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sw-chinese-opera-banqiang-cases

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Updated 10-15 16:45

About this skill

板腔体全本语料库（Banqiang Full-Script Case Studies）

Output language = question language; terms are always anchored back to the original word, see sw-workflow/terms.md, do not coin translated names. Opera terminology (板式、辙口、行当、程式、宾白、垛句、帮腔) has no English counterpart; in any language keep the original word + one sentence of explanation.

For the method see sw-chinese-opera-banqiang, this skill contains only the definitive editions and creation records. Each case has a fixed six items: ① work and edition ② structural layer ③ aria layer ④ conventional-program layer ⑤ creation process ⑥ transferable techniques; do not rewrite the method, only write "see sw-chinese-opera-banqiang section N".Use only primary definitive editions: if the self-account conflicts with the definitive edition, take the definitive edition as authoritative and the self-account as intention; if the base text is not the premiere text, has missing pages, or is pending verification, always write this into ① and carry that note along.

Scene-by-scene structural tables, aria tables, 板式 statistics, conventional-program lists, differences between the two editions, and the creation-record index are all in the reference; the main text keeps only pointers: 《锁麟囊》《沙家浜》reference-jingju.md（§1–§7）；《白蛇传》reference-baishezhuan.md（§8–§12）；《朝阳沟》reference-chaoyanggou.md（§1–§5）；《潘金莲》reference-panjinlian.md（§6–§9）；罗怀臻越剧 reference-luo-yueju.md（§1–§3、§7）与地方戏 reference-luo-difangxi.md（§4–§8）；创作记 reference-chuangzuoji.md。

Read which sections according to the task (do not read straight through)

You want to find Go to
How the 板式 of a singing-focused play are arranged, which scene the 上板 section goes in One (锁麟囊)
How modern plays cut conventional programs, the joining of song and speech Two (沙家浜)
Adapting traditional subject matter: retain／cut and move／newly add Three (白蛇传)
How colloquial speech enters the lyrics, the measure of rhyming Four (朝阳沟)
The absurd, cross-time-and-space, 帮腔 becoming a character Five (潘金莲)
Scripts that do not mark 板式, 越剧 female 小生 Six (罗·越剧)
Chorus, subtitles, allegorical style vs realistic style Seven (罗·地方戏)
From material to vocal-腔 review; for whom a certain play was written, how many drafts it went through Eight, Nine
Look up cases by technique Ten——in most cases enter from here
Comparison of the same author across systems Eleven

One, 《锁麟囊》: the 板式 layout of a singing-focused play, all three layers complete

① Edition　Playwright 翁偶虹, premiered by 程砚秋 in 1940. Base text = 王吟秋 compiled, 顾永湘 notated 《京剧曲谱·锁麟囊》 (上海文艺 1983).This is the revised score definitive edition, not the premiere text（何慢序记程砚秋"直到逝世前夕还孜孜不倦地致力于革新"）；where it does not match the self-account, first assume it is the revised edition.When citing "掐三节配三让座" one must add the note "the score edition has four sections, the seating order being side chair→guest seat→seat of honor→central seat". The lyrics are transcribed from the page image, not marked pending verification.The only play in the whole batch with all three layers complete: creation record + peer criticism + performance definitive edition.

② Structural layer　Twelve scenes, 65 vocal passages totaling about 196 lines; four scenes have no singing, and four scenes are the key ones (2, 5, 9, 12).Scene 12 alone has 28 passages, accounting for 43%—Of the four key points stated in the self-account, the last three are all compressed into the final scene, which is the greatest structural difference from the definitive edition. The first scene gives the protagonist no entrance and no singing; two clown-role spoken passages establish the recurring term "snobbish eye";Of the 21 characters in the cast list, 11 are clown roles, more than half. See §1.

③ Vocal passage layer　Only 20/65 are metrically regulated passages; 27 passages are sanban and yaoban, accounting for 40%, and the metrically regulated passages are all concentrated in the four key scenes (Section 3).[Erliu] appears only twice and is symmetrical at beginning and end(Scene 5, the starting point of good deeds; Scene 12, the endpoint of reward for good deeds), and both times it is immediately followed by [Liushui].Vocal styles are divided by character and by passage, not by emotional intensity: the wealthy side uses Erhuang, the poor side uses Xipi, and after they meet only Xipi remains.Rhyme categories change scene by scene, with beginning and end using the same yaotiao rhyme(Scene 5 has 33 lines in one rhyme throughout, Section 6d).All six major duoju passages fall on the second line of metrically regulated passages, the longest being 26 characters (Section 6e). See §2.

④ Conventional-form layer　The entrance poem is given only to clown roles, and self-introduction is given only to clowns and laosheng;the protagonist does not appear at all on the first entrance(more than ten lines of "(inner white)" + two embroidered-pattern poems = what Cheng Yanqiu called "a lantern behind the curtain and a sword in the box");the whole play has no exit poem, and the ending = two lines of [Sanban] that reveal the truth + eight lines of [Liushui] sung while walking in a circle + the suona [Coda] tune (Section 5).

⑤ Creative process　Cheng Yanqiu set the topic (wanting a comedy) and provided material; Weng's order was conception (the comic quality is entrusted to the social panorama surrounding the protagonist) → play title → names as character design → four methods → writing.Cheng Yanqiu raised three points in person: break the long singing into sections to accompany the three yieldings of the seat, write more lines of varying length to facilitate "forming the tune according to the words," and change the final scene's [Nanbangzi] to [Erliu] without changing the lyrics (the definitive edition has no Nanbangzi, fully implemented).Peer criticism is listed alongside: Fan Junhong criticized the ending as "lower in tone and detached from the theme,"and the revised definitive edition retains it. The 15 items from self-account ↔ definitive edition (11 matching / 3 partial / 1 not matching) are in §3.

