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159-543: Peking opera , or Beijing opera ( Chinese : 京劇 ; pinyin : Jīngjù ), is the most dominant form of Chinese opera , which combines instrumental music, vocal performance, mime, martial arts, dance and acrobatics. It arose in Beijing in the mid- Qing dynasty (1644–1912) and became fully developed and recognized by the mid-19th century. The form was extremely popular in the Qing court and has come to be regarded as one of

318-469: A nucleus that has a vowel (which can be a monophthong , diphthong , or even a triphthong in certain varieties), preceded by an onset (a single consonant , or consonant + glide ; a zero onset is also possible), and followed (optionally) by a coda consonant; a syllable also carries a tone . There are some instances where a vowel is not used as a nucleus. An example of this is in Cantonese, where

477-457: A subject–verb–object word order , and like many other languages of East Asia, makes frequent use of the topic–comment construction to form sentences. Chinese also has an extensive system of classifiers and measure words , another trait shared with neighboring languages such as Japanese and Korean. Other notable grammatical features common to all the spoken varieties of Chinese include the use of serial verb construction , pronoun dropping , and

636-510: A Chinese character is the morpheme, as characters represent the smallest grammatical units with individual meanings in the Chinese language. Estimates of the total number of Chinese words and lexicalized phrases vary greatly. The Hanyu Da Zidian , a compendium of Chinese characters, includes 54,678 head entries for characters, including oracle bone versions. The Zhonghua Zihai (1994) contains 85,568 head entries for character definitions and

795-599: A Shanghai resident may speak both Standard Chinese and Shanghainese ; if they grew up elsewhere, they are also likely fluent in the dialect of their home region. In addition to Standard Chinese, a majority of Taiwanese people also speak Taiwanese Hokkien (also called 台語 ; 'Taiwanese' ), Hakka , or an Austronesian language . A speaker in Taiwan may mix pronunciations and vocabulary from Standard Chinese and other languages of Taiwan in everyday speech. In part due to traditional cultural ties with Guangdong , Cantonese

954-462: A central variety (i.e. prestige variety, such as Standard Mandarin), as the issue requires some careful handling when mutual intelligibility is inconsistent with language identity. The Chinese government's official Chinese designation for the major branches of Chinese is 方言 ; fāngyán ; 'regional speech', whereas the more closely related varieties within these are called 地点方言 ; 地點方言 ; dìdiǎn fāngyán ; 'local speech'. Because of

1113-530: A complex character played by a skilled actor, and wujing , a martial and acrobatic character. The Chou ( 丑 ) is a male clown role. The Chou usually plays secondary roles in a troupe. Indeed, most studies of Beijing opera classify the Chou as a minor role. The name of the role is a homophone of the Mandarin Chinese word chou , meaning "ugly". This reflects the traditional belief that

1272-549: A component of the whole revolutionary machine". To this end, dramatic works without Communist themes were considered subversive, and were ultimately banned during the Cultural Revolution (1966–1976). The use of opera as a tool to transmit communist ideology reached its climax in the Cultural Revolution, under the purview of Jiang Qing , wife of Mao Zedong . The "model operas" were considered one of

1431-615: A compromise between the pronunciations of different regions. The royal courts of the Ming and early Qing dynasties operated using a koiné language known as Guanhua , based on the Nanjing dialect of Mandarin. Standard Chinese is an official language of both the People's Republic of China and the Republic of China (Taiwan), one of the four official languages of Singapore , and one of

1590-583: A controversial subject both before and during the Twelfth National People's Congress in 1982. A study carried in the People's Daily revealed that over 80 percent of musical dramas staged in the country were traditional plays from the pre-Communist era, as opposed to newly written historical dramas promoting socialist values. In response, Communist party officials enacted reforms to curb liberalism and foreign influence in theatrical works. After

1749-714: A corresponding increase in the number of homophones . As an example, the small Langenscheidt Pocket Chinese Dictionary lists six words that are commonly pronounced as shí in Standard Chinese: In modern spoken Mandarin, however, tremendous ambiguity would result if all of these words could be used as-is. The 20th century Yuen Ren Chao poem Lion-Eating Poet in the Stone Den exploits this, consisting of 92 characters all pronounced shi . As such, most of these words have been replaced in speech, if not in writing, with less ambiguous disyllabic compounds. Only

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1908-557: A focus area in its Theatre and Performance Studies program and has regular Jingju performances, the most recent being Lady Mu and the Yang Family Generals in 2014. The Sheng ( 生 ) is the main male role in Beijing opera. This role has numerous subtypes. The laosheng is a dignified older role. These characters have a gentle and cultivated disposition and wear sensible costumes. One type of laosheng role

2067-452: A general feeling of a shift in the creative attribution of Peking-opera works. The performer has traditionally played a large role in the scripting and staging of Peking-opera works. However, perhaps following the lead of the West, Peking opera in recent decades has shifted to a more director and playwright-centered model. Performers have striven to introduce innovation in their work while heeding

2226-533: A greater emphasis on action and combat skill. The two types of play also feature different arrays of performers. Martial plays predominantly feature young sheng , jing , and chou , while civil plays have a greater need for older roles and dan . In addition to being civil or martial, plays are also classified as either daxi (serious) or xiaoxi (light). The performance elements and performers used in serious and light plays greatly resemble those used in martial and civil plays, respectively. Of course,

2385-576: A greater freedom to experiment. Regional, popular, and foreign techniques have been adopted, including Western-style makeup and beards and new face paint designs for Jing characters. The spirit of reform continued during the 1990s. To survive in an increasingly open market, troupes like the Shanghai Peking Opera Company needed to bring traditional Peking opera to new audiences. To do this, they have offered an increasing number of free performances in public areas. There has also been

2544-467: A long history, Peking opera has indeed been studied more and received more monetary support than other forms of theater in Taiwan. However, there has also been a competing movement towards advocating native opera to differentiate Taiwan from the mainland. In September 1990, when the Kuomintang government participated in a state-sponsored mainland cultural event for the first time, a Taiwanese opera group

2703-417: A male Dan performer in the Qing court, developed the cai ciao , or "false foot" technique, to simulate the bound feet of women and the characteristic gait that resulted from the practice. The ban on female performers also led to a controversial form of brothel, known as the xianggong tangzi , in which men paid to have sex with young boys dressed as females. Ironically, the performing skills taught to

2862-576: A millennium. The Four Commanderies of Han were established in northern Korea in the 1st century BCE but disintegrated in the following centuries. Chinese Buddhism spread over East Asia between the 2nd and 5th centuries CE, and with it the study of scriptures and literature in Literary Chinese. Later, strong central governments modeled on Chinese institutions were established in Korea, Japan, and Vietnam, with Literary Chinese serving as

3021-542: A secure reconstruction of Proto-Sino-Tibetan, the higher-level structure of the family remains unclear. A top-level branching into Chinese and Tibeto-Burman languages is often assumed, but has not been convincingly demonstrated. The first written records appeared over 3,000 years ago during the Shang dynasty . As the language evolved over this period, the various local varieties became mutually unintelligible. In reaction, central governments have repeatedly sought to promulgate

3180-508: A similar way to the use of Latin and Ancient Greek roots in European languages. Many new compounds, or new meanings for old phrases, were created in the late 19th and early 20th centuries to name Western concepts and artifacts. These coinages, written in shared Chinese characters, have then been borrowed freely between languages. They have even been accepted into Chinese, a language usually resistant to loanwords, because their foreign origin

3339-488: A simple gown with patches of embroidery on both the front and back. All other characters, and officials on informal occasions, wear the chezi , a basic gown with varying levels of embroidery and no jade girdle to denote rank. All three types of gowns have water sleeves , long flowing sleeves that can be flicked and waved like water, attached to facilitate emotive gestures. Tertiary characters of no rank wear simple clothing without embroidery. Hats are intended to blend in with

