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Establishment of “Drama” Orientation

The “national drama” in China is a historical concept. Grown on long-

standing Chinese culture and art, the traditional drama, mainly in the form
of “opera”, has been integrated with “drama” of an international back-
ground. From the perspective of modern “drama and opera”, this book
mainly studies the conditions and research of Chinese traditional drama in
the 1920s and 1930s.
Instead of analyzing from the viewpoint of literature appreciation or
music theory, the author regards the drama as a comprehensive stage art.
He attaches special importance to restoring historical scenes and therefore
mainly introduces the drama journals and monographs published in that
historical period, in order to help readers understand the original state of
drama at that time through the records of the witnesses. In particular, this
book delivers an insightful view about the evolution of the meaning of
“national drama” and “drama”.
The book will help scholars and readers understand the meaning and the
whole story of the “national drama” concept, and will certainly facilitate
the construction of the discipline of Drama and Opera.

Zhang Yifan, a lecturer of the School of Liberal Arts, Renmin University of

China, has mainly taught the major courses of Drama and Opera Study as
well as General Knowledge of Traditional Art since 2009.
China Perspectives

The China Perspectives series focuses on translating and publishing works

by leading Chinese scholars, writing about both global topics and China-
related themes. It covers Humanities & Social Sciences, Education, Media
and Psychology, as well as many interdisciplinary themes.
This is the first time any of these books have been published in English for
international readers. The series aims to put forward a Chinese perspective,
give insights into cutting-edge academic thinking in China, and inspire
researchers globally.

Titles in arts currently include:

China in the Age of Global Capitalism

Jia Zhangke’s Filmic World
Wang Xiaoping

Establishment of “Drama” Orientation

Transition of the Research Paradigm of Chinese Dramas in the 1920s and
1930s
Zhang Yifan

Embodiment and Disembodiment in Live Art

from Grotowski to 3-D Hologram
Shi Ke

For more information, please visit https://www.routledge.com/series/CPH

Establishment of “Drama”
Orientation
Transition of the Research Paradigm
of Chinese Dramas in the 1920s and
1930s

Zhang Yifan
First published in English 2020
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2020 Zhang Yifan
The right of Zhang Yifan to be identified as author of this work has
been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical,
or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including
photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or
retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks
or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and
explanation without intent to infringe.
English version by permission of China Renmin University Press.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record has been requested for this book

ISBN: 978-0-367-36738-1 (hbk)

ISBN: 978-0-429-35112-9 (ebk)

Typeset in Times New Roman

by Swales & Willis, Exeter, Devon, UK
Contents

Foreword 1 vi
Foreword 2 ix
Foreword 3 xiii
Preface xix

1 Introduction 1

2 The whole story of the National Drama Movement 10

3 The evolution of ideas and exploration of vision 34

4 Drama-oriented drama art criticism 85

5 Theoretical understanding of the “whole drama” 109

6 Different research perspectives on “drama” 147

7 Epilogue 187

Bibliography 196
Afterword 201
Index 203
Foreword 1

I feel delighted to write a few lines for this book upon the author’s invita-
tion, with whom I have a special relationship.
In 2001, Zhang Yifan registered for the postgraduate entrance examin-
ation of National Academy of Chinese Theatre Arts, applied for the major
of the history of Chinese operas and intended to be my student. He was
successfully admitted to the school with good examination performance, but
I had retired in 2002 when he entered the school. In spite of this, I was still
requested to continue to guide Zhang Yifan’s learning. I have had no other
postgraduate after Zhang, so he was my last close student.
Zhang Yifan had served in a government office for a period of time after
he graduated from the Department of Chinese Language of Zhejiang Uni-
versity. However, he surprisingly gave up his stable and promising work and
was bent wholeheartedly on theater and opera studies. Therefore, he joined
the National Academy of Chinese Theatre Arts purely for his personal
interest. Zhang Yifan truly had a deep love for the art of opera.
In my first conversation with him after he entered the school, he asked
me how he could become a postgraduate student.
I told him that he should get used to being cold-shouldered in the first
place. People were becoming fickler in the current age, and even some post-
graduates, who should be dedicated to pursuing studies, were unwilling to
study and even took shortcuts to write their papers. As he intended to do
research on opera history, he should dive into the sea of literature. This was
the minimum requirement for postgraduate students.
I also told him that he, as a postgraduate student of the National Academy
of Chinese Theatre Arts, should rely on existing educational resources there
to enrich and remold himself. He had better immerse himself in the opera
industry during this period and start to get the hang of it. He was not
required to know how to perform, but he should at least know something
about the operatic circle. Instead of knowing merely about desk management,
he should endeavor to become a complete opera researcher.
By satisfying the above two requirements, he could smoothly do research
on drama and opera.
 Foreword 1 vii
Zhang Yifan was obedient. In addition to attending the class of opera
history and theory, he also went to the lectures about opera performance
and directing and even directly studied the performance of Beijing opera
from the teachers of the performance major. He also became familiar with
several major libraries in Beijing.
Then, Zhang discussed with me his research area.
He asked me whether there was any uncultivated virgin land in the
research of opera history. I told him that this land might exist in the
research of opera history and theory of a hundred years ago, but currently,
a relatively complete opera study had been established through the efforts
of generations of scholars in the 20th century. Every topic of this study had
seen the footprints and academic discoveries of scholars.
It is arduous but also appealing to cultivate such virgin land, since every
little new discovery belongs exclusively to the explorer. The achievement,
big or small, is original and innovative, and free from the suspicion of pla-
giarism. However, an uncultivated area can hardly be found in opera history
studies. In spite of that, such study still needs improvement, as it is neces-
sary to refine what predecessors have already achieved. The young scholars,
growing in the 21st century, are wise and energetic; and compared to their
predecessors, they have a broader horizon, operate with more advanced
tools and introduce foreign achievements, so they are able to improve the
studies both quantitatively and qualitatively. Moreover, in some areas,
research is still far from sufficient. Researchers of opera history need to put
greater effort into these weak areas.
In view of Zhang Yifan’s personal conditions, I suggested he focus on the
research direction of modern and contemporary operas. This was because,
among the opera history monographs published, only a few were about the
research of modern and contemporary operas, and no systematic and in-
depth research had been made on many important opera phenomena such
as the modern and contemporary opera literature, opera music, opera per-
formance, opera genres and opera theories.
Zhang Yifan agreed with my suggestion and started his own research on
Beijing opera, the greatest opera genre in modern times. He had read many
books, asked for advice from predecessors including Liu Zengfu, Huang
Zongjiang, Luo Di, Yu Cong, Ren Mingyao and Song Baoluo, and finally
completed a good Master’s thesis, Views on Mei Lanfang’s Artistic Innov-
ation from the Perspective of the Three New Genres of Drama.
Extended from Mei Lanfang’s new dramas, the National Drama Move-
ment in the 1920s and 1930s would be involved.
It was impossible for a Master’s thesis to cover a great deal of academic
content. In the three years of postgraduate studies, students could only learn
some methods of study and approaches to research. Anyone dedicated to
pursuing one’s studies must study for a doctor’s degree, and so did Zhang
Yifan. He then passed an entrance examination to become a doctoral student
of the Communication University of China and studied with Zhou Huabin.
viii Foreword 1
Since then, he no longer concentrated on studying Mei Lanfang, but con-
tinued with research on modern and contemporary operas. His focus was on
opera research in the 1920s and 1930s. Essentially, he was “researching the
opera research” of this period, which was a topic under opera academic his-
tory. Because it is in this period when the study of opera changed from taking
literature and opera as orientation to taking drama as orientation, and only by
doing so, can we establish “drama and opera study” in the full sense.
This book is a presentation of his Doctor’s thesis. I will not judge the
quality of this book here, since I believe that readers will know it once they
read the book.
Zhou Yude
February 1, 2015
Foreword 2

I was transferred to Zhejiang in the 1970s and had worked in the Zhejiang
Beijing Opera Troupe for six years. I had numerous friends there and was
even called “Hangzhou’s son-in-law” jokingly. In my mind, Hangzhou is
my second homeland. Therefore, after I was transferred back to Beijing,
I always felt at home whenever I received people from Hangzhou. In 2002,
Zhang Yifan was admitted to the postgraduate school of the National
Academy of Chinese Theatre Arts to pursue his Master’s degree. After he
registered in the school, he visited me with a letter from an acquaintance of
mine, who requested me to take care of him. Since then, we had got to
know each other and communicated a lot. During our conversations,
I found that he had an extremely good memory and knew a lot about the
operatic circle, and he could even rapidly recall the birth dates of famous
opera actors. It was obvious that he was a loyal theatergoer. Afterwards, his
teacher Zhou Yude told me: “This young man is indeed a die-hard fan of
Beijing Opera and has a great potential.” Zhang had the good fortune to
become a close disciple of Zhou Yude.
He always worked hard and often talked with me. I suggested he watched
more plays, read more books, asked more questions, wrote more things and
thought more about when students studied operas, but I had no need to
instruct him to do so, as he always took the initiative. Distinguished from
other students, Zhang Yifan was interested in learning information about
the operatic circle, and he was always the first to know about the dynamics
of the circle. Therefore, anyone who wanted the latest information would
come to him. With this enthusiasm and character, he gave his whole atten-
tion to his studies and knew what was happening in the academic circle at
any time, including which new book was published, who was delivering new
ideas, what new historical materials were being disclosed and which aca-
demic seminar was being held. He was commonly considered as the “know-
ledgeable person” of the circle. Here, I intended to show that he was
a practical, open-minded and down-to-earth researcher instead of being
a writer who merely racked his brains at his desk.
In 2006, he started to further his study in the Communication University
of China with a Doctor’s degree and followed Professor Zhou Huabin.
x Foreword 2
Cultivated and supported by the two teachers both surnamed Zhou, Zhang
Yifan has increased his knowledge and enlarged his vision. He has gained
great accomplishment through three years of hard work. He put great effort
into reading widely books, newspapers and journals; he collected materials,
conducted extensive and in-depth investigations, made a careful and detailed
analysis, expressed his opinions and finally finished the book.
This is a topic of great significance. Based on his previous dedicated research
on Mei Lanfang (see his Master’s thesis), Zhang Yifan carried out research on
modern and contemporary opera research and focused on the research of the
1920s and 1930s. He summarized the “National Drama Movement” initiated
by Yu Shangyuan, Zhao Taimou and others as well as Chinese opera research
on the “literature orientation” of Wang Jing’an, the “opera orientation” of Wu
Qu’an and the “drama-oriented” research of Xu Lingxiao, Qi Rushan, Mei
Lanfang and Cheng Yanqiu. This complete process of evolution revealed in
this book is consistent with historical practice. In my humble opinion, opera
research is only complete when the “performing art” is included. In simple
words, the whole study is not comprehensive or scientific if the “stage perform-
ance history of the opera” is ignored. By summarizing and discussing the evo-
lution of opera research in this period, Zhang Yifan is exploring a new study
area.
I will now explain the two terms, “old drama” and “national drama”, in
an informal way. The term “old drama” emerged in the late Qing Dynasty.
Particularly since the “May Fourth” New Culture Movement, “old drama”
was used to refer to Beijing opera, which was only renamed as the “trad-
itional play” by the new government at the founding of the new China in
1949. I was admitted to Siwei Opera School in 1948, when the dramas cre-
ated and performed by the school were called “new Beijing Opera”. For
instance, the Song of a Pipa Player and the Golden Bowl written by Tian
Han, and the Peach Blossom Fan and Romeo and Juliet created by Jiao
Juyin and performed by the Beijing Art Museum, were advertised as “new
Beijing Opera”. After the liberation of Beijing, when the Committee for
Cultural Management under the People’s Liberation Army Military Control
Committee took over the school, the “Old Drama Office” under the North
China Culture & Art Commission became responsible for the takeover task.
The Office mainly managed the Beijing Opera, Qinqiang Opera (Bangzi)
and Pingju (a local opera of north and north-east China). (At that time, the
Quju Opera among the five opera genres in Beijing had not come into
being, and North Kun, characterized by the Kunshan and Yiyang inton-
ation in the north, had not emerged yet.) It can be seen that the term “old
drama” had been used for half a century.
Scholars hold different opinions on the term “national drama”. It was
commonly accepted that “the national drama refers to Chinese drama” in
a broad sense, but later, “national drama” was used to uniquely represent
“Beijing opera”. Beijing opera was called the “national drama” due to the
dialects it used. Its major Yunbai (parts in Beijing opera in which the
 Foreword 2 xi
traditional pronunciation of certain words is slightly different from that in
current Beijing dialect) consisted of “Zhongzhou intonation, Hunan and
Guangdong dialect and Beijing dialect”, which is still the same today.
“Zhongzhou intonation” means the intonation of the Central Plains.
Since it was related to the Central Plains, it was often mistaken as Henan
dialect. However, it was actually created by Zhou Deqing in the Yuan Dyn-
asty based on the dialect of the capital Dadu (i.e. the current Beijing).
According to Du Yingtao, an opera scholar who has passed away,

