sw-chinese-opera-banqiang

Chinese Opera Playwriting: the Banqiang System

Output language = question language; terms are always anchored back to the original word, see sw-workflow/terms.md, do not coin translated names. Chinese opera terms (板腔体, 曲牌体, 韵辙, 板式, 行当, 程式, 宾白, 科介) have no English counterparts; in any language, keep the original word plus a one-sentence gloss.

Which sections to read depending on the task (do not read straight through)

Task	Read	Skip
Write a passage of sung lyrics	Six, Seven, 〇之二	One, Eleven, Twelve, Thirteen
Set the 板式 and decide whether to mark it	Nine, Ten, 6a	Two, Three, Eleven
Write for a certain actor / a certain 行当	Four, One, Fourteen	Eleven, Twelve, Thirteen
Adapt an old play / organize traditional material	Eleven, Five, 〇之二	Twelve, Thirteen
Write a modern play	12a, Five, 6e, Nine	Thirteen, Fourteen
Determine the genre, whether it can be taken on	〇之一, 〇之二, One	The rest
Mark the gongs and drums and the 场面 qupai	Nine,reference.md §4–§5	Two, Three, Eleven, Twelve
Diagnose an existing script	Fifteen, then check back by failed item	The rest

The five reference works are opened only when the main text points to a certain section:reference-shisanzhe.md(the character-by-character table of the thirteen 辙, must be opened when writing sung lyrics),reference.md(Peking opera 板式 / 韵辙 / gongs and drums / qupai),reference-yuju-difang.md(Yu opera and local opera genres),reference-hangdang.md(行当 and leading-actor files),reference-common.md(the layer shared by the two systems).

Sources and their relation to each book

Fan Junhong gives the entries, Weng Ouhong gives the examples and failure conditions. Liu Jidian and Fan Shanglin give the constraints on wording and lines, and are the only two books that can answer "how many characters per line does this 板式 require".Zhang Geng and Guo Hancheng give the basis for the definition layer and the boundaries of the medium. Luo Huaizhen gives the topic-selection layer, the style layer, and the opera-genre positioning layer, and is also the only large sample of "banqiang-system scripts that do not mark the 板式".Lu Jun gives the method for sung lyrics(6c original text preserved).Full-text corpusgives verifiable numbers; where method books and definitive texts disagree,the definitive text prevails, and self-account is treated as intent。

〇之一, Why divide by vocal-system type rather than by opera genre

	曲牌体(Yuan zaju, chuanqi, Kunqu; Sichuan opera high-pitched singing)	板腔体(Peking opera, Yu opera, Yue opera, Qinqiang, Pingju, Hu opera, Huai opera; Cantonese opera banghuang)
Structural unit	zajufour zhe and one xiezi; chuanqi several dozenchu	chang
How to write the sung lyrics	tianci: Qupai have fixed character counts, sentence patterns, and tonal patterns; qupai suites	Upper and lower lines: seven or ten characters, sustained by changes in banshi to support the aria, with an indefinite number of lines
The playwright must understand	qupai prosody, gongdiao, Northern and Southern qu	the correspondence between banshi and emotion, rhyme categories

Genre is not the axis for dividing skills: the differences among Jing, Yu, and Yue are a matter of which rhyme table and which banshi table to consult; it is reference, not skill. Butmethods can cross genres, genre temperament cannot: "what is difficult to resolve is precisely the aura lurking behind technique" (luo-v6 p0034).Divide skills by vocal system, take on work by aura.

Two unclean edges：Cantonese operaBanghuang is banshi, xiaoqu is lyric-filling; the two sets are mixed and use the nine tones of Cantonese, so test once the material comes in;Sichuan opera is a genre that crosses systems within a single script, gaoyang belongs to the qupai form,labeling the vocal system is itself the playwright's job, and both skills must be read. For evidence (the vocal-system attribution of Wei Minglun's two plays and "vocal system treated as a character label"), see reference.md §15。

Part Two, Medium Boundary Table

Group	Which item of the general layer	Judgment (basis)
Structure	Qi-cheng-zhuan-he, eight kinds of openings, eight methods of endings	Yes, first choice; in xiqu it is simultaneously the interface of musical structure (zhang-guo p0132, p0223)
Structure	BS2 fifteen beats, 40 cards, page table	No; xiqu is a fluid scene-by-scene structure (zhang-guo p0223)
Structure	Law of alternating stage arrangements	Yes, "common to both systems"（wang-jilie p0169）
Structure	Structure has only the story layer	Not enough; there is alsotechnical structure(fan p0318), and technique layout is the fourth layer (zhang-guo p0436)
Structure	Suspense relies on concealment	Reverse；do not keep secrets from the audience(fan p0023); secrets are kept from those on stage (zhang-guo p0471)
Structure	Seven skills at the series layer	No. Serialized plays ≠ series; length is determined by the performance occasion (zhang-guo p0055; weng-bianju p0036)
Character	Three-dimensional character	Yes, but role type precedes three-dimensionality（zhang-guo p0341–0344）
Character	Character arc, one hundred percent characterization	Partly; character need not develop to become a type (Fan), zhang-guo p0082 strongly refutes,juxtapose without adjudicating
Character	Conflict requires an opponent who is present	Not necessary; submerged conflict (zhang-guo p0232) = Luo's "misfortune without a responsible person" (luo-v6 p0085)
Language	Beauty of language, naturalness/elegance; recognizable with the name covered; no parenthetical notes	The first two itemsYes(zhang-guo p0253, p0251); parenthetical notesnot applicable, Stage directions are the main text (p0120)
Language	The playwright does not concern himself with tonal prosody	There is a lower bound: responsibility stops at tonal patterns and line patterns, but no dead knots may be left (zhang-guo p0294, p0304)
Language	Metrical patterns are a matter for the music department	There is an upper bound: metrical pattern annotation is a letter of intent(tian preface p0012), paired with the lower bound
Language	There is no fixed interface for shifting from spoken dialogue to song	There is: the terms-of-address interface, "common to both systems"(yang; luo-v3 seven parts; Wu Mei, "Jingmeng")
Format	spec/scene-number system/pillar ・ト書き (`sw-format-adaptation` the default value of 二之二 "all-Chinese dialogue uses the scene-number system")	cannot; that default value governs only film and series,`sw-format-adaptation` the opera exception is already noted; banqiang style has two mutually exclusive formats, see Section 9
Format	Conventions are deletable padding	Not so, but there are material conditions: once division into acts came, the prologue, the entrance poem, the self-introduction, the qiba, and the interlude were deleted accordingly (liu p0143)
Format	One script, one vocal style	Sichuan opera is not；Annotating the vocal style is the playwright's job（wei-bashan p0026）
Rehearsal	Enter late, exit early; writing the script fully = writing the play fully	The formerdoes not apply, ink is allocated according to "whether it has a relation to emotional experience" (p0197); the latterdoes not hold, butnegative space is written out（p0202）
Rehearsal	Changing lyrics is textual revision	Not so: changing lyrics necessarily changes the tune（zhang-guo p0057）
Rehearsal	Spoken-drama techniques can be transplanted wholesale	Half possible; return actions must fall back into conventional body movement; rigidly applying physical logic is necessarily wrong (weng-bianju p0411, document 4)
Production	Production scale is a matter of resources	Reverse; "not a single opera work needs a big production" (luo-v6 p0170). Self-check: does it still stand if reduced to one table and two chairs
Production	Broadening subject matter is always good	Open up forward, cannot open up in reverse(luo-v6 p0174); counterexample: Yue opera performing fierce warriors, positive example: "Snake Love" (p0099)