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3498-678: A single language. However, their lack of mutual intelligibility means they are sometimes considered to be separate languages in a family . Investigation of the historical relationships among the varieties of Chinese is ongoing. Currently, most classifications posit 7 to 13 main regional groups based on phonetic developments from Middle Chinese , of which the most spoken by far is Mandarin with 66%, or around 800 million speakers, followed by Min (75 million, e.g. Southern Min ), Wu (74 million, e.g. Shanghainese ), and Yue (68 million, e.g. Cantonese ). These branches are unintelligible to each other, and many of their subgroups are unintelligible with

3657-476: A song ends in a level tone. Songs in Peking opera are proscribed by a set of common aesthetic values. A majority of songs are within a pitch range of an octave and a fifth. High pitch is a positive aesthetic value, so a performer will pitch songs at the very top of their vocal range. For this reason, the idea of a song's key has value in Peking opera only as a technical tool for the performer. Different performers in

3816-415: A state of joy, and then moves to anger and jealousy, drunken playfulness, and finally to a feeling of defeat and resignation. A full-length play usually has from six to fifteen or more scenes. The overall story in these longer works is told through contrasting scenes. Plays will alternate between civil and martial scenes, or scenes that involve protagonists and antagonists. There are several major scenes within

3975-401: A suggestion from Jiang Qing. Performances of works beyond the eight model plays were allowed only in heavily modified form. The endings of many traditional plays were changed, and visible stage assistants in Peking opera were eliminated. After the end of the Cultural Revolution in the late 1970s, traditional Peking opera began to be performed again. Peking opera and other theatrical art forms were

4134-493: A supporting character, and describes their present situation and state of mind. Finally, there is the recapitulation speech, in which a character will use prose to recount the story up to that point. These speeches came about as a result of the zhezixi tradition of performing only one part of a larger play. There are six main types of song lyrics in Peking opera: emotive, condemnatory, narrative, descriptive, disputive, and "shared space separate sensations" lyrics. Each type uses

4293-513: A synthesis between the different aspects of Peking opera. The four skills of Peking opera are not separate, but rather should be combined in a single performance. One skill may take precedence at certain moments during a play, but this does not mean that other actions should cease. Much attention is paid to tradition in the art form, and gestures, settings, music, and character types are determined by long-held convention. This includes conventions of movement, which are used to signal particular actions to

4452-631: A unified standard. The earliest examples of Old Chinese are divinatory inscriptions on oracle bones dated to c.  1250 BCE , during the Late Shang . The next attested stage came from inscriptions on bronze artifacts dating to the Western Zhou period (1046–771 BCE), the Classic of Poetry and portions of the Book of Documents and I Ching . Scholars have attempted to reconstruct

4611-575: A variety of Yue from a small coastal area around Taishan, Guangdong . In parts of South China, the dialect of a major city may be only marginally intelligible to its neighbors. For example, Wuzhou and Taishan are located approximately 260 km (160 mi) and 190 km (120 mi) away from Guangzhou respectively, but the Yue variety spoken in Wuzhou is more similar to the Guangzhou dialect than

4770-462: A venue for their talents when Li Maoer, himself a former Peking-opera performer, founded the first female Peking-opera troupe in Shanghai. By 1894, the first commercial venue showcasing female performance troupes appeared in Shanghai. This encouraged other female troupes to form, which gradually increased in popularity. As a result, theatre artist Yu Zhenting petitioned for the lifting of the ban after

4929-413: Is xinbian de lishixi , historical plays written after 1949. This type of play was not produced at all during the Cultural Revolution, but is a major focus today. The final category is xiandaixi , contemporary plays. The subject matter of these plays is taken from the 20th century and beyond. Contemporary productions are also frequently experimental in nature, and may incorporate Western influences. In

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5088-602: Is Taishanese. Wuzhou is located directly upstream from Guangzhou on the Pearl River , whereas Taishan is to Guangzhou's southwest, with the two cities separated by several river valleys. In parts of Fujian , the speech of some neighbouring counties or villages is mutually unintelligible. Local varieties of Chinese are conventionally classified into seven dialect groups, largely based on the different evolution of Middle Chinese voiced initials: Proportions of first-language speakers The classification of Li Rong , which

5247-709: Is a group of languages spoken natively by the ethnic Han Chinese majority and many minority ethnic groups in China , as well as by various communities of the Chinese diaspora . Approximately 1.35 billion people, or 17% of the global population, speak a variety of Chinese as their first language . Chinese languages form the Sinitic branch of the Sino-Tibetan language family. The spoken varieties of Chinese are usually considered by native speakers to be dialects of

5406-428: Is a slow, unhurried process of breathing out old air and taking in new. It is used at moments when the performer is not under time constraint, such as during a purely instrumental musical passage or when another character is speaking. "Stealing breath" is a sharp intake of air without prior exhalation, and is used during long passages of prose or song when a pause would be undesirable. Both techniques should be invisible to

5565-406: Is a small patch of white chalk around the nose. This can represent either a mean and secretive nature or a quick wit. Beneath the whimsical persona of the Chou , a serious connection to the form of Beijing opera exists. The Chou is the character most connected to the guban , the drums and clapper commonly used for musical accompaniment during performances. The Chou actor often uses

5724-611: Is based in the pubic region and supported by the abdominal muscles. Performers follow the basic principle that "strong centralized breath moves the melodic-passages" ( zhong qi xing xiang ). Breath is visualized as being drawn up through a central breathing cavity extending from the pubic region to the top of the head. This "cavity" must be under performers' control at all times, and they develop special techniques to control both entering and exiting air. The two major methods of taking in breath are known as "exchanging breath" ( huan qi ) and "stealing breath" ( tou qi ). "Exchanging breath"

5883-416: Is called a mang , or python robe. It is a costume suitable for the high rank of the character, featuring brilliant colors and rich embroidery, often in the design of a dragon. Persons of high rank or virtue wear red, lower-ranking officials wear blue, young characters wear white, the old wear white, brown, or olive, and all other men wear black. On formal occasions, lower officials may wear the kuan yi ,

6042-435: Is called either 华语 ; 華語 ; Huáyǔ or 汉语 ; 漢語 ; Hànyǔ ). Standard Chinese is based on the Beijing dialect of Mandarin. The governments of both China and Taiwan intend for speakers of all Chinese speech varieties to use it as a common language of communication. Therefore, it is used in government agencies, in the media, and as a language of instruction in schools. Diglossia is common among Chinese speakers. For example,

6201-481: Is combat, which includes both acrobatics and fighting with all manner of weaponry. All of these skills are expected to be performed effortlessly, in keeping with the spirit of the art form. Peking opera follows other traditional Chinese arts in emphasizing meaning, rather than accuracy. The highest aim of performers is to put beauty into every motion. Indeed, performers are strictly criticized for lacking beauty during training. Additionally, performers are taught to create

6360-846: Is commonly used to tell joyous stories. In Erhuang , on the other hand, the strings are tuned to the keys of C and G. This reflects the low, soft, and despondent folk tunes of south-central Hubei province, the style's place of origin. As a result, it is used for lyrical stories. Both musical styles have a standard meter of two beats per bar. The two musical styles share six different tempos, including manban (a slow tempo), yuanban (a standard, medium-fast tempo), kuai sanyan ("leading beat"), daoban ("leading beat"), sanban ("rubato beat"), and yaoban ("shaking beat"). The xipi style also uses several unique tempos, including erliu ("two-six"), and kuaiban (a fast tempo). Of these tempos, yuanban , manban , and kuaiban are most commonly seen. The tempo at any given time