Zhou Deqing once said that “the rhythm contained all sounds of nature”
and “the dialect of the Central Plains should be the basis”. The dialect of
the Central Plains mentioned by Zhou should be the official language of the
Yuan Dynasty. The official language of each dynasty had always been the
local dialect of the capital, so the dialect of the Central Plains in the Yuan
Dynasty should be the dialect of Dadu. (“Phonology of Beijing Dramas”,
Drama Study Monthly (1932) 1, p. 53)

The same opinion can also be seen in the Chinese Phonology written by the
linguist Wang Li and “On Zhongzhou Intonations” (Shanghai Drama
(1961), 6) by the opera researcher Shao Zengqi. The chanting in Kunqu
Opera and Beijing Opera applied the “Central Plains intonations”, that is
the official language of the central government at that time, which helped
expand the audience. The official language was universally used when local
officials reported their work in Beijing, when businessmen negotiated in Bei-
jing and when examinees of the imperial examination went to Beijing.
Therefore, operas using “Zhongzhou intonations” were understandable to
these people. In this way, these operas were seeing an expanding audience
and became popular around the whole country, so they were commonly rec-
ognized as the “national drama”. On the other hand, Sichuan Opera, des-
pite its profound cultural background, consummate performance skills and
high attainment, could not become the “national drama” since it had only
Sichuan people as its audience and could barely be spread due to the dan-
gerous roads in Sichuan. The case was the same with many other local
operas.
Beijing Opera was derived from the integration of Anhui Opera and Han
Opera from 1790, absorbed the essence of Kunqu and Bangzi, went through
50 years of “promoting the Beijing style, discarding the dross and selecting
the essential” (according to Ji Xianlin) and was finally produced from the
Anhui opera troupe around 1840. It had won the favor and support of the
Qing government and was also popular among the people for its fashion
style. Being the “capital opera” and “royal court opera”, it had exerted
extremely wide and profound influence and finally reached every corner of
China. It truly deserved the honor of “national drama”. The fact that
China had always been a unified country also contributed to the generation
of the “national drama”.
xii Foreword 2
The term “national drama” could still be seen in Taiwan in the 1970s and
1980s. Many publications about Beijing Opera still used “national drama”
in their titles at that time.
The above only gives the informal description instead of the academic
definition of this term, providing only a reference that has been accepted
through common practice.
Niu Biao
In Wanqing Study of Wangchao Tower in the
first month of the lunar year of 2015
Foreword 3

I
The “national drama” is a broad and general concept and literally means
“Chinese drama”. From the international perspective, the “drama” covers the
stage performance in the realm of art, including plays, operas, dance dramas,
pantomimes and some other forms. Chinese traditional operas with a long his-
tory are called Xiqu (simply represented by “opera”), which were divided into
different tunes and genres in modern and contemporary times. The drama
forms in a global view are completely different from the genres of Chinese
operas. In addition to nationwide “plays” and “operas”, there are still diversi-
fied “minority dramas”. Therefore, based on the national system of the
“people’s republic” and the art and literature policy of “letting flowers bloom
everywhere”, the “national drama” of China will definitely integrate the west-
ern and eastern drama forms and become a general and broad concept under
the international drama background.
According to the historical idea of “literary form”, in the federal unified
dynasty of the Yuan, Ming and Qing, Zaju of the Yuan Dynasty and
Chuanqi of the Ming and Qing Dynasties had been the mainstream form of
Chinese drama in the Han cultural circle, that is the so-called “national
drama”. However, being a “literary form”, Zaju of the Yuan Dynasty and
Chuanqi of the Ming and Qing Dynasties did not emphasize performance
art. Different operas of China varied in intonation. For example, Yuan
operas were divided into “south intonation” and “north intonation”; and in
the late Ming and the whole Qing Dynasty, “Kun, Gao, Bang, Huang”
tunes had sprung up among the people and formed different “aria systems”.
Various opera intonations have made up hundreds of “local opera genres”.
The intonation is closely linked with the pronunciation, while the stage
performance of operas is distinguished from the written words. Although
“local operas” in different regions often applied the universal official lan-
guage (“official rhyming system”, “official lines”), integrating local dialects
and some even using “rolling lines” or “rolling singing” (which means
adding extra lines or singing) to explain the literary language used in
ancient China, they still failed to reach the standard of “national language”
xiv Foreword 3
or “national pronunciation”. Until now, “local operas” are still using the
“intonations” derived from local dialects that greatly vary from each other,
and are not altered without careful consideration.
The language and pronunciation problems are quite complicated. By the
late Qing Dynasty, it was argued that the “official language” should be the
“national language”, but the aim could not be accomplished in one move. In
the early Republic of China and right after the founding of the People’s
Republic of China, phonology experts (including Qian Xuantong in the early
Republic of China as well as some intellectuals who had studied abroad such
as Cai Yuanpei, Li Jinxi and Zhao Yuanren) had put great effort into formu-
lating and promoting the uniform “new Chinese phonology” as the “national
language”, which had been used for a long period. When I went to primary
school and middle school in Wuxi and Suzhou of Jiangsu Province around
the 1950s, the Chinese lesson was called “National Language”, later divided
into two courses “Literature” and “Chinese Language”, which was finally
changed to “Chinese”. In 1955, the People’s Daily published an editorial,
“Make Great Efforts to Promote the Reform of Chinese Characters, Popular-
ize Mandarin and Realize the Standardization of the Chinese Language”.
The standard definition of “Mandarin” was to be: “The modern language
commonly used by Han people with Beijing pronunciation as the standard
pronunciation, with the northern dialect as the basic dialect and with the
standard modern Chinese as the grammatical norm.” Since the 1950s, “Man-
darin” has replaced the “national language”, while “popularizing Mandarin”
has been stipulated in the national constitution.
With regard to opera, the “national drama” was to use the national lan-
guage, and its stage performance was to present the uniform national lan-
guage and national pronunciation. The dialect of phonetic symbols is even
more complicated than that of written letter symbols. As the linguistic circle
was pushing the “national language” during the New Culture Movement,
the “National Drama Movement” in the theatrical circle would necessarily
face the problem of “national language” and “national pronunciation”. In
terms of drama practices, the “new dramas”, plays and movies a hundred
years ago had once applied the uniform “national language” in the Republic
of China era. Afterwards, Mandarin was applied from the founding of the
People’s Republic of China until now. I still remember that, in the 1950s,
I carefully studied the “national language” for a long period before I could
understand what the plays and films were talking about. As to the opera,
Beijing Opera was the closest to the national language and Mandarin “with
Beijing pronunciation as the standard pronunciation and with the northern
dialect as the basic dialect”, which was therefore popular in most areas in
China and recognized as the “national drama”. The “play” and “Beijing
Opera” had both been deemed as the representative of the “national
drama” in the Republic of China period from different perspectives.
Great changes had taken place in China in late Qing Dynasty when the
feudal autocratic government had been overthrown. After the Revolution of
 Foreword 3 xv
1911, the country led the road toward becoming a “democratic republic
state”, and the “May Fourth” New Culture Movement was the turning
point between the new and the old culture. Against the background of east-
ern and western cultural collision and with “many things waiting to be
done” in the circle of literature and art, the whole society was in a trend of
learning from the west. A debate on the “new drama” and “old drama”
had lasted for a short period around the “May Fourth” Movement. By the
1920s and 1930s, a group of intellectuals who had studied abroad had
returned to China and started to develop the strong points, avoid the weak
points and construct a new drama integrating western and Chinese charac-
teristics with a sober mind. Therefore, the discussions on the “national
drama” mostly emerged in the 1920s and 1930s, particularly represented by
the statement that Beijing Opera constituted the main body of the “national
drama” widely known during the “National Drama Movement” and the
ideological trend of “opera improvement” in the same period.
II
As mentioned above, the “national drama” is a historical concept. Grown
on long-standing Chinese culture and art, the traditional drama, mainly in
a form of “opera”, had been integrated with “drama” against the inter-
national background. Under these circumstances, the discipline of “drama
and opera” that combines the international drama area and also featuring
strong national characteristics was formed. When I went to the United
States in the middle 1980s, I found that the book History of World Drama
widely accepted in the west only covered operas (Kunqu Opera and Beijing
Opera) as “Chinese dramas” but excluded the plays; though this part was
included in the chapter “Oriental Classical Dramas”.
From the perspective of the discipline of modern “drama and opera”,
Zhang Yifan systematically summarizes professional documents from news-
papers, journals and relevant books in the 1920s and 1930s. His research
mainly covers a period of 12 years from the “National Drama Movement”
in 1925 initiated by the intellectuals who had once studied abroad to the
outbreak of the War of Resistance against Japan in 1937 (the practical dis-
solution of national drama societies and closure of the Monthly Drama
Journal).
In this book he points out that the concept of “national drama” was put
forward in the National Drama Movement in 1925. Scholars held different
understandings of this term, but it had replaced the two opposite ideas at
the beginning of the 20th century, namely the “new drama” and the “old
drama”. The “new drama supporter” stressed creating progressive dramas
that could be established in the forest of world dramas, while the “old
drama supporters” attached great importance to developing and expanding
the quintessence of Chinese culture, that is the traditional drama. However,
both schools accepted and used the concept of “national drama”.
xvi Foreword 3
The author has made a historical explanation of the connotation of
“national drama” and further analyzed the study of “Chinese Drama His-
tory” initiated at the beginning of the 20th century. This began with the
“literature-oriented” work, A Study of Dramas in the Song and Yuan Dynas-
ties, written by Wang Guowei around 1912, followed by the “opera-
oriented” work, A General Theory of the Opera and An Introduction to
Chinese Operas by Wu Mei around 1918, and then followed by the “drama-
oriented” (“the whole drama”) study of Chinese Theatre History and The
Brief History of Chinese Drama by Zhou Yibai in 1936. The author has
focused on explaining the evolution and development of the academic his-
tory of Chinese dramas in terms of the cultural collision and exchange
between western countries and China in the first half of the 20th century.
The artistic view constitutes the key to the study of art practices and art
theories, including that of drama. With the stage performance as the essen-
tial factor of drama, different views of drama have been formed. On this
basis, this book summarizes the “drama-oriented” trend of drama criticism
that emerged in the first half of the 20th century, including literary and art-
istic criticism, placing particular stress on the criticism of dramatic art.
According to the author of this book, some comments had gone beyond the
limitations of history.
This book also analyzes the different types of cultural background of
drama scholars and men of literature as reflected by the newspapers and
journals at that time and compared with the different study perspectives of
these different types of dramatists. For instance, men of literature such as
Qi Rushan and Xu Lingxiao knew well both the field and the desk and had
a thorough knowledge of both western and Chinese studies; Beijing Opera
artists including Mei Lanfang and Cheng Yanqiu featured profound artistic
attainments and bravely explored the new art; and the “left-wing” scholars
including Tian Han and Ouyang Yuqian attached great importance to the
social significance of the drama. These different types of dramatists, without
prior consultation, all regarded the “drama” as “comprehensive art” and
started the exploration of “drama” integrating eastern and western culture,
despite their different focuses.
As is known to all, academic progress was suspended during the War of
Resistance against Japan that broke out in 1937 and the War of Liberation
later; but it made a fresh start under the banner of “new-democratic cul-
ture” after the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949. How-
ever, the continuity of culture and art can never be ended. After the Qing
government had been overthrown in the revolution that spread like a storm,
scholars became calmer in the 1920s and 1930s. It must be admitted that
the collision and communication between eastern and western culture in
cities had facilitated the construction of the national drama.
The view of drama is a manifestation of a social ideological trend. People
finally started to summarize and analyze the newspapers, journals and mater-
ials about performance practices explored by Zhang Yifan approximately
 Foreword 3 xvii
a hundred years ago that had been forgotten by people due to political
reasons. A practical, accurate and credible judgment has been made on the
National Drama Movement and the establishment of “drama orientation” in
the dramatic circle. The author emphasizes the aboriginality and authenticity
of materials based on the concept of “theories derived from history” and pro-
vides further academic inspiration. Therefore, this book explores a new area.
For example, the author cautiously points out that “the year of 1928
seems to be a special year for drama research in China”, and that “the
‘drama orientation’ of Chinese drama had been gradually established fol-
lowing the ‘literature orientation’ and ‘opera orientation’”. He has drawn
this conclusion after listing a great number of social facts concerning 1928,
including the emergence of several journals titled with “drama”, the naming
of the “play”, the slogan of the “new national drama movement” proposed
by Tian Han and the publication of the Organization of Chinese Dramas
written by Qi Rushan and others. The year of 1928 was the herald of the
prosperity of literature and art in the 1930s.
On January 4, 1928, the Shanghai Ta Kung Pao Drama Weekly had pub-
licized the aim of the Drama Weekly, which proposed the concept of
“drama” involved seven aspects: “script, directing, troupe, history, theatre,
acting and record”. In the history of drama, it is widely accepted that the
name “play” was introduced in March 1928, when Hong Shen proposed to
replace the “new drama” with “play” at the Henrik Ibsen commemoration
meeting. However, the author believes that “play” was actually put forward
two months earlier: “Hong Shen has been honored as the ‘inventor’ of the
term ‘play’ for 80 years, but now, the honor should be returned to Xu Ling-
xiao if no more new materials are discovered”. In this way, we can see the
author’s inclination to “take the academic study seriously” and “correct an
error” based on facts.
Zhang Yifan has been determined to specialize and persist in opera since
his university years. Later, he studied under Professor Zhou Yude of
National Academy of Chinese Theatre Arts as a Master’s candidate. From
2006 to 2009, he studied in the Communication University of China under
me for a Doctor’s degree. In this period, he served as the editorial board
member of the Extracts from Ancient Books and Records section of Kunqu
Opera Encyclopedia – Fine Arts Part, a National Social Science Program
organized by the Chinese National Academy of Arts, and was responsible
for six books including The Recollections of Taoan’s Past Dreams by Zhang
Dai of the Ming Dynasty, The History of Wearing on the imperial drama
organization in the Qing Dynasty, Unofficial Histories of the Qing Dynasty
by Xu Ke of the Qing Dynasty, Shengpingshu Administration Record by
Wang Zhizhang, The Collection of National Drama Art by Qi Rushan and
Kunqu Opera Wearing by the Suzhou Opera Research Institute printed in
February 1963. Zhang Yifan had given a rigorous summary of and made
precise extracts from the records related to Kunqu Opera art within the six
books. As he was also writing his Doctor’s thesis at the same time, his
xviii Foreword 3
editorial job cultivated his rigorous writing habits where great importance
had been attached to original materials.
Zhang Yifan has a distinguishing feature that he loves reading books
while seeking deep understanding. He has wide learning and an extremely
good memory, makes friends extensively in the theatrical circle and has
a great respect for seniors of the circle. As a Hangzhou native, he is a good
friend to Luo Di, an old opera expert of Zhejiang Province, despite their
great difference in age; and he also has a cross-generational friendship with
Professor Niu Biao of the National Academy of Chinese Theatre Arts who
has studied and worked in Beijing for years. In addition, he often visited
predecessors of the academic circle including Liu Zengfu and Wu Xiaoru
who have now passed away. When writing his Doctor’s thesis, he often
asked advice from teachers of the Chinese National Academy of Arts,
including Yu Cong, Fu Xiaohang and Gong Hede. Some of the materials
referred to in this book were found in The Catalogue of Modern Chinese
Opera Works edited by Fu Xiaohang et al. and the copies of original mater-
ials collected by Professor Niu Biao, in addition to his own research. It’s
fair to say that this book is the fruit of the author’s careful reading of ori-
ginal materials as well as his own deliberate thinking.
Zhang Yifan has a rare academic character in that he never stops study-
ing, despite the dearth of opera history research; he is keen on researching
the “oral history” of the theatrical circle and always seeks deep understand-
ing. After he was conferred with the Doctor’s degree in 2009, he has been
engaged in teaching and research in the National Drama Research Center
of Renmin University of China.
I believe that this book will help the academic circle and readers under-
stand the meaning and the whole story of the “national drama” concept
and will facilitate the construction of the discipline of Drama and Opera.
I hereby offer my congratulations with this foreword.
Zhou Huabin
February 5, 2015
Preface