Shared layer (the three natures and the image theory, the two rulers of emptiness-solidity and abstraction-concreteness, the rehearsal layer, the lower bound of adaptation, which period "tradition" refers to, the method of defining genre resources) see reference-common.md。

I. First determine the system and genre

Two sets of classifications stand side by side, not merged: Fan Junhong's four divisions (singing/acting/martial/equal emphasis, fan p0148); Weng Ouhong's three divisions (singing plays/spoken plays/martial plays, weng-lunwenji p0459)—in singing plays there is "little recitation, little body movement, little dance," and recitation is used only to "turn the plot or end the singing of a certain passage."

Fan's three bases（fan p0148–0150）：Characters(tragic characters with weak action → singing plays; strong action and distinct personality → recitation and acting primary; tongchui and qingyi are suited to singing, jiazi and huadan to recitation and acting, wusheng should sing as little as possible, wuchou does not sing),Plot(no dance capacity → can only be a singing-focused play; with dance capacity → singing and recitation combined with dance; group scenes → equal emphasis),Style(tragedy emphasizes singing, comedy emphasizes recitation and acting).Invalidating condition: "Yi Peng Xue" is a great tragedy yet is not made into a singing-focused play.Weng adds a cut: civil plays and martial playsdepends on how the main characters resolve the conflict, not on the scale of events（p0468）。

Self-check: before putting pen to paper, write down "the format of this play = ×××"; if the number of singing lines and the number of spoken lines are close, the format is unclear. Another measure is Gu Zhongyi's open type (full-length) / closed type (zhezixi) (gu p0170), which likewise cannot be switched mid-way.

II. Concentration of the main line: three-way comparison, no adjudication

	Formulation	Source
Li Yu	establish the main idea, reduce side threads("one person, one matter" is his line of formulation; this skill does not use it, pointing to `sw-chinese-opera-qupai`）	weng-bianju p0352 quoted
Fan Junhong	vertical concentration: one central event, with causes and consequences—opposite in direction to drama's "horizontal concentration"; the more layers, the more characters there must be, the more entrances and exits there must be, "then it is not the structural method of xiqu"	fan p0020–0022
Weng Ouhong	Li Yu's "is, after all, one person's view"; when writing a play, use methods such as "horizontal clouds cutting the ridge", "grass-snake grey line", "curtain lamp box sword", "powdering the back", "baking clouds to support the moon", and "there is no need to tell the audience clearly how many people are in this family"	weng-bianju p0352

Weng's six methods also include separated-strand gathering fans, selecting troops and storing momentum, different paths converging, swirling return waves, light crimson, and spiral earthworm curves. Three are executable:curtain lamp box sword(even if the protagonist does not appear, it still counts as a scene;invalidating condition: this scene must advance the protagonist's line of action, p0297);baking clouds to support the moon / powdering the back(before the protagonist appears, first write the offstage protagonist, p0141;terminological conflict: Weng's meaning = within one play use contrasting characters to set off the protagonist; Wei Minglun's meaning = use the old era to set off the new era, wei-bashan p0077; the two cannot be merged);selecting troops and storing momentum(the characters to be used must be selected in advance and connected to the whole play, p0392).

Self-check: should an expository opening scene be added—the protagonist's second entrance iscarrying the dramaorwaiting for the drama(p0349); summarize each scene with oneguanmu, and if it cannot be summarized, reduce side threads (fan p0022).Concentration ≠ merging two or three scenes into one: "what should be concentrated but is not concentrated is called scattered; what should not be concentrated but is forcibly concentrated is likewise scattered" (p0020).Reverse limitation: allegorical form may be an exception, on condition that there is one running prop maintaining causality (luo-v2 p0057)—place the two side by side.