6519-461: Is conceived of as being composed of "four levels of song": songs with music, verse recitation, prose dialogue, and non-verbal vocalizations. The conception of a sliding scale of vocalization creates a sense of smooth continuity between songs and speech. The three basic categories of vocal production technique are the use of breath ( yongqi ), pronunciation ( fayin ), and special Peking-opera pronunciation ( shangkouzi ). In Chinese opera, breath

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6678-538: Is conceptualized as shaping the throat and mouth into the shape necessary to produce the desired vowel sound, and clearly articulating the initial consonant. There are four basic shapes for the throat and mouth, corresponding to four vowel types, and five methods of articulating consonants, one for each type of consonant. The four throat and mouth shapes are "opened-mouth" ( kaikou ), "level-teeth" ( qichi ), "closed-mouth" ( hekou or huokou ), and "scooped-lips" ( cuochun ). The five consonant types are denoted by

6837-406: Is considered a license of the role, and the orchestra will accompany the Chou actor even as he bursts into an unscripted folk song. However, due to the standardization of Beijing opera and political pressure from government authorities, Chou improvisation has lessened in recent years. The Chou has a vocal timbre that is distinct from other characters, as the character will often speak in

6996-455: Is controlled by a percussion player who acts as director. Erhuang has been seen as more improvisational, and Xipi as more tranquil. The lack of defined standards among performance troupes and the passage of time may have made the two styles more similar to each other today. The melodies played by the accompaniment mainly fall into three broad categories. The first is the aria. The arias of Peking opera can be further divided into those of

7155-510: Is generally regarded as having fully formed by 1845. Although it is called Peking opera (Beijing theatre style), its origins are in the greater areas of the capital of Anhui province (the City of Anqing ), including southern Anhui and eastern Hubei , which share the similar dialect of Xiajiang Mandarin (Lower Yangtze Mandarin). Peking opera's two main melodies , Xipi and Erhuang . Xipi literally means "skin puppet show", referring to

7314-422: Is given, which includes a prelude poem, a set-the-scene poem, and a prose set-the-scene speech, in that order. The style and structure of each entrance speech is inherited from earlier Yuan dynasty , Ming dynasty , folk, and regional forms of Chinese opera. Another conventionalized stage speech is the exit speech, which may take the form of a poem followed by a single spoken line. This speech is usually delivered by

7473-652: Is in the Anhui dialect, rather than the Standard Chinese ni . 我 , meaning " I " and pronounced wo in Standard Chinese, becomes ngo , as it is pronounced in the dialect of Suzhou . In addition to pronunciation differences that are due to the influence of regional forms, the readings of some characters have been changed to promote ease of performance or vocal variety. For example, zhi , chi , shi , and ri sounds do not carry well and are difficult to sustain, because they are produced far back in

7632-694: Is located in the southwestern part of Anhui province, and on the northern shore of the lower Yangtze. To the north are the Dabie Mountains . Neighbouring prefectures are: The total area of the prefecture is 16,300 square kilometres (6,290 sq mi), with an urban area of 550 square kilometres (212 sq mi), which is only 3.4% of the total. Anqing has a four-season, monsoon -influenced humid subtropical climate ( Köppen Cfa ), with chilly, damp winters and very hot, humid summers. Cold northwesterly winds from Siberia can occasionally cause nightly temperatures to drop below freezing (although snow

7791-603: Is often described as a 'monosyllabic' language. However, this is only partially correct. It is largely accurate when describing Old and Middle Chinese; in Classical Chinese, around 90% of words consist of a single character that corresponds one-to-one with a morpheme , the smallest unit of meaning in a language. In modern varieties, it usually remains the case that morphemes are monosyllabic—in contrast, English has many multi-syllable morphemes, both bound and free , such as 'seven', 'elephant', 'para-' and '-able'. Some of

7950-445: Is only about an eighth as many as English. All varieties of spoken Chinese use tones to distinguish words. A few dialects of north China may have as few as three tones, while some dialects in south China have up to 6 or 12 tones, depending on how one counts. One exception from this is Shanghainese which has reduced the set of tones to a two-toned pitch accent system much like modern Japanese. A very common example used to illustrate

8109-471: Is roundness. Every motion and pose is carefully manipulated to avoid sharp angles and straight lines. A character looking upon an object above them will sweep their eyes in a circular motion from low to high before landing on the object. Similarly, a character will sweep their hand in an arc from left to right in order to indicate an object on the right. This avoidance of sharp angles extends to three-dimensional movement as well; reversals of orientation often take

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8268-668: Is specifically meant. However, when one of the above words forms part of a compound, the disambiguating syllable is generally dropped and the resulting word is still disyllabic. For example, 石 ; shí alone, and not 石头 ; 石頭 ; shítou , appears in compounds as meaning 'stone' such as 石膏 ; shígāo ; 'plaster', 石灰 ; shíhuī ; 'lime', 石窟 ; shíkū ; 'grotto', 石英 ; 'quartz', and 石油 ; shíyóu ; 'petroleum'. Although many single-syllable morphemes ( 字 ; zì ) can stand alone as individual words, they more often than not form multi-syllable compounds known as 词 ; 詞 ; cí , which more closely resembles

8427-442: Is summed up by the expression zi zheng qiang yuan , meaning that the written characters should be delivered accurately and precisely, and the melodic passages should be weaving, or "round". The accompaniment for a Peking opera performance usually consists of a small ensemble of traditional melodic and percussion instruments. The lead melodic instrument is the jinghu , a small, high-pitched, two-string spike fiddle. The jinghu

8586-473: Is the hongsheng , a red-faced older male. The only two hongsheng roles are Guan Gong , the Chinese God of War, and Zhao Kuang-yin , the first Song dynasty emperor. Young male characters are known as xiaosheng . These characters sing in a high, shrill voice with occasional breaks to represent the voice changing period of adolescence. Depending on the character's rank in society, the costume of

8745-513: Is the conductor of the entire ensemble. The two main musical styles of Peking opera, Xipi and Erhuang , originally differed in subtle ways. In the Xipi style, the strings of the jinghu are tuned to the keys of A and D. The melodies in this style are very disjointed, possibly reflecting the style's derivation from the high and loud melodies of the Qinqiang opera of northwestern China. It

8904-489: Is the largest reference work based purely on character and its literary variants. The CC-CEDICT project (2010) contains 97,404 contemporary entries including idioms, technology terms, and names of political figures, businesses, and products. The 2009 version of the Webster's Digital Chinese Dictionary (WDCD), based on CC-CEDICT, contains over 84,000 entries. The most comprehensive pure linguistic Chinese-language dictionary,

9063-460: Is the primary accompaniment for performers during songs. Accompaniment is heterophonic – the jinghu player follows the basic contours of the song's melody, but diverges in pitch and other elements. The jinghu often plays more notes per measure than the performer sings, and does so an octave lower. During rehearsal, the jinghu player adopts their own signature version of the song's melody, but also must adapt to spontaneous improvisations on

9222-667: Is therefore quite different from the rest of the province, which is predominantly Huizhou -speaking. Huangmei Opera is performed in the local dialect. The early presence of actors from Anqing in the world of Peking opera (Beijing Opera) has significantly impacted the development of this renowned Chinese theatrical art form. This influence is evident in various aspects, including language accents and cultural nuances within Peking Opera. The prefecture-level city of Anqing administers 10 county-level divisions , including 3 districts , 2 county-level cities and 5 counties . Anqing

