Sanqu is a late subject in various categories of Chinese studies. Poetry came into being in the pre-Qin period, Ci came into being in the late Tang Dynasty, and Sanqu did not enter the literary world until the Jin and Yuan Dynasties in the13rd century. At that time, a popular song was popular in northern China. Because of its fresh style, it is deeply loved by people from all walks of life. A large number of imitations by literati have become a fashion and new trend in the literary world, and a new poetic style different from traditional poetry has become popular. This new poetic style is Sanqu. At that time, people sang according to the popular tunes in the north, which was called "Northern Song Dynasty". From north to south, Beiqu is popular all over the country. At the same time, music songs with southern characteristics are also popular in southern China, which is called "Southern Music". In the Yuan Dynasty, the Northern Song Dynasty spread to the south, and the Southern Song Dynasty also spread to the north. At the end of the Yuan Dynasty, there was a trend that the North and South were integrated. The style of Beiqu is vigorous, while that of Nanqu is soft and charming. After the reunification of the country in the Ming Dynasty, the upper class of society preferred Nanqu, and the Sanqu created by literati gradually relied on Nanqu. After the mid-Ming Dynasty, Nanqu overthrew Beiqu and lasted until the Qing Dynasty. Whether it's Beiqu or Nanqu, its lyrics are a new poetic style-Sanqu. Sanqu is a new milestone and the last peak in the development history of China's ancient poetry.
Sanqu, this title was gradually determined after the middle of Ming Dynasty. In the Jin and Yuan Dynasties, people called the different forms of Sanqu "Xiao Ling" (also known as "Ye Er") and "Ji Hao" respectively. The so-called "Xiao Ling" is a piece of music, and the so-called "number of sets" is a set composed of several pieces according to a certain palace tune and "ending". If we call it "Yuefu" in general, there was no such word as "Sanqu" at that time. The name "Yuefu" means that you can sing along with the music. In order to distinguish it from the ancient Yuefu poems, Yuan people often called the Sanqu of their time "Today Yuefu", "North Yuefu" and "Dayuan Yuefu". Today, the collection of Yuan people's Sanqu is also called "Yuefu". For example, Zhang Xiaoshan's Beiqu Yuefu, Trang Van's Jushi Yuefu, Yuefu's newly edited Spring and Snow, Yuefu's new voice of peace between the ruling and the opposition, Yuefu's gathering jade with celebrities and so on, and so on, the ancient documents seen today were originally called Sanqu by Zhu Youdun, a Sanqu writer in the early Ming Dynasty. He named the first volume of his collection of Sanqu "Cheng Zhai Yue Fu" Sanqu, and the last volume named "Collection Number". His concept of "Sanqu" only refers to this poem, not including the number of sets. Zhu Quan, another composer of Sanqu contemporary with Zhu Youdun, called "sets of numbers" as "sets of numbers" to distinguish them from those sung by popular operas at that time. "Sanqu" and "Santao" are intended to highlight the word "Sanqu". Used to distinguish it from drama. After the mid-Ming Dynasty, the meaning of the word "Sanqu" developed to refer to both poems and collections, which was recognized by critics in the music field. Wang Shizhen used the words "Sanqu" and "Zaju" in his masterpiece "Yiyuan". Wang Jide called the collection of Sanqu written by contemporary people "Sanqu" in Qulv. However, since Sanqu and Opera are both songs, composers and researchers in Ming and Qing Dynasties often equate them and call them "songs" when discussing songs. Their works, such as Qu Pin, Qu Lun, Qu Lv, etc. Most of them talk about opera and Sanqu, which have been passed down to modern times. Wu Mei's "General Theory of Interesting Learning" is still a unified theory, regardless of Sanqu and Opera. The founders who made Sanqu independent from traditional Chinese opera were a group of writers represented by Ren, Ren and Zheng Zhenduo. Ren clearly explained in An Introduction to Sanqu: "Collection number and poetry are always called Sanqu", and Sanqu originated from traditional Chinese opera. "This established its research category for Sanqu. Liang Yizhen and Zheng Zhenduo outlined the development history of Sanqu respectively, and finally made Sanqu develop independently into a new discipline.
