Output language = language of the question; terms are always anchored back to the original word, see sw-workflow/terms.md, do not coin translations. Opera terms (折、齣、楔子、宫调、套数、曲牌、前腔、幺篇、合头、集曲、集唐、副末开场、题目正名、帮腔、宾白、科介) have no English counterpart; in any language keep the original word plus a one-sentence gloss.
This is a corpus, not a methods book. Method statements are never rewritten, only pointers are given: see sw-chinese-opera-qupai section thirteen (stance／zaju branch／chuanqi branch／lyric-writing method／modes and suites／stage arrangement／binbai→qu interface／bangqiang／adaptations and revised editions／modern new compositions／famous works also violate the rules／boundaries／diagnosis).Each case has five fixed items: ① work and edition (including verification status) ② structural-level conclusion ③ aria／qupai-level conclusion ④ convention level ⑤ transferable techniques; at the end attach a line "where famous works violate the rules" pointing back to qupai eleven.
The main text keeps only conclusion sentences and techniques; tables, act-by-act data, source-text examples, and full illustrative passages all go in reference, and each place that has been moved away is marked "see reference-xxx.md §N":zaju、mudanting、taohuashan、changshengdian、bashan。The main text sets the direction; before writing, pull out the corresponding reference tables and fill them in accordingly.
Which sections to read according to the task (do not read straight through)
| You want to find | go to |
|---|---|
| how many qu in one act, what mode, what rhyme | one → ref-zaju §1, §3 |
| how to write counterpart scenes when one person does the main singing | one (1.4) → ref-zaju §5, §6 |
| how long chuanqi scripts arrange the stage and how to cultivate subplots | two, four → ref-mudanting §1, ref-changshengdian §1 |
| jiju exit poems, nanbei hetao, mode echoes | two (2.3, 2.4) → ref-mudanting §2–§4 |
| expanding the fumo opening into a through-line; how to divide upper and lower volumes | three (3.2) → ref-taohuashan §1, §8 |
| how one prop runs through the whole play | three (3.4) → ref-taohuashan §4 |
| the author's self-defined playwriting rules (eight qu in a long act, reverse jiju) | three (3.5) → ref-taohuashan §5–§7 |
| ready-made samples of stage-arrangement alternation | four → ref-changshengdian §1 |
| how modern new compositions loosen things, how to write bangqiang | five → ref-bashan §2, §3 |
| look up cases by technique | six — in most cases enter from here |
| control groups of the same author across systems | seven |
（ref-xxx ＝ reference-xxx.md）
One, three Yuan zaju plays: hard evidence from twelve acts
1.1 Works and editions
Guan Hanqing's 《感天动地窦娥冤》《赵盼儿风月救风尘》《杜蕊娘智赏金线池》,according to the Wikisource Yuanqu xuan edition(retrieved 2026-09-12; the page does not mark its base edition, and the textual features are consistent with the Zang Jinshu 《元曲选》 system).Quotations come from the source text and are not marked as pending verification; inferences are separately marked 〔按〕. 《望江亭》 has no full script, so the third play instead takes 《金线池》, which is used to verify the conclusions of the first two plays as athird independent sample; Guan Hanqing Drama Story Selections (1984) vernacular adaptationzero qupai, zero fold divisions, zero role types, the structure cannot be determined.
1.2 Conclusions at the structural level
The fold-by-fold structural table of the twelve folds, the verse-to-prose ratio table, the master table viewing the three plays together, the fold-by-fold comparison with Wang Jilie's Northern qu suite forms, and the actual rhyme survey are in reference-zaju.md §1、§3、§4。 Concluding statements:The wedge may or may not be present(the qu are only the two pai of Xianlü [Shanghuashi] and [Duanzhenghao], may carry yao, at most two pieces, and the singer is not fixed);the singer in the four folds must be the zhengdan and is exclusive (123/123 pieces)；the first fold is always Xianlü, the fourth fold is always Shuangdiao；one fold uses one rhyme throughout, and the four folds do not repeat; the rhyme category is a property of the fold and may repeat across plays；there is not a single instance of "qianqiang" or "huantou" in the whole play；the closing of the final fold may be handed over to the official judgment and the verdict text; the title and proper name have as many lines as there are threads;the distribution of the verse-to-prose ratio within a fold is the pointer to the heavy scenes(the execution-ground fold is the densest at 1:1.1, the wedge is 1:18.4; the four folds are extremely even with no lyrical peak, which is the structural consequence of a trap-setting play; the first fold is 1:0.7, the only case where verse exceeds prose);suite form 11/12 conform(the one that does not conform conforms by the loose standard and does not conform by the strict standard,two readings are listed side by side), and there is the ready-made example of "two forms linked into a long suite".
1.3 Conclusions at the aria/qupai level
The three plays have a total of 126 qupai（41／44／41），The full table is in reference-zaju.md §2。 Five points:the right to lead the singing = the right of the protagonist—all 44 pieces are given to Zhao Pan'er who comes to the rescue, while the person involved does not sing a single piece, and the play's title follows this,structure, singing rights, and play title are the same decision(there is no counterpart in the banqiang style);the one who sings and the one who drives the action can be separated；the descending order of the sha is a fixed pattern(each piece has one wish, each carrying one allusion);the yaopian must advance one step（self-check: if the yaopian is deleted, does the plot still move forward);the rhyme category and the manner of closing the sha are consistent(Yu-Mo closes with a shut mouth and ends crisply, Jie-Lai opens with an open mouth and lets out expansively).