9381-691: Is uncommon), while summer can see extended periods of 35 °C (95 °F)+ days. The monthly 24-hour average temperature ranges from 4.3 °C (39.7 °F) in January to 29.2 °C (84.6 °F) in July, while the annual mean is 17.20 °C (63.0 °F). Precipitation tends to reach a maximum in tandem with the meiyu (plum rains) while wintertime rainfall is generally light. With monthly percent possible sunshine ranging from 30% in March to 54% in August,

9540-501: Is used as an everyday language in Hong Kong and Macau . The designation of various Chinese branches remains controversial. Some linguists and most ordinary Chinese people consider all the spoken varieties as one single language, as speakers share a common national identity and a common written form. Others instead argue that it is inappropriate to refer to major branches of Chinese such as Mandarin, Wu, and so on as "dialects" because

9699-500: Is used in education, media, formal speech, and everyday life—though Mandarin is increasingly taught in schools due to the mainland's growing influence. Historically, the Chinese language has spread to its neighbors through a variety of means. Northern Vietnam was incorporated into the Han dynasty (202 BCE – 220 CE) in 111 BCE, marking the beginning of a period of Chinese control that ran almost continuously for

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9858-552: Is used in the Language Atlas of China (1987), distinguishes three further groups: Some varieties remain unclassified, including the Danzhou dialect on Hainan , Waxianghua spoken in western Hunan , and Shaozhou Tuhua spoken in northern Guangdong . Standard Chinese is the standard language of China (where it is called 普通话 ; pǔtōnghuà ) and Taiwan, and one of the four official languages of Singapore (where it

10017-428: Is very complex, with a large number of consonants and vowels, but they are probably not all distinguished in any single dialect. Most linguists now believe it represents a diasystem encompassing 6th-century northern and southern standards for reading the classics. The complex relationship between spoken and written Chinese is an example of diglossia : as spoken, Chinese varieties have evolved at different rates, while

10176-491: The Erhuang and Xipi varieties. An example of an aria is wawa diao , an aria in the Xipi style that is sung by a young Sheng to indicate heightened emotion. The second type of melody heard in Peking opera is the fixed-tune melody, or qupai . These are instrumental tunes that serve a wider range of purposes than arias. Examples include the "Water Dragon Tune" ( 水龍吟 ; Shuǐlóng Yín ), which generally denotes

10335-403: The Xipi musical form was derived from the historic Qinqiang , while many conventions of staging, performance elements, and aesthetic principles were retained from Kunqu , the form that preceded it as court art. Thus, Peking opera is not a monolithic form, but rather a coalescence of many older forms. However, the new form also creates its own innovations. The vocal requirements for all of

10494-407: The guban in solo performance, especially when performing Shu Ban , light-hearted verses spoken for comedic effect. The clown is also connected to the small gong and cymbals , percussion instruments that symbolize the lower classes and the raucous atmosphere inspired by the role. Although Chou characters do not sing frequently, their arias feature large amounts of improvisation . This

10653-538: The xiaosheng may be either elaborate or simple. Off-stage, xiaosheng actors are often involved with beautiful women by virtue of the handsome and young image they project. The wusheng is a martial character for roles involving combat. They are highly trained in acrobatics, and have a natural voice when singing. Troupes will always have a laosheng actor. A xiaosheng actor may also be added to play roles fitting to his age. In addition to these main Sheng ,

10812-416: The xīpí ( 西皮 ) and èrhuáng ( 二黄 ) styles. Melodies include arias , fixed-tune melodies and percussion patterns. The repertoire of Peking opera includes over 1,400 works, which are based on Chinese history , folklore and, increasingly, contemporary life. Traditional Peking opera was denounced as "feudalistic" and "bourgeois" during the Cultural Revolution (1966–1976) and replaced mostly with

10971-753: The Qieyun rime dictionary (601 CE), and a late period in the 10th century, reflected by rhyme tables such as the Yunjing constructed by ancient Chinese philologists as a guide to the Qieyun system. These works define phonological categories but with little hint of what sounds they represent. Linguists have identified these sounds by comparing the categories with pronunciations in modern varieties of Chinese , borrowed Chinese words in Japanese, Vietnamese, and Korean, and transcription evidence. The resulting system

11130-533: The Korean , Japanese and Vietnamese languages, and today comprise over half of their vocabularies. This massive influx led to changes in the phonological structure of the languages, contributing to the development of moraic structure in Japanese and the disruption of vowel harmony in Korean. Borrowed Chinese morphemes have been used extensively in all these languages to coin compound words for new concepts, in

11289-710: The May Fourth Movement beginning in 1919. After the fall of the Northern Song dynasty and subsequent reign of the Jurchen Jin and Mongol Yuan dynasties in northern China, a common speech (now called Old Mandarin ) developed based on the dialects of the North China Plain around the capital. The 1324 Zhongyuan Yinyun was a dictionary that codified the rhyming conventions of new sanqu verse form in this language. Together with

11448-706: The Mei Lanfang school, the Cheng Yanqiu school, the Ma Lianliang school, and the Qi Lintong school. Students previously trained exclusively in the art of performance, but modern performance schools now include academic studies as well. Teachers assess the qualifications of each student and assign them roles as primary, secondary, or tertiary characters accordingly. Students with little acting talent often become Peking opera musicians. They may also serve as

11607-595: The National Language Unification Commission finally settled on the Beijing dialect in 1932. The People's Republic founded in 1949 retained this standard but renamed it 普通话 ; 普通話 ; pǔtōnghuà ; 'common speech'. The national language is now used in education, the media, and formal situations in both mainland China and Taiwan. In Hong Kong and Macau , Cantonese is the dominant spoken language due to cultural influence from Guangdong immigrants and colonial-era policies, and

11766-478: The oracle bone inscriptions created during the Shang dynasty c.  1250 BCE . The phonetic categories of Old Chinese can be reconstructed from the rhymes of ancient poetry. During the Northern and Southern period , Middle Chinese went through several sound changes and split into several varieties following prolonged geographic and political separation. The Qieyun , a rime dictionary , recorded

11925-596: The phonology of Old Chinese by comparing later varieties of Chinese with the rhyming practice of the Classic of Poetry and the phonetic elements found in the majority of Chinese characters. Although many of the finer details remain unclear, most scholars agree that Old Chinese differs from Middle Chinese in lacking retroflex and palatal obstruents but having initial consonant clusters of some sort, and in having voiceless nasals and liquids. Most recent reconstructions also describe an atonal language with consonant clusters at

12084-462: The revolutionary operas until the period's end. After the Cultural Revolution, these transformations were largely undone. In recent years, Peking opera has responded to sagging audience numbers by attempting reforms, including improving performance quality, adapting new performance elements, shortening works, and performing new and original plays. "Peking opera" is the English term for the art form;

12243-502: The "stylized articulation of monosyllabic sound units" and the "stylized pronunciation of speech-tones", respectively. Prose speeches were frequently improvised during the early period of Peking opera's development, and chou performers carry on that tradition today. The second main type of stage speech consists of quotations drawn from classical Chinese poetry. This type is rarely used in Peking opera; plays have one or two such quotations at most, and often none at all. In most instances,

12402-623: The 12-volume Hanyu Da Cidian , records more than 23,000 head Chinese characters and gives over 370,000 definitions. The 1999 revised Cihai , a multi-volume encyclopedic dictionary reference work, gives 122,836 vocabulary entry definitions under 19,485 Chinese characters, including proper names, phrases, and common zoological, geographical, sociological, scientific, and technical terms. The 2016 edition of Xiandai Hanyu Cidian , an authoritative one-volume dictionary on modern standard Chinese language as used in mainland China, has 13,000 head characters and defines 70,000 words. Anqing Anqing