With the end of the Qing Dynasty after the Revolution of 1911, the whole
of China was no longer dominated by the hereditary system – the concepts
of “democracy” and “republic” found their ways deeper into the hearts of
the people. In the enlightenment period of the May Fourth New Culture
Movement, “elite” intellectuals started to emphasize the concept of
“nation” where “the nation belongs to all the people of the nation”. This
kind of spiritual pursuit was embodied in a series of new terms prefixed by
the word “national” that emerged as the times required, including the term
“national drama”. The connotation of “national drama” evolved several
times based on the overall cognition of the academic history of Chinese
dramas from the late Qing and early Republic of China to the outbreak of
the War of Resistance against Japan (1908–1937). Mainly focusing on the
literature studies from 1925 (with the start of the National Drama Move-
ment) to 1937 (with the outbreak of the War of Resistance against Japan,
the practical dissolution of national drama societies and the closure of
Drama Study Monthly), this book explains the evolution and development
of the academic history of Chinese dramas in the first half of the 20th cen-
tury and attempts to summarize the theoretical achievements of the aca-
demic studies of Chinese dramas in modern and contemporary times and
the interaction between the press media (desk) and Chinese dramatic art
(field) in the first half of the 20th century.
Following the introductory Chapter 1, Chapter 2 discusses the origin of the
“national drama” (one of the core concepts of the whole text) and the evolu-
tion of its connotation, which constitutes the premise of the whole book. It
mainly introduces the story of the “National Drama Movement” initiated by
Yu Shangyuan, Zhao Taimou and others and the academic evaluation of the
historical role of the Movement and analyzes how the term “national drama”
that was newly created in “National Drama Movement” gradually evolved to
be the synonym for “old drama”, that is Chinese traditional opera (in
a broad sense) and Beijing opera (in a narrow sense).
Chapter 3 discusses how studies on Chinese dramas developed from
a “literature orientation” (represented by Wang Guowei) to an “opera
orientation” (represented by Wu Mei) and finally to a “drama orientation”
xx Preface
(represented by Qi Rushan and Xu Lingxiao) in the first three decades of
the 20th century. It mainly expounds the background for the emergence and
establishment of “theater studies” and the significant role of numerous the-
ater publications at that time.
Chapter 4 reviews and examines the manifestations of dramatic art criti-
cism in different historical stages as well as their advantages and disadvan-
tages, and emphasizes that drama-oriented dramatic art criticism in the first
half of the 20th century transcends the history from three perspectives, that
is the basic quality of theater critics, the critics’ focus on “the entire drama”
and the critical theories.
Chapter 5 mainly summarizes Chinese drama scholars’ “drama-oriented”
theoretical achievements on “the whole drama” in the 1920s and 1930s,
including performance art, dramatic writing art, director art, stage art and
the recording and filing of literature.
In addition, in this book, Chinese drama scholars adhering to drama
orientation in this period are divided into three groups based on their differ-
ent cultural backgrounds. The first group, represented by Qi Rushan and
Xu Lingxiao, had a thorough knowledge of both western and Chinese stud-
ies, knew well about both the field and the desk and presented the charac-
teristics of traditional scholars. The second group was composed of Beijing
opera artists who stressed cultural accomplishment and artistic exploration
and who are represented by Mei Lanfang and Cheng Yanqiu. The third
group, represented by Ouyang Yuqian and Tian Han, consisted of left-wing
scholars who attached great importance to promoting social transformation
through dramatic art. Chapter 6 analyzes and compares the different
research perspectives of these different groups.
The epilogue in Chapter 7 summarizes the influences of “national drama”
studies in the 1920s and 1930s on the academic history of Chinese dramas,
which mainly include (1) laying a solid foundation for the emergence of the
works on the general history of Chinese dramas, (2) adding new research
perspectives to traditional learning and (3) providing useful thoughts about
the continuation of academic concepts. Moreover, the epilogue also briefly
introduces the interaction between Chinese dramatic art and the development
of the press media in the 20th century.
This book involves little about “new drama” and “modern drama”, since
these concepts were still in their exploratory or early stages in the 1920s and
1930s and now belong to an independent discipline.
1 Introduction

Origin and significance of the topic

The academic history of Chinese dramas in a modern sense has gone
through a hundred years of development if calculated since the time of
Wang Guowei. In a century, generations of scholars have conducted abun-
dant research on the long-standing Chinese opera and attained great
achievement. Compared to the ancient drama, the modern Chinese drama,
though with a closer relation to the current condition and more complete
materials, has fewer historical research and theoretical summaries in the
academic circle. This topic is therefore proposed in view of this situation.
With the end of the Qing Dynasty after the Revolution of 1911, the
whole of China was no longer dominated by a hereditary system and the
concepts of democracy and republic found their ways deeper into the hearts
of the people. In the enlightenment period, elite intellectuals started to
emphasize the concept of “nation”, where “the nation belongs to all the
people of the nation”. This kind of spiritual pursuit was embodied in
a series of new terms prefixed by the word “national” that emerged as the
times required, including the term “national drama”. The connotation of
“national drama” evolved several times based on the overall cognition of
the academic history of Chinese dramas from the late Qing and early
Republic of China to the outbreak of the War of Resistance against Japan
(1908–1937). The three decades can be analyzed based on two approaches,
each of which consists of three stages.
The first approach is established on historical events.
The first stage lasts from the “Opera Reform Movement” to the “old
drama debate” in the New Culture Movement. The “reformers” who had
failed in the Reform Movement and the literati “revolutionaries” who had
emerged afterwards initiated the “Opera Reform Movement”. They had got
to know that political reform could only succeed upon the understanding
and support of the public. As the novel and opera were the most popular
cultural forms among the majority of the population, they put forward
a series of movement slogans, aiming to add more ideological and revolu-
tionary elements in the novel and opera for enlightenment. Their “reform”
2 Introduction
ideas involved changes of the content and performance of the drama and
the audience–theatre relationship of the theatre,1 but failed to ultimately
change the artistic form of the drama. A decade later, the main characters
of the New Culture Movement wholly denied the old drama (opera) in the
“old drama debate” of the New Youth. Though their argument might be
biased, they treated the old drama as an artistic form instead of merely
a kind of text. In this sense, the New Youth’s “Special Issue for Drama
Improvement” had played a significant role.
The second stage started in 1925 when Zhao Taimou, Yu Shangyuan,
Wen Yiduo, Xiong Foxi and some other scholars who had studied in the
United States opened the Drama Column (in the supplement to the Beijing
Morning Journal with Xu Zhimo as the chief editor) and advocated the
National Drama Movement. The Movement was also known as the “Cres-
cent School Drama Movement” to some scholars.2 They advocated sum-
marizing and utilizing the old drama to construct “Chinese plays put on by
Chinese people for Chinese people with Chinese materials”, that is the so-
called “national drama”.3 This was the first time that the term “national
drama” was officially proposed. Apparently, the “national drama” was in
line with other terms prefixed by the word “national” such as “national cul-
tural quintessence”, “national cultural heritage”, “national martial art” and
“national goods”. As to the drama concept, they were inclined to carry for-
ward the “pure art” of the traditional opera; and regarding the drama per-
formance, they proposed to “explore the complex human nature and reveal
the truth of life”, advocated combining the characteristics of the eastern
and western drama by “building a bridge between the ‘impression-oriented’
and the ‘reality-oriented’, a new kind of drama”, and predicted that “the
majority of Chinese dramas would become a kind of literary composition in
rhyme falling between the prose and poem in a few decades” based on the
Irish theoretical model of “national drama”. Their too idealistic imagination
did not accord with the social practical situation at that time and mean-
while failed to satisfy the social demand at that time, so it could not be put
into practice. In September 1927, Yu Shangyuan collected all texts pub-
lished by peers in the Morning Journal’s “Drama Column” in a book,
National Drama Movement, published by Crescent Bookstore, which offi-
cially declared the failure of the National Drama Movement. Nevertheless,
the theoretical ideas proposed by the National Drama Movement peers
including the “impression orientation”, “conventionalization”, “drama

