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本书聚焦新时期以来的福建戏曲创作，通过考查“文人取向”与“民间立场”在“国家力量”影响下的勾连与互动，对本时期的福建戏曲创作进行整体把握与具体分析。
在研究对象的选择上，本书于关注名家名作之外，也留意民间剧团的优秀保留剧目，以及还未得到准确评价的“被遗忘的作品”。在研究方法的运用上，本书希望能将戏曲研究从“封闭的书斋”中解放出来，结合文本细读与田野调查，参考文学批评的策略和文化研究的理论，将探究的目光投向包括历史场景、社会生活、文化传统、传播途径等相关领域，更全面地讨论新时期以来福建戏曲创作的经验和教训。在结构安排上，本书根据40年来福建戏曲在剧本写作与舞台演出中的情况，围绕“情爱模式”“历史叙说”“游戏精神”与“道德书写”四个核心内容展开论述，尝试着改变以“剧作家”或“剧作类型”分类讨论的模式，以四个相对独立但又具备内在联系的篇章完成全书。总体而言，本书既尊重舞台特性，也倚仗文学阐释，更看重作家访谈。
正文论述共有五章。第一章为《情爱书写的多重变化》。在福建地方戏的创作传统中，情爱传奇作为编演的重点，一直得到艺人的关注与观众的喜爱。然而在新时期以来的福建戏曲创作中，才子佳人的情感纠葛却变得日渐“边缘”。本书以为，这不是一种偶然的现象，因为每种书写模式的出现、发展、熔铸乃至突破，都受到文化心理和创作观念的影响，剧作家们在各个创作阶段对情爱故事的不同态度与不同处理，不仅牵涉到对“情”与“理”的认知，更关系到时代背景下文人心态和民间取向的沟通。
基于此，这一章将以文人取向与民间立场的互相影响作为贯穿始末的线索，整体审视福建戏曲剧作在情爱书写模式上的沿袭与变换。通过对48部福建戏曲剧作的梳理与分析，本书认为自改革开放以来，福建剧作家不再将情爱故事作为选材时的第一选择，不少寓言式的作品更是从“以情动人”转向“以理服人”，减少了情爱书写在作品中的比重；同时，因为剧作家们对悲剧体裁的偏爱，儿女情事在时代转折和政治角力中显得脆弱异常，往往以离散而告终；在剧作结构的革新与探索中，多线并行、数层嵌套的手法为讲述情爱故事提供了更大的空间，也体现了剧作家们对西方编剧技巧和传统创作理论的双向学习；此外，人物类型和形象内涵也日益丰富，以王仁杰为代表的剧作家对主人公内心世界的描绘尤其精妙而细腻，爱欲冲动与道德约束之间的拉锯显露出强大的张力；最后，在主题的表达上，前辈作家继续强调人物应当在情爱途程中承担更多的社会责任，青年编剧则以赞颂美好爱情来反叛博取功名的传统观念。而这一“追求真性，返璞归真”的声音也让新时期福建剧作家深化了对情爱母题的认识与理解。本书还特别对戏曲现代戏中的“团圆定势”进行了反思。
此外，本书更注意到进入新世纪之后，追求纯粹爱情、营造唯美意境的“纯爱故事”开始在福建剧坛回归。而与其说是回归，不如说是走向“繁华落尽见真醇”的更高境界：剧作既有蕴藉之感又有瑰丽颜色，剧作家在情爱书写中找到了文士风格和民间情味的平衡，赋予了二度创作更多的自由。而汇成这股潮流的不仅有新生代剧作者的成果，还有成名剧作家的创作调整，更有戏曲评论家的努力。本书在观察福建戏曲创作历时性变化之余，还注意到了地方戏曲强大的自我调整能力。
第二章为《历史叙说的三种路径》。本章认为，新时期福建剧作家继承了传统史剧精神，在学习经典史剧的基础上探索了三种创作路径：或是选择“以史统戏”的方式，通过对历史规律的总结表达自己的史家意识与历史思考；或是选择“以情述史”的方式，既不强调史实史据的堆列，也不讲求历史规律的总结，转而追求“历史感”真实基础上的感性之美、人情之美、抒情之美；或是选择“戏说虚构”的方式，在历史的缝隙中进行一番发挥，对历史人物与历史事件做出看似荒唐无稽，实则别有深意的处理。
在针对“以史统戏”的讨论中，本书结合郑怀兴、周长赋、洪川等剧作家的代表作展开研究，发现此类新编剧作大多呈现出“鲜明的启蒙意识”“强烈的理性色彩”“与时代思潮和政治变迁的紧密联系”等特点。在思想解放、创作复兴的新时期，“以史统戏”也因此成为新时期福建剧作家最为熟悉和钟爱的创作方式。而本书在肯定福建史剧思想性的同时，也清醒地看到历史剧毕竟不是政论或者檄文，一旦理性的色彩过于浓重，剧作的艺术性便不免受到伤害。换言之，新编历史剧在进行深刻思考的同时，也绝对不能忽视剧作的审美价值。最后，本书也对“以史统戏”的未来探索提出了新的期待：剧作家应当继续寻找作品与时代的共鸣之点，历史剧创作不仅要烛照当代，更要超越当代。
在关于“以情述史”的分析中，本书认为“志在抒情倾诉”“追求情感真实”“层次丰富的主题表达”是这一创作方式的主要特点。在上一章的基础上进一步说明“以情述史”的创作方式将如何为“主旋律”剧作提供启发——与其图解政策、空喊口号，不如另辟蹊径，将大历史投射在普通人的命运之中，以人物离合反映时代变化。最后，本书强调“以情述史”背后的创作精神是对史剧观念的有益补充——剧作家们应当承认人对历史认知的相对性与局限性，在难以绝对地把握“历史整体”的情况下可以转而向内，用现代精神去感知并表现历史人物在具体情境中的永恒情感。
在涉及“戏说虚构”的研究中，本书先是进行了概念界定，将“合理的虚构”限定于观众“基于历史逻辑的挑剔”与“审美素养的宽容”两条线索相互作用的范围之内；随后提出“跳出历史演义，挑战历史逻辑”和“富有民间喜剧色彩”乃是这一类剧作的主要特征，肯定了沿此路径创作的福建剧作将“浪漫主义”的情节设计与“现实主义”的主题表达相结合，既是对戏曲“高台教化”的发展，也是对剧作“寓教于乐”的践行；随后又指出，只有当学界与剧坛都给予“戏说虚构”以足够的尊重，才能进一步解放新编历史剧的“历史观”与“戏剧观”；本章的最后则再次强调“以史统戏”“以情述史”与“戏说虚构”三种叙说历史的路径绝无高下之分，只有这些创作方式都得到充分的研究与运用，福建乃至全国的历史剧创作才能得到更大的发展。
第三章为《游戏精神的消隐与重现》。游戏精神乃是传统戏曲的宝贵遗产，本书认为，是否能在创作中继承并发扬游戏精神，是新编戏曲剧作能否消除板滞与涩然，从文学史迈入演出史的关键。因此，这一章将从丑行传统在新时期福建戏曲创作中的历时性改变、新时期福建戏曲的丑戏创作和县衙故事的戏剧化处理等三个方面展开论述，探讨游戏精神在新编戏曲中的表现及其对剧作艺术水平的影响。