III. Technical structure and stage arrangement

Technical structure(Fan's own coined term, fan p0318): complete xiqu structure = story structure + technical structure, namely the layout of singing, recitation, acting, and fighting across the scenes.
Law of alternating stage arrangements(Common to both systems, wang-jilie p0169): "If the first act is sung by the sheng and the second act by the dan, then the third act must use a broad-voice role or a lively ensemble piece; if after two or three acts of slow arias and long suites, one must intersperse a short transitional scene or a comic piece performed by the chou or jing."Self-check: List the scenes in a row by "cold/hot"; if three consecutive scenes are cold or hot, an insertion is needed.
Short transitional scenes"Without this, the plot does not connect and the threads do not link" (wang-jilie p0166).Historical baseline of the old repertoire's proportions(luo-v6 p0141): Of twenty scenes, at least fifteen transitional scenes and three to five core aria passages—Scope of application: The period of the outline system, not today's benchmark.The alternation of cold and hot is also a physical scheduling chart(zhang-guo p0227). For a sample scene breakdown, see reference-hangdang.md §5。

IV. Role type determines the writing method; write plays for the actors

Definition level(zhang-guo p0341–0347): Role type is "both an image system and a convention system," determined by thefive factors(natural attributes / social attributes [core] / style, solemn or comic / aesthetic evaluation / technical specialty); the termsben-gong / ying-gong / liang-men-bao; it can be changed midway but must have an event as the clasp. Bottom line: "One must seek individuality from within the type."

There are only two types of vocal style: the big-voice type (represented by the laosheng, to which hualian, chou, and laodan also belong) and the small-voice type (represented by the dan, to which xiaosheng also belongs)—For the jing, laodan, and chou, write lyrics as for the laosheng; for the xiaosheng, write as for the dan（liu p0015）。
Role-type taboos are hard rules: The jing does not sing fan-erhuang, does not sing traditional erhuang manban, and does not sing sipingdiao; nanbangzi is given only to the dan and xiaosheng; suona erhuang is given to hongsheng and hongjing; nanluois spoken only, not sung(liu p0272 etc.; for the full table see reference-hangdang.md §4）。
For the wusheng, writing singing is capped at six to eight lines, with preference for sanban and yaoban; singing must be inserted between martial fights（weng-lunwenji p0033、p0038）；Conditions under which this fails: A wusheng who also works in laosheng can be given more latitude. The same tragic event falling on different role types must be written as different emotions—the wusheng's grief must turn outward within the same scene (p0085).
To add scenes for a lead actor, first look at the gaps in his repertoire list, not only at the subject matter（weng-bianju p0137）；Conditions under which this fails: After a play becomes a great hit, the actor "puts his horse out to pasture in the southern mountains," and the next script instead cannot be rehearsed (p0278).The distribution of aria passages should take the physical stamina curve into account(weng-lunwenji p0187); for the archive see reference-hangdang.md §3。

A juxtaposition of opposite directions: Weng "writes according to the existing paths of role types," while Luo Huaizhen "creates subject matter according to the actor's plasticity"—Yue opera female xiaoshengleads the singing in four of seven works,one actor playing two / one actor playing many is a structure written for her, andthe xiaosheng can cry, show weakness, and sing children's songs（luo-v3 p0006/p0236、p0264）。Modern drama: role types recede, functional positions remain—"Chaoyang Gou" does not mark role types: Er Daniao = caidan (the only comic bearer in the whole play), Shuanbao's mother = laodan path (yang suggestion 6).

V. The use of conventions

A script can be written as a set combination(qiba, tangma, zoubian),but cannot be written as a single convention(xiayao, shuanling, zhang-guo p0338).The material conditions under which conventions fail: Once division into acts came, the entrance yinzi, dingchang shi, self-introduction, qiba, and transitional scenes were deleted along with it (liu p0143);Self-check: Once curtains are used, do not copy the traditional entrance-and-exit routines.
Item 9 of the afterword to "Shajiabang" is the skeleton: "Cutting the explanatory idle text of entrances and exits" and "abolishing the gongs and drums for entrances and exits, and the exits and entrances of generals and ministers" are the same thing—the abolition of conventions is abolished together with the scene structure; in seven of the ten scenes, "the curtain rises and they are already present" (wang §1.5).
Gu Zhongyi's checklist of conventions(gu p0189–0193) can serve as an inspection checklist, but he is play-script-centric: three times he judges song-and-dance and martial fighting as "theatricality" rather than dramatic quality (p0110, p0214), and he himself cites "Zhou Cheng Presents His Sister-in-law" and "Recognizing the Mother in the Nunnery" as counterevidence (p0147)—the two views stand side by side, without adjudication。
Chorus layer(luo-v2 §1.7): Luo Huaizhen's seven works after 1992,every one has a chorus layer(offstage solo / chorus / backing vocals / lianhualao), with three functions:establish time and space, translate the inner mind, comment on events, and together with 【Caption:】,it wholly replaces the opening quatrain and the exit quatrain. With the qupai-style "fumo opening + collected Tang exit quatrain" it is two sets of devices occupying the same functional position (mutually referring with sw-chinese-opera-qupai ).Failure condition (hard rule): When both the opening quatrain is deleted and no chorus is provided, the establishment of time and space must have two independent bearers (caption + song or action); if only one remains, it fails.Self-check: After deleting the chorus lyrics, reread: are time, place, and commentary still established by anyone?

Six, Lyrics

6a Parallel Couplets and Line Division

Authoritative line division(liu p0016, p0176): seven characters =two·two·three, ten characters =three·three·four；The end of the upper line mostly uses oblique tones and mostly does not rhyme; the end of the lower line uses level tones and must rhyme. Line division has nothing to do with ban-style, only with character count.
This is a default value, not a hard constraint：More than eight lines must produce a variant form(p0177); variant forms have existed traditionally—in "Catching and Releasing Cao," Chen Gong begins singing fromthe lower line, and in "Returning to Jingzhou," Sun Shangxiangthrows the upper lineas she exits (fan p0143).
A sung passage must have an even number of lines（p0175），The only legal exit is 【Sao Tou】；The two must be stated in parallel: If 【Sao Tou】 is not marked and an odd number of lines is written, the actor has nowhere to close the tune. A complete sung passage must itself have introduction, development, turn, and conclusion (fan p0107);Self-check: Identify which line is its "turn." For the three-column table of ban-style, see reference.md §1–§2; for the 54 types of Yu opera, see reference-yuju-difang.md §1。

6b Key line

Four implementations of the same functional position, all called **"first find that line"**: Li Yu's "separate interpretation of wutou" / Wu Mei / Wang Jilie (see sw-chinese-opera-qupai the wutou section) / Lu Jun's "key line determines the rhyme."The naming of a sung passage takes the key line, not the opening line(nine of the sixteen sections in the "Chaoyang Gou" score are like this, yang item 15);Self-check: "Which line will the audience remember?" If that line is not in the most conspicuous place, rearrange it.