1.4 The formulaic level
Seven items,all entries, original-text examples, and seven representative passages of qu text are in reference-zaju.md §5、§6: entrance poem + self-introduction (a corrupt official is written as a self-confession / an honest official is written only as the scene under his ruletwo opposite samples);the lead singer does not recite the entrance poem, and the settling of identity relies on the first qu; the split-line exit poemthe final line must carry a turn or irony; [Daiyun] and [Beichang];[Huanke] = swapping in public; after the swap there must be a line of "mistaken questioning" to cash in the gap; official judgment + [Ciyun] (not exclusive to crime-case plays); xuxia/gumen (one line saves one person's entrance and exit）。
1.5 Transferable techniques
The examples, self-checks, and failure conditions for each item are in full in reference-zaju.md §7。
- First decide who leads the singing; the play title comes from his actions（does not hold inchuanqi and banqiang styles).
- Under one-person lead singing, there are only two ways to write a scene with many people: write the other party's words as inserted prose, and have the lead singer's next linepick up the wording of that prose line。
- A single qu being cut by stage business or prose into two or three segments is the norm, not a breach of form(Not a single one was cut, which shows the sung passages are not rooted in the action.)
- The stratagem must be laid out openly in full spoken passages before it is carried out, and the scheme must be half seen through midway before being steered back（does not hold forthe general-level view of suspense: opera does not keep secrets from the audience).
- When an argument appears three times, each time with the same syntax, it becomes a skeleton; twice is repetition(the third time must fall on an occasion with real consequences).
- Use a non-singing supporting character to recite the exit poem to mark the division(otherwise the protagonist turns into a narrator).
Places where famous works violate the rules："Jinxian Chi" Act Fourhas no coda——a third way of omitting the coda, alongside "four stanzas of the same tune title plus a changed head may omit the coda"; see qupai, item eleven.
II. "The Peony Pavilion": a top-grade specimen of the fifty-five-act Southern-style chuanqi
2.1 The work and its editions
Tang Xianzu completed "The Peony Pavilion: The Return of the Soul" in the twenty-sixth year of the Wanli era (1598). Base text: the edition collated and annotated by Xu Shuofang and Yang Xiaomei, People's Literature Publishing House (first edition 1963, 24th printing 2014); the epub has no page numbers,so acts are always located by act title。Verification status: 83 items pending verification have been verified, 4 changed, 9 textual variants retained, 25 impossible to verify(for the list see reference-mudanting.md §7; the 25 are all annotations and preface material from the collated edition, and when quoted should be noted as "according to Xu Shuofang's annotations"). Two hard constraints:not a single instance of the mode label 〔proposed〕 has been removed(the complete text at Wikisource does not mark modal labels) → any entry whose modal-label column bears 〔proposed〕 can only serve as an example, not as a basis, and when discussing modal labels only the three Northern-style suites (〈Judgment in the Netherworld〉, 〈Hard Interrogation〉, 〈Returning Chariot〉) are used for support; to remove 〔proposed〕 one must consult the paper edition of "Nashuying Qupu";〈Judgment in the Netherworld〉's "listing thirty-nine kinds of flowers" is doubtful, and the self-check item derived from this numberis suspended and not entered into the skill。
2.2 Conclusions at the structural level
For the act-by-act structural table of all 55 acts see reference-mudanting.md §1。 Concluding statement:55 acts, about 420 qupai, the longest act has 20, the shortest 2,density of sung passages = the emotional weight of that act；a major act must be followed by a short act（Self-check: plot the number of qupai by act as a line graph; if two consecutive acts exceed 10, insert a short scene);the first act, 〈Prologue〉, does not enact events, it only serves as the author's confession, a plot summary,four extremely concise outline lines(not collected Tang poems), each governing one thread,the main line has one person and one matter, the secondary line is hung on a single sentence；the sheng and dan are the core of the whole play and must appear in the second and third acts(Wang Jilie's words, a general rule of chuanqi);one act may have two suites(〈Lamentation in the Tumult〉's first suite depicts the death, the second depicts the reactions of those left behind;if this is not donethen the play ends as soon as the protagonist dies);the secondary line is the first place to cut(the Shuoyuan revised edition cut it down to 43 acts, and the Qianlong fixed edition cut precisely the two acts about the foreign prince and the bandit),act count and prosodic rules are two independent axes that can be reworked。
2.3 Conclusions at the level of sung passages / qupai
For the act-by-act evidence for the six items, the item-by-item arrangement of the combined suite in 〈Returning Chariot〉, the list of collected tunes, and the sources of distant echoes of the same tune title see reference-mudanting.md §2, §3; for the full table of 425 sung passages see _notes/tang-mudanting/01–07。 Six items:division of labor between Northern and Southern styles——For the prince, bandits, and ghost judges in court, Northern qu is used; for the boudoir, family, and scholar, Southern qu is used. In the Northern suite,one person sings from beginning to end, while others have only spoken lines(a remnant of Yuan zaju's "one person sings throughout");the North-South composite suite = "one person versus the crowd" written into the rules of qu（Invalidation condition: if at the final scene several people share equally in right and wrong, the composite suite will sideline the protagonist, so switch to alternating songs to the same tune);use modes to create cross-scene echoes(which banqiang style cannot do), and consequentlywhen choosing a qupai, choose it together with the literal meaning of the tune title；Collected Tang exit poems, all 55 scenes complete, with four seven-character lines and the original author noted beneath each line, performable separately or with chorus, and the eight lines of the final scene are the only exception;when the same qupai appears a second time, write it against the opposite side of the first（Invalidation condition: if within ten scenes of each other or with the same emotion, it becomes repetition);use composite qu for passages where emotion is fragmented and one is walking, looking, and thinking at the same time。
2.4 The formulaic level
Seven items (the minimal usable set of chuanqi formulas),with scene-by-scene sources and excerpts 1–10 see reference-mudanting.md §4、§6：Six things in the self-introduction(name/place of origin/family background/current situation/wish/what one is about to do, closed at the end with "it is precisely...";the self-introductions of the clown and supporting female roles may be spoken in rhymed languageand make up the backstory for the audience); the entrance poemmay use earlier poets' verse or be self-composed；spoken lines interspersed in song do not occupy qu positions（Self-check: if all inserted spoken lines are deleted, do the song lines still fit the rules and remain coherent);sing emotion, speak reason（Invalidation condition: when this reasoning itself is an emotional outburst, it may still enter song);scene changes rely on the flower god, with similar devices including leaving and returning, and two epilogues in one scene; ghosts enter and exit by ghostly sounds, sleeve covering, and inner wind;use ready-made formulas as they are but reverse them once(the three calls and three responses prescribe "each call higher than the last" but are performed as "the sound gradually lowers," and the ghost-testing formula inversely proves she is a ghost).