⑥ Transferable techniques

  1. When writing comedy for a tragic role type, give all the laughs to supporting characters, and stock the cast list with enough clown roles（11/21）。Fails: it reverses when the protagonist is himself the object of satire.
  2. Break a long song into n sections, with one change of position between each section, and have a clown role make one sarcastic remark each time(the three yieldings of the seat in Scene 12).Self-check: count how many times the counterpart changes position; if not once, the section should be broken up.
  3. Sustain one rhyme throughout a key scene, and make the first key scene share the rhyme of the ending。Fails: it is unsuitable when two opposing characters in one scene each set their own rhyme.
  4. If you want "retribution," have the later character repeat the protagonist's old words verbatim(Lin'er's "I want a green horse" = Daqi's exact words in Scene 9);in the master script, pantomime passages are not vocal passages but "mute flute + interspersed spoken lines"(coaxing Lin'er in Scene 12; the properties list prepares nine props for this scene).Self-check: if the old words have been rewritten, it is only coincidence; for a passage with zero lines of singing but lasting more than five minutes, you must write out what supports it.

II. Shajiabang: The Formal Transformation of Modern Drama and the Joining of Song and Spoken Dialogue

① Version　Collectively adapted by the Beijing Peking Opera Troupe, written by Wang Zengqi and Yang Yumin, adapted from the Shanghai opera The Kindling in the Reeds. Base text =China Theatre Press, August 1965 edition, ten scenes, not the 1970 definitive edition(the definitive edition was published in Hongqi, 1970, issue 6; the full text was not obtained). Character names retain the 1965 spelling (Hu Chuankui, Chen Tianmin, Qilong). For the differences between the two editions, only the 12 verified lines are listed;that there is no addition or deletion of scenes is a verified conclusion. The character list does not mark role types (that column is supplemented from Fan Junhong, not from the original book).

② Structural level　In the ten scenes, song and spoken dialogue alternate openly and covertly;among the three enemy scenes, two have almost no singing。the two main lines converge only in scene nine, before which they rely only on Chen Tianmin threading through twice—what is concentrated is the events, not the location (section two).Suspense hooks are used only in scenes four, six, and seven, scenes two and five end on emotion, scenes one, nine, and ten end on action,not every scene leaves a suspense. See §4.

③ Aria level　36 passages.Xipi is given to action and confrontation, Erhuang to memory and predicament—none of the four Erhuang passages advance the plot.Where inserted spoken lines are to be cut through, write yaoban and sanban; for an unbroken flow, write yuanban, erliu, liushui, kuaiban; a full set of major arias = daoban → huilong → sanyan → yuanban → closing line called san.The whole play uses only 7 rhyme categories: Jiangyang with 15 passages is the main rhyme category, Yanqian is the rhyme category for "discussing methods," Renchen is the rhyme category for short arias and transitional scenes;the only risky rhyme, Huailai, is given to the villain's persuasion-to-surrender passage, and the only Zhongdong is given to the only group song；one rhyme category per scene; a change of rhyme category = a change of scene or line; covert asides and duets must use the same rhyme category. Of the 36 passages, only 6 break the rules, and 4 of these occur in the two famous arias. See §5–§6.

④ Formal level　Self-introduction is reserved only for villains, and is changed into singing for the people present in the same scene; positive characters' identities are introduced by a third party in spoken dialogue—when identity is secret, form gives way to the character's situation. Entrance poems and exit poems are zero; the residual form is "two people reciting four lines in alternation to explain what happens between scenes."Covert asides are retained and are the technical center of the whole play; in seven scenes, "the curtain rises and they are already present,"but singing a daoban from within the curtain before entering is retained and strengthened—item 9 of the afterword treats deleting idle passages and eliminating gongs and drums for entrances and exits as the same thing,the elimination of form was carried out together with the elimination of the scene conventions(section five).The three kinds of song-dialogue joining can only be done on sanban-type metrical patterns(section seven).

⑤ Creative process　Afterword (May 1965, signed "adapter"): the three-in-one combination, "emphasize the role of armed struggle,""Hu Chuankui's attitude toward Sister Aqing is more trust than suspicion" (the technical premise that makes the trio in scene four possible), "ten years to polish one play."The reading of the differences between the two editions is that "the revised text does not move the structure, only the words": scene titles, order of events, placement of arias, and metrical patterns remain unchanged for five years; the direction is uniformly to reduce contingency and increase the credibility of events.Fan Junhong juxtaposes positive and negative: he both cites this play as a model of covert asides and criticizes later imitators for abusing covert asides and "falling into the cliché of a new tradition"—This play is both an exemplar and its own counterexample. See §7.

⑥ Transferable techniques

  1. In a scene of confrontation, the singing lines of whichever side holds the initiative always fall on the closing line(in the battle of wits, ten lines, Sister Aqing's five groups, no exceptions).Failure mode: when writing a scene in which the protagonist is being pressed hard and beaten, reverse it.
  2. In back-to-back duets, the upper and lower lines have the same number of characters, the same phrasing and pauses, and opposite meanings("She is neither servile nor overbearing / He is neither sinister nor sunny");for three people's back-to-back soliloquies, use different metrical patterns to distinguish them。Self-check: cover the names; only if you can tell who is who from the metrical pattern markers have you used it correctly.
  3. In answer-style arias, before each successive sung reply, first repeat the other party's question word with a single spoken word(in Scene Four, "Yes!" "Now!").Failure mode: more than three times in a row becomes mechanical.
  4. Write political argument into song as a series of consecutive rhetorical questions, based on the other party's own name or title(in Scene Seven, the four "why"s strike at the designation "Loyalty and Righteousness National Salvation Army").Failure mode: when the other party has no self-glorification that can be turned back on them, switch to narrative contrast.

III. The White Snake: A three-column account of a traditional-theme adaptation

① Edition　Written by Tian Han,first edition published by Writers Publishing House in June 1955, sixteen scenes。The online full text is not the 1955 edition—the scene titles are all the same, but the metrical patterns have been systematically altered (all non-standard metrical patterns are pulled back to commonly used Xipi patterns, and sheng-role material is reduced); use the 1955 book as the base text, consult the online text only for comparison and write "the revised edition has...",seven discrepancies verified。Quotations transcribed from page images are not marked as pending verification; those transcribed from OCR are marked [待核], 43 places in the whole batch. The tables for this case are in reference-baishezhuan.md, and §§8–§12 below refer to that file.