6c Three excellences of lyrics (Lu Jun, original text retained)

Choose the rhyme well: Determine the rhyme according to the character's personality; determine the rhyme according to the key line (first write the brilliant key sung line—embodying the theme/describing the mood/revealing a change in relationships—then determine the rhyme from it); broad rhymes (ren-chen, jiang-yang, yan-qian, with many characters, easy to write but prone to sameness) and narrow rhymes (ye-xie, fa-hua, with few characters, but if apt, refreshingly new);Same-character rhyme's charm (dozens of "shou", nearly a hundred "ren", "ni" "wo"). For four sets of examples see reference.md §9。
Structure woven well: avoid uniformly seven-character and ten-character lines; borrow line patterns from different qupai ("yinyang xue" question and answer, "fuzi ban" narration); vary with the environment and performance style (the three-part song, chorus, side singing, and antiphonal singing of the sedan-chair dance); palindrome can express heart-wrenching feeling ("men wu xin wo fu ren, ren fu wo xin wu men")—line patterns and qupai styles should avoid being rigid and uniform.
Layout well: avoid "not singing when one should sing, singing when one should not" and "singing a passage here and a passage there, fragmentary and trivial"; carefully design key scenes (the key moments of the male and female protagonists' emotional expression, intense conflict, and fateful turning points) into whole blocks of musical scenes; sung passages handed down through the ages all stand out from heavy scenes.

Two supplements: Weng's technical layer on rhyme feet "the upper line opens the rhyme category, the lower line layers the jade" (weng-bianju p0013); rhyme categories correspond to emotions and there are role-type taboos (weng-lunwenji p0310).A disagreement on one point: Lu Jun's "sung passages fall in heavy scenes" is opposite to Luo Huaizhen's Dianqi (luo-v2 p0146);the two stand side by side, and Luo's holds only when the "previous scene" is on the road of the character knowing their own fate.

6d The whole-play layout of rhyme categories and the true scale of rhyming

Whole-play layout(parallel to "rhyme determined by personality", not merged): Suolin Nangchanges rhyme category scene by scene, with beginning and end both rhyming on yao-tiao（suo §6）。the two in confrontation each occupy one rhyme category(in Duan Qiao, Bai on jiang-yang / Xu on yan-qian, tian item 7);conditions for invalidity: two people who are allies or in the same situation need not be divided by rhyme category.
The true scale of rhyming(measured in Chaoyang Gou, yang §3):lower lines 100% rhyme, upper lines about fifty percent; permitted arerhyming across neighboring categories, dialect-based rhyme categorization, and changing rhyme category within a section(only at emotional turning points);narrow rhymes not used even once—colloquial scripts and group singing default to broad rhymes. Narrow rhymes are reserved for the longest and most important passage (pan p0043); if apt characters cannot be found, retreat to broad rhymes.
The three rhyme tables are not mutually interchangeable：The thirteen rhyme categories are Peking opera's old thirteen rhyme categories(differing from northern speech in three places: geng-qing goes to ren-chen, entering tone is retained as shangkou characters, ju-yu goes to yi-qi, liu p0169–0171);Henan opera follows Zhongzhou phonology and has no rhyme-category division table（yuju p0014）；Sichuan opera uses Sichuan Mandarin(pan p0040); Yue opera rhymes ren-chen with zhong-dong/geng-qing (luo-v3 C3, "summarized from notes"). Tables see reference.md §3, character-by-character table reference-shisanzhe.md、reference-yuju-difang.md §4、§7。

6e Piled phrases and colloquial speech entering sung lyrics

The complete specifications of piled phrases(six great piles in Suolin Nang, suo item 3):only in shangban sections, only in lower lines, three-character pauses mixed with four-character pauses, maximum 26 characters；Self-check: delete all piled phrases, and the remaining regular upper and lower lines must still be complete and smooth（liu p0217）。Once the line pattern changes, the metrical pattern should shift(yang suggestion 4): Wherever the score says "switch to [duoban]", the lyrics must at the same time become three-/four-character duoban—A playwright who doesn't understand melody can still set the metrical-mode switch points；Self-check: draw a line at every metrical-mode switch point in a core aria; the sentence pattern on the two sides of the line (seven-character/ten-character/duo) must change at least once—if it doesn't change, the mode switch is pointlessin Yu opera, duo phrases are written only under duoziban and liushui duoban (yuju item 5).