2.5 Transferable techniques
For the full text of each item's examples, self-checks, and invalidation conditions see reference-mudanting.md §8。
- For group scenes/interludes use "repeated same tune + changing the words of the shared conclusion", not newly made qupai for each group(the shared conclusion changes only the last three characters).
- For reactions of multiple people in the same scene use "one tune, four stanzas of the preceding tune + a shared conclusion", one emotion per person(summarize each of the four stanzas into one word; if synonyms appear, delete one stanza).
- The number of songs in a solo scene = the number of levels in the protagonist's understanding of the same object, not determined by length of time（Invalidation condition: when there is another character onstage who can take over the singing, switch to divided singing).
- Cut major information into four slices, insert a question between each slice, and give one physical gesture to carry the turn(if not done, the opponent becomes the audience).
- Write the same space twice, once when the event happens and once after it（Invalidation condition: if there is no time span or character change between the two, it is merely repetition).
- To echo across twenty scenes, use a ready-made line the audience already recognizes(does this line still hold outside this play).
- Four actions for adapting an existing story(for the comparison table see §5): ①delete relativesto isolate the protagonist; ②change the lawful into the unlawful(Opening the grave changed to private exhumation, violating the "Great Ming Code": "opening a coffin and exposing the corpse—no distinction between principal and accessory, all are beheaded"); ③Change the manner of encounter；④Keep the original's good lines in the spoken parts (binbai); revise only the sung text (quwen)。Self-check: ask item by item, "does this revision create a new opponent or a new legal risk?" Connect to qupai nine and
sw-format-adaptation。
Where famous works violate the rules: too many chenzi (padding characters) to the point of being unpunctuatable; the "Ming Shi" scene's gong mode violates the mode; the staging of the Four Dreams all lacks deliberation (Wu Mei and Wang Jilie both criticized this; of The Purple Hairpin, "it truly cannot be performed"); level, rising, and departing tones are intermixed with entering tone. Handling: "One should learn its writing, but not imitate its method." See qupai eleven.
III. The Peach Blossom Fan: forty-four scenes, interwoven double lines, and the author's self-imposed playwriting rules
3.1 The work and its editions
Kong Shangren finalized the text in the thirty-eighth year of Kangxi (1699). Base text of the main body: epub (converted by Calibre, no reliable page numbers,always locate by scene-title name). The prefatory poetics of composition ("Xiao Yin," "Xiao Shi," "Ben Mo," "Fan Li," "Kao Ju," "Gang Ling")are entirely missing from the epub, and have been supplied from Wikisource；The "Qie Mo" piece is still missing—a known gap, not something Kong Shangren failed to write.Collation status: 322 points awaiting collation have been collated (643 fragments, covering all 44 scenes), 46 points changed, about 56 textual variants retained, 11 points impossible to collate(the list and two doubtful points are in reference-taohuashan.md §0）。the epub conversion error rate is an order of magnitude higher than that of The Peony Pavilion, and single-character errors directly affect judgments about rhyme categories and the format of lines and phrases, so wherever sung lyrics are taken as rhyme examples, the collated edition is always used; 11 points impossible to collateare all gong modes——gong-mode annotations can only serve as illustrative examples, not as a basis。
3.2 Conclusions at the structural level
The scene-by-scene structural table of all 44 scenes, the master table of role assignments, and the table of the four-line distribution in the upper volume are in reference-taohuashan.md §1、§2、§8。 Concluding statements:44 scenes = 40 numbered main-text scenes + four unnumbered scenes(the trial first scene "Xian Sheng," the intercalary twentieth scene "Xian Hua," the added twenty-first scene "Gu Yin," and the continuation fortieth scene "Yu Yun"; Fan Li 16 states that this is "the coherent order of the whole forty scenes from beginning to end");the upper and lower volumes have twenty scenes each, each performed over one night（Self-check: does the final scene of the upper volume suspend both lines without resolving them? If the upper volume is self-sufficient, the lower volume becomes a sequel);the alternating rhythm of the four linesthree arrangements—①do not place three consecutive scenes on the same line；②whenever the villain-faction line gains the upper hand, it is immediately followed by a scene in which the sheng-dan line suffers③ the lower-level threading line is wedged at the point where the two lines are about to connect but have not yet connected,can be copied directly；density of sung passages = weight(about 300 arias in the whole play, the densest being a 14-aria combined suite, the sparsestthe intercalary twentieth scene with 0 arias）；the two "weeping" scenes are symmetrical in position while every element is reversed(the news changes from coming from outside to being sought by oneself, communal weeping changes to solitary weeping, singing > spoken changes to singing < spoken, swearing brotherhood and taking oaths changes to a five-level command)—when the same play writes "the commander weeps bitterly" twice, the second time must replace every device of the first。
3.3 Conclusions at the aria/qupai level
The scene-by-scene evidence for the nine points, the full text of the four examples of qu-form official documents, and the sources of repeated use of the same qupai are in reference-taohuashan.md §3。 Nine points:the two samples of the north-south combined suite have the same division of labor—outsiders sing the northern mode, the home-side company sing the southern mode, so that friend and foe are immediately distinguished aurally（conditions under which it fails: When the two sides have no opposing stances, this division of labor is wasted);⚠️ But Northern qu does not equal "outsider"(in the eighteenth scene, all six Northern suite pieces are given to the seated, motionless commander),What can be recorded as a rule is: Northern qu = the person in this scene who must sing all the way to the end；The repeated use of the same suite of qupai serves as the marker for "this person must sing to the end"；Three restrictions on qu-form carrying official documents— one qu carries one matter (when there are many items, use 【前腔】 to continue), formulaic phrases must be cut leaving only judgment sentences, someone asks before the singing and someone responds after;The reappearance of the same pai creates irony(if the previous instance did not take hold in the audience's memory, it is as if it never existed);Praise and blame of loyalty and treachery rely on "using the same qupai once each," not on spoken declarations(it also relies on others pointing it out, which shows the two qu are written flat);Jiqu lian tao— in the same scene each person sings one in turn, and the last one goes to the protagonist;One pai to the end depicts great collapse（The repeated-line positions are the same while the content falls all the way down）；⚠️ The only place in this play that discusses singing method ("the character 'si' is the wutou") must be quoted together with Wang Jilie's correction— Kong mistakenly conflated "two si as wutou" and "the character si must not be sung aloud" into one matter (qupai four).
