How Real History Becomes "History" on stage

Chinese culture has always advocated "collecting the que literature of the hundred generations and collecting the relics of a thousand years". The broad and profound Chinese civilization is the unique spiritual identity of the Chinese nation, the foundation of contemporary Chinese literature and art, and the treasure of literary and artistic innovation. Over the years, the vast number of literary and art workers have continuously excavated the ideological concepts, humanistic spirit and moral norms of China's excellent traditional culture, integrated artistic creativity and Chinese cultural values, combined the Chinese aesthetic spirit with contemporary aesthetic pursuits, and created a large number of outstanding historical theme drama works in various periods.

At the same time, in the creation of historical themes, the discussion of topics such as "how to grasp the truth of history and the truth of drama" and "how to learn from history and observe reality" has never stopped. In the creative environment of the new era, how to meet the people's growing demand for beautiful spiritual culture in the creation of historical themes is still a topic that the vast number of literary and art workers need to study in depth.

01

Promoting the creation of historical themes requires relay and tolerance

Chinese civilization has a long history and has a very systematic and institutionalized tradition of historical narration, which not only forms an extremely rich and voluminous historical material, but also forms many experiences, concepts and methods of governing history, but also carries the cultural ideals, humanistic values, personality psychology and aesthetic tastes of the five thousand years of civilization. This is the deep foundation of the creation of historical themes, and it is also an important aspect of telling Chinese stories well and showing China's image.

"In the past, we have put forward policies and measures that are deeply recognized and effective, such as emphasizing the policy of 'three simultaneous moves' of newly written historical dramas, modern dramas and traditional dramas; there have also been many major discussions, resulting in many important results, such as the concept of 'big things are not vain, small things are not informal' on authenticity, etc., which reflect our scientific attitude and valuable experience in treating history and tradition." In the view of young critic Zheng Rongjian, under the guidance of the "three simultaneous moves" policy, the creation of historical themes has played an exemplary role in the process of opera reform and innovation, but its development path is not smooth, and with the advancement of history and the change of policies, the creation of historical themes has also undergone several twists and turns.

"We have had a golden period of historical theme creation, and a large number of weighty excellent works have emerged, such as "Cao Cao and Yang Xiu", "Golden Dragon and Ephemera", "Fu Shan Jinjing", "Autumn Wind Ci", "Shang Martingale" and so on. Over the years, there have been "Little Qiao's First Marriage", "Jingyang Bell", "Guanzhong Xiaoyue" and so on. Some of them are more neutral and some are more legendary, but they have left important experiences in the spiritual grasp of history and art. In 2019, Luo Zhou's two works, "The Unbroken City" and "Gu Yanwu", have aroused heated discussion in the academic circles, indicating that the creation of historical themes has always been inherited and continuously relayed, and some topics are still controversial and often said to be new. Zheng Rongjian believes that to promote the creation of historical themes, this kind of relay and tolerance is especially needed, and this depends on people's cultural self-confidence and artistic determination from history.

02

Use your artistic imagination on the basis of historical facts

Whether the creation of historical themes should follow historical truth or artistic truth is a question that the industry has been talking about. Playwright Zheng Huaixing once said that the writing of historical dramas is to exert a rich artistic imagination on the basis of the historical facts provided by historians, dig into the heart, and portray characters. Historians focus on "things" and screenwriters on "people"; historians focus on "history" and screenwriters on "drama"; historians focus on "reality" and screenwriters on "hearts"; historians focus on "reason" and screenwriters on "feelings"; historians focus on "straightness" and screenwriters on "songs". In the words of the Ming dynasty Fu Shan, the screenwriter should "complete the human feelings, the more twisted and tortuous; the more the drama pushes the physics, the more the drama is more true", the more tortuous the plot, the more vivid the character image, the better the drama, "that is, this half-false and half-true situation, but it is a big opening article."

In the creation of the drama "Fusheng", the creators adapted the historically real Fusheng "Bizang" "Shangshu" into the artistic real Fusheng "Heart and Brain" "Shangshu", and added that Fusheng did not approve of "deposing hundreds of families and respecting Confucianism alone", but advocated "a hundred schools of thought"; concealed the "good" side of Li Si as a person, and vigorously publicized the "evil" of other people's character; fictionalized Fusheng's son Zibo, daughter Xi'e, wife Min Jiang and other characters, and intertwined the whole story.

