"Four Apes" refers to a group of miscellaneous dramas created by Xu Wei in the Ming Dynasty, namely "Yuyang Lane", "Female Mulan", "Female Champion" and "Dream of Cuixiang". "Four Voices of the Ape" comes from Li Daoyuan's "Water Jing Note" "The ape screams three times and tears stains the clothes", and the four voices are even more of a heart-breaking song, so the name of "Four Voices Ape" has laid the tone of the whole play. Among the "Four Apes", "Yuyang Lane" has the highest achievement and is a typical single-fold short drama. There is the sadness of Xu Wei's talent being difficult to display in "The Four Apes", his expression is hearty, and his artistic originality has had a great impact on later generations. The Ming Dynasty miscellaneous operas were relatively reduced and degenerated in terms of quantity and quality compared with the Yuan Dynasty miscellaneous operas, but there was a certain evolution in form
OneIn terms of structure, the Ming Dynasty miscellaneous drama broke through the program of a four-fold and one-wedge Yuan miscellaneous opera, and the structure was relatively free。In "Four Apes", only "Female Champion" is five folds, and the rest are one or two folds. Compared with meta-miscellaneous dramas, the program is simple, the structure is exquisite, and the length of the script is greatly reduced.
II. II. IIIn terms of tunes, the Yuan miscellaneous opera uses the northern song, while the Ming miscellaneous opera uses both the northern and southern songs, and there are also the southern miscellaneous operas dedicated to the southern song。Xu Wei's "Four Apes" broke through the boundary between the north and the south, and applied the southern opera to the creation of miscellaneous operas, completing an earlier collection of miscellaneous operas. "The Female Champion" was the first to set a precedent for writing miscellaneous dramas in southern opera, and miscellaneous operas in southern opera have flourished since then.
IIIIn terms of singing methods, Ming miscellaneous dramas broke the model of singing a character in Yuan miscellaneous dramas to the end, sometimes duet, sometimes round, sometimes chorus, seems more free. In "The Four Apes", there is no name for the original and the last book, that is, there is no restriction on singing by a fixed character in the play. Because the script is short and compact, the dramatic conflict is strong, and there are many duets and chorus modes.
FourthThe title of the Yuan miscellaneous drama is generally at the end of a play, and some of the Ming miscellaneous dramas advance it to the first fold, and some use the form of "opening at the end of the sub-end" in the southern opera to introduce the plot. "The Four Apes" puts the title in front of the first fold. Get straight to the point and point out the theme, so that readers and viewers can understand the plot in time.
In short, the Ming miscellaneous drama represented by "The Four Apes" turned to the Yuan miscellaneous opera when it was difficult to achieve the artistic achievements of the Yuan miscellaneous operaMake a breakthrough in form, absorbing Nanqu into the creation of miscellaneous operas, is obviously different from Yuan miscellaneous operas in terms of structure, melody, and singing methods. It can be said that Ming Miscellaneous Opera is an important stage in the history of the development of Chinese drama and has a far-reaching influence.
[Li Fan keywords:The structure, the tune, the way of singing, straight to the point, and the formal breakthrough
[Li Fan said:The artistic breakthrough of Ming miscellaneous operas is mainly reflected in the form, mainly reflected in the structure, tune, singing method and topic arrangement, when answering similar questions, we must not only grasp the historical breakthrough of Ming miscellaneous opera, but also understand the content and structural characteristics of "Four Apes", which is a great test of everyone's reading and knowledge reserves, and we should pay special attention.