3.4 The formulaic level
For the full text of the seven items, the table of the seven transformations of the prop, the full text of the sacrificial rites, the compilation of the five ways of closing with exit poems, and the detailed list of role doubling, see reference-taohuashan.md §2、§4、§8。 Seven items:The fumo opening is expanded into a single thread running throughout(the play's greatest structural creation,and this narrator is at the same time a character in the play— a narrator who speaks only within the frame has no weight in his remarks);The push-scene method("That young gentleman has long since entered; please look, everyone," without an exit poem);"Non-plot scenes" are not given qu(the only witness present / the listener asks on behalf of the audience / emotion relies on stage business and sound effects.Conditions for failure: if the information can be brought out by a mainline character, do not create a separate scene);Seven transformations of the prop——Each change of identity must be brought about by another person's action, and each time it must be pressed onto a turn in value, with an additional strokeA false counterpart of the same object appears；Role codes are actor assignments, not character names（When encountering "xiaosheng," one must first look at the "playing so-and-so" at the beginning of that scene；Role-type assignment is the implementation of the outline）；Five ways of closing with exit poems(all compose new poems themselves,anti-jiju Tang）；The sacrificial rites are incorporated into the play as they are——The same word "weep" is divided into three layers(weeping on orders / the commander weeping alone / an onlooker unable to hold back), setting out the rigid ritual so that the latter two layers have a gap against which to be compared.
3.5 Key points of the sixteen articles of the "Fanli" and the "Gangling"
The sixteen articles of the "Fanli" are a ready-made checklist of playwriting rules, and together with Li Yu's Xianqing Ouji they stand as the two primary sources of the qupai-form method.For the original text of the sixteen articles, the full table of the four colors and four qi of the "Gangling," and the key points of the "Xiaoyin," "Xiaozhi," "Benmo," and "Kaoju," see reference-taohuashan.md §5–§7。 The five most directly executable sentences:
- Qu quotas (5 articles): the general rule is ten qu for a long act and eight for a short act; Kongset for himself long acts at only eight qu, short acts at either six or fourTo prevent mediocre actors from deleting at will; the costs are listed side by side—Wu Mei criticized this quota for making "the writing unable to flow freely."
- Arias and spoken parts are mutually exclusive (7 items)：Matters already explained in spoken parts must not be restated in arias, and what should be spoken must not be forced into arias。Invalidation condition: does not hold in cases where repetition is itself rhetoric (stacked lines, chorus support lines, ensemble lines).
- Against clichés (3 items)：「Whenever a situation can be guessed in advance, it is a cliché.」Self-check: before writing, first write one line: "What does the audience expect the next scene to be right now?" Whatever that is, change it.Invalidation condition: conventional scenes are precisely meant to be predictable.
- Against collecting Tang lines (15 items): entrance and exit poems "arethe coherent order of a single rhyme", and must all be newly composed poems. → directly opposite to the all-Tang-collecting in The Peony Pavilion; the two items stand side by side without adjudication。
- Role type ≠ morality (14 items): "when the upright role is insufficient, borrow the clown and painted-face roles."Self-check: list a "role type—character—good/evil" table; if it aligns completely, that shows the assignment is lazy.
Three other items for reference (item 4: each scene must not be added to or deleted from; item 9: "clarity of wording is primary"; item 12: "spoken parts are so detailed that not a single word may be added") and the **four colors and four qi of the "Guiding Principles"** (with sw-character-conflict standing side by side rather than substituting; the axis of classification isfunctionnot good and evil; "color" governs the line of union and separation, "qi" governs the line of rise and fall,framework characters entering the roster should not be made into the wedge), and "Benmo": "each time a song is completed, it must be sung according to the beat" (find a timely actor to sing it,not read it silently yourself), and Kong's comment on the revised reunion ending, "it inevitably gives form to a vulgar fellow" (the reunion is market pressure; Kong knew this but did not adopt it); the full text is in §5–§7.
3.6 Transferable techniques
The full text of each item's examples, self-checks, and invalidation conditions is in reference-taohuashan.md §9。
- A small prop must be able to be pushed through chain-style to the theme of the whole play(four-level chain: private object → trace on the person → camp → era.Invalidation condition: if the chain breaks at the second level, it is only a token, not the thematic crux).
- Write the same character action three times without repeating it, distinguishing it by three things: the level of the opponent, the magnitude of the cost, and the reversal of the aria-to-spoken ratio (if the ratio is the same all three times, it has been written repetitively).
- A group besieging one person: split one suite into lines and assign them in order of attack; the besieged person uses only dialogue(if the order can be swapped at will, it has not been divided well).The division of labor between singing and speaking is the division of labor between stances.