1 Symbolized by the construction of Shanghai New Theatre in 1908, when the thrust stage used
in traditional dramas was changed to the western-style proscenium stage. The new viewing way
started to be widely accepted.
2 Cheng, Q. B. (2005). An Introduction to the Crescent School Drama (Master’s thesis). Wuhan
University, Wuhan, China.
3 Yu, S. Y. (1927). Preface, National Drama Movement. Shanghai: Crescent Bookstore.
 Introduction 3
being a collective artwork” and “theory of performance focus” exerted
a profound influence on the Chinese drama research of later ages.
The third stage, though the previous National Drama Movement
regarded “play” (though its name had not been defined at that time) as the
orientation, rationally recognized the status of the “old drama”. Meanwhile,
people started to self-reflect on the failure. Therefore, this stage was initiated
in the early 1930s, symbolized by the “national drama” research carried out
by Xu Lingxiao, Qi Rushan, Mei Lanfang, Cheng Yanqiu and others,
which mainly studied traditional opera (mainly Beijing Opera and Kunqu
Opera). The studying of drama in this period was characterized by the
established organizations and journals, a great number of participants and
many high-quality achievements. In addition, researchers featured a broad
cultural and artistic vision that covered all times and all countries, while the
literati and artists achieved unprecedented unity and collaboration. Theoret-
ical research achievements that affected the real stage performance started
to emerge. The drama history monographs published in the middle and late
1930s evidently absorbed the important theoretical and material achieve-
ments of this period.
The second approach is based on academic views.
The first stage concerns academic research on modern opera which com-
menced with the “literature orientation” represented by A Study of Dramas
in Song and Yuan Dynasties by Wang Guowei. Two important points could
be summarized from Wang Guowei’s ideas about opera research: firstly,
“every generation had its own literary form”, and the “opera” of the Yuan
Dynasty was a kind of literary form on a par with Tang poetry and Song
lyrics; secondly, “operas since the Ming Dynasty counted for little” and the
operas in the Ming and Qing Dynasty were “a dead literary form”, so he
only paid attention to the operas in the Yuan Dynasty.
The second stage. Employed by Cai Yuanpei in 1918, Wu Mei started to
teach Kunqu Opera in Peking University. Since then, a few opera-oriented
opera research monographs, represented by Wu Mei’s A Review of Operas,
A General Theory of the Opera and An Introduction to Chinese Operas, had
come out, which covered some shortfalls in Wang Guowei’s study. Wu Mei’s
research mainly focused on the “opera”, involving the rhyme scheme and
intonation of the opera itself. Compared to Wang Guowei’s opera research
that was literature oriented, the opera study of Wu Mei was opera oriented.
Influenced by the studies of the previous two stages, literature historians
started to cover Chinese drama in their study based on the drama
researches in the 1920s following the May Fourth Movement,4 but only
a few monographs dealt with this topic. With the Opera Collection pub-
lished by Shanghai Communication Library in 1918 as the representative

4 Ye, C. H. (2006). A Study of Chinese Dramas (20th Century Chinese Literature & Science
Research History Series). Fuzhou: Fujian People’s Publishing House.
4 Introduction
achievement, much art criticisms of opera, mainly on Beijing Opera, was
published in newspapers and journals, which provided a lot of visual mater-
ial for the advancement of Chinese drama art theories afterwards.
The third stage of the 1920s and 1930s saw the prosperity of Chinese
modern literary and artistic creations and theories, when many literati and art-
ists born at the turn of the century published their masterpieces. At this time,
drama study had developed from the literature orientation represented by
Wang Guowei, the opera orientation represented by Wu Mei and finally to the
drama orientation integrating all artistic elements of the drama. After the fail-
ure of the National Drama Movement, Xu Lingxiao opened the Drama
Weekly in Tianjin’s Ta Kung Pao, and Liu Huogong, Zheng Guoyi and others
created the Drama Monthly in Shanghai, both of which conducted an overall
study on dramatic art and lasted for three years. The two Beijing Opera per-
formance artists, Mei Lanfang and Cheng Yanqiu, returned from the United
States and Europe and founded their own research institutes on the premise of
the preservation of traditions (Beijing National Drama Society and Nanjing
Opera Music Institute Beijing Research Center). They had their own followers
and theoretical bases (Drama Series and Drama Study Monthly) but shared
similar academic research views. Tian Han’s New National Drama Movement
and Ouyang Yuqian’s drama reform ideas also represented different schools.
On this basis, art critics who well knew about both the field and the desk and
had a thorough knowledge of both western and Chinese studies had sprung
up. Chinese drama study in this period was pure and simple, free from political
interference and commercial influence. The critical essays were mostly person-
alized and unconventional, covering both theory discussions and casual literary
notes; and despite many disagreements, they did not sulk. The atmosphere and
tradition of these criticisms should be highly valued and carried forward.
As mentioned in the closing of The Draft of the Academic History of
Chinese Drama by Ye Changhai, great effort must be put into the explor-
ation of the breadth and depth of the study, in order to construct the scien-
tific system of Chinese drama study, which includes the performance, acting
art, audience aesthetics and theater management, as well as the practice
technologies of the core elements of drama and the study of psychology and
philosophy.5 As a matter of fact, this content had been discussed in varying
degrees in the third stage of both approaches, so this book mainly focuses
on both third stages.

Main object of study

The third stages of the two approaches both lasted from 1925 (with the
start of the National Drama Movement) to 1937 (with the outbreak of

5 Ye, C. H. (2005). The Draft of the Academic History of Chinese Drama. Beijing: Theatrical
Publishing House of China.
 Introduction 5
the War of Resistance against Japan, the practical dissolution of
national drama societies and the closure of the Drama Study Monthly).
A series of specific issues need to be addressed for the study of the aca-
demic history of Chinese drama in the first half of the 20th century,
including the historical background, academic ideas, article type, author
profile, theoretical achievements, the comparison with the research find-
ings in the same period and the summary and review of different
expressions of the dramatic art in the documents based on the different
identities of the authors and the different perspectives (literati, artists
and audience). In this book I aim to explore an important part of
a hundred-year academic study of Chinese drama and to attempt to
summarize the theoretical achievements of modern and contemporary
academic study of Chinese drama in all its aspects and the interaction
between the development of the press media and Chinese dramatic art
and theoretical development in the first half of the 20th century. The
main research object of this book is, physically, the academic journals
and monographs about drama in this period and, mentally, the
academic history of Chinese drama in this period.

An overview of previous research

Primary importance will be attached to the accumulation of materials for
the study of the academic history of Chinese drama in this period.
Qi Senhua pointed out the following in his article “Strengthening the
Study of the Opera: Academic History in the 20th Century”:6

The study of academic history focuses on studying previous research, i.e.

research on research. It basically removes obsolete general materials and
retains valuable academic resources that deserve inheritance, considered as
both academic elimination and academic accumulation. The study of later
generations is conducted based on the academic resources accumulated by
earlier generations, in order to make further academic progress. Therefore,
without the academic accumulation of earlier generations, it is impossible
for us to make a breakthrough or achieve innovation in our study. Though
the two words, innovation and breakthrough, have been frequently seen in
the current academic reviews, many academic findings are more in name
than in reality, since their basic views and main materials have already
emerged in previous works despite their new structures or new terms used.
This case may be “an agreement without prior consultation”, or academic
return, or “spiral development” of a thing, but whatever it is considered, it
is a wasteful duplication of labor and of no help for academic development.

6 Qi, S. H. (2001, February 13). Strengthening the Study of the Opera: Academic History in the
20th Century. China Culture Daily.
6 Introduction
Accordingly, if more researchers pay close attention to the study of academic
history and carefully examine the academic resources left by previous
scholars, that would enable us to better find the direction of academic devel-
opment, stand at the academic front, make progress from a higher starting
point and inherit previous academic findings instead of beginning all over
again, thus promoting the whole of academic development.

Gong Hede (2005) also presented a similar view about Beijing Opera:

Against our object of study, Beijing Opera, we still need to start by

strengthening its infrastructure construction … In order to achieve pro-
found and systematic research and help young people to surpass us and
make new breakthroughs, remedial lessons about historical and ideo-
logical materials shall be firstly provided to the young and some funda-
mental construction shall be completed.

He also further emphasized the following:

Before the Encyclopedia of Beijing Opera, I originally planned to com-

pile and publish the Collection of Works about Modern Beijing Opera,
which could be the third opera series on a par with the Collection of
Works about Chinese Classical Operas and the Historical Materials of
Beijing Operatic Circle in the Qing Dynasty. This work is focusing on
Beijing Opera. Named as “Collection of Works” instead of “Collection
of Books”, it has incorporated some important historical statements in
addition to relevant theories and reviews … Rich ideological resources
have been contained in the reviews of previous scholars, which shall be
learned and carried forward … By summarizing previous accumulations
and developing the spirit of free and independent study, we may
improve our study to a new level.7

On this basis, the study in this book is conducted mainly along the direction
of “collection and summary” and “fundamental construction”. We can only
start from fundamental work to achieve “new breakthroughs”.
The study of Chinese drama has made great progress since the latter
half of the 20th century, necessarily leading to the subdiscipline of the
exploration and refinement of opera research. The academic circle has
always paid less attention to modern drama development, so it is of par-
ticular importance to further accumulate and summarize basic materials.
In recent years, quite a few scholars have started to commit themselves
to this area, producing a great number of high-quality academic results.
For example,

7 Gong, H. D. (2005). Expectations on Beijing Opera Study. Opera Art, 4.

 Introduction 7
• A Study of Reviews on the Beijing Operatic Circle: Historical Mater-
ials in the Middle Qing Dynasty by Pan Lizhu analyzed the collec-
tions of opera comments in the ruling period of Emperor Qianlong,
Jiaqing, Daoguang and Xianfeng of the Qing Dynasty and briefly
summarized the development process of opera art criticisms in this
period;
• Nanshe Drama Record by Liang Shu’an briefly introduced Nanshe (the
South Society) in the end of the Qing Dynasty and the early Republic
of China, a literary community founded upon the prosperity of the
bourgeois-democratic revolution and the literary revolution movement,
as well as its theoretical exploration and artistic creation in dra-
matic art;
• Wu Xinlei made use of the resources accumulated in a decade when he
edited the Dictionary of Kunqu Opera in China and wrote the book The
Study of Kunqu Opera in the Early 20th Century, which summarized the
achievements of theoretical research about Kunqu Opera in the first half
of the 20th century;
• A Review of Chinese Opera: Literature Study in the 20th Century by
Miao Huaiming and A Study of Chinese Drama: Academic History in
the 20th Century by Xie Yufeng who reviewed the development of the
whole hundred-year academic history of Chinese drama for the first
time;
• The Drama Study of Qi Rushan by Liang Yan comprehensively summar-
ized the academic contributions made by Qi Rushan, an extremely
important scholar in the academic history of Chinese drama.