② Structural level　The sixteen scenes are extremely uneven in length:Broken Bridge 15 pages, The Wine Changes 11, Wandering on the Lake 10 are the three longest scenes, and are precisely the three turning points in the Bai–Xu relationship; Guarding the Mountain, The Water Fight, and Crossing the River are 2 pages each—measured data for "scenes dominated by song and speech are written in full, scenes dominated by action and dance are written sparingly" (Section 3).Two scenes have no singing: The Wedding (entirely spoken dialogue, yet one of the greatest plot turning points in the whole play) and The Water Fight;The Wedding can afford not to sing because its climax lies in the moment the terms are agreed, not in emotion. See §8.

③ Aria level　71 lines of arias.Bai Suzhen's main rhyme category is Jiangyang, changing rhyme category only on specific occasions (Yaotiao = Stealing the Herb and Entrusting the Child, Huailai = the grief of Closing the Bowl, Yanqian = the brightness and beauty of Wandering on the Lake);in Broken Bridge, Bai rhymes in Jiangyang and Xu in Yanqian, the only time in the whole play that rhyme category distinguishes voice and character(Section 6d). The three longest arias all belong to Bai Suzhen—a thorough dan-role singing showcase.The Broken Bridge scene has nine metrical patterns and eighteen sections, with long arias divided by metrical pattern,slow ones for past events, fast ones for what has just happened. This play uses nine uncommon metrical patterns (Xiao Anban, Bangzi Qingban, Bozi Pengban, Huilong, Fan Xipi, Kuai Yuanban, Sipingdiao...)each corresponding to a specific situation—the appendix is arranged by "situation → metrical pattern". See §§9–§10.

④ Conventionalization level　The adaptation assigns conventions according to role: reserved for supporting roles and non-human characters, removed for the protagonist. The entrance aria is given only to groups and extraordinary beings—The aria = a voice not of the human worldthe mortal protagonist does not sing the entrance aria (different in function from the qupai in qupai-style drama, and mutually referring with sw-chinese-opera-qupai ). The self-introduction is given only to Fahai; the exit poem is changed to a couplet recited in two parts by two people.Against mistaken adoption: the protagonist not introducing himself is a choice of the edited edition, not a general rule of Peking opera.

⑤ Creative process　The Preface is a first-hand account of creation: twelve or thirteen years, in three stages: Guilin (originally titled The Golden Bowl, banned as soon as it was staged) → drama school → Peking Opera Company (1954).Wang Yaoqing's five points on vocal music: the lyrics need not be too regular, to leave room for the melody / cut "Decocting Medicine" but keep that passage of the 【Erhuang Manban】 duet and move it into "Dispelling Doubts" / change one word ("protect him" → "favor him") / do not reject Gaobazi / change the vocal system for an entire scene.The original words of "metrical labels are a letter of intent": "Although the playwright has made certain specifications, he also trusts the director and actors... to create together"—the upper bound of the playwright's responsibilityupper bound, paired with the lower bound of "responsibility stops at tonal patterns and line structure" (Section 10). See §11–§12.

⑥ Transferable techniques

  1. Keep separate accounts of the three actions in editing an old play: which conventions to retain, which scene to cut and where to move the sung passage, and which passage to add(retain the entrance aria / the fixed-scene poem / the crying head; cut "Decocting Medicine" and move the duet into "Dispelling Doubts"; add the Wind God sending Xu Xian and Xu Xian's 【Fan Xipi】).Self-check: before submitting the manuscript, list these three inventories; if you cannot list them, it means you have merely changed words casually (Section 11).
  2. When a sung passage is moved to another scene, its vocal system will change the basic tone of the new scene as well—either accept it or rewrite the melody(the entire scene of "Dispelling Doubts" therefore changes from Xipi to Erhuang).
  3. The two people in confrontation each occupy one rhyme category(Broken Bridge);to make B qualified to reproach A, make A's situation arranged by others(in Scene 13, add the Wind God sending Xu Xian; Tian Han himself said, "this way Xiaoqing has more reason to reproach Xu Xian").Failure case: two people who are allies or in the same situation need not be assigned different rhyme categories.
  4. Recapitulation must carry new information(Xu Xian's sixteen lines at Broken Bridge retell two scenes, with only two pieces of new information, precisely answering Xiaoqing's suspicion).Self-check: cross out what the audience has already seen; if fewer than two lines remain, cut this passage.
  5. Reunion can be given as just one image, without lyricism(in the final scene the pagoda falls, Bai Suzhen appears from the colored clouds, without a single line of song or speech).Failure case: it does not apply when the main singer is this character and the audience is waiting to hear a passage from her—this play can do so because all the singing in the final scene is given to Xiaoqing.

IV. Chaoyang Gou: Colloquial Speech Entering Song and the True Scale of Rhyming

① Edition　Playwright: Yang Lanchun. Base text =People's Literature Publishing House, March 1978 edition, with the inside front cover marked "performance text of the Henan Opera Troupe No. 1, January 1977"—it is a post-Cultural Revolution revival performance text, not the 1958 premiere text of Troupe No. 3。The thematic direction is no longer valid; the technical layer is retained: the text retains obvious period phrases ("the three major differences," "the Chiang bandit gang," etc.),to be used only as corpus, not incorporated into rules。The main text does not mark a single metrical pattern, only "(sings)"; the metrical patterns are supplemented by the 16 pieces of sheet music at the back of the book,Of these, 2 sections have only tempo markings ("Mother-in-law, sit down" and the closing chorus); do not fill in ban patterns for them.。

②Structural layer　Nine scenes with no scene titles: scenes 1–3 = going to the countryside, scenes 4–6 = wavering,scene 7 is the only turning-point scene, scenes 8–9 = staying.Both major turning points occur on the mountain road(entering the mountains in scene 2, descending the mountain in scene 7), with the same tune and the same opening-line format sung twice, the second time matching the first line by line—the hardest structural design in this play. Full list of the sung-to-spoken ratio across the nine scenes (scene 5 ensemble scene 8:92 lowest, scene 8 mother and daughter 73:26 highest):ensemble scenes use spoken dialogue, two-person confrontations use song—the only piece of numerical evidence in the section on the division of labor between song and spoken dialogue (section 7). See §1.