- Give the hardest words to dialogue, not to song(if rewriting it as an aria requires adding filler words for tonal meter, that shows it should originally have been dialogue).
- A character's professional skill must be a plot mechanism, andeach entrance must switch to a heavier aria form(if the plot still proceeds after removing the craft, the craft has been given for nothing).
- A play within a play must do work; it must not serve as atmosphere（Let the person who is about to have his face painted black himself speak of the power of having his face painted black; "whether one can sing a certain play" determines a character's course).
- An anti-reunion ending must be pushed twice in succession, with the order copied exactly:First finish singing a love song, then look at a fan together, and only then split apart(The second overthrow must bring something new).
- Ending with scenery: first finish walking a road, then speak a line(One song one scene, ordered by walking distance, each place writing only "what is missing";The locations must all have been performed earlier。Invalidation condition: the short play has no old scenes that can be recovered).
Where famous works violate the rules: the tonal patterns are mostly disordered, and the filler words are not quite fitting; the syntax of 〈传歌〉 is mistaken (Wu Mei judged "has fine words but no fine tune"); 〈哭坛〉 uses the southern [朝天子] in place of the northern. See qupai 11.Kong Shangren's 《凡例》 and the judgments of Wu Mei and Wang Jilie are two sets of coordinates; write both sides.
IV. 《长生殿》: complete table of the fifty-act staging arrangement (according to Wang Jilie,no complete text）
4.1 Works and editions
Hong Sheng's 《长生殿》.In this batch of materials there are no notes on the complete text of 《长生殿》—all data come from the fifty-act staging arrangement table listed in Wang Jilie's 《螾庐曲谈》 volume 2, chapter 4 (printed edition p0170–p0173, read directly from page images, not marked pending verification; printed page number = scanned page − 22).Therefore this section can only discuss staging arrangement and role assignment, not qupai, lyrics, or the ratio of song to spoken dialogue; any conclusion involving specific sung passages is omitted entirely. The table is transcribed as is, see reference-changshengdian.md §1。
4.2 Conclusions at the structural level
Complete table of the fifty acts (act / title / mode / role / dramatic nature), the twenty-four-category classifier of dramatic nature, the six-category classification of southern song suites, the rule matching suites to roles, and the entries for short interstitial plays, see reference-changshengdian.md §1–§3。 Two points read from the table:
- Three no-repetitions(p0169): "Apart from the first act 〈传概〉, which is a conventional opening piece, there are forty-nine acts in all.Not only are the qupai not repeated throughout the whole work, but the mode of the preceding act and the mode of the following act are not repeated; the main role of the preceding act and the main role of the following act are absolutely not repeated." This is, in the entire batch of materials,the only staging arrangement table in which all forty-nine acts can be verified act by act。
- Law of alternating staging(p0169, common to both systems): "If the first act is sung by sheng and the second act by dan, then the third act must usea broad-voice or ensemble lively play; if after two or three acts of slow arias and long suites, there must be intersperseda short interstitial play or a comic play performed by chou and jing。」Self-check: arrange the act titles in a column by "main singing role / nature of the song", and see whether there are three consecutive acts with the same role and same nature.Invalidation condition: a short play of within ten acts only preserves "no two consecutive acts with the same main singer".
4.3 Three techniques read from this table (Wang Jilie's own account, p0174)
- Changing mode and rhyme within one act is legal, but it must be due to a change in staging arrangement or a change in plot(〈定情〉 banquet drinking / intimate talk; 〈密誓〉 meeting in heaven / pledging in the palace; 〈埋玉〉 forcing the consort / setting out). "Precisely because mode and rhyme change within one act, its fittingness to the plot is all the more evident"—exactly the opposite of the "change of tune without cause" in 《琵琶记·吃糠》.Self-check: what happened onstage at the moment of the mode change?
- The general rule that one act of northern song is limited to one singer can be adapted: the first half of the complete suite of 〈觅魂〉 is sung by jing, and the second half by mo—"this kind of long suiteOne person's strength can certainly not sing it to the end, and to go into a trance and change into another role is, after all, Tongyou alone; although he adapts the ancients' established methods, he still does not go against the ancients."
- General evaluation: "Be sure to makepartings and reunions, sorrows and joys interwoven and cross-arranged, so that the performers have no place where labor and rest are unevenly distributed。"→ "The performers have no place where labor and rest are unevenly distributed" is the second function of the stage-arrangement table: it is at the same time a physical-energy allocation table for the actors.
4.4 The formulaic layer (the part this table can support)
For the full text of the four items, see reference-changshengdian.md §4, §5. Key points:The first act, "Chuan Gai", is "the customary opening piece", not counted in the three non-repetition statistics, and occupies the same functional position as the "Biao Mu" of The Peony Pavilion and the trial first act of The Peach Blossom Fan;The last act, "Chong Yuan", returns to the format of the second act, with beginning and end in the same format;"Zhuan" is used at the juncture when the stage arrangement changes and modes are shifted, "when using zhuan, one act is appropriate; within one act, it is also not appropriate to use zhuan more than twice"(counterexample: The Purple Hairpin).
4.5 Transferable techniques
- When writing a long play, first list a five-column table: act / mode / role / nature of the song's emotion / event, and only look at whether the "role" and "nature" columns collide consecutively.Does not hold forshort plays and selected scenes; for scripts whose modes cannot be verified, only the last two columns can be verified.
- The longest large suite expressing emotion must fall in the act with the greatest value turn, and should preferably be sung by the sheng and dan(if the act in which it is located is not the key scene you have identified, then the aria has been placed in the wrong place—the same principle as in Yuan zaju, "the act with the smallest ratio of song to spoken dialogue must be a key scene," and isomorphic with
sw-scene-craft). - Between two major scenes there must be a transitional scene, and the transitional scene may use only short or fast tunes(if slow tunes with added赠与 boards are misused, then "the plot does not run through and the threads do not connect").
