Kunqu is one of the oldest and most refined

styles of traditional Chinese theatre performed

today. It is a synthesis of drama, opera, ballet,
poetry recital, and forms of Chinese theatrical
performances such musical recital, which also
draws on earlier century B.C. or even earlier.
In a Kunqu performance as mime, farce,
acrobatics, ballad recital, and medley, some of
which go back to the third, recitative is
interspersed with arias sung to traditional
melodies, called qu-pai. Each word or phrase
is also expressed by a stylized movement or
gesture that is essentially part of a dance.
Even casual gestures must be precisely
executed and timed to coordinate with the
music and percussion. The refinement of the
movement is further enhanced with stylized
costumes that also serve as simple props.
Strictly speaking, the name Kunqu refers to the
musical element of this art form. Kun refers to
Kunshan and qu means music. The name derives
from the fact that one of the principal types of
regional music that went into the making of Kunqu
came from the district of Kunshan near Suzhou. This
type of regional music goes back to the 14th century.
It was given shape in the 16th century by Wei
Liangfu and others, who combined it with three other
forms of southern music and with northern tunes
from the drama of the Yuan dynasty (1279-1368).
Wei Liangfu and his collaborators standardized the
rules of rhyme, tones, pronunciation, and notation,
making it possible for this regional form of music to
become a national standard. By the end of the 16th
century, Kunqu spread from the Suzhou region to
the rest of China, and for the next 200 years was the
most prestigious form of Chinese drama.
Kunqu is first and foremost a
performing art. Performances are
valued not only for their riveting
synthesis of drama, singing and
dancing, but also for the literary
refinement of their poetic libretto. The
plot is usually familiar to the
audience, or else made available
through a prose summary. In fact,
most Kunqu plays would take several
days to perform in their entirety. So
any given performance generally
consists of a few selected scenes
from one or more well known plays.
王世贞的《鸣凤记》，汤显祖的《牡丹亭》、《紫钗记》、《邯鄣记》、
《南柯记》，沈璟的《义侠记》等。高濂的《玉簪记》，李渔的《风筝误》
，朱素臣的《十五贯》，孔尚任的《桃花扇》，洪昇的《长生殿》，另外还
有一些著名的折子戏，如《游园 惊梦》、《阳关》、《三醉》、《秋江》、
《思凡》、《断桥》等。
There are two, easily
distinguished, styles of text
and music. Arias, which are
sung and accompanied by the
orchestra, are elaborate
poems of high literary quality.
Prose passages (monologues
and dialogues) are neither
sung nor spoken but chanted
in a stylized fashion
comparable to the recitative of
Western opera. Sometimes
there is a combination of the
two styles: one of the
characters sings while another
one chants at the same time.
Kunqu music is based on the "qupai "
principle. The poetic passages of the
play are written to fit an a sequence of
tunes, known as qu-pai, chosen from an
existing repertory. Since Chinese is a
tonal language, there is a delicate
relation between words and tunes. Every
word has a "melody", and the musical air
must be superimposed on the word
melody, without interfering with it. Only
after the main and subordinate qu-pai
were selected did the author begin to
compose the libretto to match the
musical structure.
In a Kunqu performance,
three media work
simultaneously and in
harmony to convey the
meaning and desired
esthetic effect: music,
words, and dance. An
accomplished Kunqu
performer must master the
special styles of singing
and dance movement to
convey the meaning and
desired esthetic effect.
The language of Kunqu is not the dialect of
Kunshan or Suzhou, nor is it standard Mandarin. It
is an artificial stage language, a modified
Mandarin with some features of the local dialect.
Since the language in which Kunqu plays are
written has eight tones, the composition of the
libretto was a complex undertaking. Typically, the
author had to continuously refine the libretto and
musical notes until the word melody of libretto and
the musical melody of qu-pai fell into harmony. In
fact, an ideal harmony was seldom fully realized.
Since the creation of a new Kunqu play presented
such a great challenge to the author, almost all
Kunqu playwrights were poets. The libretto
typically has significant esthetic value in its own
right, and many Kunqu libretto are highly regarded
as examples of refined Chinese literature.
In addition to music and words, dance
movements and highly stylized gestures
form an integral part of the performance.
As in classical ballet, the whole body is
engaged, but the movement is much more
grounded. The movements convey an
intricate language of gestures and body
movements that is similar but much more
complex and extensive than the mime in
classical ballet. Although the meaning of
some movements is immediately
understood even by the uninitiated, other
movements are stylized and conventional,
involving not only the body but also the
costume (especially the sleeves) and props
held in the hand, such as a fan.
As in all traditional Chinese theater,
Kunqu uses a minimum of props and
scenery, which permits the
performers to more easily express
their stage movements in the form of
dance. There is no curtain, and few
props: sometimes a table and a
chair. The performers appeal to the
audience‘s imagination and conjure
up a scene or a setting (such as a
door, a horse, a river, a boot) with
words, gestures, and music. The
costumes are elaborate exaggerated
versions of the style of dress during
the Ming Dynasty and make no
attempt to fit the time or place of the
action. For instance, in many roles,
the performers wear robes with
extremely long white sleeves call
“water sleeves”.
The costumes and simple
props often convey additional
information about the
characteristic of the character.
For instance, peonies on a
young man's robe might
indicate a playboy, or carrying
a magnifying glass might
indicate social blindness. A
Buddhist nun always carries
duster to ward off evil spirits.
The meaning and accessibility of Kunqu
performances are further enhanced by
well defined role types. These roles differ
not only in the type of character - young
man, young woman, clown, etc -- but also
in the vocal requirements and the form in
which the body is engaged. In fact, the
stylized movement associated with each
role type constitutes an art form in itself.
In fact, the development of
Kunqu theater in the second half
of the sixteenth century marked
the beginning of the Chinese
xiqu era, from which all other
forms of Chinese theatre
performed today evolved.
Consequently, many Kunqu
plays have been adapted for
other types of xiqu.
Kunqu remains the most refined
and literary of all forms of Chinese
xiqu, but the most popular form of
xiqu in China today is Beijing
opera. It has retained many of the
features of Kunqu theater, but uses
fewer and a less sophisticated set
of melodies.