12561-641: The 19th century. The Anhui troupes reached their peak of excellence in the middle of the century and were invited to perform in the court of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom that had been established during the Taiping Rebellion . Beginning in 1884, the Empress Dowager Cixi became a regular patron of Peking opera, cementing its status over earlier forms like Kunqu . The popularity of Peking opera has been attributed to

12720-665: The 49th Street Theater to the larger National Theater, and the duration of the tour extended from two weeks to five. Mei traveled across the United States, receiving honorary degrees from the University of California and Pomona College . He followed this tour with a tour in the Soviet Union in 1935. The theatre department at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa has been home to English-language Jingju for more than twenty-five years. The school offers Asian Theatre as

12879-565: The Latin-based Vietnamese alphabet . English words of Chinese origin include tea from Hokkien 茶 ( tê ), dim sum from Cantonese 點心 ( dim2 sam1 ), and kumquat from Cantonese 金橘 ( gam1 gwat1 ). The sinologist Jerry Norman has estimated that there are hundreds of mutually unintelligible varieties of Chinese. These varieties form a dialect continuum , in which differences in speech generally become more pronounced as distances increase, though

13038-447: The aesthetic principle of synthesis frequently leads to the use of these contrasting elements in combination, yielding plays that defy such dichotomous classification. Since 1949, a more detailed classification system has been put into use based on thematic content and the historical period of a play's creation. The first category in this system is chuantongxi , traditional plays that were in performance before 1949. The second category

13197-858: The arrival of an important person, and "Triple Thrust" ( 急三槍 ; Jí Sān Qiāng ), which may signal a feast or banquet. The final type of musical accompaniment is the percussion pattern. Such patterns provide context to the music in ways similar to the fixed-tune melodies. For example, there are as many as 48 different percussion patterns that accompany stage entrances. Each one identifies the entering character by their individual rank and personality. The repertoire of Peking opera includes nearly 1,400 works. The plays are mostly taken from historical novels or traditional stories about civil, political and military struggles. Early plays were often adaptations from earlier Chinese theatre styles, such as kunqu . Nearly half of 272 plays listed in 1824 were derived from earlier styles. Many classification systems have been used to sort

13356-500: The art form mainly catered to the tastes of male audience members. Qing dynasty emperors repeatedly banned female performers beginning with Kangxi Emperor in 1671. The last ban was by the Qianlong Emperor who banned all female performers in Beijing in 1772. The appearance of women on the stage began unofficially during the 1870s. Female performers began to impersonate male roles and declared equality with men. They were given

13515-490: The audience and take in only the precise amount of air required for the intended vocalization. The most important principle in exhalation is "saving the breath" ( cun qi ). Breath should not be expended all at once at the beginning of a spoken or sung passage, but rather expelled slowly and evenly over its length. Most songs and some prose contain precise written intervals for when breath should be "exchanged" or "stolen". These intervals are often marked by carats. Pronunciation

13674-443: The audience. For example, walking in a large circle always symbolizes traveling a long distance, and a character straightening their costume and headdress symbolizes that an important character is about to speak. Some conventions, such as the pantomimic opening and closing of doors and mounting and descending of stairs, are more readily apparent. Many performances deal with behaviors that occur in daily life. However, in accordance with

13833-466: The call for reform from this new upper level of Peking-opera producers. Channel CCTV-11 in mainland China is currently dedicated to broadcasting classic Chinese opera productions, including Peking opera. In addition to its presence in mainland China, Peking opera has spread to many other places. It can be found in Hong Kong, Taiwan, and overseas Chinese communities elsewhere. Mei Lanfang , one of

13992-539: The city receives 1,831 hours of bright sunshine annually. Anqing has one Yangtze River crossing , the Anqing Yangtze River Bridge . Anqing Tianzhushan Airport serves the city. The Nanjing–Anqing Intercity Railway opened in December 2015, allowing a 90-minute journey time to Nanjing , and 3 hours to Shanghai . Wuhan-Hangzhou High-Speed Railway is also under construction. One of

14151-541: The city, and it took long to fully recover. In 1938, the Japanese occupied Anqing, which again caused major damage to the city. Following the Japanese defeat, the capital of Anhui was moved to Hefei, which eventually lead to Anqing's gradual loss of status as one of the "Five Tigers of the Yangtze". The people of Anqing have a unique dialect that mixed with the Gan Chinese , Wu Chinese and Lower Yangtze Mandarin . It

14310-646: The clown's combination of ugliness and laughter could drive away evil spirits. Chou roles can be divided into Wen Chou , civilian roles such as merchants and jailers, and Wu Chou , minor military roles. The Wu Chou combines comic acting and acrobatics. Chou characters are generally amusing and likable, if a bit foolish. Their costumes range from simple for characters of lower status to elaborate, perhaps overly so, for high-status characters. Chou characters wear special face paint, called xiaohualian , that differs from that of Jing characters. The defining characteristic of this type of face paint

14469-402: The common Beijing dialect , as opposed to the more formal dialects of other characters. Becoming a Peking opera performer takes a long and difficult apprenticeship starting at an early age. Before the 20th century, students were often picked personally at a young age by a teacher and trained for seven years on account of the contract from the child's parents. Since the teacher fully provided for

14628-739: The cultural treasures of China. Major performance troupes are based in Beijing, Tianjin and Shanghai . The art form is also preserved in Taiwan , where it is also known as Guójù ( Chinese : 國劇 ; lit. 'National opera'). It has also spread to other regions such as the United States and Japan . Peking opera features four main role types, sheng (gentlemen), dan (women), jing (rough men), and chou (clowns). Performing troupes often have several of each variety, as well as numerous secondary and tertiary performers. With their elaborate and colorful costumes, performers are

14787-413: The development of the form. The influence of Western culture has also left the younger generations impatient with the slow pacing of Peking opera. In response, Peking opera began to see reform starting in the 1980s. Such reforms have taken the form of creating a school of performance theory to increase performance quality, employing modern elements to attract new audiences, and performing new plays outside of

14946-399: The different spoken dialects varies, but in general, there has been a tendency to a reduction in sounds from Middle Chinese. The Mandarin dialects in particular have experienced a dramatic decrease in sounds and so have far more polysyllabic words than most other spoken varieties. The total number of syllables in some varieties is therefore only about a thousand, including tonal variation, which

15105-484: The difficulties involved in determining the difference between language and dialect, other terms have been proposed. These include topolect , lect , vernacular , regional , and variety . Syllables in the Chinese languages have some unique characteristics. They are tightly related to the morphology and also to the characters of the writing system, and phonologically they are structured according to fixed rules. The structure of each syllable consists of

15264-576: The end of the syllable, developing into tone distinctions in Middle Chinese. Several derivational affixes have also been identified, but the language lacks inflection , and indicated grammatical relationships using word order and grammatical particles . Middle Chinese was the language used during Northern and Southern dynasties and the Sui , Tang , and Song dynasties (6th–10th centuries CE). It can be divided into an early period, reflected by

15423-413: The first one, 十 , normally appears in monosyllabic form in spoken Mandarin; the rest are normally used in the polysyllabic forms of respectively. In each, the homophone was disambiguated by the addition of another morpheme, typically either a near-synonym or some sort of generic word (e.g. 'head', 'thing'), the purpose of which is to indicate which of the possible meanings of the other, homophonic syllable

15582-412: The form of a smooth, S-shaped curve. All of these general principles of aesthetics are present within other performance elements as well. Peking opera stages have traditionally been square platforms. The action on stage is usually visible from at least three sides. The stage is divided into two parts by an embroidered curtain called a shoujiu . Musicians are visible to the audience on the front part of

