On The Drama Of MuLian

Mahamaudgalyayana, a famous Indian Buddhist, his story began to enter China in the WeiJin and NaiBei Dynasty with Chinese translations in the scripture and buddhists in India and it had a profound impacted on China's religion folklore literature and art ect,especially on the Chinese classical Opera in far-reaching consequence.Buddhist Scriptccre Yulanpen estabilished the basic framework of the story of Mulian Rescues his Mother from the Hell. Mulianbianwen unearthed from Dunhuang Library Cave further enriched its plot.The story circulated through scriptures,bianwen and so on and then entered dramatic literature and formed the drama of mulian.The Song ZaJu drama Mulian Rescues his Mother from the Hell was considered the China's first opera repertoire mentioned by literature.The Jin YuanBen dramas DaQingTi,Yuan ZaJu dramas XingXiaoDaoMuLianJiuMu,SengNiGongHui,MuLianRu Ming and so forth and their main subject is to promote filial piety.As Song Dynasty moved to south,the story of MuLian combined with NaXi,which laid the foundation for mulianxi prosperity.Ming Dynasty was the heyday of the MuLian dramaas,ChuanQi drama MuLianJiuMuQuanShanXiWen,ZaJu drama SengNiGongFan,SanQu NiGuXiaShan and MuLianJiuMu.The drama of MuLian religious mean dimmed and highlighted reward of the good and punishment of the bad.The local drama of MuLian was booming all tune contests showed their best. The performance of the drama MuLian reached a peak.The drama of MuLian in Qing Dynasty still followed two aspects:the opeara and ShuoChang literature.In opeara court drama QuanShanJinKe appeared.In ShuoChang literature,there were many kinds of types and the main style was BaoJuanas, such as MuLianSanShiBaoJuan,MuLianJiuMuBaoJuan,MuLianJi,MuLianXunMu,MuLianBaoJuan.The latter Qing dynasty, the local drama MuLian drama declined,but other types of MuLian dramas survived,such as Peking Opera,Chuan Opera,Yu Opera.