- The stage-arrangement table is at the same time an energy table: see who has to sing a large suite in three consecutive acts.Conditions of invalidity: a desk copy may be abridged—but with this abridgment, the script retreats to the line of "though the wording is beautiful, it does not circulate in the singing world" (p0166).
Where famous works violate the rules: for "Da Wei", see qupai 11; also, The Tale of the Secluded Boudoir: Swearing Alliance mistakenly marks the Yue mode [Kan Hua Hui] as the Xianlü mode [Dian Jiang Chun],and The Tale of Handan and The Palace of Eternal Life carry the error along in succession—"predecessors marked it this way" is not a basis.
V. The Bashan Xiucai: what a qupai-style work in 1983 looked like
5.1 The work and editions
Wei Minglun and Nanguo's The Bashan Xiucai, Sichuan operahigh-pitched(qupai style, with helping chorus), marked "newly compiled historical drama."Ninth draft in Zigong on July 30, 1983; first edition by Sichuan Literature and Art Publishing House in January 1985.For OCR notes and the list of historical changes, see reference-bashan.md §0。 Its unique value: among this batch of materials,the only modern newly compiled full-length qupai-style play—the first four cases demonstrate the qupai style in the eyes of the Ming and Qing and of theorists, while this one demonstrateswhat it was like in 1983: the qupai names are still there, the helping chorus is still there, but the suites are gone and the metrical rules are loosened.The extent of historical changes is quantifiable: the prototype "Dongxiang massacre"retains only two real names and only two plot points, and all the other characters and the "poisoned wine" ending are entirely fictional.
5.2 Conclusions at the structural level
The scene-by-scene structural table for the eight scenes, the character list, and the list of foreshadowing and payoffs are in reference-bashan.md §1、§6。 Concluding sentence:Eight scenes, all with two-character titles that are either verb-object or modifier-head(Begging for Relief / False Report / Massacre / Roundabout Accusation / Clever Accusation / Swapping the Letter / Searching the Shop / Exposing the Truth),read in sequence, they form a complete plot line；The four-line, four-character prelude and the two-line chorus in the final scene form a frame；Main line = four levels of accusation = four times being deceived = four elevations of understanding，Each level of failure must let the protagonist learn one more thing about the world, otherwise it is just repeated frustration；All propulsion comes from "others bearing the consequences for him"，The protagonist does not act on his own initiative, but after each push his understanding advances one notch(the writing method of "an extremely low starting point");The second scene, in which the protagonist is absent, is the pivot of the whole play's causality; the fourth and fifth scenes are the two heavy scenes; the first two-thirds of the eighth scene is all blank,compressing the play's final qupai to just before the character's death。
5.3 Conclusions at the aria/qupai level: four questions, four answers
The whole play has 43 qupai/arias，The full table is in reference-bashan.md §2; the tune-emotion correspondence table and the page-by-page evidence for the four questions and four answers are in §4. There are 11 high-style (gaoqiang) qupai, plus 4 instances of Kunqu, 1 instance of Peking opera [Xipi Erliu], and 1 instance of [Yunbai],and 9 arias without a labeled tune name。Question one: not a suite—completely abandoning qupai suites(there is no modal relationship between tunes, there is not a single modal annotation in the whole play, and the same tune is repeated across scenes and characters; the chuanqi norms of "one mode per scene, one suite to the end, sheng and dan do not share tunes" all do not apply; the only vestige iscontinuation singing, which occupies the position of the he-tou and is used only for antiphonal exchanges).Question two: tunes are selected as scattered fragments, based on emotion and passage scale; the criterion is that what can be explained is "how long this emotion lasts, what mode it is in," while what cannot be explained is "what mode the previous one was." Question three: half is preserved—one rhyme throughout a passage is strictly observed, while syllable count and tonal patterning are completely free(four-, five-, seven-, and ten-character lines mixed together,heavy use of three-character openings= a banqiang-style habit rather than qupai prosody, line counts far exceeding the original tune's capacity, colloquial Sichuan dialect and xiehouyu directly entering the singing).Question four: no newly composed tunes, but the tune-name column is expanded into a "singing-method instruction column": in parentheses appearvocal genre("Kunqu," leaving which tune to use to the composer),other theatrical genres' metrical patterns、recitation method、vocal-style categoryfour kinds of things that are not qupai.Appendix: an entire Tang poem used as an aria without changing a single character——The qupai form originally had a tradition of collecting Tang poems; this play moved it from the exit poem into the arias.
5.4 At the conventional-program level: nine passages of bangqiang
Bangqiangis typeset in parallel with the characters' singing, with the word "bangqiang" written at the start of the line, occupying the same position as a character name—it is treated as a character in the script。The full text of the nine passages, four examples of bangqiang, and the scene-by-scene sources of the other conventions are in reference-bashan.md §3、§5、§7。 Four functions, only one chosen at a time: narration / commentary / surrogate participation / emotional amplification; there are alsostarting the singingandtaking up the next linetwo purely structural uses.Three formal patterns：①extremely short(six of the nine places have only 3–7 characters),the chorus never carries a full passage of lyric expression；②their positions are all at places where "the character cannot keep singing"；③the chorus can be the one to change tunes, and the character follows along—this is the structural power unique to the chorus in qupai form。boundary：accompaniment/chorus is inside the curtain, carrying the announcement and the theme.solitary exception: a character in the play hears the chorus and adopts it("Hey, this chorus helps well!" and immediately acts on it) → the chorus turns from "the voice of the many" into "the voice of fate";at most once in the whole play, it must be placed at the point where the character has nowhere left to turn; use it a second time and it degrades into an ordinary supporting role.the remaining conventions(for examples see §5): the entrance prelude replaces self-introduction,the dingchang poem uses four-character lines in four lines(reserving irony for the final scene's reversal),three people relay singing in turn(singing the conspiracy to the audience in front of the accuser), two people on stage turning aside in confidence,the face-change is written at the node of a personality reversal, not as a display of technique, an improvised prose sacrificial text replacing the exit poem,hallucination scenes marked by anachronistic costumes, and gong-and-drum cues.