15741-491: The form of a word), to indicate a word's function within a sentence. In other words, Chinese has very few grammatical inflections —it possesses no tenses , no voices , no grammatical number , and only a few articles . They make heavy use of grammatical particles to indicate aspect and mood . In Mandarin, this involves the use of particles such as 了 ; le ; ' PFV ', 还 ; 還 ; hái ; 'still', and 已经 ; 已經 ; yǐjīng ; 'already'. Chinese has

15900-598: The founding of the Republic of China in 1911. This was accepted, and the ban was lifted in 1912, although male Dan continued to be popular after this period. After the Chinese Civil War , Peking opera became a focal point of identity for both involved parties. When the Chinese Communist Party came to power in mainland China in 1949, the newly formed government moved to bring art into line with Communist ideology, and "to make art and literature

16059-618: The government of the People's Republic of China, with Singapore officially adopting them in 1976. Traditional characters are used in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau, and among Chinese-speaking communities overseas . Linguists classify all varieties of Chinese as part of the Sino-Tibetan language family , together with Burmese , Tibetan and many other languages spoken in the Himalayas and the Southeast Asian Massif . Although

16218-490: The great achievements of the Cultural Revolution, and were meant to express Mao's view that "art must serve the interests of the workers, peasants, and soldiers and must conform to proletarian ideology." Among the eight model plays eventually retained during that time were five Peking operas. Notable among these operas was The Legend of the Red Lantern , which was approved as a concert with piano accompaniment based on

16377-586: The language of administration and scholarship, a position it would retain until the late 19th century in Korea and (to a lesser extent) Japan, and the early 20th century in Vietnam. Scholars from different lands could communicate, albeit only in writing, using Literary Chinese. Although they used Chinese solely for written communication, each country had its own tradition of reading texts aloud using what are known as Sino-Xenic pronunciations . Chinese words with these pronunciations were also extensively imported into

16536-528: The late 19th century. Today Japanese is written with a composite script using both Chinese characters called kanji , and kana. Korean is written exclusively with hangul in North Korea, although knowledge of the supplementary Chinese characters called hanja is still required, and hanja are increasingly rarely used in South Korea. As a result of its historical colonization by France, Vietnamese now uses

16695-428: The lines of a person's face, which is said to reveal personality. Easily recognizable examples of coloring include red, which denotes uprightness and loyalty, white, which represents evil or crafty characters, and black, which is given to characters of soundness and integrity. Three main types of Jing roles are often seen. These include dongchui , a loyal general with a black face who excels in singing, jiazi ,

16854-425: The main Peking opera skills and showcase the virtuosity of the performers. This format has become less prevalent in recent times, but plays of one act are still performed. These short works, as well as individual scenes within longer works, are marked by an emotional progression from the beginning of the play to the end. For example, the concubine in the one act play The Favorite Concubine Becomes Intoxicated begins in

17013-481: The major roles were greatly reduced for Peking opera. The Chou, in particular, rarely has a singing part in Peking opera, unlike the equivalent role in Kunqu style. The melodies that accompany each play were also simplified, and are played with different traditional instruments than in earlier forms. Perhaps most noticeably, true acrobatic elements were introduced with Peking opera. The form grew in popularity throughout

17172-455: The more conservative modern varieties, usually found in the south, have largely monosyllabic words , especially with basic vocabulary. However, most nouns, adjectives, and verbs in modern Mandarin are disyllabic. A significant cause of this is phonetic erosion : sound changes over time have steadily reduced the number of possible syllables in the language's inventory. In modern Mandarin, there are only around 1,200 possible syllables, including

17331-634: The most famous Dan performers of all time, was also one of the greatest popularizers of Peking opera abroad. During the 1920s, he performed Peking opera in Japan. This inspired an American tour in February 1930. Although some, such as the actor Otis Skinner , believed that Peking opera could never be a success in the United States, the favorable reception of Mei and his troupe in New York City disproved this notion. The performances had to be relocated from

17490-431: The mouth. Therefore, they are performed with an additional i sound, as in zhii . These techniques and conventions of vocal production are used to create the two main categories of vocalizations in Peking opera: stage speech and song. Peking opera is performed using both Classical Chinese and Modern Standard Chinese with some slang terms added for color. The social position of the character being played determines

17649-425: The mutual unintelligibility between them is too great. However, calling major Chinese branches "languages" would also be wrong under the same criterion, since a branch such as Wu, itself contains many mutually unintelligible varieties, and could not be properly called a single language. There are also viewpoints pointing out that linguists often ignore mutual intelligibility when varieties share intelligibility with

17808-583: The nasal sonorant consonants /m/ and /ŋ/ can stand alone as their own syllable. In Mandarin much more than in other spoken varieties, most syllables tend to be open syllables, meaning they have no coda (assuming that a final glide is not analyzed as a coda), but syllables that do have codas are restricted to nasals /m/ , /n/ , /ŋ/ , the retroflex approximant /ɻ/ , and voiceless stops /p/ , /t/ , /k/ , or /ʔ/ . Some varieties allow most of these codas, whereas others, such as Standard Chinese, are limited to only /n/ , /ŋ/ , and /ɻ/ . The number of sounds in

17967-536: The only focal points on Peking opera characteristically sparse stage. They use the skills of speech, song, dance and combat in movements that are symbolic and suggestive, rather than realistic. Above all else, the skill of performers is evaluated according to the beauty of their movements. Performers also adhere to a variety of stylistic conventions that help audiences navigate the plot of the production. The layers of meaning within each movement must be expressed in time with music. The music of Peking opera can be divided into

18126-538: The other varieties within the same branch (e.g. Southern Min). There are, however, transitional areas where varieties from different branches share enough features for some limited intelligibility, including New Xiang with Southwestern Mandarin , Xuanzhou Wu Chinese with Lower Yangtze Mandarin , Jin with Central Plains Mandarin and certain divergent dialects of Hakka with Gan . All varieties of Chinese are tonal at least to some degree, and are largely analytic . The earliest attested written Chinese consists of

18285-507: The overriding principle of beauty, such behaviors are stylized to be presented on stage. Peking opera does not aim to accurately represent reality. Experts of the art form contrast the principles of Peking opera with the principle of Mo , mimes or imitation, that is found in western dramas. Peking opera should be suggestive, not imitative. The literal aspects of scenes are removed or stylized to better represent intangible emotions and characters. The most common stylization method in Peking opera

18444-422: The part of the performer due to changed performance conditions. Thus, the jinghu player must have an instinctive ability to change their performance without warning to properly accompany the performer. The second is the circular bodied plucked lute, the yueqin . Percussion instruments include the daluo , xiaoluo , and naobo . The player of the gu and ban , a small high pitch drum and clapper ,

18603-453: The plays. Two traditional methods have existed since Peking opera first appeared in China. The oldest and most generally used system is to sort plays into civil and martial types. Civil plays focus on the relationships between characters, and feature personal, domestic, and romantic situations. The element of singing is frequently used to express emotion in this type of play. Martial plays feature

18762-481: The portion of the mouth most critical to each type's production: throat, or larynx ( hou ); tongue ( she ); molars, or the jaws and palate ( chi ); front teeth ( ya ); and lips ( chun ). Some syllables (written Chinese characters ) have special pronunciations in Peking opera. This is due to the collaboration with regional forms and kunqu that occurred during the development of Peking opera. For example, 你 , meaning "you", may be pronounced li , as it

18921-425: The presence of a larger, main object. For example, a whip is used to indicate a horse and an oar symbolizes a boat. The length and internal structure of Peking-opera plays is highly variable. Prior to 1949, zhezixi , short plays or plays made up of short scenes from longer plays, were often performed. These plays usually center on one simple situation or feature a selection of scenes designed to include all four of

