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The Ming and Qing dynasties saw that with the
thriving production and rich economy, people in Zhejiang Province lived in
peace and contentment. In early Ming Dynasty, Zhejiang folk art was for a
time dreary and dead due to certain destructions in economy and culture
brought by successive wars. However, since Jiajing Period in Ming Dynasty,
with the development of Zhejiang silk, cotton and paper making industry,
many handicraft workshops, seen as the early form of capitalistic
production, appeared in towns and cities. Zhejiang folk art re-boomed in
prosperity and peace. The common singing and talking art of Ming and Qing
dynasty, such as Tao Zhen, Tan Ci, Ping Hua, Ping Ci and Su Qu, served as
a link between past and future.
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Tao Zhen was an art form that had a great
impact on singing and talking around Zhejiang. The earliest record could
be found in Old Man in the Bustling Streets of Hangzhou. According to it,
while Ya Ci was the favorite of dandies, Tao Zhen mainly appealed to
countrymen and common people because they found it affable and attractive
in its close-to-life themes and natural lyrics. Lang Ying of Ming Dynasty
wrote in his Qi Xiu Lei Gao that Tao Zhen had seven characters to a line
of its lyrics and the performers would use Pi-pa to accompany their arias
in order to add to their expressive force and inspiration.
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After mid-Qing Dynasty, Tao
Zhen gradually evolved into Zhejiang Tan Ci, which had a great variety.
Some were local born, like Ningbo Siming Southern Ci, Shaoxing Pinghu
Tune, Taizhou Ci Tune and Wenzhou Tan Ci; some were introduced from
outside the province, like Suzhou Tan Ci. There were many hits of this
type, most of which were the group work of artists or traditional ones
passed down from earlier generations. The following were among the few
ones created by local talented people: Nine Pine Pavilion by Zhou
Shushi of Shaoxing (i.e. The Pearl Pagoda, The Tale of Ten Jade Men),
The Picture of Eight Beauties by Jia He Zhu Ren of Jiaxing,
Aromatic Balls for Art and Marshal Winners by Zhang Hongtao of
Jiaxing, The Sign of Goldfish by Sun Deying of Huzhou, Two
Flower-Shaped Pearl Hair Pins by Huang Songyun and Story of
Absolute Devotion by Zhou Yingfang of Tongxiang, etc.
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As one of the
Three Major Ping Hua (story-telling) in the River South, Hangzhou Ping Hua
(story-telling in Hangzhou dialect) inherited much from Jiang Shi
(history-telling) of Song and Yuan dynasties, and got well developed in
Ming and Qing dynasties. It usually took historical stories as its subject
matters and San Shuo (free talk) as its form. While Jiang Shi was seldom
preserved in history, Ping Hua could be found in Life of Yue Fei
written by Qian Cai of Hangzhou in Qing Dynasty. In the novel, Yue Fei
once listened to Ping Hua at the Grand Xiangguosi (royal
temple).
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dynasties, there were many Jiang Shi programs adapted from the Chinese
traditional novel in zhanghui style (a type of novel divided into several
chapters with each chapter headed by a couplet giving the gist of its
contents). They were closely inter-related and were an indispensable part
of each other. As soon as these historical stories got around among
people, Shuo Shu (story-telling) artists readily took their themes and
reorganized those sporadic and disorderly stories into an integrative one.
Further retouched, novels in zhanghui style came into being. In the
preface of Heros of the Marshes, The Writer's Publishing House, in
1950's, demonstrated that the two master works in ancient Chinese
literature - Heros of the Marshes written by Shi Nai'an of
Qiantang, and The Romance of the Three Kingdoms written by Luo
Guanzhong of Hangzhou (still disputed) - both experienced the above
mentioned stages: from folk stories, to Shuo Shu artists' scripts and last
to the writer's processing. |
In Qing Dynasty, Ping Hua, which had already
extended to Hangzhou, Shaoxing, Ningbo, Wenzhou and other places around
Zhejiang Province, became more prosperous. During Emperor Qian Long's
reign, the story telling skills were so developed and enchanting that the
audience felt as if they had been present on the scenes. Such pump was
recorded in the description of Random Chant of New Year in Wulin written
by Huang Mo. The most well known Ping Hua artists included Wang Chunqiao,
Xie Wanchun, Cai Yongjia, Shen Pubao, Wang Shaozhang, Feng Ruihua, Ai
Fengchun, etc. In 1839, Wang Chunqiao initiated Ping Hua Society, which
was divided into two groups: the one led by Wang himself whose emphasis
was on narration and the other led by Xie Wanchun whose emphasis was on
performing. The total number of artists amounted up to more than 200, and
they made Hangzhou the center of Shuo Shu in the River South. At the turn
from Ming Dynasty to Qing Dynasty, the famous artist of Taizhou, Jiangsu
Province Liu Jingting came to Hangzhou and Shaoxing twice, helped exchange
and enhance the skills of Pinghua across the Yangtze River.
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Besides the above
forms of folk art, one can never give a general picture of Zhejiang folk
arts in Ming and Qing dynasties without mentioning the following: Hangzou
Ping Ci (story-telling poems, the mid-Qing name for Nan Ci of Ming and
Qing dynasties, which still developed from Tao Zhen in Song and Yuan
dynasties), Hangzhou Ge Bi Xi (neighborhood opera, evoved from Yin Jiao
(gastriloquism of Southern Song Dynasty, imitating the sounds of birds and
beasts), Jiao Sheng (imitating the hawking cries of the peddlers) and Xue
Xiang Tan (imitating various local dialects and accents), Gu Ci popular in
Wenzhou and Lishui, Lian Hua Luo in Shaoxing, etc.
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