③Aria layer　50 sections.Number of arias per scene 8/3/9/5/2/9/5/4/5—the most is not in the turning-point scene, but the single longest section is in the turning-point scene(scene 7, about 30 lines in one rhyme throughout): buildup scenes use many fragmented arias to define each character, while the turning-point scene uses one whole large aria hurled at the protagonist.The 【Erba ban】 system appears 11 times and is absolutely dominant, while the 2 slow sections are used only for the opening self-introduction and the offstage chorus.The word "zhuan" is the signal that the lyrics should change line pattern: where the score writes "zhuan 【Duoban】," the main text invariably changes at the same time from seven-/ten-character lines to three-/four-character duan—when the line pattern changes, the ban pattern should turn(section 6e). Rhyming:even lines rhyme 100%, odd lines rhyme about fifty percent, permitting adjacent rhyme categories, dialect rhyme grouping, and rhyme changes within a section,nine broad rhyme categories cover all 50 sections, and risky rhyme categories are never used—the default of a colloquial script is broad rhyme (section 6d). See §2, §3, §5.

④Convention layer　Self-introduction, entrance poem, and exit poem were deleted, not rewritten；Entrances and exits, back-to-back asides ("(sings aside)" "(aside)"), and inner singing are retained and transformed(scene 6 uses offstage singing instead of reading a letter);offstage chorus is newly added as a he-tou, and the final scene's full-cast chorus replaces the exit poem.What modern drama discards is the virtuality of props; what it keeps is the dance-like quality of body movement(section 12a).Throughout the play there is only one format for shifting from spoken dialogue to song: a term of address—parallel to The Interrupted Dream and Luo Huaizhen's seven Yue operas, common to both systems (section 7).Role types are not marked, but functional positions are still divided by role type(section 4).

⑤Creative process　This book has no preface, afterword, revision notes, or performance records, which is its greatest difference from the three Peking opera volumes; the only firsthand information is the inside front cover, copyright page, production-photo captions, and score credits, while all discussion of creation is taken from outside the book (the final scene was completed through on-site oral account + actors memorizing lyrics on the spot + composer setting music on the spot; "start from writing characters, while song is dominant").Four versions of the opening propare a ready-made example for textual criticism.

⑥Transferable techniques

  1. Colloquial speech entering song carries three things: direct quotation, real numbers, and dialect reduplication; if two are missing, go back to spoken dialogue and rewrite("no use," "muddlehead," "seven o'clock"; bai sheng sheng / qing ling ling / bao ying ying / ci ding ding).Failure: a lyrical core large section may have only concrete objects and no quotation.Self-check: How many proper nouns/numbers are in this aria? Zero means empty.
  2. Turn an ordinary matter into a big aria by relying on one repeated three-character lead line(Scene Six, ghostwriting a family letter, "You write:" leads four times, about 22 lines).Failure: if the lead line exceeds five times, it turns into a doggerel chant.
  3. In quarrel passages the line length decreases: four lines -> two lines -> one line -> half a line, without writing any note about speeding up(Scene Eight, mother-daughter duet).Failure: after decreasing to a half line, one side must say one extra line to close the passage.
  4. Conflict first lands on the work in hand(Scene Four, hoeing down the crops; Scene Five, smashing the water bucket; both are performable technical actions).Failure: if the protagonist is an expert in the trade, switch to the second level (interpersonal mockery).
  5. Walk the same road twice; on the second pass, recover each item one by one(Scene Two, the travel song / Scene Seven, the retrospective passage).Self-check: for every thing referred to in the second pass, did it appear in the first pass?

V. Pan Jinlian: the absurd, cross-time, and bangqiang written as characters

(1) Edition　Wei Minglun's "absurd Sichuan opera"; base text = Northern Literature and Art Publishing House, September 1987 edition, marked "revised after the September 1986 Beijing-Shanghai-Nanjing performances". ⚠️ The source PDF is physically missing pages (checked against page images; not an OCR failure): the entire prologue, the poisoning of Wu Da and the killing of the sister-in-law, and most of the self-confession are printed only in a few lines at the top of the page; all affected entries are marked [fragmentary],do not treat as complete evidence。The script does not mark any ban or qupai, only "sing / bangqiang / chorus / backstage singing / inner singing / wordless song"; the only two vocal-style annotations are "sung in Henan bangzi flavor" and "sung as an opera aria"—the performance also blends in Yue opera and pop songs, but these are not in the script; any vocal style not marked in the script does not carry structural function. This play is written in banqiang style (tanxi huqin), not qupai style.

(2) Structural layer　The whole play is not divided into scenes, with only two title pages, the prologue and the epilogue; there is no break in between, and transitions between passages rely on lighting, cloud steps, gongs and drums, banners covering the stage, and cross-time characters entering; the notes divide it by event into 14 units (see §6).The epilogue does not judge the case; it ends with debate: "The guitar changes key to play ancient tones; right and wrong, let the hundred schools contend."

(3) Aria layer　About 50 passages.To judge Sichuan opera rhyme, one cannot apply the thirteen rhymes of Mandarin: Sichuan Mandarin does not distinguish front and back nasal sounds, and renchen and zhongdong rhyme together; the entering tone is assigned to yangping, and "se ke re jie" can enter the miexie rhyme (section 6d).Reserve the risky rhyme for the longest passage(the snowy-night farewell, miexie rhyme).A change of rhyme is a change of face: Wu Song flies into a rage at the same time as he changes from yiqi to youqiu.Cross-time duets rhyme on the same rhyme: Pan Jinlian and Lü Shasha change rhyme every line while both rhyming on yanqian; Pan Jinlian catches Ximen Qing's rhyme and continues singing (the two have not met but already share the rhyme). See §8.

