Emperor Qianlong's Tours In Southern China On The View Of Opera History

Through the lifetime, Emperor Qianlong took his tours of inspection in southern China for six times, which dated separately on year 1751,1757,1762,1765,1780 and 1784.In these years, he devoted himself not only to the country's politics, economy, religion and culture but also to watching opera. Wherever he went during the tour in southern China, bureaucracy took the most excellent opera as present, which resulted in opera's whole prosperity. When this question was referred, the scholars seemed to agree that Qianlong's tours in southern China had special meaning in China's opera history for a long time, but there was hardly systematic and deep study. It is a complicated and integrate study on opera's culture phenomena that takes Qianlong's tours in southern China as the subject, for it relates to a large time span , a great numbers of people and lots of factors such as government's rules, opera troupes, players, theatres, audiences, playwrights and play books. This article takes the view of opera history to analysize Qianlong's tours in southern China through the process as below. First of all, the author introduces the background of opera's prosperity during Qianlong's tours. Secondly, the whole opera's movements at that time are reflected on three sides as opera's organizing and performance, opera's musical tune and players'performing arts, opera's contents and playwrights. Through such a detailed review on this special phenomena, the conclusion can be taken that the opera movements during Qianlong's tours in southern China stimulate opera art's highly prosperity and promote performance art's communication and development. Furthermore, they have great influence on opera troupes and players'living style as well as the tendency of contend between'Hua'and'Ya'opera. In a word, the opera movements during Emperor Qianlong's tours in southern China result in government's intervention to folk opera's tradition and play an important role on opera's development in the middle and late Qing Dynasty.