Why Sanqu flourished in the Jin and Yuan Dynasties and its origin have been discussed by scholars since the Ming and Qing Dynasties. Wang Shizhen's Memories of Yan Yuan Yan said: "The composer changed his words. Since the Jin and Yuan Dynasties entered China, the Hu music used has been noisy and tight, and the words are not pressing priorities, but more flattering. " Xu Wei's "South Ci Xu" said: "Today's Northern Song Dynasty, covering the battle sounds of Liao, Jin and North, is magnificent and fierce, and the song of warriors immediately flowed into the Central Plains, which has been used by the people for daily use. Song Ci can neither be strung, nor can South Renye Fang. " Wang Jide's melody says: "When I entered the Song Dynasty, I began to make a splash. I said,' Poetry is not limited'. Now I am close to this song ... but the words are rhymed and the song has stopped, but I don't make any changes. However, Jin Zhangzong's poems are more northerly, such as Dong Jieyuan's The West Chamber, which is not very pure. Entering the Yuan Dynasty, thanks to the system, combing is better than sound, and the Northern Song Dynasty is a good generation. " These expositions of Ming people expressed their understanding of the origin and formation of Sanqu: Sanqu originated from Song Ci, Le Hu and Zhu Gong tune. Most of the arguments of being honest and approachable are based on the opinions of the Ming people. For example, Wu Mei's "General Theory of Interesting Learning" said: "When Hu Yuan entered China, the old words could not be suppressed, but new sounds were created and the northern songs were prepared." Ren's Introduction to Sanqu said: "Qu began in Yuan Dynasty and originated in Song Ci." However, with the establishment of modern Sanqu and the in-depth development of research, people have a new understanding of the origin and prosperity of Sanqu. As early as the Ming Dynasty, Xu Wei pointed out that the Twenty-one Tunes of Jiugong was "the legacy of Tang and Song Dynasties", and Hu Yinglin said: "Although the Song Ci and Yuan Qu are salty, they are imitated at the end of Tang Dynasty, but they are really ancient." Therefore, Ren's "Song Dynasty's Use" in Notes surpassed Song Ci and reached the peak of music in Tang Dynasty. What is the reason? It can be studied. Li Changji, his disciple, asserted in History of Ancient Sanqu in China that the origin of his tunes can be traced back to the Tang Dynasty in terms of time span. He believes that the words of Song literati have no substantial influence on the formation of Beiqu, and we must never simply say, "Beiqu is a change of words." He believes that Beiqu "is the product of the undercurrent of the extension and development of the history of the Tang Dynasty (folk songs)." That is, he thinks that Sanqu and Song Ci are "the same source and different streams". Yang Chunqiu, a contemporary scholar, said in General Theory of Sanqu that the rise of Sanqu lies in the decline of ci, the introduction of foreign music, the influence of folk songs and the development of language. He believes that the change of China's ancient poetry from "strange words" to "miscellaneous words" is caused by the adaptation of poetry to colorful real life and the development of literary language. He quoted Ling Mengchu's "Miscellaneous Notes on Qu" and said: "Yuan Qu was originally the style of ancient Yuefu, so dialects and proverbs are piled up into chapters, but they can't be exactly the same." He said that the interlining of Sanqu is to reflect the complicated life, express rich feelings, and make "dead sentences come alive, making it difficult for words to be popularized and colloquial." In this regard, Hong Baizhao also said in the preface to Selected Notes of Yuan Sanqu: "Liao destroyed Venus, and Jin destroyed Yuan Dynasty. In more than three centuries, Beijing has become the political and cultural center of the North. With the development of the political situation, Beijing dialect buzzwords gradually merged with Liangjiang dialect and Lu dialect, forming a new language system, and gradually drifted away from the rhyme of Shen Yue's four tones and Lu Fayan, providing new language materials for song creation in Jin and Yuan Dynasties. " Contemporary scholars have realized that the rise of Sanqu mainly comes from folk songs, but it is also closely related to the changes of the times, the integration of minority songs and the traditional culture of the Central Plains. On this basis, Beiqu absorbed some tunes of Daqu, Tang and Song Ci and Zhu Gong tune, and formed a huge vocal music system. In this regard, Hong Baizhao said in the "Preface of Sanqu in Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties": "Zhao Yan has been a generous and sad person since ancient times, while Khitan, Nuzhen and Mongolians have a wild and rough style, so his tunes are different from those of Song Ci; Even the tones of the absorbed words have been transformed and incorporated into a unified tone system. The lyrics created with these tunes are not only restricted by the style of music, but also influenced by the differences in life, language and aesthetic psychology between the north and the south, and their appearance is naturally very different from that of Song Ci. "