(4) Conventional layer　Self-introduction is transformed into two kinds: outside characters introduce themselves in their own register (Anna with a famous line from a novel, Shi Naian with his own work), and locals point it out on the spot; entrance poems and exit poems are not used at all, and exits instead use commentary, self-mockery, or debate; virtual performance is retained as is.The cloud steps are a permanent cross-time high platform: cross-time characters walk the cloud steps, people of the present dynasty walk the platform; spatial height is temporal stratification, with no need to change scenery. Write the bangqiang as a character, with four functions: saying what the character refuses to say, narrating actions on their behalf and picking up the next line, delivering judgments that point out the subtext, and inserting into the spoken dialogue as a sharp shout—not accompaniment singing, but the second speaker on stage. See §9.

⑤ Creative process　The general rule for the 9 cross-time characters: they are a commentary panel, able to converse and intervene, but unable to change the plot(Wu Zetian transmits Jinlian to the court "to make decisions for you," Jinlian covers her face and flees—the party concerned refuses to appear in court).The author's confession itself is dialogue in dramatic form(the interlocutors are Kafka, Ouyang Yuqian, Ionesco, and a critic), andthe opposing opinion is written into the article exactly as it is and given the last word；the self-positioning is magical realism, not the Theater of the Absurd, the critic blocks both sides,the two sides are placed side by side without adjudication。switch sentence(section 12b): Yi Dadan takes "modernization of xiqu," Si Guniang takes "xiqu-ization of modern drama,"a play takes only one direction; this play is the former, opposite to Shajiabang and Chaoyanggou. See §9.

⑥ Transferable techniques

  1. Cross-time characters are only allowed to comment, not to change the plot. Self-check: If any one cross-time character is deleted, does the storyline still run through? If not, it shows they have been written as a plot function, and the absurdity will collapse into time travel.
  2. Cross-time duets must rhyme in the same rhyme category. Failure case: If the two people are supposed to be "unable to speak together" (Zhima Guan), then instead they must change tune and rhyme.
  3. The bangqiang is the second speaker on stage; when writing the script, it must be assigned a division of labor. Failure case: The bangqiang belongs to the traditional apparatus of Sichuan opera high-pitched style; when transferred to Peking opera, Yu opera, or Yue opera, there is no counterpart.
  4. The most embarrassing places are given no words(the two places—crawling through the crotch and being pushed down—are given only a single "ah");the intermission can be written into the plot。Failure case: the latter can only be used in a genre where "the actor admits he is acting."Self-check: if the whole play has more than three "wordless songs," it is overuse.

VI. Luo Huaizhen · Yue opera Li Qingzhao and The Real and Fake Imperial Son-in-Law: scripts without metrical pattern markings

① Edition　Luo Huaizhen's Collected Dramatic Writings, Volume 3 (Shanghai People's Publishing House, 2008), seven Yue operas plus an afterword.The whole volume has 7 works and 496 aria markings, with 0 metrical pattern annotations—the rule is "what is marked (sings) is song, what is unmarked is spoken dialogue"; metrical patterns and vocal styles all belong to the composer.This refutes the implicit premise that "a playwright of the banqiang style must mark metrical patterns": that is a Peking opera convention (section nine places the two formulas side by side).All collected works are contemporary new compositions (1986–2003), not traditional Yue opera repertoire; The Real and Fake Imperial Son-in-Law and Snake Love mark revision years, butthe book does not include old drafts, so the differences between the two versions cannot be compared; in Blue Shirt · Red Robe the attribution differs in two places (following the end of the play, "Gong Xiaoxiong" is retained as doubtful).

② Structural level　Li Qingzhao has seven scenes,The structural method is "one scene, one ci poem"Each scene uses one of her ci poems as the scene title; within the act that poem is sung to open and close the scene; the first and last both use 《Ru Meng Ling》, the same swing, separated by fifty years. The seven scenes have 12/13/3/9/3/2/1 sung passages,the fifth scene uses one ultra-long sung passage to offset the small number of sung passages—"multiple passages" and "one long passage" are two ways of writing a heavy scenein the seventh scene the protagonist has not a single sung line,the grand finale can be un-sung。《The Real and Fake Son-in-Law》 has six scenes 18/18/7/19/5/6,the singing is pressed into the first four scenes, and the sixth scene (the golden hall climax) is almost entirely spokenthe character list notes "the twin brothers are played by the same actor"—this subject matter was generated for the role-type condition of one actor playing two roles。See §1–§2.

③ The sung-passage level　Seven-character lines are the backbone, ten-character lines are used for narration, and the two alternate freely within the same passagethe short-line registers are complete (five-character stanza, four-character couplet, three-character chain, two-character pause), long lines reach 11–13 characters andmust return to an even-line close。Yue opera expands passages by same-initial even-line parallelism, not by stacked lines—the whole volume has only 1 true stacked-line passage and it is immediately followed by a stage-business cue:Yue opera's stacked lines are the score of stage business; if not accompanied by stage business, they are not usedsame-initial2 lines are used for cross-cutting, 4 lines are standard, 6 lines is the upper limit。Rhyme: one passage, one rhyme throughout is the general rule,the trigger condition for changing rhyme within a passage is "changing the person addressed"，ren-shen rhyming with zhong-dong/geng-qing is normal(the Wu dialect phonological feature isan inference in the notes, not from the original book）。when no ban-shi is marked, the character count is the ban-shi(section 6e). See §3.

④ The conventional-program level　Deleted: self-introduction, exit poem, gongs and drums, costume and stage-hand, ban-shi, and role types are all 0.Retained: entrances and exits (without gongs and drums), circular stage walk,1 instance of singing from within an entrance(the functional position of Peking opera 【Dao Ban】),2 instances of back-to-back disclosure(marked "(dark singing)",used only for suspicion, which is a different direction from 《Sha Jia Bang》 making back-to-back disclosure into a technical center).Added：【Subtitle:】 to convey time and space(replacing self-introduction and ding-chang bai),singing from within an entrance/backstage chorus(present in all 7 works: thematic line framing, scene-setting, psychological aside, he-tou), theme song, storyteller.