19080-548: The puppet show that originated in Shaanxi province . Chinese puppet shows always involve singing. Much dialogue is also carried out in an archaic form of Mandarin Chinese, in which the Zhongyuan Mandarin dialects of Henan and Shaanxi are closest. This form of Mandarin is recorded in the book Zhongyuan Yinyun . It also absorbed music from other operas and local Zhili musical art forms. Some scholars believe that

19239-473: The purpose of clarifying meaning. Rhyme is an extremely important device in Peking opera, with thirteen identified rhyme categories. Song lyrics also use the speech tones of Mandarin Chinese in ways that are pleasing to the ear and convey proper meaning and emotion. The first and second of Chinese's four tones are normally known as "level" ( ping ) tones in Peking opera, while the third and fourth are called "oblique" ( ze ). The closing line of every couplet in

19398-404: The rate of change varies immensely. Generally, mountainous South China exhibits more linguistic diversity than the North China Plain . Until the late 20th century, Chinese emigrants to Southeast Asia and North America came from southeast coastal areas, where Min, Hakka, and Yue dialects were spoken. Specifically, most Chinese immigrants to North America until the mid-20th century spoke Taishanese ,

19557-552: The related subject dropping . Although the grammars of the spoken varieties share many traits, they do possess differences. The entire Chinese character corpus since antiquity comprises well over 50,000 characters, of which only roughly 10,000 are in use and only about 3,000 are frequently used in Chinese media and newspapers. However, Chinese characters should not be confused with Chinese words. Because most Chinese words are made up of two or more characters, there are many more Chinese words than characters. A more accurate equivalent for

19716-509: The relationship was first proposed in the early 19th century and is now broadly accepted, reconstruction of Sino-Tibetan is much less developed than that of families such as Indo-European or Austroasiatic . Difficulties have included the great diversity of the languages, the lack of inflection in many of them, and the effects of language contact. In addition, many of the smaller languages are spoken in mountainous areas that are difficult to reach and are often also sensitive border zones. Without

19875-981: The rest of the costume and will usually have a matching level of embroidery. Shoes may be high or low-soled, the former being worn by characters of high rank, and the latter by characters of low rank or acrobatic characters. Qimo (stage props) is the name for all stage properties and some simple decorations. The term first occurred in the Jin dynasty (266–420) . Qimo includes articles of everyday life such as candlesticks, lanterns, fans, handkerchiefs, brushes, paper, ink and ink slabs, and tea and wine sets. The props also include: sedan chairs, vehicle flags, oars, and horsewhips, as well as weapons. Also employed are various articles to demonstrate environments, such as cloth backdrops to represent cities, and curtains, flags, table curtains, and chair covers. Traditional qimo are not just imitations of real articles, but also artistic articles in their own right. Flags are also frequently used on

20034-477: The retreat of the Republic of China to Taiwan in 1949, Peking opera there took on a special status of "political symbolism", in which the Kuomintang government encouraged the art form over other forms of performance in an attempt to claim a position as the sole representative of Chinese culture. This often occurred at the expense of traditional Taiwanese opera . Due to its status as a prestigious art form with

20193-403: The same basic lyrical structure, differing only in kind and degree of emotions portrayed. Lyrics are written in couplets ( lian ) consisting of two lines ( ju ). Couplets can consist of two ten character lines, or two seven character lines. The lines are further subdivided into three dou (lit. "pause"), typically in a 3-3-4 or 2-2-3 pattern. Lines may be "padded" with extra characters for

20352-497: The same performance may sing in different keys, requiring the accompanying musicians to constantly retune their instruments or switch out with other players. Elizabeth Wichmann describes the ideal basic timbre for Peking opera songs as a "controlled nasal tone". Performers make extensive use of vocal vibrato during songs, in a way that is "slower" and "wider" than vibrato used in Western performances. The Peking opera aesthetic for songs

20511-486: The second half of the 20th century, Western works have increasingly been adapted for Peking opera. The works of Shakespeare have been especially popular. The movement to adapt Shakespeare to the stage has encompassed all forms of Chinese theatre. Peking opera in particular has seen versions of A Midsummer Night's Dream and King Lear , among others. In 2017, Li Wenrui wrote in China Daily that 10 masterpieces of

20670-431: The simplicity of the form, with only a few voices and singing patterns. This allowed anyone to sing the arias themselves. At the time of its growth in the late nineteenth century, albums became used to display aspects of stage culture, including makeup and costumes of performers. Peking opera was initially an exclusively male pursuit. There were bans on female performers and major limitations on female audience members, so

20829-463: The six official languages of the United Nations . Standard Chinese is based on the Beijing dialect of Mandarin and was first officially adopted in the 1930s. The language is written primarily using a logography of Chinese characters , largely shared by readers who may otherwise speak mutually unintelligible varieties. Since the 1950s, the use of simplified characters has been promoted by

20988-561: The slightly later Menggu Ziyun , this dictionary describes a language with many of the features characteristic of modern Mandarin dialects. Up to the early 20th century, most Chinese people only spoke their local variety. Thus, as a practical measure, officials of the Ming and Qing dynasties carried out the administration of the empire using a common language based on Mandarin varieties , known as 官话 ; 官話 ; Guānhuà ; 'language of officials'. For most of this period, this language

21147-425: The stage. A square flag with the Chinese character for "marshal" on it, a rectangular flag with the Chinese character for "commander" on it, and a flag with the name of a certain army on it represent the location of army camps and commanders-in-chief. In addition, there are water, fire, wind, and vehicle flags. Actors shake these flags to represent waves, fire, wind, or moving vehicles. Vocal production in Peking opera

21306-409: The stage. Traditional Peking opera stages were built above the line of sight of the viewers, but some modern stages have been constructed with higher audience seating. Viewers are always seated south of the stage. Therefore, north is the most important direction in Peking opera, and performers will immediately move to "center north" upon entering the stage. All characters enter from the east and exit from

21465-420: The student during this period, the student accrued a debt to his master that was later repaid through performance earnings. After 1911, training took place in more formally organized schools. Students at these schools rose as early as five o'clock in the morning for exercise. Daytime was spent learning the skills of acting and combat, and senior students performed in outside theaters in the evening. The entire group

21624-529: The supporting cast of foot soldiers, attendants, and servants that is present in every Peking-opera troupe. In Taiwan, the Ministry of National Defense of the Republic of China runs a national Peking-opera training school. Peking-opera performers use four main skills. The first two are song and speech. The third is dance-acting. This includes pure dance, pantomime, and all other types of dance. The final skill

21783-568: The term entered the Oxford English Dictionary in 1953. "Beijing opera" is a more recent equivalent. In China, the art form has been known by many names at different times and places. The earliest Chinese name, Pihuang , was a combination of the xipi and erhuang melodies. As it increased in popularity, its name became Jingju or Jingxi , which reflected its start in the capital city ( Chinese : 京 ; pinyin : Jīng ). From 1927 to 1949, when Beijing

21942-568: The tonal distinctions, compared with about 5,000 in Vietnamese (still a largely monosyllabic language), and over 8,000 in English. Most modern varieties tend to form new words through polysyllabic compounds . In some cases, monosyllabic words have become disyllabic formed from different characters without the use of compounding, as in 窟窿 ; kūlong from 孔 ; kǒng ; this is especially common in Jin varieties. This phonological collapse has led to

22101-829: The traditional Peking opera repertoire are The Drunken Concubine , Monkey King , Farewell My Concubine , A River All Red , Wen Ouhong's Unicorn Trapping Purse ("the representative work of Peking Opera master Chen Yanqiu"), White Snake Legend , The Ruse of the Empty City (from Romance of the Three Kingdoms ), Du Mingxin 's Female Generals of the Yang Family , Wild Boar Forest , and The Phoenix Returns Home . Chinese language Chinese ( simplified Chinese : 汉语 ; traditional Chinese : 漢語 ; pinyin : Hànyǔ ; lit. ' Han language' or 中文 ; Zhōngwén ; 'Chinese writing')

