Chinese Theatre

Shang theatre:

There are shreds of evidence that suggest that theatre in China might have started as early as 1500 BC, which was the age of the Shang Dynasty. Yes, hints of theatre were first seen in the shamans ( or the priests ) in China, who used to dance, sing and perform due to religious purposes. The shamans were considered to be a bridge between the human and spirit kind, because it was believed that the shamans could invite spirits to enter into their body and make them communicate with the people regarding their queries, with the help of their skills in dancing and music. Theatre is believed to begin with this little act of religious belief, and later, once people started exploring theatre, it grew wild, tamed by the experiments of the ancient Chinese people. This was not only it, but the shamans also used these somewhat theatrical skills to ward off evil spirits, proving that these were the seeds of Chinese drama.

Zhou Theatre:

Now what seemed like mere religious rituals, became an art during the Zhou Dynasty. It was performed both by women and men as a form of dance that incorporated ballet. The men performed ‘ wu ‘ and the women performed ‘ xi ‘. Though this was first considered an art being performed in temples, it later moved on to being staged for instance in the royal courts, or any other stages set up for performances. This theatre was considered an art and not a ritual at around 1066 BCE to 256 BCE and chorus dances became popular. Now all this happened because the dance of the shamans turned out to be great and interesting and the people only got a chance to see it occasionally. So there you go.

Evolution of Chinese drama :

Now later the same dance was performed in different themes, such as harvest, joy, and so on. Theatre in the olden ages, especially for the ordinary people was not only a form of entertainment but also a way to express themselves to the outer world. People staged plays to express their concerns, threats, and the problems they faced to the king or to someone who was in charge. Or they used it as a form of celebration when they had got a good harvest that year or if they had had sufficient rainfall that year or if something good had happened to them. Or if their kingdom had achieved military accomplishments. The dance started without the performer not wearing a specific costume or having particular props for performing that dance. But later, to make the dance a little more interesting and to improve the quality of it a bit more, they started including interesting props and costumes based on what they were performing. This gave birth to the costume and prop revolution in ancient Chinese theatre history. Different props were made. Props such as wands with feathers, caps with feathers, yak tails, and shields were used to represent harmony and merit. Now all this doesn’t mean that rituals had come to an end. Rituals still existed but they were strictly restricted to the idea of ‘ Confucius ‘, thus puppets and puppet shows were used to help in grieving on the needed occasions. These dances were found and developed under the subjects or ordinary people and royals were not aware of this. But later, once the royals came to know of it, the rulers hired court jesters, actors, and performers to perform in the royal court, purely for entertainment and thus it became widely popular because of the royals. These were the beginnings of Chinese Theatre. Hope you enjoyed reading it. 

- Lakshana

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