⑤ The creative process　The 8 items in the postscript are the only first-hand creative record of the Yue opera part: 《The Real and Fake Son-in-Law》 was his first script to be staged, and was therefore brought in by the Shanghai Yue Opera House;《Mei Long Zhen》《Qing Shan · Hong Pao》 were "specially tailor-made for Zhang Ruihong"—the common points (male role, one actor playing many roles, long duets) are the concrete content of "tailor-made";multiple transformations of the same material(《Feng Yue Qin Huai》→Han opera 《Liu Ru Shi》→the Yue opera script in this volume);《She Lian》 changing its name means changing its theme。The six things this volume cannot support (reference must be left blank) are in §7——Do not fill in with the thirteen rhymes of Peking opera or the Zhongzhou rhyme of Yu opera。

⑥ Transferable techniques

  1. The default form of Yue opera duet singing: seven-character single lines cut in alternation, one line per person, same rhyme throughout, every line picking up the articulation relay。Failure: when three or more people are on stage together, change to "pairwise alternating cuts + one repeated-singing line to close."Self-check: cover the character names; do the lines still join into one complete passage (Section 8).
  2. Duet singing with decreasing line length (seven → five → four → two characters) expresses "the two people pressing each other tighter and tighter"; it need not be a quarrel(Meilong Town, mother and son reasoning) — placed alongside the Henan opera "dog-bite" (exclusively for quarrels, with a named metrical pattern) as two tiers:Yue opera has no metrical pattern names; the playwright can only use character count to produce this effect。
  3. Within one long singing passage, when the person addressed changes, the rhyme changes(kneeling to the mother uses the ren-chen rhyme, turning to kneel to the wife uses the yan-qian rhyme);when the same initial character is aimed at the second person, it is used for settling accounts rather than expressing emotion("I ask you / I respect you / rarely do you," each line pinning down one thing that has already happened and is irreversible).Failure: when the addressee does not change and only the emotion changes, do not change the rhyme.
  4. Reasoned argument, proof of identity, and group oppression use spoken dialogue; one person opening their heart to another uses singing。Failure: if that scene is the only major scene in the whole play and must have a big singing passage, change to "spoken dialogue advancing + one extra-long singing passage to close at the end" (Li Qingzhao, Scene 5).
  5. When the biographical subject is a poet/ci writer, use his own works as the scene frame; original works and newly written lyrics are not mixed together(Li Qingzhao, seven scenes);when writing a play for a female xiaosheng, let him cry, show weakness, sing children's songs, and give priority to one actor playing multiple roles。Failure: the latter does not apply in opera genres that make distinctions among pheasant-tail, fan, and qiongsheng role types —this is the opposite direction from Weng Ouhong's "write according to ready-made role-type routes"; the two are placed side by side(Section 4).

7. Luo Huaizhen · Local Opera: The Golden Dragon and the Mayfly, The Pawned Wife, and the Other Six Works

① Editions　Volume 2 of The Collected Drama Works of Luo Huaizhen (Shanghai People's Publishing House, 2008), eight works across six opera genres,not a single metrical pattern marking。The sample is one author, one to three works per opera genre; only Huai opera spans the three time points 1981/1992/1994, giving it higher credibility than the other five opera genres。Two works must be discounted: The Hegemon King of Western Chu was an original Beijing opera script in 1994 and adapted to Huai opera in 1998 (Beijing opera formulaic words such as "qiba" and "tama" remain in the Huai opera script); Yang Guifei was adapted from a musical (the four- and five-character short lines are left over from the musical).Rhyme categories are uniformly summarized according to Standard Mandarin; before being checked against dialect rhyme tables, they can only serve as examples of "rhyming positions."

② Structural level　The Golden Dragon and the Mayfly (1992, premiered under the title "Urban New Huai Opera")does not use "scene" but "act": prologue + five acts + epilogue; the time deliberately does not fall in any dynasty; three major subtitle jumps compress three generations into seven units, and the gaps between jumps are always filled with offstage accompaniment singing —the traditional rule of one scene, one time, one place is not broken; what is broken is the time gap between scenes。circular structure: the prologue's old king is murdered and suspended above the throne ↔ in the epilogue Jinlong is pierced by his grandson and falls on the throne —the closure of the allegory does not rely on a character arc but on structural recurrence。it has no "concentration of the main line": each of the three generations has its own line —Allegorical form may be an exception, on the condition that there must be one prop that runs throughout to replace the mainline in sustaining causality(helmet), which directly conflicts with Fan Junhong's "vertical concentration,"the two placed side by side(Section 2). "Model Wife" (2000, based on Rou Shi's "A Slave Mother") five scenes + coda,the four questions and four answers of the first scene and the coda are repeated verbatim without a single change, yet the answers are already the opposite. See §4–§6.

③ Aria layer　"Golden Dragon and Mayfly" 44 segments (Golden Dragon 12, Mayfly 11, Yufeng 8, Yuqiao 5, accompanying singing 7)——the distribution of arias itself draws the character structure: two generations of men sing in dialogue, three generations of women sing in turn；accompanying singing only covers time jumps and inner thoughts that translation cannot express, and never advances the plot。"Urban New Huai Opera" changes not the rhyme, but the variance in line length: within the same segment the number of characters rises from 3 to 14; the upper and lower lines and the rhyme endings do not move, only the middle of the line moves. "Model Wife" has 39 segments, of which the wife occupies 20;the three longest and heaviest segments are all in the fifth scene (on the way home), yet the fifth scene has no plot whatsoever; the coda (the son's death) has not a single line of singing——this is a counterexample to "reserve the arias for the scene with the greatest value reversal," a firsthand disagreement, the two placed side by side(Section 3).The closing of dialogue singing relies on character count, four kinds placed side by side: the question line shortens while the answer line does not, the answer line's final round adds two lines, both sides decrease to one character, anadiplosis chain-linking receives down to three characters (Section 8). See §6.

