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Kunqu Play Taipei
Kunqu (), also known as Kunju (), K'un-ch'ü, Kun opera or Kunqu Opera, is one of the oldest extant forms of Chinese opera. It evolved from a music style local to Kunshan, part of the Wu cultural area, and later came to dominate Chinese theater from the 16th to the 18th centuries. refined the musical style of kunqu, and it gained widespread popularity when Liang Chenyu used the style in his drama ''Huansha ji'' (''Washing Silken Gauze''). Well-known pieces of Kunqu opera included ''The Peony Pavilion'' from the Ming dynasty. The melody or tune of Kunqu is one of the Four Great Characteristic Melodies in Chinese opera. It is known for its elegant lyrics, graceful style and delicate performance. It is one of the operas grouped under Southern Opera, and it is known as the "ancestor of a hundred operas." Kunqu uses drum and board to provide rhythm to the tunes, with flute, sanxian and so on as the main accompanying instrument. The opera is sung in " Zhongzhou rhyme". In 2001 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Yuan Dynasty
The Yuan dynasty ( ; zh, c=元朝, p=Yuáncháo), officially the Great Yuan (; Mongolian language, Mongolian: , , literally 'Great Yuan State'), was a Mongol-led imperial dynasty of China and a successor state to the Mongol Empire after Division of the Mongol Empire, its division. It was established by Kublai (Emperor Shizu or Setsen Khan), the fifth khagan-emperor of the Mongol Empire from the Borjigin clan, and lasted from 1271 to 1368. In Chinese history, the Yuan dynasty followed the Song dynasty and preceded the Ming dynasty. Although Genghis Khan's enthronement as Khagan in 1206 was described in Chinese language, Chinese as the Han Chinese, Han-style title of Emperor of China, Emperor and the Mongol Empire had ruled territories including modern-day northern China for decades, it was not until 1271 that Kublai Khan officially proclaimed the dynasty in the traditional Han style, and the conquest was not complete until 1279 when the Southern Song dynasty was defeated in t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kong Shangren
Kong Shangren (; 1648–1718) was a Qing dynasty dramatist and poet best known for his '' chuanqi'' play '' The Peach Blossom Fan''"Frommer's China", Simon Foster et al., 2010, p. 383, about the last days of the Ming dynasty. Born in Qufu, Kong was a 64th-generation descendant of Confucius. He guided the Kangxi Emperor when he visited Qufu. ''The Peach Blossom Fan'' tells the story of the love story between the scholar Hou Fangyu and the courtesan Li Xiangjun, against the dramatic backdrop of the short history of the Southern Ming. It remains a favourite of the Kun opera (kunqu) stage. Kong Shangren is known as the author of a curious poem dedicated to the eyeglasses, a Western innovation brought to Macau by the Portuguese. Spence, ''The Search for Modern China ''The Search for Modern China'' is a 1990 non-fiction book by Jonathan D. Spence, published by Century Hutchinson and W. W. Norton & Company. It covers the period 1600 to 1989. According to Spence, the goal was to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Peach Blossom Fan
''The Peach Blossom Fan'' () is a musical play and historical drama in 44 scenes that was completed in 1699 by the early Qing dynasty playwright Kong Shangren after more than 10 years of effort. The play depicts the drama that resulted in the 1644 collapse of the Ming dynasty.Acton, pxvii The play recounts the death of the Ming dynasty through the love story of its two main characters, young scholar Hou Fangyu ( 侯方域) and a famous geji named Li Xiangjun. The ''Indiana Companion to Traditional Chinese Literature'' has called it "China's greatest historical drama". An English translation published by the University of California Press was translated by Chen Shih-hsiang and Harold Acton, K.B.E. with Cyril Birch collaborating. Background In the early Qing dynasty, the rise and fall of the dynasty touched many poets and playwrights, especially intellectuals, which pushed them into thinking of the historical lessons taught by the downfall of the Ming. These writers, inc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Palace Of Eternal Life
''The Palace of Eternal Life'' (), also translated as ''The Palace of Eternal Youth'', is a play written by Hong Sheng () in the Qing dynasty. He absorbed certain material from the long narrative poem '' The Song of Everlasting Sorrow'' written by Bai Juyi and the zaju ''Rain on the Paulownia Tree'' () written by Bai Renfu. ''The Palace of Eternal Life'' is acclaimed as one of China's "Four Great Classical Dramas", along with ''The Peony Pavilion'', ''The Peach Blossom Fan'' and ''Romance of the Western Chamber''. The performance is focused on the everlasting love story of Emperor Xuanzong of Tang and his favorite consort Yang Guifei. This story has been translated into English and published by the Foreign Languages Press. Author , one of the period's most famous playwrights and poets, was born in 1645 in a shack outside Hangzhou City in the Qing Dynasty. He graduated from the Imperial Academy in 1668 and then returned home the following year. At the age of 18, he began to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tang Xianzu