本章先是追溯了丑行传统在新时期福建戏曲创作中的历时性变化，重点讨论了20世纪50年代之后的戏曲改革运动如何在净化与规约的过程中改变了丑行的行当内涵、“小传统”生活在民间的失落怎样让丑行失去了最直接的创作来源、学界对丑行的研究和评价如何在东西方文化的对峙与交流中发生了改变。而丑行传统的历时性改变给予创作的启示是：如果剧作以居高临下的姿态凌驾于丑行的民间立场之上，生硬地输出所谓的文化思考和历史经验，轻视生动活泼、滑稽可笑的人物形象，便很有可能失去舞台生命。其后本书也注意到新时期福建戏曲创作对此前各个历史时期的创作进行了适时的反思，在国家政策的引导之下，寻得了文人取向和民间立场之间的平衡，创作出一批优秀的新编喜剧，既拓展了丑角的性格内涵，丰富了丑角的表现对象，为丑角的人物图谱增添了新的内容，也在丑角的舞台表演和演员培养上有了新的突破。
本章还参考巴赫金的“狂欢化”理论，从县官形象、戏剧空间和游戏情节三个部分针对“县衙故事的戏剧化处理”展开讨论。先是聚焦“疯官”形象，将其置于中国佯狂文化中加以观察，还原剧作家借此类人物走过文人情怀与民间情趣逐渐接近、又逐渐分离的创作历程；其后围绕漳州剧作家汤印昌的作品展开讨论，指出平民视角中的县衙空间既没有暴力，也缺乏权威，反倒富有民间想象中的“仁政”的脉脉温情；最后则关注了新时期福建经典喜剧的嬉闹情节，指出民间立场下的朴素情感冲击了封建秩序与社会等级，将法理规则和审判元素统统降格，伏下笑中有泪的反抗因子。综上所述，本章不仅关注游戏精神在福建剧作中的消隐与重现，更探究背后的深层原因，即文人取向—民间立场在国家力量的影响下的纠葛和角力。
第四章为《伦理选择与道德追求的丰富意涵》。随着时间的推移，传统剧目中的许多道德标准发生了变化，戏曲作品“教忠教孝”的时代已然过去，但是“高台教化”却仍是福建剧作家不曾忘却的创作目标。本书认为，尽管新时期福建剧作家一直被视为创作共同体，但是他们对创作身份的认同却存在差异——“谏臣” “教师”与“民间伶人”等不同的身份认定决定了他们将倾向于不同的道德体系、坚持不同的道德追求，而这自然也影响了他们在剧作中的道德书写。基于此，本章继续观察剧作家的“文人取向”与“民间立场”在伦理选择和道德追求中的表现，以及时代政策对创作的影响，讨论道德书写与剧作成就之间的关系。
本章首先从新中国建立之后第一代福建剧作家的创作入手，发现“批判封建道德，重塑女性形象”的传统可以追溯到《团圆之后》中。然而在面对孀居少妇“中夜之思”这类题材时，两代剧作家在情节组织、人物塑造和主题表达上却有不甚相同的处理。因此本章将重点分析《团圆之后》与《节妇吟》《董生与李氏》在道德书写上的显著差异，试图展现福建剧作家对传统伦理的态度转变的过程。
其后，本章聚焦郑怀兴在各个阶段的历史剧创作，回顾“坚守文脉，保全气节”的儒士道统在剧作中的重建过程，既充分肯定剧作家所取得的卓越成就，也坦率指出其“间或牺牲叙事的连贯完整、情境的自然真实以完成道德规训”的选择，影响了这位杰出的剧作家突破自我、再创辉煌。道德教化的重要性不言而喻，但戏曲的戏剧性却当为所有剧作家们所重视。
最后，本章关注福建剧坛“塔尖人物”之外的剧作家的创作，这些作品立足于民间立场，显露出圆融、宽厚、轻松、狡黠的气质，是对慷慨沉郁的“福建风格”的重要补充。讨论从大儒—文官—书生—庶民—无产者这一等级鲜明的身份系统切入，观察剧作家们如何灵活协调几种不同的价值观，从而完成对儒家伦理的“民间化理解”和对伦理故事的“民间化创作”。当然，这些剧作家既赞美民间伦理的悠游自在、朴实淳厚，也不讳言民间伦理的另一面。综上所述，包括道德议题在内，福建新编戏曲从文人视角出发所坚持的一切和凭借民间立场所认定的所有都在交叉整合中日渐融混。换言之，“士”与“庶”的道德追求虽有分野，却也重叠，对“善”与“美”的追寻是一致的。
在四个专题的讨论之后，本书另辟一章进行了创作问题总结和应对策略研究。本书指出，新时期福建戏曲创作取得了巨大成就，但是也存在诸如对地方戏曲艺术的本体特质认识不够深入、理性色彩过于浓重、创作的后劲不足等问题。因此，本章从“回归优秀创作传统”和“建立编剧保障制度”等几个角度出发，希望能为福建戏曲乃至中国戏曲的创作突破瓶颈提供具体的建议。
最后，如果能在此前的讨论中收获创作上的启示，展现学术上的价值，那么本书希望是：第一，弥补此前研究“局部失衡”的遗憾，不再把讨论的焦点局限在几位重要剧作家的身上，而是通过研究更多的作家作品来把握福建戏曲创作的整体面貌，在一定程度上调整现有研究格局。第二，既关注成名作家的调整，也聚焦后起之秀的创作，更为准确地把握福建戏曲创作的发展趋势，真正做到历时性跟踪。第三，强调戏剧为上演而设的特殊性质，不再完全因循编剧研究经由文学史进入戏曲史的路径，不再机械参照文学标准评价戏曲作品，同时也指出西方话剧的编剧技法并不完全适用于中国戏曲的创作，希望能够走出重构戏曲评价体系的第一步。第四，就福建剧坛存在的问题，尝试着从“创作主体”与“创作制度”层面提出解决策略，希望能对现今的戏曲创作起到积极作用，实现理论研究影响创作实践的目标。需要再次说明的是，本书始终将文人取向—民间立场这一对力量的互动作为讨论的线索，乃是为了更为清晰地表达核心观点：尊重地方戏曲的艺术特性，关注地方戏曲的生存现状，强调剧种性、现代性、传奇性是剧本创作成功的关键。
关键词 ：戏曲创作、文人取向、民间立场、福建剧作家