④ Conventionalization layer　Chorus layer: all seven works after 1992 have it (offstage accompanying singing / offstage singing / choral singing of the original poem / gang accompaniment + lotus fall / inner singing, the form varying by genre), with three functions——establishing time and space, translating inner thoughts, commenting on events,wholly replacing the opening-defining poem and the exit poem；the only one without a chorus, "The Death of Han Xin" (1981), is also the only one that still retains the opening-defining poem and the (recitation) mark——the three disappear together, which is the same thing(occupying the same functional position as the qupai-style "fumo opening + collected Tang exit poem," Section 5).Sichuan opera gang accompaniment is the only one that can be embedded inside a sung line; this is the hardest dividing line between high腔 and other banqiang-style genres in textual form. Two contemporary uses of convention:the name of the convention is written directly into the stage directions; the convention is not deleted, only its bearer is changed(Section 12c).

⑤ Creative process　10 items in the post-volume remarks: "The Death of Han Xin" is a "virgin work in the true sense," written when the author was under 25,apart from individual words and phrases, it completely retains its initial appearance——it is reliable as a sample for "comparison of the same author before and after eleven years"; adding "The Hegemon-King of Western Chu" (the same batch of characters, thirteen years apart) and "Golden Dragon and Mayfly,"the three Huai opera works are the only set in this batch that can measure the changes in the author's technique as a time series。"Urban New Xiqu" has exact works, years, and scene counts(written in 1992, premiered in Shanghai in May 1993, performed in Chengdu in September of the same year), do not write it as a general discussion.A physical comparison of bitter drama vs tragedy: in "Golden Dragon and Mayfly" the victim nods in approval of the perpetrator at the end = tragedy; in "Model Wife" the wife sits in the rain holding her dead son at the end = bitter drama (Section 12c). See §7.

⑥ Transferable techniques

  1. if no mode is marked, use character count to shift gears— In one sung passage, the four changes in line length 5→7→4→3 can produce the effects of sanban—yuanban—kuaiban—duoban (Scene 5 of Dian Qi).When ineffective— When writing a script for a traditional troupe that requires singing according to the score, the banqiang (metrical mode) should still be marked where it should be marked.Self-check— List the character count of each line as a sequence; if it is 7, 7, 7, 7 throughout, there is no rhythmic design.
  2. Duoban should stack events, not adjectives("Cross the Wu River, resist the Qin army, enter Xianyang, destroy Ying Zheng");When adapting classical material, keep the original poem for the chorus and new lyrics for the characters; do not mix the two linguistic registers.。
  3. "Same lyrics, different context" is the main structural device of contemporary new works— A passage of lyrics is repeated two or three times without changing a single word, relying on contextual reversal (the theme song appearing three times, the four questions and four answers at the beginning and end of Dian Qi, the three singings of Gaixia Ge).Self-check— If the words are changed on the second appearance, the effect immediately degrades —Changing the words is equivalent to admitting the first version was not written accurately.。
  4. One stage prop runs through the whole play’s causality(the helmet: pot → concealed name → recognizing the father → begging for food → confusion; the old umbrella: the same one goes in and out over three years).Self-check— Count how many times it appears and whether its meaning changes each time; fewer than three times or unchanged meaning means it is only scenery.
  5. The ending’s "poetic sublimation" is bound to the subject matter, not a matter of stylistic preference— Of four allegorical/legendary works, all have the dead revive / illusions fill the sky / a funeral turn into a wedding, while of four realist works, not one has any sublimation; likewise **"urban new xiqu" ≠ "syntactic rule-breaking"** (Jinlong and the Mayfly: line-length variance 3–14 / Dian Qi: regular seven- and ten-character lines) —Discussing urbanization must distinguish the allegorical and realist paths(Section 12c).Self-check— If a realist work wants to use a sublimating ending, first ask whether any non-realist scene in the previous four scenes has laid the groundwork.

VIII. Appendix on the "From Material to Vocal Design" Workflow (Synthesis of Three Peking Operas)

Each of the three operas comes with one set of materials on its creation process (Weng’s own account + Cheng Yanqiu’s three revisions / Wang Zengqi’s afterword + differences between the two versions / Tian Han’s preface + Wang Yaoqing’s five points on vocal design), which together form a complete chain. For the methodological level, see Section 16 of sw-chinese-opera-banqiang; here each step gives only the evidence.

Step Suolin Nang Shajiabang The White Snake
Material Cheng Yanqiu’s gift of the pouch for Jushuo Shanghai opera + external thematic judgment Legend + Gui opera script + field observation at Mount Emei
Dramatic core "The turn and change between poverty and wealth" "Emphasize the role of armed struggle" "For him": three concrete matters
Scene division Four scenes with shangban = four key scenes Alternating song-heavy and speech-heavy sections; only three scenes have climactic hooks The three longest scenes = the three turning points in relationships
For the actors Need comedic relief in the repertoire type Diao Deyi, a laosheng who "breaks through role type" Cut Xu Xian’s singing in the revised script (A counterexample of imbalance）
Rhyme categories of arias Shangban passages concentrated in four scenes; beginning and end share the same rhyme category One rhyme category per scene; duet passages share the same rhyme category In the confrontation, the two characters each take one rhyme category
Rewriting lyrics—composing vocal music—reviewing vocal music Cheng proposed three points → Weng revised → when composing vocal music, went back and changed words →Consulted Wang Yaoqing — Five points on vocal music, the word changes came from the actors
Final version Weng recorded "pinching off three sections," the original had four The revised version did not touch the structure, only the words The metrical pattern is a letter of intent; the vocal music of an entire scene may be changed

Three points spanning the whole script：①The metrical pattern marked by the playwright is a proposal; the lead actor has the right to change it on the premise of not touching the words; during the vocal-composition stage, the playwright's main job is "change the words, not the meaning"；②What the revised version changes is the words, not the structure; ③ **What "ten years to polish one play" polishes is the sentences**.