Wang Xiaoying, the director of the play, believes that the biggest drama of the drama "Fusheng" is that when Fusheng integrates life with books, his fate also changes. After Fu Sheng memorized those Confucian classics, he was proud of his erudition. But what he did not expect was that he also fell into the strange problem of asking for books and fatalities. In the end, in order to inherit Confucianism, Fusheng chose to sacrifice the life of his family and chose to live humbly like an ant, and he willingly walked into the ultimate dilemma of life. When conflict shifts from external confrontation to self-wrestling, the extreme choices in life's predicament truly show the cultural significance of drama. Wang Xiaoying said.

"History is not a little girl dressed up, and artistic creation is not a chronicle of historians. From the moment we are ready to put historical stories and historical figures on the stage of drama, it means that we must face the double test of historical truth and artistic truth. The original original tells the stage story according to historical truth, which is what historians do; it is not a serious historical theme creation that is completely empty and detached from historical reality. Zheng Rongjian mentioned that creators need to pay special attention to the fact that in the art of opera, there are many ancient legends, folk legends, etc. that cannot be included in the category of historical themes, or there are also some creations with an overhead background, in a sense, they can be said to be a historical projection, a unique inheritance, to be viewed with a fully inclusive and serious analysis attitude, neither to narrow the historical themes and use historical nihilism to accuse, nor to bluntly call them historical themes, and use historical criteria to regulate and demand them. They have their own laws of inheritance and creation, and they should be fully respected.

03

The use of the past for the present is the soul of the creation of historical themes

Drama theorist Zhang Geng explained the significance of the use of the past for the present for the creation of historical themes in the article "The Use of The Past for the Present - The Soul of Historical Drama". The use of the ancient for the present is the creator through some connection between history and reality, the impulse to create historical drama, the playwright uses historical stories to tell the philosophy of ancient and modern communication, or through the spirit and fate of historical figures to resonate with modern audiences, understand the specific historical background of historical figures, interpret the fate of characters, and play a role in learning from the past through the spirit conveyed by the characters.

In the creation of historical themes, how to use historical materials to make historical events and historical figures resonate with modern audiences is a problem that every creator of historical themes must seriously consider.

"Since the 1960s, our creators have been emphasizing the use of historical themes for the past and the present, but the practice of using the past for the present is very difficult. The most likely problem is to put today's people's thinking directly on the heads of the ancients, divorced from the social environment and historical conditions at that time, and let the ancients directly speak the words of modern people. There are also some works, due to the lack of accumulation of traditional drama by the creators, did not make full use of opera means when creating historical themes, and became 'drama + singing' dressed in ancient costumes. In the view of Wang Jingbo, an associate researcher at the Institute of Opera of the China Academy of Arts, for the creation of historical themes, creators must first treat historical materials scientifically with Marx's historical materialism and dialectical materialism, strengthen theoretical cultivation, and increase the accumulation of traditional skills and means of opera. When making subversive adaptations of images that are very familiar to some audiences, it is necessary to find the positioning of the audience and be able to explain them in place to justify themselves.

In the view of young screenwriter Pan Naiqi, for the use of the past and the present, the creators should think about the theme, the relationship between the performance and the way of communication. "The expression of historical themes on the current stage requires us to pay attention to how to tell a historical story to the current young audience. Completely following historical facts, it seems that there is no room for creation. Interpreting it exactly according to the heart of the creator seems to have the risk of leading to historical nihilism. Therefore, how to tell the historical story to the audience in real life, the scale should be grasped well, so that the audience can find the practical significance of this historical story, find the connection between this historical story and themselves, and find the spiritual fit point from it. In terms of the relationship between viewing and the way of communication, with the continuous progress of science and technology, in the process of artistic creation, we must pay attention to the creative transformation and innovative development of both content and form, pay attention to the integration of artistic content and technical content, and at the same time present the artistic content, we must combine the ever-changing technical support to innovatively realize the stage presentation of the repertoire, such as creating a video theater, an immersive full-perception theater, etc., so that the audience can enjoy the diverse charm of theater art in an all-round, three-dimensional, multi-dimensional way. Meet the growing aesthetic needs of the people. ”

"For the creation of historical theme dramas, the key is to grasp two aspects, one is to take history as a mirror, observe reality, and let historical themes show the value of illuminating the present, so we must sort out and distinguish, abandon refinement, judge and show, and avoid 'telling a complete old story'; the second is to use Shi Bacon and drama to convey God, use the laws of drama art to capture and excavate where the drama contained in historical stories is, to show the relationship between the personality psychology of the characters, the logic of behavior and the progress of history, and to avoid 'there is no one, There is no god in history'. Zheng Rongjian said.

January 20, 2022 China Culture Daily

Special reports were published on the 5th edition

How Real History Becomes "History" on stage

Editor-in-charge: Chen Xiaoyue