Quyi

Quyi

Quyi is the general name of all kinds of "rap art" of the Chinese nation. It is a unique art form formed by the long-term development of folk oral literature and singing art. According to incomplete statistics, there are about 400 kinds of folk arts of various nationalities living in China so far.

General situation of Quyi

Quyi, as a rap art, has a long history, but it has no independent artistic status. In the history of Chinese art development, rap art once belonged to "Song Dynasty Baixi", performing in vashe and GouLan (all folk performing venues in Song Dynasty); in modern times, it belonged to "what kind of juggling", mostly in Tianqiao in Beijing, Confucius Temple in Nanjing and Xujiahui in Shanghai "Sanwu" in Tianjin, Xiangguo Temple in Kaifeng and other folk entertainment venues. After the founding of the people's Republic of China, many mature rap arts have been given a unified and stable name, collectively referred to as "quyi", and entered the theater for performance.

Historical development

The development of Quyi has a long history. As early as ancient times, Chinese folk storytelling and joke telling, and court Haiyou's playing, singing, dancing, and farce all contain the artistic elements of Quyi.

In the Tang Dynasty, the appearance of telling stories about city people and preaching Buddhist scriptures to the common people, and the popularity of Daqu and folk tunes made the skills of speaking and singing flourish. Since then, quyi, as an independent art form, began to take shape.

In the Song Dynasty, due to the development of commodity economy, the prosperity of the city and the growth of the citizen class, there were special places for rap performance, as well as professional artists. Speaking skills, guzici, zhugongdiao, Changzhuan and other singing forms were extremely prosperous. Meng Yuanlao's "Tokyo menghualu" and naidewong's "capital Jisheng" all recorded this in detail.

From the Ming and Qing Dynasties to the early years of the Republic of China, with the budding of capitalist economy, the number of cities increased sharply, which greatly promoted the development of rap art. On the one hand, folk rap with strong local color around the city flowed to the city, and they became more and more mature in the performance practice, such as Daoqing, lianhualuo, Fengyang Huagu, Bawangbian, and so on; on the other hand, some old tunes were spreading In the middle of the Cheng Dynasty, there were changes in the characteristics of different regions and dialects. For example, the yuan and Ming Ci dialects with scattered rhymes gradually evolved into Tanci in the South and Guci in the north. During this period, new kinds of Quyi and new repertoire were emerging, many of which were well-known. Most of the quyi we see today are from the Qing Dynasty to the early Republic of China.

Essential characteristics

As a performing art, quyi uses "oral rap" to narrate stories, shape characters, express thoughts and feelings, and reflect social life. Just as the essential feature of opera art is "singing and dancing to perform stories", the essential feature of Quyi art is "oral rap". This is the essential attribute of Quyi which is different from other art categories. Because the main artistic means is "oral rap", the artistic form of Quyi is relatively simple: one or more people speak and perform; or one or more people sing, supplemented by small bands (often three or five instruments). Because of the oral language, the performance is mainly based on the third person narration, and the folk is represented by the first person simulation. In this way, the stage performance reflects the characteristics of "one person with many roles", "jump out and jump in", "one person with one big play". Thus, it is quite different from the "role-playing performance" of drama, drama, film and television and other performing arts, that is, the difference between the so-called "appearing in saying" and "appearing in saying".

artistic characteristics

As the most national and folk performing art form in China, quyi has the following main artistic features: firstly, quyi performance takes "speaking" and "singing" as the main means of expression, so its language must be suitable for speaking or singing, lively, concise and easy to use. Secondly, quyi is not performed by actors dressed up as fixed roles as in drama, but by actors dressed up as different roles and performing various characters and stories to the audience in the way of "one person with many roles" through speaking and singing. Therefore, compared with drama, quyi performance is easy to perform. Thirdly, the simplicity of Quyi performance makes it quick to reflect life. The contents of repertoire and bibliography are mainly short and concise. Therefore, quyi actors are usually able to create and perform by themselves. Fourthly, quyi takes speaking and singing as the main means of artistic expression, so it is an art that appeals to people's hearing. It stimulates the audience's hearing by speaking and singing to drive the audience's image thinking, and completes the artistic creation together with the actors in the audience's thinking imagination. Fifthly, the actors of Quyi must have solid skills in speaking, singing, doing and imitating. Only with these skills can they portray the characters vividly and make the narration of the event fascinating, so as to win the audience's appreciation. The above is the similarity of the artistic characteristics of Quyi varieties to different degrees, which is their commonness. At the same time, these tunes exist independently and have their own personalities. Not only that, the same kind of music has its own advantages, but also forms different art schools. Even the same kind of music has its own characteristics because of the differences of performers, which forms a prosperous scene in the field of music.