Colloquial speech entering the lyrics(mutually referring with Lu Jun's "natural beauty surpasses elegant beauty"):The three-piece set = direct quotation + real numbers + dialect reduplication; if two of the three are missing, fall back to spoken dialogue；Turning an ordinary matter into a big aria depends on one repeated three-character lead phrase("You write down:" leads four times = 22 lines, yang p0056),Failure condition: if the lead phrase exceeds five times it turns into a doggerel jingle.Symbolic parallel couplets should choose natural phenomena whose cause and effect cannot change（weng-bianju p0407）。Yue opera is not written this way: among 496 aria markers there is only one true duo phrase; expansion of a section relies onparallelism of equal-length lines with the same initial character(six lines is the upper limit)——Yue opera's duo phrases are the score for stage movement; if not accompanied by stage movement, don't use them（luo-v3 B1–B4）。

VII. The seam between spoken dialogue and sung-spoken passages

Singing and reciting have six functions(lyric expression, dialogue, exposition, technique, prompting, dance, fan p0096);Whether to sing or to recitedepends on whether the content can be constrained by meter and whether the other party can react (p0089).Failure condition: the protagonist has a long stretch of singing, and the opposing party is left with only limited reactions.Self-check: after this passage is sung, does the other person on stage still have any business?
Group scenes use speech, two-person confrontations use song(in "Chaoyang Gou" scene 5 the speech-to-song ratio is 8:92, scene 8 is 73:26);Failure condition: ritual group scenes are the opposite.Teasing previews use speech, judgments require the other party to switch to song(yang items 7–8).
Forms-of-address interface (hard rule, common to both systems): call the person first, then begin singing—"Yinhuan! (sings)……" "Mother-in-law, sit down quickly. (sings) Mother-in-law, you sit down." Three sets of material, three vocal systems, three eras.Self-check: is the line before each sung passage a form of address? Failure condition: solo singing, inner singing, and offstage singing do not apply;Substitute rule: these three types instead usea lead-in line——the preceding line must be an action or half a sentence that pushes the sung passage out;Self-check: if you delete the line before a solo passage, can the singing still get started?
"Shajiabang"'s three speech-song formats(wang items 6–7)Can only be done on sanban-type metrical modes: the yaoban is cut by speech into five segments / the final line slides directly into speech / after singing, the opponent comments in speech——The choice of metrical mode directly determines the textual form；Failure condition: if switched to a metrically regular mode, inserting speech will wreck the tune. Recited speech can also replace the first two clauses of a sung line (dingban, liu p0256).
The cause of "spoken drama plus singing" is not too much recited speech, but rhythm being cut off(fan p0134): "Either the sung passages are concentrated and continuous; or the levels of dialogue are changed and rearranged anew."

8. Dialogue Singing

The three Yu Opera clapper-style forms dedicated to dialogue singing are elevated to general clapper-and-aria writing(Peking Opera dialogue singing has no proper names, yuju p0212/0214/0221):Erba Liantan(clapper starts and clapper ends, line after line connected, upper and lower lines split among different characters; used for reunion and celebration) /Gou Si Yao(multiple lines → two lines → one line → half-line decreasing; used for courtroom confrontation) /Liushui Liuban(the last line does not send off the clapper, but is handed to the next person to continue singing).

Line length decreases in two grades, they cannot be mixed：quarrel grade(Gou Si Yao, mother and daughter in scene 8 of Chaoyang Gou)no speed-up note is written, the rhythm is self-evident, after decreasing to a half-line one side must say one more line to close the section (yang item 12);reasoning grade(Yue Opera Meilong Zhen mother and son seven → five → four → two characters, one rhyme throughout, luo-v3 p0231)——Yue Opera has no clapper-style names, the character count itself is Yue Opera's clapper style。Four closing methods are listed side by side, they cannot be merged(luo-v2 item 2): question lines shorten while answer lines do not change / answer lines add two more lines in the last round / both sides decrease to one character / anadiplosis relay until three characters;self-check: if the character counts of the last three exchanges are the same as before, then it has not closed.

Syntax of conflict scenes(fan p0116): the number of lines and the clapper style decrease from slow to urgent, upper single and lower double have the same character count and are parallel,the main side's dialogue is placed in the lower line——Sister Aqing's ten lines in "Zhi Dou" from Shajiabangall fall on lower lines, five groups with no exception。failure condition: if single lines are written as "two-two-three" and double lines as "three-three-four", then "the tense atmosphere will inevitably disappear"; if writing a scene where the protagonist is being suppressed and beaten, then it is the reverse.Fan also criticizes the abuse of beigong("falling into the cliché of the new tradition", fan p0135)——Shajiabang is both a model example and its own negative teaching material, the two are listed side by side.

three other items：the first line of the continuation must use a tune(weng-lunwenji p0462); the script of a dialogue-singing play =two six-level emotional step tables interwoven + one spoken passage as a rhythm transition(Chisang Zhen p0460);Yue Opera default formis seven-character single lines cut in pairs, same rhyme throughout,self-check: if the character names are covered, can it still be connected into a passage?(luo-v3 D4) bangqiang (Sichuan Opera high-pitched style)—hetou (Yu Opera)—singing from behind the curtain (Yue Opera) are three forms of the same functional position,bangqiang moved to other clapper-and-aria opera genres has no counterpart(pan item 5), see the three-column table reference-yuju-difang.md §6。

9. What the playwright must mark: two forms listed side by side

"The playwright of clapper-and-aria opera must mark the clapper style" is not a universal rule. First choose one set of conventions before starting to write.

Peking Opera form(Weng Ouhong's general outline line; evidence: the score edition of Suo Lin Nang, the 1955 edition of The White Snake, the 1965 edition of Shajiabang): the playwright must alsowrite a gong and drum outline for the drummer, write a stage-management outline for the stage, and design costumes and makeup(weng-bianju p0009). Must markclapper style（p0053）、opening and closing gong and drum(for deleted lines use [Saotou]),entrance and exit gong and drum、scene qupai、Costume Change Table and Props Table(suo Article 14); for the correspondence table and notation method, see reference.md §4–§6。Insert spoken lines into key arias and sew them back with "continued singing"；Self-check: In a key scene, if "(sing)" appears more than four times, it is most likely that one aria has been broken apart.