22260-547: The traditional Western notion of a word. A Chinese cí can consist of more than one character–morpheme, usually two, but there can be three or more. Examples of Chinese words of more than two syllables include 汉堡包 ; 漢堡包 ; hànbǎobāo ; 'hamburger', 守门员 ; 守門員 ; shǒuményuán ; 'goalkeeper', and 电子邮件 ; 電子郵件 ; diànzǐyóujiàn ; 'e-mail'. All varieties of modern Chinese are analytic languages : they depend on syntax (word order and sentence structure), rather than inflectional morphology (changes in

22419-405: The traditional canon. However, these reforms have been hampered by both a lack of funding and an adverse political climate that makes the performance of new plays difficult. In addition to more formal reform measures, Peking-opera troupes during the 1980s also adopted more unofficial changes. Some of those seen in traditional works have been called "technique for technique's sake". This has included

22578-449: The troupe will also have a secondary laosheng . The Dan ( 旦 ) refers to any female role in Beijing opera. Dan roles were originally divided into five subtypes. Old women were played by laodan , martial women were wudan , young female warriors were daomadan , virtuous and elite women were qingyi , and vivacious and unmarried women were huadan . One of Mei Lanfang's most important contributions to Beijing opera

22737-571: The true seat of the Chinese government. Peking opera was born when the Four Great Anhui Troupes brought Hui opera, or what is now called Huiju , in 1790 to Beijing, for the eightieth birthday of the Qianlong Emperor on 25 September. It was originally staged for the court and only made available to the public later. In 1828, several famous Hubei troupes arrived in Beijing and performed jointly with Anhui troupes. The combination gradually formed Peking opera's melodies. Peking opera

22896-481: The type of language that is used. Peking opera features three major types of stage speech ( nianbai , 念白 ). Monologues and dialogue, which make up the majority of most plays, consist of prose speeches. The purpose of prose speech is to advance the plot of the play or inject humor into a scene. They are usually short, and are performed mostly using vernacular language. However, as Elizabeth Wichmann points out, they also have rhythmic and musical elements, achieved through

23055-498: The use of classical poetry is intended to heighten the impact of a scene. However, Chou and more whimsical Dan characters may misquote or misinterpret the classical lines, creating a comical effect. The final category of stage speech is conventionalized stage speeches ( chengshi nianbai ). These are rigid formulations that mark important transition points. When a character enters for the first time, an entrance speech ( shangchang ) or self-introduction speech ( zi bao jiamen )

23214-403: The use of extended high pitch sequences by female Dan, and the addition of lengthier movement sections and percussion sequences to traditional works. Such changes have generally met with disdain from Peking-opera performers, who see them as ploys to gain immediate audience appeal. Plays with repetitive sequences have also been shortened to hold audience interest. New works have naturally experienced

23373-512: The use of tones in Chinese is the application of the four tones of Standard Chinese, along with the neutral tone, to the syllable ma . The tones are exemplified by the following five Chinese words: In contrast, Standard Cantonese has six tones. Historically, finals that end in a stop consonant were considered to be " checked tones " and thus counted separately for a total of nine tones. However, they are considered to be duplicates in modern linguistics and are no longer counted as such: Chinese

23532-453: The west. In line with the highly symbolic nature of Peking opera, the form uses very few props. This reflects seven centuries of Chinese performance tradition. The presence of large objects is frequently indicated through conventions. The stage will almost always have a table and at least one chair, which can be turned through convention into such diverse objects as a city wall, a mountain, or a bed. Peripheral objects will often be used to signify

23691-452: The words in newspapers, and 60% of the words in science magazines. Vietnam, Korea, and Japan each developed writing systems for their own languages, initially based on Chinese characters , but later replaced with the hangul alphabet for Korean and supplemented with kana syllabaries for Japanese, while Vietnamese continued to be written with the complex chữ Nôm script. However, these were limited to popular literature until

23850-515: The work that follow the pattern of emotional progression. It is these scenes that are usually excerpted for later zhezixi productions. Some of the most complex plays may even have an emotional progression from scene to scene. Due to the scarcity of props in Peking opera, costumes take on added importance. Costumes function first to distinguish the rank of the character being played. Emperors and their families wear yellow robes, and high-ranking officials wear purple. The robe worn by these two classes

24009-517: The written language used throughout China changed comparatively little, crystallizing into a prestige form known as Classical or Literary Chinese . Literature written distinctly in the Classical form began to emerge during the Spring and Autumn period . Its use in writing remained nearly universal until the late 19th century, culminating with the widespread adoption of written vernacular Chinese with

24168-585: The youths employed in these brothels led many of them to become professional Dan later in life. The Jing ( 净 ) is a painted face male role. Depending on the repertoire of the particular troupe, he will play either primary or secondary roles. This type of role will entail a forceful character, so a Jing must have a strong voice and be able to exaggerate gestures. Beijing opera boasts 16 basic facial patterns, but there are over 100 specific variations. The patterns and coloring are thought to be derived from traditional Chinese color symbolism and divination on

24327-453: Was a koiné based on dialects spoken in the Nanjing area, though not identical to any single dialect. By the middle of the 19th century, the Beijing dialect had become dominant and was essential for any business with the imperial court. In the 1930s, a standard national language ( 国语 ; 國語 ; Guóyǔ ), was adopted. After much dispute between proponents of northern and southern dialects and an abortive attempt at an artificial pronunciation,

24486-435: Was beaten with bamboo canes if they made any mistakes during such performances. Schools with less harsh training methods began appearing in 1930, but all schools were closed in 1931 after the Japanese invasion. New schools were not opened until 1952. Performers are first trained in acrobatics, followed by singing and gestures. Several performing schools, all based on the styles of famous performers, are taught. Some examples are

24645-716: Was built during the Southern Song dynasty in 1217. Anqing was held by the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom for almost nine years, from June 1853 to December 1861. It served as the capital of the Taiping's Anhui province during this period. The final Battle of Anqing , in which the Qing forces laid siege to the city, began in 1860, and the Xiang Army and other Qing forces were able to retake Anqing by December 1861. The constant battles around Anqing devastated

24804-433: Was hidden by their written form. Often different compounds for the same concept were in circulation for some time before a winner emerged, and sometimes the final choice differed between countries. The proportion of vocabulary of Chinese origin thus tends to be greater in technical, abstract, or formal language. For example, in Japan, Sino-Japanese words account for about 35% of the words in entertainment magazines, over half

24963-457: Was in pioneering a sixth type of role, the huashan . This role type combines the status of the qingyi with the sensuality of the huadan . A troupe will have a young Dan to play main roles, as well as an older Dan for secondary parts. Four examples of famous Dan s are Mei Lanfang , Cheng Yanqiu , Shang Xiaoyun , and Xun Huisheng . In the early years of Beijing opera, all Dan roles were played by men. Wei Changsheng,

25122-418: Was known as Beiping , Peking opera was known as Pingxi or Pingju to reflect this change. Finally, with the establishment of the People's Republic of China in 1949, the name of the capital city was reverted to Beijing, and the formal name of this theatre in mainland China was established as Jingju . The Taiwanese name for this type of opera, Guoju , or "national opera", reflects disputes over

25281-408: Was sent, possibly to emphasize "Taiwaneseness". During the second half of the 20th century, Peking opera witnessed a steady decline in audience numbers. This has been attributed both to a decrease in performance quality and an inability of the traditional opera form to capture modern life. Furthermore, the archaic language of Peking opera required productions to use electronic subtitles, which hampered

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