On the basis of the study on the involvement and interactions of“literati orientation”and“folk standpoint”under the influences of the“state power”,this book makes detailed analyses with a holistic view on the traditional opera creations of the new era in Fujian province.The objects of study include not only the masterpieces of famous dramatists,but also excellent repertoire of the folk troupes as well as some“forgotten works”which have not been accurately evaluated.With strategies of literary criticism and theories on cultural study as reference,this book adopts the way of combining fieldwork with close textual reading,explores a variety of related fields,such as historical scenes,social life,culture traditions and transmission routes,and discusses comprehensively the experience and lessons of the opera studying in Fujian province since the new era,hoping that the opera studying in Fujian will not just be composed in the“closed study”.This book stresses on the following four specific topics:“love patterns”，“historical narration”，“game spirit”and“moral writing”,which are elaborated based on the playwriting and stage performances of Fujian local operas in the past forty years.Relatively independent but internally connected,these four topics constitute the whole book,which tries to change the pattern of discussion classified by“playwrights”or“genres”。Generally speaking,this book takes stage features,literary interpretation and writers' interviews into consideration.
The book consists of five chapters.Chapter I is titled Multiple Changes of Love Writing.Being the focus in traditional repertoire of Fujian local opera works,love legends have always favored by the artists and the audience.However,the emotional entanglement stories between the talented and the beauty in traditional opera creations in Fujian since new era have been gradually“marginalized”.This book holds the view that it is not an accidental phenomenon,since the emergence,development,transformation and breakthrough of each writing mode are derived from both cultural psychology and creation concept.Dramatists'different attitudes to love stories and their different processing approaches in different periods not only involve their cognition of“love”and“rationality”,but relate more to the communication between literati mentality and the folk orientation under specific historical background.
Based on the above views,this chapter comprehensively examines the inheritance and changes of love writing modes in traditional opera creations of Fujian,with the interaction between“literati orientation”and“folk standpoint”as the clue throughout.By sorting out and analyzing 48 Fujian opera works,this book holds that since the Reform and Opening-up,love stories,whose proportion has been reduced since many allegorical works have shifted from“touching people's heartstrings through