Yueju style(Luo Huaizhen's line; evidence: seven Yueju works with 496 aria markers, eight local opera works,0 instances of meter marking): the rule is "what is marked with (sing) is song, what is not marked is spoken"，Use 【Caption: ......】 to establish time and spaceinstead of self-introduction and entrance verse,role types, gongs and drums, costumes, and stagehands are never written（luo-v3 E、luo-v2 §1.7）。when meter is not marked, word count is the meter: shifting word count from 5→7→4→3 can produce the effect of sanban—yuanban—kuaiban—duoban (luo-v2 p0147); the switching of long and short lines and duanju itself are meter hints for the composer—this is two sides of the same thing as 《朝阳沟》's "when the sentence pattern changes, the meter should turn."Self-check: list the word count of each line as a sequence; if it is 7, 7, 7, 7 throughout, there is no rhythmic design.Failure condition: Jingju-style scripts still need meter marking (《潘金莲》 is the same as Yueju style, marking only "sing／backing vocals").Meter intentions are issued separately in the 《唱段表》 to the composer and huqin player; the main text uses word count and line length as hints—that is, the structure of the 《朝阳沟》 script plus the score appended after the book; the "meter intentions" in the X4 deliverables refer to exactly this table.

Three things shared by both styles：①Jingju qupai are instrumental settings, same name but different thing from qupai in qupai-style composition(liu p0071), and cannot be handled according to qupai-style prosody, but for the few qupai with singing, "fitting lyrics to the tune" is the playwright's job (weng-lunwenji p0482). ②leave action to the actors: the script is written only up to "fight begins";Failure condition: if the fight carries a plot turn, the deployment of enemy and allies must be written clearly (wang Article 16). ③The first task in editing a traditional script is pronunciation and phrasing, not plot（weng-bianju p0027）。

Ten, Interfaces with Actors and the Huqin Player

Upper bound: meter marking is a letter of intent(tian preface p0012); evidence: Daocao 【Gaobozi】→【Suona Erhuang】, Hebo 【Xipi】→【Erhuang】.Self-check: for every uncommon meter marked, write one sentence on "why it is this one"; if no reason can be written, it will certainly be changed in performance.
Lower bound: the playwright's responsibility stops at tonal patterns and line patterns（zhang-guo p0294）。The only criterion for inverted charactersis "yangping may be sung high, but yinping alone may not come out low" (liu p0158); self-check: read aloud the four tones of the final character of each line and the character on the melisma.
Wang Yaoqing's five points on melody(tian p0012): lyrics need not be too regular ("otherwise it is actually harder to vary the melody")／scenes may be cut but arias must be relocated (cut 《煎药》, move the 【Erhuang Manban】 duet into 《释疑》)／make wording more colloquial／do not reject external vocal styles／an entire scene may switch vocal-system.
Cheng Yanqiu's three revisions(weng-bianju p0141): 【Xipi Yuanban】 cut into three sections to match "Three Yieldings of the Seat" (Note: the score version has four sections)／"write more long and short lines, so I can shape the melody according to the characters"／change the final scene's 【Nanbangzi】 to 【Erliu】without changing the lyrics。Self-check: If the meter is changed to a neighboring one, can the lyrics still be sung?
Changing the lyrics requires changing the tune（zhang-guo p0057）。Agree on five things before putting pen to paper(zhang-guo p0421): layout, plot development, scene interweaving, character arrangement, stage handling, and technical display.

Eleven. Organizing traditional subject matter, mutual adaptation between excerpts and full-length plays, and adaptation on assignment

Keep three tracks in separate accounts(weng-bianju p0251 etc.):Organizing= preserve the original appearance as much as possible;Adapting= eliminate the dross and select the essence, and re-edit;Transplanting= grasp the main outline and start afresh. First write down which category it belongs to before putting pen to paper; the result of mixing them is "neither like the original nor like a new composition."

Organizing traditional subject matter: first affirm the essence(fan p0354). The wrong procedure is "first seize the dross... delete and add"—"in this adding and subtracting, a good play often becomes unrecognizable." The correct procedure: before putting pen to paper, write down "the two or three scenes this play must retain," and all subsequent changes are constrained by it.

"The White Snake" three-column checklist(a organizing template of retain / weaken by deletion / newly add, tian §2, including the two items "guard against mistaken selection" and "moving a passage of singing to another scene will change the tone of the new scene") see reference.md §10。

Mutual adaptation between excerpts and full-length plays(gu p0318, p0170): in the excerpt "Autumn River," the old boatman is the protagonist, and when it enters the full-length play he must be compressed; "Xu Ce Running Through the City" is an interlude upgraded into an excerpt; another route islinking excerpts together + writing new transitional scenes at the seams（weng-bianju p0039）。Before adapting, first sound out four foundations: historical foundation, performance foundation, style foundation, script foundation (fan p0230).

Workflow for adaptation on assignment("Shajiabang," wang §3): the outside gives the thematic judgment, the writer changes the scenes and lyrics;the most important reading is "the revised version does not move the structure, only the words"—in the two versions of 1965→1970, scene names, order of events, placement of arias, and meter remained unchanged for five years;famous passages often come from places that "do not sound like revolutionary language"。When reviving an old play, one must judge anew once more what "drags" and what "jumps"(fan p0253): ask "from which scene does the real entry into the drama begin."Choosing the base text when revising an old play(luo-v6 p0057): minor repairs and small changes will be backlashed by old memories; if you want to change the theme, change the base text;Self-check: is the base text a "source" or a "stream"?Four questions for adaptation(the xiqu version of Hochster's four questions; xiqu projects do not read sw-format-adaptation, answer directly here): ① Is there authorization? Real people must be confirmed first; ② Can it be staged?—one table and two chairs can stand, and there is a place for singing; ③ Which particularities of the original medium cannot be transferred (the inner life of a novel, the dense dialogue of spoken drama); ④ What can be borrowed from the thematic symbolic system.For real-person / historical-material subjects, add another table（sw-workflow X0.5): is each plot unit recorded in history, legend, or invented by me—fiction occurs only in the blank spaces left by historical materials, and does not absolve the protagonist of responsibility. For the lower limit of adaptation see reference-common.md §5。

Twelve. Three contemporary routes: each with its switch sentence

12a Modern drama: use conventions to perform contemporary life

Switch sentence: the subject matter is contemporary life, and the conventions must be used with adaptation.