Form of expression

According to the survey and statistics, there are about 400 kinds of folk art still active in China, which spread in the north and south of China, inside and outside the Great Wall. Although each of them has its own development process, they all have distinctive folk and mass characteristics and have common artistic characteristics. Its performance is as follows

（1） "Speaking and singing" is the main means of artistic expression. They talk like Xiangsheng, Pingshu, Pinghua; they sing like Jingyun Dagu, single string paiqu, Yangzhou Qingqu, Dongbei Dagu, Wenzhou Dagu, Jiaodong Dagu, Hubei Dagu, etc.; they talk like singing (also known as rhyme chanting style) like Shandong kuaishu, kuaibanshu, luogushu, Pingxiang chunluo, Sichuan qianqianban, Taiyuan lianhualuo, etc.; they talk like singing (both unaccompanied and music) For example, Shandong Qinshu, Xuzhou Qinshu, Enshi Yangqin, Wuxiang Qinshu, Anhui Qinshu, Guizhou Qinshu, Yunnan Yangqin, etc.; for example, Errenzhuan, shibuxianlianhualuo, Ningbo zoushu, Fengyang Huagu, dengdeng, shanghuagu, etc. It is precisely because quyi mainly narrates and expresses emotions by speaking and singing, or speaking and singing as if speaking and singing, or speaking and singing as if speaking and singing, so its language must be suitable for speaking and singing, and it must be lively, refined and easy to use.

（2） Unlike drama, quyi is performed by actors dressed up as fixed roles, but by actors who do not dress up as roles, in the way of "one person with many roles" (one quyi actor can imitate many kinds of characters), through speaking and singing, all kinds of characters and all kinds of stories are performed and told to the audience. Therefore, compared with drama, quyi performance is easy to perform. As long as there are one or two people, one or two accompanying musical instruments, or one person brings a piece of wake-up wood, a fan (used by storytellers), a pair of bamboo boards (used by fast storytellers), or even nothing (such as crosstalk artists), the communication with the audience is more direct than drama.

（3） The simplicity of Quyi performance makes it quick to reflect life. The contents of repertoire and bibliography are mostly short and pithy, so the performers of Quyi can usually edit, direct and act by themselves. Compared with drama actors, the directing function of Quyi actors is particularly obvious. For example, in the process of performing a repertoire, bibliography, or crosstalk, the structure of the plot, the arrangement of the scene, the conversion of the scene, the rendering of the atmosphere, the presence and absence of the characters, the depiction of the characters' psychology, the arrangement of the language, the mastery of the tone, the speed of the rhythm, and so on, are all based on the needs of narration or lyricism, and the best acceptance of the audience Judge, to say or sing the overall arrangement, scheduling, director of a fascinating audience.

（4） Quyi takes speaking and singing as the main means of artistic expression, so it is an art that appeals to people's hearing. That is to say, quyi is to stimulate the audience's hearing by speaking and singing to drive the audience's image thinking, and complete the artistic creation together with the actors in the image formed by the audience's image thinking. The performance of Quyi can be performed on the stage, or it can be divided into stages and performed everywhere. Therefore, compared with the theatre audience, the thinking of Quyi audience is not limited by the stage framework, and the content of Quyi speaking and singing has greater freedom of time and space than drama. In order to normalize the audience's imaginative thinking into the artistic world created by speaking and singing, the quyi actor's observation of the audience's reaction is more urgent and more detailed, so he has a closer relationship with the audience than the drama actor.

（5） In order to make the audience enjoy the artistic beauty of hearing, seeing and being on the scene, the performers of Quyi must have solid skills in speaking, singing and doing, and have superb imitation. Only when the actors have lively and moving skills, depict the characters' joys, sorrows and sorrows vividly, and narrate the events attractively, can they win the audience's appreciation. The above solid foundation is from the observation, experience and accumulation of Quyi actors on real life, as well as the analysis, research and understanding of historical life. This is particularly important for a quyi actor.

The above is the similarity of the artistic characteristics of more than 400 kinds of Quyi, which is their commonness. More than 400 kinds of music exist independently and have their own personalities. Not only that, the same kind of music because of the performer's strong points, but also

Chinese PinYin : Qu Yi