Drama is a traditional Chinese dramatic form. It is a combination of literature, music, dance, art, martial arts, acrobatics and various performing arts factors. Its origin has a long history. Song and dance have sprouted as early as in primitive society. In the long process of development, after more than 800 years of continuous enrichment, renewal and development, a relatively complete opera art system has gradually been formed.

Edit this paragraph about the origin of opera

Chinese opera has a long history. It first emerged from songs and dances that imitated labor.

Pre-Qin period

(1) Pre-Qin - the budding period of opera. The "Ode" in "The Book of Songs" and the "Nine Songs" in "Chu Ci" are the lyrics of songs and dances during sacrifices to gods. From the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period to the Han Dynasty, songs and dances that entertained people gradually evolved from songs and dances that entertained gods. From the Han and Wei dynasties to the mid-Tang Dynasty, there appeared successively the "Jiaodian" (i.e. Baixi), which was mainly based on competition, the "Joining the Army Opera" performed in the form of questions and answers, and the song and dance "Tawo Niang" which played short life stories, etc. It's all drama in its infancy.

Middle and late Tang Dynasty

(2) Tang Dynasty (middle and late Tang Dynasty) - the formative period of opera. After the mid-Tang Dynasty, our country's drama developed rapidly and drama art gradually took shape.

Song and Jin Dynasties

(3) Song and Jin Dynasties - the development period of opera. The "Zaju" of the Song Dynasty, the "Yuanben" of the Jin Dynasty and the "Zhugong Diao" in the form of speaking and singing, from music, structure to content, all laid the foundation for the Zaju of the Yuan Dynasty.

Yuan Dynasty Period

(4) Yuan Dynasty - the mature period of opera. By the Yuan Dynasty, "Zaju" had greatly developed on the original basis and became a new type of drama. It possesses the basic characteristics of drama and marks that our country's drama has entered a mature stage. The most outstanding composer among them is Guan Hanqing, whose masterpiece "The Injustice of Dou E" has always been praised by future generations.

Ming and Qing Dynasties

(5) Ming and Qing Dynasties - the prosperous period of opera. When opera reached the Ming Dynasty, legends developed. The predecessor of the legend of the Ming Dynasty is Nan Opera in the Song and Yuan Dynasties (Nan Opera is the abbreviation of Nan Opera Opera. It is an emerging drama form based on the Zaju of the Song Dynasty and combined with the tunes of the southern region. Wenzhou is its birthplace) . The structure of Southern opera is different from that of Northern Zaju: it is not limited by four folds, nor is it limited by one person singing to the end. It has an opening to explain the plot, and mostly has a happy ending. The style is mostly more lingering, unlike Northern Zaju. Impassioned and free in form, it is easier to express life. Unfortunately, very few scripts of early Nan Opera have been preserved. It was not until the end of the Yuan Dynasty and the beginning of the Ming Dynasty that Nan Opera began to flourish. After processing and improvement by literati, this short opera, which was originally not rigorous enough, finally turned into a quite complete full-length drama. For example, Gao Ming's "Pipa Ji" is a work that transitions from southern opera to legend. The theme of this work comes from folklore. It presents a story relatively completely and has a certain degree of drama. It was once known as the "ancestor of the resurgence of Southern Opera". In the middle of the Ming Dynasty, a large number of legendary writers and scripts emerged, among which Tang Xianzu was the most successful. He wrote many legendary scripts throughout his life, and "The Peony Pavilion" is his masterpiece. Through the story of Du Liniang and Liu Mengmei's death, separation, and separation, the work praises the spirit of rebellion against feudal ethics, the pursuit of happy love, and the liberation of individuality. The author gives love the power of resurrection, which defeats the shackles of feudal ethics and achieves the final victory. This point had far-reaching social significance in a society firmly dominated by feudal ethics at that time. This play has been loved by readers and audiences for 300 years since it came out. To this day, fragments such as "Girl School" and "Dream" are still active on the stage of opera performances, radiating the brilliance of its art. The Tang Dynasty was a period of high development of China's feudal social economy, politics, and culture. It was during this historical period that Chinese opera came into being. The highly developed politics and economy provided important social conditions for the emergence of opera, and the booming culture and art provided an unparalleled material foundation for opera, thus greatly promoting its formation process.

Drama has been influenced by foreign cultures.

With the rapid development of modern science and technology and modern information media technology, cultural exchanges between the East and the West have become increasingly frequent and in-depth. Some Western countries have taken advantage of their economic advantages and information network technology to implement "cultural hegemony", "cultural penetration" and "cultural invasion" , continue their "cultural colonization" and "Westernization" and sell us their ideology and life values. Due to their strong thirst for knowledge and strong curiosity, college students are quick to accept new things and are easily influenced by multiculturalism and Western culture. This has brought severe challenges to us in carrying forward our nation's excellent traditional cultural education. In particular, the infiltration and invasion of Western culture has caused some college students to "unconsciously" identify and accept Western values, and then doubt and deny the traditional culture of their own nation. We should prevent the danger that the traditional cultural elements of the Chinese nation will deteriorate due to the invasion of Western values, thereby losing the space for continued existence and development. 3. Opera is influenced by Internet culture. In our country, the people who are most profoundly and widely affected by Internet culture are college students with a higher cultural level. On the one hand, Internet culture has greatly attracted college students with its characteristics of elegance and vulgarity, large amount of information, strong knowledge and interest, and open ideas, and has expanded new space and opened up new ways for college education; On the other hand, due to its over-openness and too many modern entertainment projects, it has also brought new competition to the traditional cultural education of opera.