Diagnose first(Three contradictions in Mei Lanfang's modern-costume plays, zhang-guo p0517, first-hand account): dance movements "all learned but unusable" / "first, the contradiction between music and movement... quite naturally becomesmore talk, less singing" / "inserting a【slow aria】into a modern-costume play is the most troublesome thing." Luo's problem statement serves as the introduction—"What to do about portraying riding a bicycle?"（luo-v6 p0116）；Do not take his "re-encoding" as the answer, that is the approach of newly compiled traditional-costume plays.

The latter method: Weng's four-step method (exaggeration → sharpening → refinement → rhythmization → dance-ification, weng-lunwenji p0517)—modern drama scriptsdo not write "what formula to use," but write "what movement, what rhythm, what amplitude"；Self-check: can the movement land on the gongs and drums? Three additional items for topic selection(fan p0301): can be "made empty/virtual," can be "made to move," and technically has tradition to draw on;Conditions for failure: theoretically confrontational dialogue "is too uncoordinated with the rhythm of traditional singing and recitation";Self-check: at the protagonist's three most intense moments, is there a piece of traditional formula to borrow for each?

Cut / keep / add checklist（wang §1＋yang §4）：Cutself-introduction (in Shajiabang it is left only to the villain and changed to singing to those on stage), the entrance poem, the exit poem;Keepentrances and exits,aside、offstage singing of the guiding-board then entrance；Addoffstage chorus as he-tou;keep the body movements, remove the props。Pronunciation and rhyme are another system(liu p0169): modern plays almost never use shangkou characters, and one may write erhua and Beijing-sound xiaozhekou (the specific method is limited to Peking opera; for other genres take only the skeleton of "modern play = colloquial broad rhyme," and determine the method separately according to the phonology of that genre, see reference-yuju-difang.md §4）；Self-check: whether the script is a traditional play or a modern play—settle this first.Dissenting opinion on one point from one person: Liu Jidian p0589 opposes treating "characteristic-tone permeation" as the only creative method, and keeps it side by side.

12b Absurdity and cross-time-space: using modern structure for traditional-costume subject matter

Opening line(pan p0104): Yidan Da follows "modernization of xiqu", Siguniang follows "xiqu-ification of modern drama"——one play takes only one direction. The pattern of Pan Jinlian (cross-time-space characters =commentary panel, the three supporting items, the author and the critics blocking both ends) see reference.md §11。

12c Contemporary new compilation: traditional-costume subject matter, all formulas retained, what is changed is the encoding

Opening line："The modern is purification"(luo-v6 p0045), this issubtraction。The three steps of re-encoding formulas（p0072）：①keep the component→②change scale and material→③change semantics；Conditions for failure: doing only ② is "enlarged tradition"; doing only ③ while losing the component turns it into stage scenery for spoken drama;Self-check: after the changes, do the actor's body-movement pathways still hold?Two places that must be read together: Luo said to Guo Xiaozhuang's face "this may not be modernization of xiqu but modernized xiqu" (p0045), and at the same time said "I very much agree with the concept of "modernization of national opera" proposed by Guo Xiaozhuang"（p0127）——agreeing with the direction while rejecting the method—citing only one place will lead to misreading。

bitter play vs tragedy（p0085、p0096）——First read the invalidation conditions: this is a classification, not a judgment of superiority or inferiority, and it does not recommend either path; writing a bitter play is not writing badly, and choosing which path requires a separate reason.When the misfortune can be attributed to a specific responsible person, it is a bitter play; only when no responsible person can be found is it a tragedy;self-check: if one can say "who should be responsible for this misfortune" and this person could have acted otherwise, then it is a bitter play. With Zhang Geng and Guo Hancheng'shidden conflict(zhang-guo p0232), these are two ways of saying the same thing; keep both original statements.

urban new xiqu ≠ syntactic rule-breaking(luo-v2 item 5): the same author's The Golden Dragon and the Mayfly (fable style) has sentence-length variance 3–14, while Dianqi (realist style) is consistently regulated seven- and ten-character lines—discussing "urbanization" must give different suggestions along the two paths of fable/realism; the "poetic sublimation" at the end is also bound to the subject matter (item 6).aria capacity is calculated by genre, and cross-regional performances must recalculate it(luo-v6 p0182 + p0131): a conventional genre has two to three hundred lines of lyrics over the whole play,a single Huai opera section can reach 180 lines, but the same batch of long sung passages was read in Taipei as "long-winded and dragging"; hard constraint: "lyrics may be added as they are,"but cannot affect the development of the plot and the characters' personalities." See reference-yuju-difang.md §8。

Luo and Wei two places directly back and forth, listed side by side without adjudication(①the distinction between "absurdity/absurdism" regarding Pan Jinlian; ②the pessimism and optimism of 2003–2004), original text see reference.md §14。the scope of application of Chaoyang Gou: all technical items are retained, butits thematic direction is no longer valid("entering the countryside" → today it is "entering the city," luo-v6 p0055).

Thirteen, serialized full-length plays

Two mutually contradictory installment templates,preserved side by side：Shanghai caise opera three sections(opening spice → clever suspense → striking into the wedge, weng-bianju p0036,he recorded it as a defect) and **The Twelve Money Darts, four hours one volume** ("phoenix head, pig belly, leopard tail" + leaving hooks, p0240, his improvement)—for the original text, invalidation conditions, and self-assessment of both sets, see reference.md §12。

serialized full-length plays ≠ serieshas been written into 〇之二: length is determined by performance occasion (zhang-guo p0055), and the seven skills at the series layer should not be applied.

