Kunshan dialect, also known as Kunqu Opera and Kunqu Opera, was born in Kunshan, Jiangsu Province in the late Yuan Dynasty and early Ming Dynasty. Originally a popular southern opera cantata in Kunshan, it was named after its founder Gu Jian lived near Kunshan. During the reign of Jiajing and Qin Long in Ming Dynasty, after ten years, Wei Liangfu carried out major reforms on the tunes, singing methods and bands of Kunshan Opera, making it the most successful and influential opera tune in Ming Dynasty.
Famous KunShan tunes:
Peony Pavilion:
Peony Pavilion is one of the representative works of Tang Xianzu, a playwright in Ming Dynasty, which was written in 1598. The full name of the Peony Pavilion Resurrection, namely the Resurrection of the Soul, also known as the Dream of the Resurrection of the Soul or the Dream of the Peony Pavilion, is a legendary script with two volumes and fifty-five volumes. It is based on the novel Renaissance of Du Liniang in Ming Dynasty, and it is a masterpiece of southern music in Ming Dynasty. ***55, describing the love story of Du Liniang and Liu Mengmei. It and Tang Xianzu's other three works are also called "Linchuan Four Dreams".
Palace of eternal life:
The Palace of Eternal Life is a tragicomedy with the Anshi Rebellion as the background, which tells the love story between Tang and Yang Guifei. The content of "The Palace of Eternal Life" (Surprise) is that the rebellion of An Shi attacked Chang 'an. The emergence of "mutation" is an important turning point in the whole drama of the Palace of Eternal Life. When singing, it was divided into two parts: "small banquet" and "sudden change", and the atmosphere changed from relaxed and cheerful to tense and desolate. After the secret vows, the love between Li Longji and Yang Yuhuan reached its climax. I was having a good time when I heard that "Yuyang beat drums and shook the earth". I was terrified out of my wits and decided to go back to Shu to avoid chaos. The two scenes suddenly changed, and the performance had a strong stage effect. "Until the drums beat, they blew from Yuyang, shaking the earth" refers to the outbreak of Anshi rebellion, and the rebels marched into Chang 'an.
Hosta:
The story of Hosta is based on 40% traditional operas, such as Picking the Qin, Asking the Disease, Stealing Poems and Qiu Jiang, and occasionally the plot is promoted by "urging exams". It tells the story that scholar Pan Bizheng and Taoist Chen Miaochang broke through the shackles of feudal ethics and precepts and fell in love.
Peach blossom fan:
"Peach Blossom Fan" reflects the history of Nanming through the love story of the celebrity of Fushe and the famous prostitute Li in Qinhuai, and "writes about the rise and fall by leaving feelings". It expresses the creative intention of summing up historical lessons and expressing the sense of rise and fall through drama. Through the reappearance of drama art, the history of Nanming makes people feel that in the great changes of history and politics, the strength of individuals is insignificant and their destiny cannot be dominated by themselves. Even a love as beautiful as a flower cannot have a happy ending because of the firmness of both men and women. On the contrary, the country is ruined. In the play, Hou Li's love was political from the beginning, and it developed zigzag with the change of political situation in Nanming. Finally, they met at Baiyun Temple in Qixia Mountain, Nanjing, and were about to sprout old feelings, and they were loudly reprimanded by Zhang Daoshi. They all woke up from their dreams and entered the Tao. The peach blossom fan symbolizing their loyal love was crushed under the altar, announcing that the beautiful love ended in tragedy.
The reform of Kunshan dialect;
During the Jiajing period of Ming Dynasty, there were two most important things between Wei Liangfu and Kunqu Opera: one was that Jiajing wrote a book about the transformation of Kunshan dialect in the twenty-sixth and twenty-second years, Andrew of Nanci; One is that around 39 years of Jiajing, Wei Liangfu created the singing method of "Ink and Wash Tone", which made the singing method of Ink and Wash Tone authentic in Kunshan. The new cavity in Kunshan after the reform is soft, euphemistic, handsome and moist. He Zhang also improved the singing method of northern Kunqu opera, that is, singing the "clear word emphasis" in Kunqu opera. At that time, the singing method of Wei Liangfu Kunqu Opera also changed slightly during its circulation, forming Kunshan and Suzhou-Wuxi schools with their own styles.
Introduction to Wei Liangfu:
Wei Liangfu (1489- 1566), a native of Nanchang, Jiangxi Province, mainly lived in the Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty. At the age of twelve, I was admitted to a scholar, but I didn't like reading books of sages, and I was fascinated by music. While he taught himself Beiqu, he went to Nanjing to learn from his teacher, and then came to Beijing, where he sang Almost Invincible. Just as Wei Liangfu gloated, the biggest nemesis in his life appeared. At a grand Qutan conference, the southerners competed with the northerners, and the result was a complete failure. I returned to Nanjing dejectedly, thought behind closed doors, and felt that no matter how hard I worked in Beiqu, I could not compare with Wang. At the same time, he saw that Nanqu was not a climate, and felt that it was better to find another way and work hard on Nanqu.
So, his family moved to Taicang, which is close to Kunshan, took out the spirit of learning northern opera as a child, and began to study southern opera with great concentration, determined to transform Kunshan opera into a southern opera that can compete with northern opera. Wei Liangfu was not satisfied with the straightness of Kunshan accent, so he absorbed the singing methods of Beiqu and Haiyan accent, changed his voice, and often learned from friends who are proficient in music. Every time he has the experience of singing, he will sing it to the residents stationed in Nanguan until the people who know this song are satisfied. There are many singing experts and students who study singing with him. The most proud student and assistant is his son-in-law Zhang. Zhang, a native of Hebei, was sent to Taicang for a crime. It is said that Zhang is good at singing Beiqu, and he lived there for three days and nights. Full of admiration, he made friends with him and recruited him as a son-in-law.
Wei Liangfu's heart is in the south, and he won't go downstairs for ten years. He positioned Kunshan dialect as "Zhongzhou rhyme, Suzhou sound", which made the pronunciation of Kunqu opera have rules to follow at once. As for accompaniment instruments, on the basis of flute, sheng, wind and Zheng, violin, suona, percussion instrument, wind instrument and stringed instrument are combined to improve the basic lineup of Kunqu opera band and better reflect the "long, euphemistic, soft and moist" of Kunshan new cavity. Around the thirty-ninth year of Jiajing, the reform of the tone and music of Kunshan dialect was basically successful, which made Kunqu opera have two incomparable performance forms: oratorio and opera oratorio. Kunshan dialect has gradually become the "southern accent" of the upper class.
It is no exaggeration to say that there would be no Kunqu Opera without Wei Liangfu. Wei Liangfu was called "Qusheng" and "the originator of Kunqu Opera" by later generations.
Wei Liangfu's title of "Qusheng" originated from his contribution to the development and perfection of Kunqu Opera, and he created ink and wash music, which made some innovations in the singing and musical instruments of Kunqu Opera.