IX. Index of Creative Notes (Explanation and Pointers)

Weng Ouhong, *Weng Ouhong's Playwriting Career*(1985) is an autobiographical creative memoir, explaining play by playfor whom it was written, what structural decisions were made, how many drafts it went through, where it failed. The book has 42 chapters; the autobiography touches on 60 plays; the index table is arranged in chapter order,including the plays recorded chapter by chapter in the notes (about 45 plays); those not recorded one by one are not listed. Columns: Play / For whom written / Structural decisions / Draft revisions / Success or failure / Page number.The table is in reference-chuangzuoji.md §1。 Use it to look up three kinds of things:what kind of script a certain actor wanted(Cheng Yanqiu wanted comedy to vary the play types, Ye Shenglan wanted poor-scholar full-length plays, Tan Fuying wanted rhyme-category changes);why a script could not be staged(the play's name suffered by seniority, the lead actor at the height of fame was unwilling to add one more foot to the old measure, after a play became a great hit the horses were turned loose on the southern mountain, banned from performance);which technique came from which play(curtain lamp and casket sword = *General and Minister in Harmony*, setting off the clouds to bring out the moon / applying powder to the back = *The Unicorn Purse*, grass-snake gray line = *Havoc in Heaven*, separated strands gathered into a fan and selecting troops to build momentum = *Ximen Bao*, different roads returning to the same destination = *The Thorn Hairpin*).

Fan Junhong, *Collected Essays on Opera Playwriting*, adaptation notes on seven plays(Women Generals of the Yang Family, Jiujiang Mouth, Hunting the Tiger, The Butterfly Cup, The White-Haired Girl, Tracks in the Snowy Forest, plus a summary of the failure of Sleeping on Brushwood and Tasting Gall); columns: Play / Source text / What was changed / Basis / Consequences,the table is in §2. The three most reusable points:"feel out four bottoms"(historical bottom, performance bottom, style bottom, script bottom; before starting, begin from the "periphery");the self-negation in the three revisions of *The Butterfly Cup*(at the time, "as long as it stands up ideologically, it doesn't matter if it's a bit weaker artistically," deleting *The Bridal Chamber* also deleted the forced marriage; the third revision changed back to "keep the forced marriage, drop the bridal chamber");the two criteria for cutting scenes in the revived production of *Hunting the Tiger*—"dragging" and "jumping". For three examples of the collective adaptation workflow, see §3.

X. Index of Transferable Techniques (Looking Up Cases by Technique)

The ⑥ of each case is its technique entry,failure conditions and self-check actions are only in that one entry; do not cite them separately apart from it. Find cases by technique:

  • Metrical patterns and rhyme categories: Upper-board sections are concentrated in key scenes (I·③) / long singing is interrupted at n nodes with positional variation (I·2) / only free-rhythm aria types can be split for inserted spoken lines (II·③④) / long singing is segmented by aria type (III·③) / when the sentence pattern changes, the aria type should change (IV·③) / when no aria type is marked, use character count to shift gears (VII·1) / the lead actor has the right to change aria type without changing the lyrics (I·⑤, VIII) / key scenes stick to one rhyme throughout, with beginning and end on the same rhyme (I·3) / one rhyme per scene; back-to-back duets use the same rhyme (II·③) / in confrontation, the two parties each take one rhyme (III·3) / broad rhymes are the default for colloquial scripts (IV·③) / changing rhyme means falling out (V·③) / changing the person addressed means changing rhyme (VI·3).
  • Division of labor between sung lyrics and sung-spoken passages: pile-up phrases only in the lower line of an upper-board section (I·③) / three elements for bringing colloquial speech into song (IV·1) / three-character lead-in lines make large singing sections (IV·2) / sentence length decreases progressively (IV·3, VI·2) / list of pile-up events (VII·2) / group scenes use spoken dialogue, two-person confrontations use song (IV·②) / argument uses spoken dialogue, heart-to-heart uses song (VI·4) / terms of address as transition points (IV·④, VI) / repeated spoken words with question words before resuming song (II·3) / the two theories are juxtaposed: reserving singing sections for the turning-point scene (IV·③) and for the scene before the turning point (VII·③).
  • Conventions: whether the protagonist appears or not (I·④) / modern plays cut three items, retain the aside and inner singing (II·④, IV·④) / branded tunes are given only to non-human characters (III·④) / the chorus serves as a second speaker (V·3) / the three functions of the song troupe replace the entrance poem and exit poem; convention names are written into the stage directions (VII·④).
  • Structure and adaptation: comic quality is given to the supporting cast ensemble (I·1) / old words are returned to him as they are (I·4) / three-column account for organizing old plays (III·1) / moving a section replaces the vocal style of an entire scene (III·2) / retelling carries new information (III·4) / reunion is given only one image (III·5) / walk the same road twice (IV·5) / cross-temporal characters only comment (V·1) / stage properties run through causality (VII·4) / same words, different situations (VII·3) / poetic sublimation is tied to subject matter (VII·5) / revising a play changes words but not structure (II·⑤, VIII) / probe the four foundations and "drag" and "jump" (IX).

XI. Comparison with materials in the qupai style

"Pan Jinlian" (Section V) and "Bashan Xiucai" (see sw-chinese-opera-qupai-cases) are a control pair by the same author, in the same opera genre, with two sets of writing methods: "Bashan Xiucai" = Sichuan opera high腔 = qupai style (tune names marked, 43 qupai table, nine sections of chorus), "Pan Jinlian" = tanxi huqin = banqiang style (not a single tune name).This is the cleanest set of evidence that "dividing repertories is a vocal-system matter, not an opera-genre matter"; the two sides point to each other and are not separated: the qupai-style half (not formed into suites, selecting tunes in scattered fragments, one rhyme per section while character count is free) in sw-chinese-opera-qupai-cases。

Two other control pairs:chorus (high腔)—he tou (Yu opera)—offstage singing (Yue opera) are three forms of the same functional position；the fumo opening plus collected Tang exit poem and the song troupe plus 【subtitle:】 are two sets of devices for the same function. The full-text materials of Yuan zaju, chuanqi, Kunqu, and Sichuan opera high腔 are in sw-chinese-opera-qupai-cases。