Sanqu can be divided into Beiqu and Nanqu according to its geographical form. Although Nanqu flourished after Beiqu, its origin was not later than Beiqu. However, the influence of minority songs is not as good as that of Beiqu, and the influence of Tang and Song Ci is greater than that of Beiqu. Nanqu was named after Beiqu. Due to the confrontation between Liao, Jin and Song Dynasties, China was divided into north and south. After the unification of the Yuan Dynasty, the nationalities under its rule were divided into four classes. The fourth category is the people ruled by the Southern Song Dynasty, who are called "Southerners". At that time, the Northern Song Dynasty flourished. Relatively speaking, people call the songs that are popular in the southern region "Nanqu". The word Nanqu was first seen in Zhong Sicheng's Ghost Book at the end of Yuan Dynasty. Xiao Dexiang said: "The ancients all summarized it as Nanqu, which was popular in the market." Nanqu is obviously different from Beiqu in music and language style, more gentle and beautiful, and closer to the traditional ci style. But it is not much different from Beiqu in architecture. When the Northern Song Dynasty entered the south, it could be called "Southern Song Dynasty". When Nanqu enters the north, it can be sung in Beiqiang, which can also be called "Beiqu", so the north-south tune can be combined into one. The basic system of both northern and southern music is poetry and set number. The origin of Xiao Ling can be traced back to Tang Quzi Ci. After the development of Liao, Jin, Song Ci and folk songs, Sanqu has formed a rhyming system (that is, a suite). The number of sets originated from Daqu in Tang and Song Dynasties, and was composed of singing and various palace tunes. But researchers have different opinions. For example, Zhao Yishan said in the General Theory of Yuan Sanqu: "The formation of the set number system has nothing to do with Daqu and Zhu Gong tune, at least not directly." "Set number integration directly borrows the' earning' style of words, so fundamentally speaking, there is no new style in Beiqu." "Earning is a set, and a set is earning, not earning other things developed." Li Changji thinks that Daqu in Tang and Song Dynasties is the first work of Tao Shu, and it is also the first musical style with the nature of Tao Shu in ancient times. He believes that singing plays an important role in the history of the formation of Beiqu. "It can be said that entanglement is the number of sets", and "entanglement" creates a pure way of "connecting different tones". This way has opened up a broader road for the structure "Pian" in the Northern Song Dynasty than the winding, thus realizing the leap of "Tao" style. "He believes that" from' one song follows the tail' to' one song follows the tail', from one song changes, through entanglement, entanglement, growth, expansion to' earning', and further improvement to' northern collection'-this process constitutes a complete history of the number of sets from gestation, occurrence to formation. Both Zhao and Li think that the tune has little significance to the formation of the number of northern songs. However, Kong Fanxin said in the article "On the Evolution Track and Trend of Sanqu in the North": "The Zhu Gong tune has the most direct influence on the formation and evolution of the divertimento, and it can also be said that it evolved from it. "Contemporary scholars are still discussing this issue. Although the Northern and Southern Song Dynasties came into being almost at the same time, the Northern Song Dynasty developed earlier than the Southern Song Dynasty and entered the literary world earlier. This is because in the land of Jin and Yuan Dynasties, people of both the ruling class and the literati class created a large number of Beiqu, and the author of Beiqu was the earliest Sanqu writer. It was after the end of Yuan Dynasty that literati created Nanqu. Even in the early Ming Dynasty, the music altar was still dominated by Beiqu. It was not until the middle of Ming Dynasty that a large number of Nanqu writers appeared, especially after the popularity of Kunqu opera, which became popular all over the country. After the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty, Sanqu gradually became a poem without songs. Although it is still marked as Nanqu and Beiqu in production, it has no singing significance.
Sanqu, as a new form of poetry, has its distinctive characteristics compared with traditional poetry.
From the perspective of rhythm, every sentence of Sanqu uses rhyme, which is different from the form of rhyme in traditional poetry. People call this feature "dense rhyme and sparse rhyme". The rhyme of Sanqu sets is also like poetry. There are many sets of songs, each with the same rhyme. Sanqu rhymes with a statue of "Central Plains Rhyme", which is divided into nineteen parts. Cancellation of admission, three draws. The flat voice is divided into yin and yang. Make the song show the characteristics of "wide rhyme and strict tone". The so-called "wide rhyme" means that you can pass four tones, which is very different from the rhyme and refinement of more than 100 poems. The so-called "strict voice" means that the composer must "distinguish yin and yang with a flat voice, but not with a quiet voice" in order to make the melody beautiful.
Syntactically, Sanqu is more flexible than traditional poetry. The sentence pattern of words is fixed, and the number of words in sentences is also fixed. Songs can be appropriately added with "clip words" or even "clip sentences". "Lined words" and "lined sentences" are the needs of singing, and they appear to make the lyrics more popular and vivid. The lyricist originally just listened to music harmoniously, and there was no concept of "interlayer". Distinguishing between "positive" and "lining" is a matter for Sanqu researchers later. Critics often have different opinions on the words "positive" and "contrast" of a particular musical composition. Therefore, there are also comments that the words of Sanqu are not "positive" and "lining". Li Changji, a contemporary young scholar, even said: "Strictly speaking, there is no' interlayer' in Beiqu. However, unlike the Northern Song Dynasty, as the Southern Song Dynasty, the' mezzanine' was obvious. Because of its stiff eyes, it is very clear. The interlining of Nanqu generally does not exceed three words, so there is a saying that' the interlining is not three'. " Just because the Northern Opera is naturally muddy, it is difficult to compare the characters separately, which does not mean that there is no interlayer. Writing songs with lining words instead of lining words, Zhou Deqing commented in his "Central Plains Rhyme", so "lining words" is a remarkable feature of Sanqu sentence pattern, which has been recognized by scholars.
