During the Qianlong period of Qing Dynasty, China's economy was prosperous, the country was rich and the people were safe, and culture and art developed accordingly. Especially in the 16th year of Qianlong (175 1), Emperor Qianlong visited the south six times, which not only further communicated the economy between North and South, but also promoted the cultural exchange between North and South. For example, in the year of Emperor Qianlong's first southern tour, Empress Dowager Cixi celebrated her 60th birthday, and a southern troupe went to Beijing to congratulate her. At that time, the grand occasion of the performance was "from Xihuamen to the high-beam bridge outside Xizhimen, there is a stage every dozens of steps", "Southern accent, music from all directions, stubborn children's songs and dance shirts, greeted in front. Look around and be surprised, look around and be dizzy. " Empress dowager cixi's eightieth birthday, "the imperial classics in the capital are prosperous, not less than that of the year." Until the forty-fourth year of Qianlong (1779), Wei Changsheng, a Shaanxi opera actor, entered Beijing from Sichuan and moved the capital under the name of "Gunlou". It is the beginning of Huiban's performance in Beijing. At this time, the popular Beijing dialect in Beijing has also been greatly diluted, and even there has been a situation that "the old Beijing dialect has been shelved".
The fifty-fifth year of Qianlong (1790) is the eightieth birthday of Emperor Gaozong. In order to celebrate the birthday of Emperor Qianlong, Jiang Heting, a salt merchant in Yangzhou, specially organized an emblem class named "Sanqing" headed by the famous actor Gao Langting that autumn, and there were three celebration classes, four happy classes, spring classes and spring operas. Most of these troupes are Anhui artists. They went to Beijing to perform for the birthday of Emperor Qianlong.
At that time, Peking Opera (tenor) and Shaanxi Opera had already flowed into Beijing. On the basis of singing Huang Er, Kunqu Opera and Bangzi, Huizhou Class 4 is eclectic, resulting in the situation that "Huizhou Class 4 is good at winning games". During the reign of Jiaqing and Daoguang, the Huizhou class, which performed Han tunes (also known as Chu tunes) in Beijing, was also good at learning Chu tunes, which laid the foundation for the integration, Xipi, Kun and Qin tunes and promoted the evolution of Beijing opera. This is the famous "Huiban going to Beijing" in the history of drama. Therefore, the entry of four Huizhou classes into Beijing is regarded as a prelude to the birth of Peking Opera, which is of great significance in the history of Peking Opera development and is also a key to the gradual development of Huizhou classes into Peking Opera. At the end of Qing Dynasty, four classes in Huizhou were scattered one after another.
In short, before the formation of Beijing Opera, from the middle of18th century to the beginning of19th century, there were large-scale operas popular in Beijing, besides Kunqu Opera, which was dominant in the theater at that time, there were also Beijing Opera, Shaanxi Opera, Anhui Opera, Han Opera and smaller local operas such as Liuzhi Opera and Luoluo Opera. Among them, the performance of Huizhou Opera Troupe has developed the fastest and is most popular with the masses.