Tang Xianzu ( zh, t=湯顯祖, s=汤显祖, first=t; September 24, 1550 – July 29, 1616), courtesy name Yireng (), was a Chinese playwright of the Ming Dynasty. Biography Tang was a native of Linchuan, Jiangxi and his career as an official consisted principally of low-level positions. He successfully participated in the provincial examinations ('' juren'') at the age of 21 and at the imperial examinations ('' jinshi'') at the age of 34. He held official positions in Nanjing, Zhejiang province, Guangdong province etc. After serving as the magistrate of Suichang, Zhejiang from 1593 to 1598, he retired in 1598 and returned to his hometown where he focused on writing. Tang died in 1616, the same year as famed English playwright William Shakespeare. His major plays are collectively called the ''Four Dreams'', because of the decisive role dreams play in the plot of each one. All of them are still performed (in scenes, or in adapted full versions) on the Chinese Kun opera ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Spring And Autumn Annals Of Wu And Yue
The ''Spring and Autumn Annals of Wu and Yue'' () is an unofficial history from the time of the Eastern Han dynasty that consists of a collection sidenotes on historical events. The ten-volume book was written by Zhao Ye (赵晔), and narrates the history of battles between the states of Wu and Yue during the Spring and Autumn period. The text is richly styled and detailed in a way that resembles texts from the School of "Minor-talks" (小說家/小说家; ''Xiaoshuojia'') within the Hundred Schools of Thought. The ''Spring and Autumn Annals of Wu and Yue'' is considered a follow-up of the '' Lost Book of Yue'' (越絕書). The annals have several modern commentaries and revised versions. Contents * volume 1: Biography of Taibo * volume 2: Biography of Shoumeng, King of Wu * volume 3: The story of how King Liao put Prince Guang into office * volume 4: Inner biography of King Helü * volume 5: Inner biography of King Fuchai * volume 6: External biography of King Wuyu of Yu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Liang Chenyu
Liang may refer to: Chinese history * Liang (state) (梁) (8th century BC – 641 BC), a Spring and Autumn period state * Wei (state) (403–225 BC), a Warring States period state, also known as Liang (梁) after moving its capital to Daliang ** Kaifeng, a city formerly known as Daliang (大梁) ** Liang (realm) (梁), a fief held by various princes under imperial China * Liang (Han dynasty kingdom) (梁), a kingdom/principality in the Han dynasty * Liang Province (涼州), an administrative division in ancient China covering present-day Gansu, Ningxia, and parts of Qinghai, Xinjiang, and Inner Mongolia * Former Liang (涼) (320–376), one of the Sixteen Kingdoms * Later Liang (Sixteen Kingdoms) (涼) (386–403), one of the Sixteen Kingdoms * Southern Liang (Sixteen Kingdoms) (涼) (397–414), one of the Sixteen Kingdoms * Northern Liang (涼) (397–439), one of the Sixteen Kingdoms * Western Liang (Sixteen Kingdoms) (涼) (400–421), one of the Sixteen Kingdoms * Liang dyna ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chuanqi (theatre)
''Chuanqi'' () is a form of Chinese opera popular in the Ming dynasty (1368–1644) and early Qing dynasty (1644–1912). It emerged in the mid-Ming dynasty from the older form of '' nanxi''. As it spread throughout the empire, it absorbed regional music styles and topolects and eventually evolved into different local genres, among them ''kunqu''. Of the 2000 plus titles recorded in history, over 600 ''chuanqi'' plays are extant and are still performed today, including ''The Peony Pavilion'' by Tang Xianzu, '' The Palace of Eternal Life'' by Hong Sheng, and '' The Peach Blossom Fan'' by Kong Shangren. This tradition of theatre has the same name ''Chuanqi'' (傳奇/传奇) as the tradition of short story and novella, Chuanqi, in Tang dynasty, because at the beginning the plots of the Chuanqi theatre often originated from the Chuanqi stories. Music Whereas its precursor '' nanxi'' predominantly used southern Chinese tunes, which were pentatonic, melismatic, slow and soft, ''chu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Zaju
''Zaju'' was a form of Chinese opera which provided entertainment through a synthesis of recitations of prose and poetry, dance, singing, and mime, with a certain emphasis on comedy (or, happy endings). Although with diverse and earlier roots, ''zaju'' has particularly been associated with the time of the Yuan dynasty (1271–1368), and ''zaju'' remains important in terms of the historical study of the theater arts as well as Classical Chinese literature and Classical Chinese poetry, poetry. ''Zaju'' is known to have been performed during the earlier Song dynasty, Song (960–1279) and Jin dynasty (1115–1234), Jin (1115–1234) dynasties. The various particulars of the ''zaju'' multimedia performance were derived from many and diverse sources of musical, dance, poetry, and theater traditions. Characteristics The Yuan ''zaju'' were poetic music dramas comprising four acts, with the "act" (齣, ''chu'') defined as a set of songs following and completing a certain musical modal prog ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
