the atmosphere without gongs and drums. At the same time, Wei Liangfu also reformed the accompaniment instruments. At first, the instruments accompanying Nanqu were mainly Xiao and Guan. In order to make the singing of Kunqu opera more appealing, he brought together flute, pipe, sheng, Qin, pipa and other musical instruments to accompany the singing of Kunqu opera and achieved success.
Kunshan dialect began to spread in Suzhou, and in the Wanli period, it spread to the south of the Yangtze River and the north of Qiantang River, and gradually spread to Fujian, Jiangxi, Guangdong, Hubei, Hunan, Sichuan, Henan, Hebei and other places, and also flowed into Beijing in the Wanli period. In this way, Kunshan Opera became the most influential vocal opera from the middle of Ming Dynasty to the middle of Qing Dynasty.
According to scholars' research, "although the aesthetic taste represented by Kunqu Opera obviously comes from the south, especially Jiangnan, its cultural identity does not belong to a certain place. It embodies the aesthetic pursuit and artistic creation of China literati. It is precisely because it is a model of literati, so it has a strong coverage ability and may be widely spread, and in the process of communication, it basically maintains its inherent aesthetic consistency. "
Kunqu Opera (Kunshan Opera) is named after Kunshan, Jiangsu. Together with Haiyan Opera, Yu Yaoqiang Opera and Yiyang Opera, which originated in Zhejiang and Jiangxi, it is called the four major operas in Ming Dynasty and belongs to the Southern Opera system.
Kunqu Opera is one of the oldest traditional operas in China, and it is also the treasure of traditional culture and art in China, especially the opera art. It is called the "Orchid" in the Hundred Flowers Garden. From the mid-Ming Dynasty to the mid-Qing Dynasty, many of the most influential vocal operas were developed on the basis of Kunqu Opera, and were known as the "mother of China operas". Kunqu Opera is a kind of opera with the most complete performance system in the history of China opera. It has a deep foundation and rich heritage. It is the result of the high development of China's national culture and art, and occupies an important position in the history of China's literature, drama, music and dance. Because Kunqu Opera evolved from Yuan Zaju in Yuan Dynasty, it has the longest history and the earliest appearance. Other plays have their own shadows, such as Beijing Opera, and many of them are from Kunqu Opera, such as Qian Yuan Shan, Hu Jiazhuang, Stop the Horse, Visit the Garden, Hostel and so on. Therefore, Kunqu opera can be said to be the ancestor of hundreds of operas. However, because Kunqu opera is too elegant, the local dialect is difficult to understand, learn and understand, unlike Beijing opera and local opera, Kunqu opera is gradually declining, and Beijing opera is gradually rising, which makes its development slow and gradually unknown.