The birth of western drama

The dawn of western drama is generally regarded as an ancient Greek tragedy, which originated from the worship ceremony of Dionysus in ancient Greek city-states. In festivals, people play Dionysus, sing "Ode to God" and dance "Sheep People Dance" (sheep is an animal representing Dionysus). Ancient Greek tragedies are all poetic dramas, rigorous, quaint and solemn. There is a chorus during the performance, and historical facts show that chorus exists before the actors. About this origin, we can also refer to the early philosophical work "The Birth of Tragedy" by the German philosopher Nietzsche.

The Birth of China's Drama

According to the western definition, China has no tradition of "drama". But generally speaking, when discussing China's plays, if it is not strictly defined, China's ancient plays should be classified into the major categories of plays.

The roots of China's traditional drama can be traced back to the witchcraft ceremony from pre-Qin to Han Dynasty. However, the development of Southern Opera in Song Dynasty led to a complete drama text creation. The earliest extant script of China's ancient drama is Zhang Xie's champion in the Southern Song Dynasty. The Yuan Dynasty was centered on Dadu, Pingyang and Hangzhou, and Yuan Zaju was brilliant for a while. Later generations formed many forms of drama, that is, various dramas. After the development of Kunqu Opera in Ming Dynasty, it was first sought after and loved by gentry doctors. They created a large number of scripts, constantly revised the score, and at the same time revised the drama theory of Kunqu opera, making legendary scripts a new mainstream literary form. Later, Kunqu opera was loved by the court in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, became a part of aristocratic life and became an officially recognized drama art, so it was called "elegance"; Based on the local dialect, the local opera, which is deeply loved by the people, is called "Flower". So in the Qing dynasty, a "dispute between elegance and vulgarity" was formed, which was actually a situation in which traditional operas prospered together. This enriches the category of China traditional opera art and forms its own artistic characteristics.

In recent years, Zeng Yongyi, a drama researcher in Taiwan Province Province, put forward a set of viewpoints, that is, when discussing the origin of China's drama, we should distinguish between "big drama" and "small drama". The drama is a mature drama, and the drama is the prototype of the drama. The drama was developed after the Zaju in Jin and Yuan Dynasties, while the previous Zaju in Song Dynasty, Mian in Tang Dynasty, Picking Mothers, Potou, Joining the Army, Fan Kuai's Defeated King, etc. Can be included in the ranks of short plays, and China has long had short plays.

Before China came into cultural contact with the modern west, there was no "drama" (mainly drama) tradition in the western sense. China's traditional drama is a comprehensive art form with plot as the main line and "song and dance as the story", which integrates music, singing, dancing, martial arts and acrobatics, that is, traditional opera quyi.