emotion”to“convincing people by reason”,have no longer been the first choice for the playwrights in Fujian.In addition,due to the preference for the tragic genre of the playwrights,love between young people seems extremely fragile in times of transition and political wrestling,and often ends in breakup.In the course of the innovation and exploration of the opera structure,the dramatists have employed the techniques of multi-line parallelism and overlapping of several arrangements,providing a more extension in space for love stories; the application of new techniques also embodies dramatists' two-way study both of the scriptwriting skills of their western counterparts and of the traditional creation theories.Furthermore,character types and image connotations in the operas have been increasingly enriched.The depiction of the dramatists,with Wang Renjie as a representative figure,on the inner world of protagonists is particularly exquisite and delicate,highlighting powerful contradiction in the struggles between erotic love impulse and moral constraint.In terms of thematic expression,senior dramatists keep emphasizing that protagonists should bear more social responsibility in the journey of love,while younger playwrights try to rebel against the traditional concept of gaining fame by extolling wonderful love.The proposal of“pursuing true nature and returning to original simplicity”enables Fujian dramatists in the new era to deepen their understanding of love motif.What is worth mentioning is that this book reflects on“happy ending mindset”in modern opera works,and points out that“the factors beyond art shouldn't be the standard to evaluate modern operas”。
In addition,it is noted in this book that since the entry into new century,“pure love stories”that focus on pure love and create a beautiful and romantic atmosphere have begun to return to traditional opera of Fujian.Actually,it is less a return but more a tendency moving to a higher and more original realm highlighting truth and simplicity,where dramatists have been able to strike a balance between literati style and folk flavor,endowing re-creations with more freedom.These new dramatic achievements that form a trend involves not only the works by the new-generation writers but also the works by the established writers who have managed to make adjustment in their creations; the efforts of the drama critics make great contributions as well.While discussing the chronological changes of Fujian drama creations,this book also pays close attention to the great ability of self-adjustment of the local opera art.
