Kun Opera inherits the most important characteristics of poetry, lyrics and music culture since the Book of Songs, namely simplicity and rhythm.
The persistence in simplicity and rhythm is a very distinctive feature of ancient Chinese culture. Chinese is the only ideographic character in the world. Unlike phonetic characters, Chinese characters are easy to express in a concise way. After the Tang Dynasty, economic and cultural prosperity, as well as the improvement of papermaking level, expanded the creative space of poets, and poems of more than eight lines gradually appeared. These poems were indeed popular at the time, and the literati composed and sang them in time. The rhythm of the music was not high, so the number of words in a single poem should not be too long. This limitation was broken with the popularity of Ci. During the Song Dynasty, the number of musical instruments increased, the economy prospered, and the demand for music in folk taverns and brothels also increased. The emergence of cipai gave birth to China's earliest composers, and also gave literati who wrote lyrics greater room for performance. The word cards have their own inherent rhythm, and the literati only need to write words according to the rhythm. Therefore, good word cards are easy to preserve and spread. The geishas in brothels also became the main performers. The geishas used pipa and other musical instruments to play the lyrics and sang the lyrics filled in by a certain talented person. In the Yuan Dynasty, music replaced lyrics and became even more prosperous. Ci and music are from the same family, and Qupai and Cipai have obvious inheritance relationships, and even have a lot of overlap. Compared with lyrics, music can be more free and colloquial in that you can add lining words in addition to the fixed number of words. The concept of Yuan opera also includes dramas. The so-called dramas have plots and require additional performances. So further along came the stage, and the actors.
: Kun Opera (Kun Opera), formerly known as "Kunshan Opera" (referred to as "Kun Opera"), is an ancient Chinese opera tune and type, and is now also known as "Kun Opera". Kunqu Opera is one of the oldest types of traditional Chinese opera. It is also a treasure of traditional Chinese culture and art, especially the art of opera. It is known as an "orchid" in a hundred gardens. Kunqu Opera originated in Kunshan, Suzhou, China in the 14th century. It was later improved by Wei Liangfu and others and spread throughout the country. It has dominated the Chinese theater scene for nearly 300 years since the middle of the Ming Dynasty.