5.5 Transferable techniques
For the full text of each item's examples, self-checks, and failure conditions, see reference-bashan.md §8。
- same-qupai return loop: the same tune and the same chorus line each appear once before and once after in the play, with the content mirroring in opposition (counting up one to ten in the dream of rank and fame / counting down ten to one in the history of accusation).failure condition: if the interval is too short it becomes repetition; the two places must lie on either side of a character's transformation, and the second must be able to negate the first.Banqiang form has no marker for "the same qupai," so it cannot be this clean.
- Write only extremely short lines for the chorus, put them only where the character cannot keep singing; attach one functional label to each place, and delete any that cannot be labeled(if it exceeds seven characters, ask "why isn't this line given to the character to sing?").
- Use the chorus for cold commentary, pushing tragedy into comedy within a single line（failure condition: when the style is not a blend of tragedy and comedy, it looks like mocking the protagonist).
- Use vocal style to label characters(the local official sings high-pitched gaoqiang, the visiting prince sings Peking opera, the powerful celebrate with kunqu = refined = false).failure condition: it does not hold when the genre has only one vocal style.
- A complete ready-made poem can be used as a sung passage without changing a single character, but it must simultaneously suit the situation on stage and contain another layer of meaning(ask "what would the audience know less if it were removed?").
- Use the same character weakness twice, the second time to save a life(provoke him that he "wouldn't dare fire the cannon" → he insists on firing, and the offstage banner-gate cannon is the play's most exquisite transition). Cross-references with
sw-character-conflict. - Props from a dream are redeemed exactly as they were, and the redemption kills(in the dream of rank and fame, "three cups of imperial wine" → in the final scene three cups are truly bestowed, and the third is poison). Of the same kind: a mispronounced character buried for four scenes and then used by the victim as a weapon.
the place in the method layer: this play enters section 10 of qupai, "modern newly composed qupai form" (it does not enter section 11, "famous works violating the rules")—it isTwo opera genres, two authors, two eras independently reached the same conclusion; Luo Huaizhen's Ban Zhao takes the opposite path (written in vernacular yet "not a single character is irregular"; the cost is "it takes two days to fill in one qupai").The three are placed side by side, in direct conflict with Wu Mei and Wang Jilie's "filling in lyrics must follow the notation"; both the ancient and modern are retained. Terminological conflicts must be marked："back-side powder application"In this play's creative notes it refers to using the old era to set off the new era; in Weng Ouhong's six methods it refers to using contrasting characters within a single play to set off the protagonist.The four items belonging to the general layer(original text see §9):negate the ready-made typological method one by onedetermine the protagonist,pivot action method → sw-character-conflict／sw-story-structure；style is determined by the mismatch of "nature of character × nature of event"、for the theme sentence, first look for a folk colloquialism → sw-premise-theme。
VI. Index of transferable techniques (technique → case → method section number)
Jiu = Jiu Fengchen, Dou = Dou E Yuan, Jin = Jinxian Chi, Mu = Mudan Ting, Tao = Taohua Shan, Chang = Changsheng Dian, Ba = Bashan Xiucai; where the method column contains only a number, it = sw-chinese-opera-qupai section number of.
| Technique | Case | Method |
|---|---|---|
| right to lead singing = right of protagonist; structure, singing rights, and play title are the same decision | Jiu 44/44 | II, Twelve |
| Writing a crowd scene under one-person lead singing: insert spoken lines + pick up the phrase and continue singing | Jiu [Yuanhe Ling] | II, Seven |
| One qu is cut into three or four segments by stage business / inserted spoken lines | [Zhuan Sha] [Daodao Ling] | II |
| The yao pian must advance one step, it cannot repeat | Jiu [Sheng Hulu] → [Yao Pian] | IV |
| The three progressively concluding sha each establish one vow | Dou's three vows | V |
| [Huan Ke] writes a public swap; after the swap there must be a line of "mistaken questioning" | Jiu's real and fake divorce letter | II＋sw-scene-craft |
| The stratagem is fully explained in advance; midway through the scheme it is half seen through | Jiu Acts II and III | II |
| The fold with the smallest ratio of qu to prose = heavy scene; the longest aria suite of lament falls on the largest value turn | Dou execution ground 1:1.1 | V, VI |
| After a major act must come a short act; between two major scenes there must be a transitional scene | Mu Jingmeng 12 → Cijie 2 | VI |
| The three not-repeated in staging arrangement (qupai / mode / main characters) + the law of alternation | Chang's table of fifty folds | VI |
| Use modes to create cross-act echoes | Mu's "ying" suite (death / recall) | V |
| When choosing a qupai, choose it together with the literal wording of the linked title | Mu Zhuanlin Ying—Yuying'er | V |
| When the same qupai appears a second time, write it against the opposite of the first time | Mu [Zao Luo Pao] spring colors / notice | IV, V |
| The same suite of qupai serves as a marker that "this person will sing to the end" | Tao's northern double-mode suite used three times | V |
| Division of labor between northern and southern qu: northern for ghosts, judges, foreign kings, courts, and the imperial court; southern for boudoirs and families | The Peony Pavilion: Judgment in the Underworld, Hard Interrogation | Three |
| ⚠️ Northern qu does not equal outsider: two side by side | The Peach Blossom Fan: Casting the Letter to the Yuans / Contending for the Throne | Three |