Chapter II is Three Ways of Historical Narration.In the new era,Fujian dramatists have inherited the spirit of traditional historical operas and explored three ways of creations based on studying classic historical operas.One way that they may choose is“composing dramas with historical views”,in which they can express their historians' consciousness and historical thoughts by summing up the laws of history.“Narrating history with emotions and feelings”is another way that the dramatists may prefer,in which they neither emphasize the accumulation of historical facts and evidences nor do they pay attention to the summary of law of history,instead,they pursue the sensual beauty,the humanistic beauty,and the lyric beauty based on the true“sense of history”.Another alternative for the dramatists may be the method of“fictional drama creations”.In the“fictional drama creations”,the dramatists can deal with historical figures and events in a seemingly ridiculous but actually meaningful way.
In the discussion of“composing dramas with historical views”,by studying on the masterpieces of Zheng Huaixing,Zhou Changfu,Hong Chuan and other playwrights,this book reaches at the conclusion that the operas composed by these playwrights are all characterized by“bright enlightenment”，“strong rationality”and“close contact with temporal trends and political changes”。Therefore,“composing dramas with historical views”becomes a way of opera creations that is favored and most familiar to Fujian dramatists in the new era of ideological emancipation and revival of the opera creations.Though affirming the ideological content of Fujian historical operas,this book points out that their artistic quality will unavoidably be destroyed if the rationality weighs too much in the historical operas since they are,after all,not political essays or denunciations.In other words,aesthetic values can never be ignored in the creation of the historical operas while the dramatists try to reflect their profound thoughts on the history.Furthermore,this book proposes a new expectation for the future exploratory creations:that is,dramatists should continue to look for the resonance of the opera works with the current times,and historical opera creations should not only illuminate the contemporary but also surpass the contemporary.
In the analysis of“narrating history with emotions and feelings”,this book thinks“expressing feelings lyrically”，“pursuing emotional truth”and“multi-layered thematic expressions”are the major characteristics of this type of opera creations.On the basis of the discussion in Chapter I,it is further illustrated in this book what enlightenment this type of opera creations will provide for those“main-theme”works,that is,instead of trying to explain policies and mouthing empty slogans,it's better to open a new path of opera creations by projecting the grand history into the destiny of the ordinary people to reflect the changes of times with the description of the separation and reunion of the characters.Finally,this book emphasizes that opera creations by“narrating history with emotions and feelings”is a beneficial supplement to the concept of historical operas—dramatists should acknowledge the relativity and limitations of historical cognition,and when it's difficult to absolutely grasp“the history as a whole”,they should use modern spirit to perceive and display historical figures' eternal emotion and feeling in specific situations.
In the study concerning“fictional drama creations”,this book first makes a concept definition that“reasonable fiction”shall be limited to two corresponding proposals“fastidiousness based on historical logic”and“tolerance of aesthetic literacy”proposed by audiences.Then this book puts forward that“thinking outside the mindset of historical genre”，“challenging historical logic”and“having rich folk comedian style”are the main features of this type of opera creations,and affirms that Fujian operas created in accordance with this way that combine the plot design of“romanticism”with the thematic expression of“realism”is a development to“high-profile education”and a valuable practice of“education through entertainment”.This book also points out only when academic and theatrical circles give enough respect to the“fictional drama creations”can“the historical view”and“the theatrical view”of the new-composed historical operas be further emancipated.At the end of this chapter,it is reemphasized that the three ways of narrating history—“composing dramas with historical views”，“narrating history with emotions and feelings”，“fictional drama creations”—are of equal importance.Thorough research and application of these three ways can help the historical opera creations in Fujian,even in the whole nation,make greater progress.