In terms of language, there are poems, words and customs. The so-called folklore means that the prose and spoken language of Sanqu language have greatly surpassed the traditional poetry, and its style is a popular and simple combination of classical Chinese and spoken language. Compared with traditional poetry, it is more fluid and vivid, which makes this genre the most flexible, open and popular among ancient rhymes. The forms of expression are mostly first-person narrators, and the simulated images are more diverse, focusing on the character and psychological characteristics of the characters. It is a kind of self-expression Sanqu, which is more incisive and unrestrained than traditional poetry. Ren Zeng compared the difference between Ci and Qu in An Introduction to Sanqu: Ci can only write scenery lyrically, but can't take notes and make sense; Music is about narrative. Can be deep or shallow, can be thick or light, can be ideal, can be true, and then contains self-expansion. He added: words should be sad, not happy; Bend to sorrow and joy. The word Kaya is not vulgar, pure but not miscellaneous; Flexion is appealing to both refined and popular tastes, and it is pure and mixed. Words should not be harmonious, songs should be harmonious, humor is endless, and you can't laugh and curse.
Both poetry and music pay attention to duality, so as to form the beauty of phonology and form. The antithesis of poetry needs to be flat, and the rhyme must be flat; However, the melody can be flat without being bound by this rhythm, and the rhyme does not have to be flat, but it can be flat. Poetry antithesis needs to avoid repetition, while songs allow repetition. In terms of the number of dual words, poetry requires that the number of words in the upper and lower sentences must be equal, and flexion can add lines to the dual. In the dual form, Qu is more developed than poetry, and its types are numerous and rich. Only the fan (clause pair), overlapping word pair, saving tail pair (tripod pair), even couplet pair, couple duet pair, swallow flower pair and combination pair are listed in Zhongyuan Yun and Taihe Yinzhengpu, among which combination is common in poetry, tripod pair and combination pair.
The spirit of Sanqu lies in self-adjustment and emotional release. Traditional poetry can be used to praise fame and fortune, but Sanqu has never been a stepping stone to the imperial examination. People in the Ming dynasty once said that in the Yuan Dynasty, it was just speculation. There is no evidence of selecting scholars by songs in all the documents of the Yuan Dynasty. Sanqu has never been used by the rulers as a tool and means to consolidate their dominant position and win over intellectuals. Therefore, the creation of Sanqu is the author's own entertainment, and its distinctive aesthetic characteristics are true, natural and natural. Sanqu does not have many political functions like poetry, nor does it need to be euphemistic like words. It is a true portrayal of people's emotions and spirits, honest, happy, passionate, and even to the point of unrestrained venting. It is often hard to believe that the same writer's poems and his Sanqu works were written by the same person after reading them. The reason is that his Sanqu creation was originally written for self-adaptation: all emotions and hatreds are freely expressed. Laziness, wildness, call sign, lament, ridicule and frivolous expression of feelings and mood in Sanqu are rare in traditional poetry. This is because Sanqu entered the literary world from the beginning, which is the song of the oppressed. In the early Yuan Dynasty, the imperial examination was stopped and the policy of racial domination was implemented. For a time, a large number of intellectuals could not enter the official career, so they sent their useful talents to the end of the Song Dynasty, and Sanqu became a tool for them to express their grievances and grievances. This is also an important reason for the prosperity of Sanqu in Jin and Yuan Dynasties. The oppressed people are full of mental trauma, which makes Sanqu a kind of "trauma literature" from the beginning. Its manifestation is not mourning and complaining, but singing freely to express their grievances and resentment, so as to make them feel happy and comfort their wounds. This set a wild and uninhibited style for later Sanqu. Its spirit was inherited by Sanqu in Ming and Qing Dynasties. It is superficial to say that passive seclusion is the keynote of Sanqu and cynicism is the dominant spirit of Sanqu. At a deeper level, we should see that Sanqu is the product of a specific era and society in China, that is, the late feudal society. It is passive and wild, playing freely with the world, and it is a critical form of social reality. Eccentric, dissatisfied with the social reality, questioning the rationality of the existence of the real society, and then adopting an uncooperative and unconventional attitude are the keynote and spirit of Sanqu.