| North-South composite suite = "one person facing the crowd" written into the rules of qu | The Peony Pavilion: Reunion by Imperial Edict; The Peach Blossom Fan: Entering the Way | Three |
| Repeated same tune title + changed words in the shared coda to write crowd-scene transitions | The Peony Pavilion: Encouraging Agriculture, four groups | Three |
| One tune title, four stanzas of qianqiang + a shared coda to write multiple people's simultaneous onstage reactions | The Peony Pavilion: Meeting the Mother [Fanshanhu] | Three |
| One tune title throughout to write the great rout, with the repeated-line content plunging all the way down | The Peach Blossom Fan: Fleeing Disaster [Xiangliuniang] | Three |
| One dailguoqu split into lines assigned by wave of attack, the besieged use only spoken dialogue | The Peach Blossom Fan: Refusing the Matchmaker, six people sing in parts | Three, Seven |
| Three limitations of qu packaging official documents | The Peach Blossom Fan [Yifengshu] [Gaoyangtai] | Four, Seven |
| Singing for emotion, spoken dialogue for reasoning; the harshest words given to the binbai | The Peach Blossom Fan: Oath of the Army, five levels of command | Seven+sw-dialogue |
| Spoken dialogue interspersed in qu does not occupy a qu position | The Peony Pavilion: The Boudoir School, The Secret Tryst, The Netherworld Vow | Four, Seven |
| Major information cut into four slices to speak, each slice inserted with a question + a physical gesture | The Peony Pavilion: The Netherworld Vow [Zhuomufan] | Seven |
| The number of qu in a solo act = the number of levels of realization | The Peony Pavilion: Enjoying the Portrait, eight stanzas | Three, Six |
| Collected Tang exit poem (closes this act and hints at the next, can be divided among roles to recite) | The Peony Pavilion, 55 acts | Three |
| ⚠️ Anti-collected Tang: entrance and exit poems all newly composed | The Peach Blossom Fan, General Principles 15 | Three, Nine |
| The fumo opening expanded into a through-line; the narrator must also be a character in the play | The Peach Blossom Fan: The Old Master of Ceremonies | Three |
| A long play divided into two halves, with a fumo return-scene judging the play set in between | The Peach Blossom Fan, plus twenty-one acts | Three |
| Non-plot acts without qu (witness + proxy questioning + stage business sound effects) | The Peach Blossom Fan, intercalary twentieth act | Three, Six |
| One prop transforms seven times, each transformation prompted by another person's action; additionally give a fake one | The Peach Blossom Fan: The Fan | sw-scene-craft |
| Write the same character action three times: change the level of opponent, the magnitude of cost, the ratio of singing to spoken dialogue | The Peach Blossom Fan: Xiangjun's Three Refusals | sw-character-conflict |
| A character's professional skill must be a plot mechanism | The Peach Blossom Fan: Liu Jingting / Su Kunsheng | sw-character-conflict |
| The play-within-a-play must do work, not be mere atmosphere | The Peach Blossom Fan, acts two, twenty-four, twenty-five | Three |
| Anti-reunion pushed twice; the token must be split at the point of fullest emotion | The Peach Blossom Fan: Entering the Way + Lingering Resonance | Three+sw-story-structure |
| Closing scene description: finish walking a road first, then speak a line, and the place must have been performed | The Peach Blossom Fan [Aijiangnan] | sw-dialogue |
| One line echoes across twenty acts, must use a ready-made line | The Peony Pavilion "Three autumns of cassia blossoms" across 26 acts | Three |
| Writing the same space twice (at the time of the event/after the event) | Mudan Jingmeng Yuan/Shihua Yuan | sw-scene-craft |
| Use the ready-made formula as is but reverse it once in execution | Mu meets mother "voice gradually lowers" | Three |
| Four adaptation moves: delete relatives/make legal illegal/change the encounter/leave the original line blank | Mu vs. huaben | Nine+sw-format-adaptation |
| Modern new composition: not forming a set, scattered fragments of gold and jade, strict rhyme with loose words, tune title = singing method column | Ba's four questions | Ten |
| Four functions of the helping chorus and three rules; characters in the play hear the helping chorus (isolated example) | Ba's nine sections | Eight |
| The same tune title loops back to create front-back symmetry | Ba [Liushui Qiang] | Ten |
| Use vocal style to label characters | Ba high qiang/kun qiang/Peking opera | Twelve |
| Each level of failure must let the protagonist know one more thing | Ba's four-level accusation | sw-story-structure |
Seven, comparison with banqiang-style corpus
"Ba Shan Xiucai" and "Pan Jinlian" are a control pair by the same author across vocal system, the two sides point to each other; do not look at only half:
| Ba Shan Xiucai (Section Five) | Pan Jinlian (sw-chinese-opera-banqiang-cases） |
|
|---|---|---|
| vocal style | Sichuan operahigh qiang= qupai style | Sichuan operatanxi/huqin= banqiang style |
| What the script labels | Labels tune titles(including vocal type, other genres' banqiang patterns, recitation method); no gongdiao | Labels banqiang patterns; no tune titles |
| helping chorus | Yes, nine sections, written as a character | There are traces of helping chorus as an independent character-Traces of high qiang within banqiang style |
| Era and lineage | 1983 new historical drama, a tearful comedy | Absurdity and cross-time-space (commentary seat) |
Same author, same genre, two sets of writing methods, is the cleanest set of evidence for "the division into axes is vocal system, not genre" (banqiang Section Zero One, qupai opening);Sichuan opera is a genre that crosses systems within a single script; labeling the vocal style itself is the playwright's task. Two other cross-database cross-references:Contemporary use of chorus/offstage choir + subtitles replaces self-introduction, entrance poem, and exit poem(banqiang Section Six "chorus layer"), corresponding to this skill's Tang-collection exit poem and fumo opening;density of singing passages = heavy scenes—Three independent pieces of evidence in this database and banqiang style's "singing passages reserved for heavy scenes" are the same thing.