The third chapter is“Hiddenness and Reappearance of Game Spirit”.Game spirit is a precious legacy of traditional operas.This book believes that the key to decide whether the newly-composed operas can eliminate stagnation and astringency and move from the history of literature to the history of performance is the inheritance and further development of the game spirit in opera creations.This chapter thus probes the presentation of game spirit in newly-created operas and its influence on the level of dramatic works from the following perspectives—diachronic changes of the roles of“Chou”—comedians in the traditional Chinese Operas—in Fujian opera creations in the new era,the creations of the operas characterizing the roles of“Chou”,and“the dramatization of the countyyamen stories”。
This chapter begins with a review on the diachronic changes of the roles of“Chou”in Fujian opera creations in the new era,focusing on the three aspects:1）how the Chinese Opera Reform Movement after the 1950s changed the implications of the roles of“Chou”in the course of purification and regulation;2）how the most direct sources of creating the roles of“Chou”lost because of the disappearance of the“little tradition”life in the folk culture;3）how the researches and the evaluations of the role“Chou”in the academic circle varied with the confrontations and communications between the eastern and western cultures.What inspiration the diachronic changes of the roles of“Chou”endow to the opera creations is that the dramatic works would probably not survive on the stage if they dealt with the folk standpoint of the role“Chou”in a commanding way,tried to produce the so-called cultural thinking and historic experience dogmatically and underrated the lively and comical figures.It is then pointed out in this book that by making timely reflections and active explorations on the opera creations of the previous historical periods and with the guidance of the state policies,Fujian opera creations in the new era have found a balance between“literati orientation”and“folk standpoint”.An array of new excellent comedies has been composed,which exploits the role“Chou”'s character connotations and enriches its representation objects.In addition,those new-created comedies have added new contents to the character atlas and helped make a breakthrough in the stage performances and actor training of the role“Chou”。
The discussion of the last section of this chapter is directed at“the dramatization of the countyyamen stories”and conducted from three aspects including the image of the county magistrates,the dramatic space and the plot of games,referring to Bakhtin's carnival theory.The first part focuses on the“crazy officer”images and puts them in Chinese feigning culture for observation to restore the dramatists' creation process in which dramatists this type of characters to experience the gradual approaching and separation between literati sentiment and folk flavor by resorting to this type of characters.In the second part,by studying Zhangzhou dramatist Tang Yinchang's works,this book points out there is neither violence nor authority in the space of countyyamen from the perspective of civilians,which seems to a place of benevolent governance and harmony appearing in folk's imagination.By reorganizing the hilarious plots of the classic comedies in Fujian in the final part,finds that the original simplicity derived from common folk has impacted the official order and social hierarchy，downgrading the rules of law and the trial system and setting the stage for the resistance factor with tears in laughter.In summary,this chapter not only pays attention to the hiddenness and reappearance of game spirit in Fujian operas,but also explores the underlying reasons behind it,namely the entanglement and wrestling between literati orientation and folk stance.
The fourth chapter is“The Rich Implications of Ethical Decisions and Moral Pursuits”.With the changes of the times,the period of“teaching people to be loyal and filial”with operas has gone,and many moral standards in traditional repertoires have changed accordingly.However,“High Platform Enlightenment”is still a never-forgotten aim of the opera creations of Fujian dramatists.This book argues that although Fujian dramatists in the new era has always been regarded as a writing community,there are differences among them in the identities of“Admonish minister”，“teachers”and“folk actors”,which determine that they will incline to different moral systems,and stick to different moral pursuits,and their moral writing will be influenced accordingly.Based on this,this chapter examines the embodiments of the dramatists'“literati orientation”and“folk standpoint”on ethical decisions and moral pursuits,explores the impact of the current policies on opera creations and discusses to the connections between moral writing and opera achievements.