Much material about the academic history of modern drama has been
collected and summarized in A Hundred-year Record of Beijing Opera
Literatures8 by Weng Sizai, On Chinese Contemporary Dramas9 and The
Collection of Prefaces and Postscripts to Chinese Modern Dramas10 by Zhou
Jingbo, Chinese Modern Opera Chronicle (1840–1919)11 by Zhao Shanlin
and Vols. 1 to 5 of Art Circle edited by Jiang Xiwu. Moreover, Xu Lingxiao
and Ta Kung Pao in Drama Weekly12 by Qiao Li and Multiple Ways to
Express Opera Aesthetics: Primary Exploration of the Ways of Opera Criti-
cisms of Xu Lingxiao13 by Feng Lu also conducted case studies that were
relevant to the topic of this book. The three-volume History of Beijing

8 Published by Hebei Education Press in 1999.

9 Published by Communication University of China Press in 2002.
10 Published by Communication University of China Press in 2002.
11 Published by East China Normal University Press in 2008.
12 Cited in Opera Art, 2007 (2).
13 The Master’s thesis of the Theatre and Opera Study of Wuhan University, Wuhan, China.
2005.
8 Introduction
Opera in China14 also consists of a special chapter of theoretical study on
Beijing Opera.

Basic proposition and methods

Chen Yinke once pointed out: “Each word in an era is branded with
a special mark of this era. Its connotation has been varying along with
social changes, which has given rise to great disputes and misunderstand-
ings. Historians shall be particularly vigilant in this situation”.15 Since the
1920s, the term “national drama” has been closely linked to the conditions
of Chinese drama. As a major cultural phenomenon that had emerged
along with the start of the modernization of China, many terms prefixed
with “national” had been produced against the same background with that
of the term “national drama”, compared to numerous phrases prefixed with
“foreign”. Moreover, many newspapers and journals about drama were
established in this period, including the Robin Hood edited by Zhu
Shouzhu, Operatic Circle Bulletin (the official newspaper of the Shanghai
Federation of Artists), Drama World created by Liang Zihua, Drama
Monthly founded by Liu Huogong, Drama Study Monthly edited by Xu
Lingxiao, Drama Series edited and published by the National Drama Soci-
ety and Ten-day Periodical of Drama edited by Zhang Guyu and others,
which was a special phenomenon of drama study in this period and pro-
moted the development of drama study. Therefore, in this book I will sum-
marize the characteristics of theoretical studies in this period and
meanwhile take this opportunity to sort out the important opera literature.
This book proceeds in two phases: in the first phase, introducing the term
“national drama” (not the concept) and clarifying the historical evolution
of this term; and in the second phase, summarizing the academic ideas and
achievements of drama study in the 1920s and 1930s when the term
“national drama” was proposed. The first phase discusses the theoretical
issues of drama study research, while the second phase involves the practical
issues of drama study research. The development of dramatic art necessarily
leads to changes of the research ideas, and, conversely, the academic ideas
of researchers result in changes of the dramatic art. To explore the research
ideas and achievements, this book will involve an interaction among art
development, art concepts and academic concepts.
The main body of this book consists of five chapters, which are divided
into three levels. Chapter 2 “The Whole Story of the ‘National Drama
Movement’” and Chapter 3 “The Evolution of Ideas and Exploration of
Vision” both discuss the theoretical issues of Chinese drama research in this

14 Published by Theatrical Publishing House of China in 1999.

15 Chen, Y. K. (2001). An Investigation on Translated Terms by Han People in the Yuan Dynasty.
Beijing: Joint Publishing Company, p. 105.
 Introduction 9
period. Chapter 4 “Drama-oriented Drama Art Criticism” and the Chapter
5 “Theoretical Understanding of ‘the Whole Drama’” talk about the prac-
tical issues of Chinese drama research in this period. Chapter 6 “Different
Research Perspectives of ‘Drama’” studies the different perspectives of
researchers due to their different identities and backgrounds.
Since the word “opera” had not been universally acknowledged by the
academic circle as the term representing “Chinese traditional opera”, the
word “drama” is used in this book in most cases instead of “opera” to rep-
resent the relevant object.
For any content that has been comprehensively described by some scholars
in their monographs, this book directly cites the original text from their
monographs and makes further analysis; otherwise the quotation is omitted.
It should also be noticed that the original punctuation marks of all materials
referred to in this book have been retained without any change in accordance
with the modern standard of punctuation, except literature from the Opera
Collection and Drama Monthly and a very few articles that did not use the
new-type punctuation marks where the author independently adds the marks.
2 The whole story of the National
Drama Movement

Emergence of the National Drama Movement

For quite a long time in the 20th century, the “national drama” had been
deemed as the synonym for Beijing Opera. However, the term “national
drama” was invented by Yu Shangyuan and Zhao Taimou and others in the
1920s, who had launched the vigorous National Drama Movement between
1925 and 1927 that has exerted an immeasurable influence on the Chinese
drama theory circle. The new term “national drama”, following “national
cultural heritage”, “national quintessence” and some other terms prefixed
by “national”, emerged in this Movement; and the “national drama” men-
tioned by Yu Shangyuan and Zhao Taimou and others by then had nothing
to do with Beijing Opera.

Development of the National Drama Movement

Different people describe a historical event in different ways. The descrip-
tions of the National Drama Movement by its initiators (mainly Yu Shang-
yuan) and academia are compared and combined in this book.
In 1924, Yu Shangyuan (1897–1970), Zhao Taimou (1889–1968), Zhang
Jiazhu, Wen Yiduo (1899–1946) and Xiong Foxi (1900–1965) and others
who studied western drama and art in the United States jointly wrote plays
in English adapted from Chinese classical dramas and put them on stage.
After winning great success, they established the Chinese Drama Improve-
ment Society with numerous drama enthusiasts in the United States. In
1925, Yu Shangyuan, Zhao Taimou and Wen Yiduo and others returned to
China, founded the Chinese Drama Society and drafted the “Articles of
Association of the China Drama Society”. Soon afterwards, the Ministry of
Education established the National Academy of Arts in Beijing and
appointed Wen Yiduo as the dean, Zhao Taimou as the Head of the
Department of Drama and Yu Shangyuan as a professor. They invited their
colleagues to write articles and publish them in the Drama column specially
opened in the supplement to the Morning Journal with Xu Zhimo as the
chief editor. In 1927, Yu Shangyuan selected over 20 articles from those
 The whole story 11
published in the Drama column and collected them in one book named
National Drama Movement which was published by Crescent Bookstore. Yu
Shangyuan had always played an essential role in planning in the early
stage, in initiation and promotion in the middle stage and in summary and
reflection in the later stage of the Movement, and had adhered to drama
research as his lifelong career. Therefore, great importance must be attached
to his own description of the start of the National Drama Movement.
Before returning to China, Yu Shangyuan in New York at that time had
written a letter to Hu Shi who was a professor of Peking University on Jan-
uary 18, 1925. In this letter, he told Hu Shi that Zhao Ji (Zhao Taimou), Wen
Yiduo and himself were all very interested and had deeply studied the dra-
matic arts, and that the three of them originally had their own plans to return
to China to contribute to the dramatic arts there. The three had cooperated
to present the drama of The Cowherd and the Weaving Maid as rearranged by
Hong Shen as well as the drama of This Regret Lasts for Evermore
rearranged by Yu Shangyuan (from Everlasting Regret, consisting of five
acts), and had achieved great success through two months of effort. There-
fore, they agreed to return to China together in the summer of 1925 to initiate
the movement of Beijing Art Theatre, but they had difficulties with money.
Moreover, as they had learned something about dramatic arts, they wanted
to work with professionals to do some experiments and jointly construct
“Chinese dramas”, but they had no way to begin this. He suggested establish-
ing a Drama Seminar in Peking University where people could work together.
He also mentioned the drama enthusiasts in the United States who had
founded the Chinese Drama Improvement Society, while members of the
Society, including Lin Huiyin, Liang Sicheng, Liang Shiqiu, Gu Yiqiao, Qu
Shiying, Zhang Jiazhu, Xiong Foxi and Xiong Zhengjin and others, were
making great efforts in their own field in the hope of contributing to the dra-
matic arts later on. They proposed inviting professionals from the Crescent
Society to join in, in order to actively train actors and actresses as well as all
professional talents of the stage in the future. Meanwhile, they were raising
money to purchase all necessary appliances. Once the opportunity was ripe,
they would raise capital by floating stocks to construct the Beijing Art The-
atre. Yu Shangyuan considered that when he wrote the letter was the perfect
time to launch the movement. Finally, he expressly requested Hu Shi to help
satisfy these three requirements:

1. request Peking University to establish a Drama Seminar

2. request Hu Shi to help find a place for experiments
3. request Hu Shi to join the Chinese Drama Improvement Society.1

1 Quoted from Selections of Letters from and to Hu Shi, Vol. 1, Beijing: Zhonghua Book Com-
pany, 1979. Cited in The Collection of Drama Theories of Yu Shangyuan. Wuhan: Changjiang
Literature Art Publishing House, 1986, pp. 133–135.
12 The whole story
As to the information related to the National Drama Movement contained in
this letter, Yu Shangyuan and others originally planned to initiate the movement
of Beijing Art Theatre, and also planned to do some experiments and jointly
construct “Chinese dramas” correspondingly. Special attention was to be given
to the three phrases, “do some experiments”, “jointly construct” and “Chinese
dramas”. During his stay in the United States, Yu Shangyuan published an art-
icle “Suggestion Five: Why Not Construct a Small Theatre in Beijing?” in the
Morning Journal,2 where he expressed his hope for a “public theatre”. He
believed that “the successful drama in this theatre can be promoted to the whole
country. Only in this way can the chaos of the Chinese drama circle be ended
and ‘Chinese dramas’ be realized”. Apparently, the term “Chinese dramas” here
shows similar meaning to the “national drama” mentioned in the aims of the
“Articles of Association of the China Drama Society”, that is “study the dra-
matic arts and construct the new national drama”. According to Yu Shangyuan,
“Chinese dramas” should be “constructed” through “experiments”.
For historical reasons, the National Drama Movement had been barely
mentioned by the drama circle during the dozens of years after its failure in
the 1990s. Since then, academia has described the course of development of
the National Drama Movement in the following ways.
In Fu Xiaohang’s (1991) opinion:

Around the year 1925, the young dramatists who returned to China
after studying in Europe and the United States, represented by Yu
Shangyuan and Zhao Taimou, adhered to their great ideal of drama,
attempted to build a new drama mode in China and explore the new
development path of the drama, and initiated the so-called “National
Drama Movement”, which had broken the oppressive atmosphere of
the drama circle and brought in new vigor at that time. During this
period, they systematically introduced western drama theories and stage
technologies, scientifically analyzed traditional opera art, tried to solve
the problems raised by the drama circle and theoretically prepared for
the construction of their new drama mode. […]
Between 1925 and 1930, they had published dozens of articles in the
“Drama Column” of the Morning Journal and some other publications,
which introduced western dramas and western drama theories, pro-
foundly analyzed the characteristics of Chinese traditional opera art, dis-
cussed the development prospects of Chinese dramas, and were therefore
regarded as the theoretical heritage with special characteristics of that
historical period.3

2 Quoted from the supplement to the Morning Journal (November 1923 to May 1924). Cited in
The Collection of Drama Theories of Yu Shangyuan, p. 79.
3 Fu, X. H. (1991). The “National Drama Movement” and Its Theoretical Construction. Drama
Arts, 4.
 The whole story 13
In Hu Xingliang’s (1998) opinion:

The “National Drama Movement” was initiated by Yu Shangyuan,

Zhao Taimou, Wen Yiduo, Xu Zhimo, Zhang Jiazhu and Xiong Foxi
who returned to China after studying in the United States as well as
their classmates Liang Shiqiu, Deng Yizhe, Ye Chongzhi and Chen
Xiying et al. Since they had successfully put on plays such as the Imper-
ial Concubine Yang in New York in the United States in the summer of
1924, they later established the Chinese Drama Improvement Society
and agreed, on returning to China upon the completion of their study,
to “contribute all our lives to the dramatic arts and constructing the
Chinese national dramas” (see Xiong Foxi, Foxi’s Drama Theories,
Page 37, Beijing, Beijing Pu Publishing House, 1928). At the beginning
of 1925, they decided to “return to China to initiate the national drama
movement”, planned the founding of the “Beijing Art Theatre” as the
practice base, actively advocated building the art and drama depart-
ments in Beijing to cultivate drama art talents and launched
a theoretical discussion on the “national drama” in the Drama column
opened in the supplement to the Morning Journal. Until 1926 when the
“national drama movement” failed, they still placed their hope on
a Chinese Drama Society they founded and insisted on the pursuit of
drama by “studying the dramatic arts and constructing the new
national drama” according to the Articles of Association of the China
Drama Society (see Yu Shangyuan, The National Drama Movement,
Page 268, Shanghai, Crescent Bookstore, 1927).4

In Song Baozhen’s (2002) opinion:

The “National Drama Movement” was essentially a discussion on drama

thoughts initiated by those returned to China after studying abroad who
were motivated by the decline of Chinese civilized dramas and aimed to
seek a nationalized path of Chinese modern dramas.5

In Zhang Shiyuan’s (2004) opinion:

The “national drama movement” was initiated by some scholars returning

to China after studying abroad in the mid-1920s, including Yu Shangyuan,
Zhao Taimou, Wen Yiduo, Xu Zhimo and Liang Shiqiu et al., who aimed
to integrate the advantages of Chinese and western dramas and present the

4 Hu, X. L. (1998). On the Nationalized Thinking of Dramas in the “National Drama

Movement”. Literature Review, 3.
5 Song, B. Z. (2002). Yu Shangyuan and His “National Drama Movement”. Drama Arts, 3.
14 The whole story
characteristics of the Chinese nation, i.e. “Chinese plays put on by Chinese
people for Chinese people with Chinese materials”.6

In Zhang Chuanmin’s (2004) opinion:

Firstly, the national drama movement cannot be regarded as a unified

whole, since initiators of this movement had inconsistent opinions.
While Yu Shangyuan considered all members of the Chinese Drama
Society listed in his book The National Drama Movement as the partici-
pants of the Movement, Liang Shiqiu, who pursued classicism, had
once expressed his disdain over the stage art and was therefore clearly
distinguished from most other dramatists. Also, entirely different from
the nobility breathing of Liang Shiqiu, Song Chunfang and Xiong Foxi
attached great importance to the drama audience. Wen Yiduo aspired
after the “pure”, showing great differences with Xiong Foxi’s idea of lit-
erature “reflecting life”. Hong Shen basically held a negative attitude to
the prospects of the old drama (mainly Beijing Opera), which was the
idea held by students opposed to the National Drama Movement.
Liang Shiqiu even excluded himself from the circle of the National
Drama Movement when he looked back upon the Movement in his old
age. Moreover, many members had been silent through the whole
National Drama Movement. […]
The only connection between the Movement and Chinese traditions
should be The Cowherd and the Weaving Maid, This Regret Lasts for
Evermore, The Imperial Concubine Yang7 and the Story of Pipa etc. that
were put on stage in the United States by Yu Shangyuan, Zhao Taimou,
Wen Yiduo and Zhang Jiazhu et al. The success of these shows based on
traditional materials might have directly motivated them to propose the
slogan of the “National Drama Movement”. After the successful play of
The Imperial Concubine Yang in 1924, they were inspired to follow the
example of William Butler Yeats and John M. Synge in the Irish Renais-
sance and return to China to initiate the National Drama Movement.8

Summarizing the similarities of these descriptions, we can see that academia

regards the National Drama Movement more as a theoretical discussion,
which is vastly different from Yu Shangyuan’s original intention of “initiating

6 Zhang, S. Y. (2004). On the Reflections and Transcendence over the “May Fourth” Dramas by
the “National Drama Movement”. Jianghan Tribune, 6.
7 According to A Chronicle of Yu Shangyuan’s Life and Drama Activities (brief edition), This
Regret Lasts for Evermore was exactly The Imperial Concubine Yang, cited in Zhang, Y. (1992).
Collection of the Studies of Yu Shangyuan. Shanghai: Shanghai Jiaotong University Press,
p. 347.
8 Zhang, C. M. (2004). Between Western and Eastern Culture – On Theoretical Resources and
Cultural Strategies of the National Drama Movement. Guangxi Social Sciences, 10.
 The whole story 15
the movement of Beijing Art Theatre”, “doing some experiments and jointly
constructing ‘Chinese dramas’”. This proves that the original intention may
not be the same as the practical effect.

Artistic views of the initiators of the National Drama Movement

As mentioned above, academia is inclined to consider the National Drama
Movement as a valuable theoretical discussion, so firstly, the theoretical
background of the “national drama” proposed by Yu Shangyuan et al.
should be clarified. Though the Movement was planned in the United
States, its theoretical model was undoubtedly the Irish Renaissance.
John M. Synge had created the “Great Irish National Drama”, which con-
sists of the following characteristics:

The mainland people or the island people are the most inertial and also
the loveliest group. Their simplicity, innocence, temperament and habit,
taste and belief and everything free from assimilation, exactly suggest
the characteristics of a nation and a country. It is wise to study the chil-
dren before the adults. To extract the materials for art from life, it is
not the only way, but it is the correct way to seek from the islands and
the mainland.9

It can be seen that according to Yu Shangyuan et al., the “national

drama” should present the characteristics as stated in “the temperament
and habit, taste and belief and everything free from assimilation, exactly
suggest the characteristics of a nation and a country”. In the Countercur-
rent of Modern Literature: The New Literature of Ireland published by
Mao Dun in the Oriental Magazine of March 1920, Mao Dun put
forward:

the play, as a main part of modern literature, has four characteristics

known to us, i.e. (1) discussing problems; (2) attaching importance to
realism; (3) holding a skeptical attitude; (4) and globalization. However,
the new literature of Ireland is just reversed. When everyone is discuss-
ing social problems, Irish literature recreates the natural life of ancient
people free from modern social life … When everyone is asking about
the future, talking about globalization and disregarding local discus-
sions and manifestations, Irish literature pays special attention to their
historical and national characteristics.10

9 Yu, S. Y. Preface, The National Drama Movement, cited in The Collection of Drama Theories
of Yu Shangyuan, p. 198.
10 Cited in Han, L. L. (2005). Dramas During Irish Renaissance and the “National Drama
Movement” in China. Journal of Anqing Teachers (social science edition), 1.
16 The whole story
Around the “May Fourth” New Culture Movement, the modern drama
idea characterized by ideological enlightenment had been established in the
Chinese drama circle. Regarding the cultural characters, the drama should
recreate real life and reflect the ideas, wills and hopes of the current society,
so it plays a significant role in social education. Taking advantage of this,
Irish literature relied on traditional culture to build the image of the nation.
Apparently, Yu Shangyuan agreed with what Ireland did. Actually, the
drama theories and practices of Yu Shangyuan et al. during the whole
National Drama Movement were made based on the theoretical model of
Irish Renaissance.
As to the artistic views proposed by Yu Shangyuan et al. combining
Chinese practices and dramatic art itself, Yu Shangyuan personally sum-
marized the articles published in the last issue of the Drama Column of the
Beijing Morning Journal in 1926 as follows:

These authors criticized not only the drama but also the whole art. For
example, the “conventionalization” discussed in the National Drama,11
the “pure form” discussed in the Crossroad of Drama12 and the “pure
art” discussed in the Appraisal of the Old Drama are all basic concepts
of the general art but not confined to the drama. Artistic elements are
always closely linked with each other. Other art forms are inevitably
involved when discussing the drama; so the studies of drama inevitably
involve the general art. You misunderstand the drama if you only con-
sider reading plays in books as the study of drama. If you do so, you
are shirking your job, to be frank.13

The core idea of Yu Shangyuan was regarding art as the aesthetic char-
acteristic of the drama and attaching importance to the systematicity
and integrity of dramatic art, which showed the transcendental signifi-
cance compared to the “old drama debate” that emphasized the
drama’s role as a social tool. At the same time, Yu Shangyuan was one
of the earliest to introduce the concepts of “writing realistically” and
“writing impressionistically” into the comparison between Chinese and
western dramas. Moreover, Yu Shangyuan paid special attention to per-
formance art.
As summarized by Yu Shangyuan, Zhao Taimou had proposed the
important artistic idea that “one of the characteristics of the old drama lies
in conventionalization”. The concept of “conventionalization”, one of the
three basic characteristics of Chinese dramas commonly recognized by the
mainstream drama circle in later days, was firstly put forward along with its

11 Written by Zhao Taimou.

12 Written by Wen Yiduo.
13 Cited in The Collection of Drama Theories of Yu Shangyuan, p. 193.
 The whole story 17
English name. In other words, it has been an international general term
since its emergence.
In terms of the research method, some scholars believe that Yu Shang-
yuan et al. “had explored the earliest comparative drama research in China,
reviewed on Chinese old dramas and revealed their aesthetic characteristics
based on western drama theories through the comparison between Chinese
and western dramas”.14 According to some other scholars, the “national
drama development” proposed by Yu Shangyuan et al. “was a historical
attempt to combine the ‘drama’ and ‘opera’ by sorting out the aesthetic
characteristics and comprehensiveness of dramas as well as the values of old
dramas from a global view, and, what is more, from the national
perspective”.15

Analysis of the historical status of the National Drama Movement by

academia

The science and innovation of “national drama” theory

In 1918, the Special Issue for Drama Improvement in Issue 4, Vol. 5 of the
New Youth had initiated the “old drama debate”, where the main characters
of the New Culture Movement represented by Qian Xuantong, Fu Sinian
and Hu Shi et al. firmly and completely negated the “old drama”, while
only a student to these main characters, Zhang Houzai, disagreed with
them. The whole debate saw an imbalance between the two parties. In this
case, academia often, consciously or unconsciously, regarded the National
Drama Movement that attached great importance to dramatic art as the
opposing party against the “New Youth party”.16 For example, Hu Xin-
gliang believed that the drama view of the National Drama Movement “was
produced after the ‘organon-based’ drama view had been opposed by the
audience due to its aesthetic appreciation”, and presented the following
opinion:

The “National Drama Movement” was initiated at the trough of the

development of Chinese drama, mainly as the reflection on the view of
drama of the New Youth party. Therefore, the Movement has been
wrongly considered as the counteraction against the view of drama of
the New Youth party for a long time. As a matter of fact, the “National
Drama Movement” party emphasized that the drama should present

14 Song, B. Z. (2002). Yu Shangyuan and His “National Drama Movement”. Drama Arts, 3.
15 Ji, B. (2003). From Opposition to Development of the National Drama: Criticism over “May
Fourth” Drama Theories. Journal of HuaiNan Teachers College, 2.
16 The “National Drama Movement” had won no admiration from different ideological parties
since its ideas were out of accord with the times.
18 The whole story
life in an artistic way and should perfectly integrate different artistic
forms, and also stressed the necessity to construct the drama with
national characteristics. Instead of being the counteraction, it was actu-
ally the supplement to and development of the view of drama of the
New Youth party, since the ideas proposed in the Movement contained
unique insights and profound theoretical values.17

According to Fu Xiaohang (1991),

Yu Shangyuan and Chen Xiying et al. laid stress on the stage perform-
ance of dramatic art and treated the audience as active participants of
drama creation, which not only revealed the current malpractice of the
theatrical circle, but also presented an extremely novel point of view on
the basic features of dramatic art.18