Fourteen, running case: The Suo Lin Nang

the onlyplay with all three layers: creation notes + peer criticism + performance definitive text; for the scene-by-scene structure table and aria table, see sw-chinese-opera-banqiang-cases。version must be noted: all numbers come from the revised score edition(the final scene's 【Nan Bangzi】 changed to 【Erliu】 has been implemented, and there is no 【Nan Bangzi】 anywhere in the whole play).

four rules of metrical pattern arrangement(suo §6; for item-by-item data and role-type distribution, see reference.md §8）：①vocal music is used to distinguish people and sections, not to distinguish high or low emotion；invalidation conditions: it holds only in plays where "two groups of people are not on stage together for a long time." ②**【Erliu】 is used only twice in the whole play, in symmetrical positions**. ③free-meter and shaking-meter sections make up forty percent; there are only 20 metrical sections and they are all concentrated in four scenes; self-check: if metrical sections are scattered across more than five scenes, it shows the focus has not been established. ④Change rhyme scheme from scene to scene, with the first and last lines rhyming in the same Yao/Tiao rhyme category。

Keep the two divergences side by side(① Weng vs. Fan: the passage at the end where the Xue family grows suspicious; ② Weng vs. Cheng Yanqiu: the grand finale), and also the counterexample from the final scene of The Legend of the White Snake, "reunion can be given as just one tableau"—the original text is in reference.md §13。

Fifteen, Diagnostic Checklist

Is it using the kind of skill this genre is best at, or the kind it struggles with most? (0-2, 1)
Is the system written down? Are the number of sung lines and spoken lines so close that the system cannot be discerned? (1)
Summarize one key dramatic unit per scene—is there any scene you cannot summarize? When scenes are listed in a row by "cold/hot," are there three consecutive cold or three consecutive hot scenes? (2, 3)
Are the main characters labeled with role types or functional positions? Has any role-type taboo been violated? (4)
Is it writing a complete suite combination or a single formula? After dividing into acts, is it still copying the entrance prologue and the settling-in poem? (5)
Is there any aria with an odd number of lines but no 【Saotou】 marked? Does any aria over eight lines have a variant form? (6a)
If all the stacked phrases are deleted, are the regular upper and lower lines still complete and smooth? Are the stacked phrases all in the lower line of the shangban section? (6e)
Copy out the rhyme words of the lower lines in one column,compare character by character against reference-shisanzhe.md, not by feel—are they in the same rhyme category? Have -ei/-ui slipped into the Yi/Qi rhyme? Do the final line or key lines fall out of rhyme? Is the rhyme table used the one for this genre? (6d)
Is the line before each aria a form of address? Is there any case of "should sing but does not sing" or "should not sing but sings anyway"? (7)
Antiphonal singing: does the active party always take the lower line? Are the final three exchanges brought to a close? If there are two or more aside arias, one must ask whether this is "falling into the trap of the new tradition." (8)
Is the stylistic format consistent throughout? Peking-opera style or Yue-opera style—once chosen, is only one format used in the whole manuscript (Peking-opera style omitting gong and drum notation, or Yue-opera style mixing in metrical pattern labels, both count as not having chosen)? (9)
Is it following Peking-opera style or Yue-opera style? If metrical patterns are not marked, after listing the character counts as a sequence, is there a rhythmic design? (9)
Beside each uncommon metrical pattern, can you write one sentence explaining "why this one"? (10)
Does the adaptation belong to sorting, adaptation, or transplantation? Have the four source versions been explored? Have the "two or three scenes that must be retained" been written down? (11)
Modern drama: do the three most intense moments each have a traditional formula to draw on? Do "(aside singing)" and "(offstage singing)" appear? Are the rhymes correct? (12a)
If reduced to one table and two chairs, does it still stand? After deleting the chorus lyrics, do time, place, and commentary still have someone to convey them? (12c, 5)
Is the longest aria in the scene with the greatest value turn (Lu Jun), or is its next scene entirely spoken (except Luo Huaizhen's A Wife for Sale)? (6c)

Sixteen, Workflow and Training

Determine the system: for banqiang-style genres, follow this skill; for Yuan zaju, chuanqi, and Kunqu, follow sw-chinese-opera-qupai; for Sichuan opera, first mark the vocal system.Determine the feel: if you cannot say what this genre's script "tastes like when read," do not take it on, or change the viewpoint character to bypass techniques this troupe cannot deliver (luo-v6 p0099).
Set the system and genre(1), write down "this play's system = ×××."
Follow the general stage: dramatic core (sw-premise-theme) → introduction, development, turn, and conclusion and the eight kinds of openings (sw-story-structure section 6) → characters;characters must be assigned a role type or functional position in one step(4).
Determine the mainline and parallel scenes(2), draft the key points scene by scene; arrange once according to the law of alternating scene types and the balancing of cold and hot (3); mark the two or three scenes with the greatest value turns.
Do the technical structure: for each scene write onlyone lineof technical conception (fan p0008);give sung passages only for the key scenes, one set of metrical-pattern combinations per scene, taking into account the lead performer's stamina curve (4, 14).
Write the lyrics: first write the key lines → set the rhyme → expand into upper and lower lines → variant forms and stacked lines → check the rhyme category, check the even-numbered lines, check the four tones (6); before each sung passage place a form-of-address interface (7).
Set the stylistic conventions and annotate(9) → run the diagnostic checklist of Section 15 → after handing it over: the metrical patterns are a letter of intent, and changing the lyrics requires changing the melody; what can be changed / what cannot be changed — the theme, structure, main character relationships, and basic dramatic plot remain unchanged, the rhymes can be changed, and scenes can be added or removed (luo-v6 p0123).

Training: ① List all the sung passages of an entire traditional play, mark the metrical patterns, number of lines, and rhyme categories, draw two columns for "shangban / sanyao", and compare them with the four rules in Section 14. ② Write the same passage twice, once in Peking opera style and once in Yue opera style, and compare what you have lost.