This chapter starts with the research on the creations of the first generation of Fujian dramatists after the founding of the People's Republic of China,and finds that the creative traditions of“criticizing feudal morals and reshaping women's image”can be traced back to the opera After the Reunion.However,when handling the same theme like“thoughts at midnight”of the“young windowed women”,the two generations of dramatists have different treatments in plots,characterization and themes.Therefore,focusing on the analysis of the significant differences in moral writing between After The Reunion,Ode to A Virtuous Woman and Dong Sheng and Li's（Dong,a Literate,and Li,a widow）,this book makes an effort to present the changes of Fujian dramatists on their attitude to the traditional ethics.
The following section places emphasis on the analysis on the historical operas composed by Zheng Huaixing at various stages to review the reconstruction process of humanistic spirit of the intellectuals who“endeavor to hold the cultural vein and their integrity”in his opera works,giving a full affirmation to the outstanding achievements of the dramatist.However,this book also points out the problems on Mr Zheng's choice of“occasionally sacrificing the coherence of narrative and the natural reality of situation to complete moral education”,which has become a barrier to pushing himself to make greater success.This book emphasizes that the significance of moral education is self-evident,but sticking to the noumenon property of opera is the basic premise of drama creations.It is the“dramatic effect”that what dramatists should always keep in mind when creating a drama.
The last section of this chapter pay special attention to the dramatic works created by the playwrights other than by those“top dramatists”in Fujian theatrical circles,and finds that,based on folk stance,these works feature the characters of being mellow,generous,relaxed,and cunning,acting as essential supplements to“Fujian Style”which tends to be vehement but depressed.From the perspective of distinct hierarchical identity system of virtuous scholars,civil officers,literates,plebeians and proletarians,this book explores how dramatists flexibly coordinate several different values to fulfill the mission of employing a folk way to interpret the Confucius ethics and to compose the ethical stories.Although Fujian dramatists in the new era extol folk ethics of their leisure and free,simple and honest spirits,they make no attempt to conceal the truth that there exist cruelty and ugliness in folk ethics.To sum up,everything including moral issues and humanistic spirit in the newly-composed operas that Fujian dramatists uphold from literati perspectives is gradually mixing and integrating with what has been accepted by folk stance.To put it in another way,diverse as the moral pursuits of the nobles and civilians are,the pursuits are overlapped in some way:what nobles and civilians both seek after are“the good”and“the beautiful”。
Following the discussions on the four topics,a summary of the creation issues and coping strategy research are made in another chapter.It is concluded in this book that great achievements have been made on traditional opera creations of Fujian in the new era;nevertheless,problems also exist,for example,insufficient understanding on the noumenon characteristics of the local opera art,excessively rational flavor and lack of creative stamina.From the perspectives of“returning to the excellent creation tradition”and“establishing a security system for drama creations”,this book offers some proposals,in the hope of helping drama creations in Fujian,even in the whole country,to break through the bottleneck.
Based on the above discussion,the writer of this book hopes the following inspiration for opera creations can be drawn to demonstrate the academic values.First,with a view to making up the shortcoming of“partial imbalance”caused by previous study,it's suggested that the focuses of the discussion should not be limited on“top figures”,instead,we should have a panoramic grasp of Fujian drama creations by studying more dramatic works,and adjust the current research pattern to a certain extent.Second,by paying due attention to studying the adjustments made by the top dramatists and the creations of the younger generations,we can keep trace with the development trends more accurately to realize diachronic tracking.What's more,in order to take the first step to reconstruct the dramatic evaluation system,research emphasis should be laid on the unique property of the local operas that they are created to be on the stage,thus conveying their hidden stage sound should be the themes of the essays which used to evaluate the dramas by researching the way to drama history via literary history and appraising the dramatic works with literary standard.Another factor worth mentioning is that some dramatic skills of the stage dramas in the West are also not applicable to opera composing in China.Finally,with respect to the existing problems of opera creations in Fujian,a solution from the aspects of“creation subject”and“creation system”is proposed,hoping that this strategy will play a positive role in current opera creations and to achieve the goal of guiding creation practice with the theory.It is worth repeating that this book takes the reaction of literati orientation and folk standpoint as a clue throughout for discussion to express more explicitly the core ideas,including showing respect for the artistic properties of the local operas,following closely their survival actuality and placing emphasis on the diverse genres,the modernity and the legendary nature is the key to create an excellent opera.
Key Words: chinese traditional opera creation、literati orientation、folk standpoint、Fujian dramatists