The “current malpractice of the theatrical circle” here referred to the “speech”
or “sermon-oriented” drama under the guideline of “organon” and treating
the audience as the object of a sermon instead of one of the creative subjects.
Therefore, he proposed that

The National Drama Movement had cultivated numerous new varieties

in addition to the previous poor drama theories in China, covering
a comprehensive range and featuring a large scale. In particular, they
applied the advanced western drama theories to analyze the characteris-
tics and artistic laws of the opera art and affirmed the artistic value of
operatic art, which preliminarily clarified the ideological confusion in
the intelligentsia caused by Hu Shi et al., created a new situation in
drama theories and exerted a significant influence over the drama theor-
ies afterwards.19

Also significant of “national drama” theory, Yu Shangyuan et al. advocated

establishing the “national drama” as a new drama form, but they did not
negate the artistic values of the “old drama”, and, on the contrary, they
attached great importance to the means of artistic expression of the “old
drama”. Yu Shangyuan even expressly stated that “I always suggest starting
by summarizing and making use of the old drama to construct the new

17 Hu, X. L. (1990). Reappraisal on the “National Drama Movement”. Social Sciences in Nan-
jing, 5.
18 Fu, X. H. (1991). The “National Drama Movement” and Its Theoretical Construction.
Drama Arts, 4.
19 Fu, X. H. (1991). The “National Drama Movement” and Its Theoretical Construction.
Drama Arts, 4.
 The whole story 19
20
drama in China” (Yu, 1986, p. 205) later on. They aimed to combine the
characteristics of eastern and western dramas and “build a bridge between
the ‘impression-oriented’ and the ‘reality-oriented’”. More directly,

this great aspiration connecting the old and the new drama was more
advanced than the party announcing discarding the old and taking the
new and the party agreeing with the co-existence of diversified dramas
and had been demonstrated by the direction of drama development in
contemporary times.21

As mentioned above, the initiators of the National Drama Movement

including Yu Shangyuan et al. originally intended to launch a drama prac-
tice movement. However, as they expected, their discussions on drama the-
ories had been highlighted as enlightenment for later generations. For
example,

They pointed out that art should be the aesthetic essence of the drama
and emphasized that the drama should present life in an artistic way,
which exactly revealed the fact that the “May Fourth” problem play
evidently advocated social consciousness and corrected the bias of the
“May Fourth” problem play that only emphasized the ideology of the
“problem” but ignored the artistic aesthetics of the drama. Therefore,
these ideas were of profound realistic and theoretical connotation and
significance in the theatrical circle at that time.22

They called on the people to explore the low-class reality and life of the
nation, reveal the character and soul of the nation and create the
unique drama theories of the nation, and promote drama nationaliza-
tion of the whole dramatic circle in the 1920s and 1930s.23

Evidently, many of their theoretical propositions are still of pioneering sig-

nificance today. Those who put forward these theories more than 80 years
ago were only the youth and about 30 years old at that time.

20 Originally published in Issue 1, Vol. 1 of Drama and Literature (May 1929), later collected in
the Collection of Drama Theories, Shanghai: Shenzhou Guoguang Publishing House, 1930.
Cited in The Collection of Drama Theories of Yu Shangyuan.
21 Bao, Y. (2001). Roaming in the Airy World of the Classical – the “Poetic-quality” Drama
Aesthetics and Modern Transcendence of Yu Shangyuan in the 1920s. Drama Literature, 5.
22 Hu, B. (2001). Create Chinese Dramas that Reflect the National Spirit and Soul – Analysis of
the National Drama Theories of Yu Shangyuan. Shandong Normal University Journal
(Humanities and Social Sciences Edition), 5.
23 Hu, B. (2001). Create Chinese Dramas that Reflect the National Spirit and Soul – Analysis of
the National Drama Theories of Yu Shangyuan. Shandong Normal University Journal
(Humanities and Social Sciences Edition), 5.
20 The whole story
Causes of failure of the National Drama Movement
It is a historical fact that the National Drama Movement finally failed after
two years of trying. The negative evaluation of it could be considered as the
analysis of the causes of its failure.
Though Yu Shangyuan et al. theoretically stressed the status of the audi-
ence in dramatic art, they were inevitably estranged from society and the
public in reality. The National Drama Movement had failed soon after initi-
ation owing to the following causes:

Firstly, the students of the Department of Drama including Zuo Ming,

Zhang Hanhui and Wang Ruilin et al. argued against the Movement and
held that their teachers were trying to reverse the judgment of the old drama
by advocating the “National Drama Movement”, which would destroy the
bud of modern drama. Then Xiang Peiliang completely negated the
“National Drama Movement” for the same reason as in his Review of
Chinese Drama. By the end of the 1920s and the beginning of the 1930s,
Zheng Boqi, Feng Naichao and Ye Chen et al. organized the Artistic
Drama Society, advocated the development of “proletarian drama” and
sharply criticized the National Drama Movement for being “super-realistic”
and “unreal-life”. When violently opposed by their students, “National
Drama Movement” initiators including Yu Shangyuan et al. observantly
predicted that the “National Drama Movement” would suffer a serious set-
back in China at that time, and later ended the Drama column specially
opened in the supplement to the Morning Journal, suggesting that the
“National Drama Movement” had become a “half-broken dream”.24

At the same time, classical and mainstream modern drama history also
severely criticized the Movement based on the way of thinking of that age:

The unreal-life and super-realistic mentalistic view of art proposed by

Yu Shangyuan and the dramas reflecting this view of art were inconsist-
ent with the main trend of the drama movement after the “May Fourth
Movement” and were undoubtedly rejected at the time. (See in Chen
Baichen and Dong Jian, Draft of Chinese Modern Drama History, Page
220, Beijing, Theatrical Publishing House of China, 1989.)
Regarding the phenomena of backwardness and ignorance as the fea-
tures of the national culture and separating the national spirit from the
age, they completely misunderstood the original intention of the Irish
Renaissance advocation of the national drama and were caught in the
morass of obscurantism and an idealist view of history. In this case, their

24 Hu, X. L. (1998). On the Nationalized Thinking of Dramas in the “National Drama Move-
ment”. Literature Review, 3.
 The whole story 21
proposition of “Chinese plays created with Chinese materials” had lost
its literary meaning but became an excuse for avoiding realistic issues and
realistic struggles. (See in Ge Yihong, The General History of Chinese
Drama, Page 74–75, Beijing, Culture & Art Publishing House, 1990.)25

Others pointed out that the “Crescent School”, the main initiator of the
National Drama Movement, believed that the audience of the old Chinese
drama had a vulgar taste, so they escaped far away from the public in order
to avoid the degeneration of “national drama” and finally established it as
an elegant gentry art. “As they treated the drama as a form of aristocratic
art, the ‘national drama’ had lost the support of the general audience.”26
As with many other scholars, the author emphasizes the great contribu-
tion of the National Drama Movement initiators to drama theories, which
does not necessarily mean that the author believes all their theories are cor-
rect. On the contrary, many scholars and the author attribute the failure of
the National Drama Movement back to the theories of the Movement.
The major issue lies in the “impression orientation”.
It is widely recognized that the western drama is reality-oriented, while the
Chinese traditional drama is impression-oriented, which constitutes the essen-
tial difference between the eastern and western drama in terms of the artistic
idea and expression. However, the first statement that regarded the “impression
orientation” as “the core to profoundly analyze the characteristics of Chinese
Opera and predict the future development of Chinese drama and even world
drama”27 was seen in the theories of the initiators of the National Drama
Movement. Since then, the “impression orientation”, an aesthetic phrase in the
area of fine arts, had been widely applied to describe the core characteristic of
Chinese traditional drama (i.e. Chinese opera).
Nevertheless, until 1981, Zhang Geng still expressed his disagreement
with the “theory of impression orientation” that had been widely used for
decades:

Chinese opera is a kind of excellent art featuring a unique performance

system. As oral teaching has been applied all the time, no systematic
theories have been provided. In modern times, theories must be scien-
tific and systematic, in order to persuade and convince the people. As it
should be, the operatic circle also has some short rhymed proverbs, but
they are too profound to be understood since they can be explained in

25 Zhang, M. F. (2002). Reply to the “Impression Orientation” of the Drama (Master’s thesis).
Xiamen University, Xiamen, China.
26 Cheng, Q. B. (2005). An Introduction to the Crescent School Drama (Master’s thesis). Wuhan
University, Wuhan, China.
27 Zhang, M. F. (2002). Reply to the “Impression Orientation” of the Drama (Master’s thesis).
Xiamen University, Xiamen, China.
22 The whole story
a thousand ways. Therefore, a significant mission for those engaged in
research and theories is to summarize the theories from the natural
form of Chinese opera to adapt to modern times. It is far from suffi-
cient if only talking about the impression-orientation of Chinese
opera.28

Special attention should be paid to “only talking about”. The “theory of

impression-oriented drama” in the National Drama Movement was mainly
discussed in two articles, Yu Shangyuan’s Appraisal of the Old Drama and
Zhao Taimou’s National Drama. They only proposed the concept of
“impression orientation” and did not analyze its connotation. Therefore,
some scholars had to analyze the historical background for this proposition
when needed:

On a deeper level, initiators of the National Drama Movement held

two different positions at the same time. On one hand, they affirmed
the unique artistic value of Chinese opera; and on the other hand, they
were holding a western perspective when advocating the “National
Drama Movement” and proposing the idea of “impression-oriented
drama”. They chose to construct the national drama because they fol-
lowed the example of the “Irish National Drama Movement” launched
by William Butler Yeats and Mrs. Gregory. They affirmed the old
drama because westerners did so: “The old drama needs no stage set,
which makes sense theoretically. It is a complete theory that the sets,
clothes, light and shadow on the stage should be perfectly integrated
together; but it is also a beautiful picture where actors/actresses wearing
gorgeous clothes stand under the light and shadow against no back-
ground or only a neutral background, which constitutes another com-
plete theory. These two theories do not conflict with each other. The
Sumurun presented by Director Reinhard has demonstrated that the
latter is also a complete theory.” (Yu Shangyuan, Appraisal of the Old
Drama, “National Drama Movement”, Page 198, Shanghai, Crescent
Bookstore, 1927.) They expected that Chinese drama would develop to
be “impression-oriented drama” because western dramas were develop-
ing in this direction.29

It was originally beyond reproach to analyze the Chinese drama by compar-

ing it with the western drama, but the problem lay in that the major con-
cepts in western and eastern drama systems might not correspond to each

28 Zhang, G. (1981). Several Issues about the Current Drama Work. Chinese Drama Yearbook:
1981. Beijing: Theatrical Publishing House of China, p. 148.
29 Zhang, M. F. (2002). Reply to the “Impression Orientation” of the Drama (Master’s thesis).
Xiamen University, Xiamen, China.
 The whole story 23
other or might be exactly the opposite. Though the National Drama Move-
ment had conducted extensive significant theoretical explorations, it should
be emphasized all the time that the initiators of the National Drama Move-
ment initially intended to launch a dramatic art practice movement and
construct the “national drama” distinguished from dramas of other coun-
tries. However, they only talked about it instead of putting it into practice.
As stated by Zhang Meifang (2002):

All these theories had analyzed the opera and drama profoundly and
thoroughly from the perspective of the stage art but failed to offer
a practical suggestion for the future national drama. These initiators
had a global vision and forward-looking thoughts based on their pro-
found accomplishments of Chinese studies and experiences in the Euro-
pean and American dramatic circle, but they were at a loss for what to
do next in practice. It demonstrated that initiators had no practical
method to guide the direction of the Chinese drama.30

Yu Shangyuan’s ideal was to combine the characteristics of the eastern and

western drama and “build a bridge between the ‘impression-oriented’ and
the ‘reality-oriented’”. Apparently, Yu Shangyuan regarded the two con-
cepts as completely opposed to each other. As to “building a bridge”
between the two opposite concepts, the “bridge” here means the “national
drama”, but the question is how to build it. There was a “huge gap”
between the “reality orientation” and “impression orientation”, and “even
according to the one-divide theory, the form and the content of the drama
were two heterogeneous elements even though they should be consistent,
which determined that the theories of the National Drama Movement could
not be put into practice”.31 Initiators of the Movement had not explained
how to build the bridge, and we can even relentlessly speculate that they
also had no idea at that time. Without the specific practice plan and
method from the beginning to the end, the National Drama Movement
could hardly succeed in this sense.
Therefore, as stated below, it was judged that the failure of the National
Drama Movement should be attributed to its “unreliable theoretical
foundation”.

They thought they had found the opportunity to blend the national
drama into world drama and regain the national dignity of dramatic art
that had been lost for long, since they had discovered the artistic spirit

30 Zhang, M. F. (2002). Reply to the “Impression Orientation” of the Drama (Master’s thesis).
Xiamen University, Xiamen, China.
31 Zhang, C. M. (2004). Between the Western and Eastern Culture – On Theoretical Resources
and Cultural Strategies of the National Drama Movement. Guangxi Social Sciences, 10.
24 The whole story
of national opera, i.e. the impression orientation. On this basis, they
had further explored many manifestations of “impression orientation”
in the national opera, such as the opera procedure and rhythm etc. …
As a matter of fact, despite the similar manifestations, the non-reality
orientation of the western modern drama and the impression orienta-
tion of the opera were widely divergent in artistic spirit … The spiritual
consistency between the western and Chinese drama was untrue. The
western drama only learned certain specific artistic means from Chinese
opera based on their wrong understanding of the opera … Knowing
the differences between the ideas of the Chinese and western drama,
they had not pondered the inner cultural inconsistency of Chinese and
western drama or explored the spiritual core of the non-reality orienta-
tion of the western drama.32

However, even several decades after the idea that “Chinese opera is impres-
sion-oriented” was proposed, the drama theorist Zhang Geng about 70
years old still failed to perfectly explain the term “impression orientation”.
It is irrational for us to require Yu Shangyuan and Zhao Taimou who was
only 30 years old at that time to perfectly answer this question.

Objective description of the historical status of the National Drama

Movement
Before clarifying the objective historical status of the National Drama
Movement, we should firstly understand that the “national drama” referred
to by Yu Shangyuan et al. is a new thing yet to be created under the guid-
ance of correct principles, according to them. This is generally recognized
by academia.
Secondly, special attention should be paid to the cultural connotation of
the National Drama Movement, which has been summarized by a scholar
as follows:

1. The “National Drama Movement” solved the issue of the relationship

between the traditional and western culture by breaking the shackles of
traditional thinking patterns including “Chinese learning as the essence
and western learning for the utility” and “western essence and Chinese
utility”. … Distinguished from either the traditional opera or the west-
ern reality-oriented drama, this kind of new drama started to change the
thinking pattern that the Chinese and western culture stood against each
other with an irreconcilable contradiction that had been widely applied
since the “May Fourth Movement”.

32 Zhang, C. M. (2004). Between the Western and Eastern Culture – On Theoretical Resources
and Cultural Strategies of the National Drama Movement. Guangxi Social Sciences, 10.
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 These were preparations for the circuit courts, which set out for
the south and west in the beginning of October. On the 2d, the
division of which Queensberry, his son Drumlanrick, and
Claverhouse, were the judges, sat down at Dumfries. As money was
the everlasting cry of all these political cormorants, Queensberry
procured an offer of five months’ cess for eight years from the
county; but when he proposed a similar vote at Ayr, Lord Dumfries
opposed it, desiring to know when there would be an end of taxes,
and then he would offer as cheerfully as any. To make up for this
disappointment, the heritors were all required to take the test, and
the recusants were fined. They were besides required to swear
whether they had held any communication with the rebels, for this
most cogent reason, “that no man can complain when judged by his
own oath, by which he is in less danger than by any probation of any
witness whatsomever;” and they were finally to swear that, upon
hearing or seeing any who were or should be denounced, they
should raise the hue and cry, or give notice to the nearest garrison,
in order to their apprehension. There does not appear to have been
any murders committed at this time by the court of Dumfries; but one
case of extortion deserves to be mentioned. A young man, William
Martin, a son of Martin of Dullarg, having been lately married, when
at Edinburgh Queensberry sent for him and offered to purchase the
property he held in right of his wife, the heiress of Carse. Martin
refused to part with it for the sum Queensferry offered, when the
latter told him he would make him repent it, and threatened to pursue
him for his life, to escape which Martin let him have the estate upon
his own terms. Yet, notwithstanding, he was at this time fined in
seven hundred pounds, Scots, and his wife forced to give bond for
another hundred pounds, having had a child baptised by a
Presbyterian minister.
The court of which Mar, Livingstone, and General Drummond,
afterwards Lord Strathallan, were the commissioners, sat down at
Ayr in the beginning of October; and the heritors, being assembled in
various sections, were told that they would display their loyalty to
great advantage were they to petition to have the test administered
to them, when those who agreed were dismissed, and those who
refused were sent to prison, and had indictments for crimes which
many of them were incapable of committing. Some young men who
lived with their parents were charged with irregular marriages, and
others who had no children with irregular baptisms; but none were
set at liberty even after the absurdities of the charges were evident,
till they found exorbitant bail to appear at Edinburgh when called.
Almost all the indulged ministers were silenced by this vile junto, and
those who would not oblige themselves to exercise no part of their
ministry were sent to the Bass or other prisons; while, to terrify some
young gentlemen recusants into compliance, a gibbet was erected at
the cross, and pointed out as a most convincing argument. Quintin
Dick, when urged to take the oath of allegiance, declared “he was
ready to take it in things civil, but as to supremacy in matters
ecclesiastical, he was too much the king’s friend to wish him such an
usurpation upon Christ’s kingdom, being persuaded that the church
of Christ hath a government in ecclesiastical matters independent
upon any monarchy in the world, and that there are several cases
which in no way come under the king’s cognizance.” For this saying,
he was fined in one thousand pounds sterling, and ordered to be
banished to the plantations.
The western circuit court, of which the Duke of Hamilton, with
Lords Lundin (afterwards Earl of Melford) and Collington, were the
judges, met at Glasgow on the 14th, when they commenced their
proceedings by issuing a proclamation for disarming the counties of
Clydesdale, Renfrew, and Dumbarton. They then imprisoned Schaw
of Greenock, Sir James Montgomery of Skelmorly, Sir John Maxwell
of Pollock, Cunningham of Craigends, and Porterfield of Douchal, all
of whom they served with indictments for resetting rebels, which
having no proof they referred to their oath, declaring their confession
of guilt should not infer life or limb, but with a design to fine them in
sums nearly equivalent to their estates. Next, they declared the
parishes of the indulged ministers vacant to the number of thirty-six,
whom they also imprisoned for some alleged breach of the council’s
instructions. They likewise prevailed with the gentry and freeholders
to become bound for the conformity of themselves, their families,
and tenantry, to the whole of the present ecclesiastical constitution;
and further, to offer voluntarily to the king three months’ cess more
than was voted by parliament for the maintenance of an additional
troop of horse for two years. They finished their proceedings in this
quarter by fining Mr Archibald Hamilton, advocate, in five hundred
merks, for not attending them, though he was burying his servant,
who was accidentally drowned in Irvine water.
The heritors of Stirlingshire voluntarily came forward with a bond
similar to the above, accompanied by a loyal address, expressing
their abhorrence of all rebellious principles and practices, declaring
their dutiful and absolute submission to his majesty’s authority and
government, and offering their lives and fortunes to support the
same.
The Merse circuit, of which Lord Balcarras, Lord Yester, and Hay
of Drumellzier, were the commissioners, appear to have interested
themselves to afford some relief or redress to the sufferers. They
fined Pringle of Rigg, sheriff-depute, in five hundred merks, for
oppressing the people, besides “modifying and discerning the
restitution of the parties’ damage,” and fined one Alexander Martine,
in Dunse, £1000 sterling, and deprived him of his place as clerk. The
shire of Berwick being urged either to vote four months’ cess or
maintain a troop, agreed to give two, which was opposed by Home
of Wedderburn and some others, when the Earl of Home struck in
“and out-bad a month more.”
Unless some special providence prevent, continued persecution
must at last drive religion from a land. This was accomplished by the
inquisition in Spain, and partially by the horrible St Bartholomew
festival in France; and in Scotland, now it must have been driven to
skulk in holes and corners, where even some worthy men were glad
to meet a few disciples, but for the fearless Christian intrepidity of
one pious youth! James Renwick, who, during all these dark and
stormy times, when almost every other minister had left the service,
continued to carry on the warfare, and when many of the standard-
bearers fainted, planted his in the high places of the field; and his
ministrations were wonderfully owned of God. He attracted crowds
and revived with more than primitive vigour those field-meetings
which the tyrants had prematurely imagined were crushed for ever.
This added fuel to their fury. Letters of intercommuning were issued
against him and his followers, and all loyal subjects were not only
forbidden to hold the least intercourse with the wanderers, but
ordered to hunt them out of their most retired deserts, and to raise
the hue and cry wherever they appeared; in consequence of which,
many of the poor persecuted pilgrims were reduced to incredible
distress through hunger and cold, while secret informers, and
hypocritical professors, were bribed to associate with them, to
discover their hiding-places, and give information to the satellites of
the prelates and the underlings of government. At the same time, the
country was traversed incessantly, night and day, by a bloody and
merciless soldiery, composed of the lowest offscourings of society,
aided by the sleugh-hound, in ever active pursuit of those under
hiding—several of whom they shot, after asking them merely a few
questions—while the sea-ports were shut, and flight, the last refuge
of the denounced, denied them.
Every rational ground upon which a government can ask, or has a
right to ask, obedience from a subject, being thus wantonly trampled
under foot by the apostate prelatists of Scotland, nothing was left to
a brave and a hardy race, placed beyond the pale of society, but to
resign themselves and their children to hopeless slavery, or to resist.
Fortunately for succeeding generations, they chose the latter; and,
having done so, they resolved at a general meeting, held October
15, in order “to evite their ineluctable ruin, to warn intelligencers and
bloody Doegs of the wickedness of their ways, and to threaten them
in case of persisting in malicious shedding of their blood, or
instigating or assisting therein, that they would not be so slack-
handed in time coming to revenge it.” They therefore caused Mr
James Renwick, on the 28th October, to draw up a declaration for
this purpose, which he did in “The apologetical declaration and
admonitory vindication of the true Presbyterians of the church of
Scotland, especially anent intelligencers and informers.” In it they
testify their constant adherence to their covenants, and also to their
declarations, wherein they had disowned the authority of Charles
Stuart, and declared war against him and his accomplices. But they
utterly detested and abhorred the hellish principle of killing all who
differed in judgment from them, and proposed not to injure or offend
any, but to stand to the defence of the glorious reformation and of
their own lives; yet they declared unto all, that whosoever stretched
forth their hands against them by shedding their blood, either by
authoritative commanding, as the justiciary; or actual doing, as the
military; or searching out and delivering them up to their enemies, as
the gentry; or informing against them wickedly and willingly, as the
viperous and malicious bishops and curates; or raising the hue and
cry, as the common intelligencers—that they should repute them
enemies to God and the covenanted work of reformation, and punish
them according to their power and the degree of the offence.
This declaration was affixed to several market-crosses, and
posted upon a great many church-doors in Nithsdale, Galloway, Ayr,
and Lanark shires, and produced considerable effect upon the baser
sort of informers, who were deterred for some time from pursuing
their infamous vocation, and a few of the most virulent curates in
Nithsdale and Galloway, who withdrew for a time to other quarters.
The state of the country, which had been rapidly declining, was
now wretched beyond conception. What prosperity it had begun to
enjoy under the equitable and liberal dominion of Cromwell, was now
blasted in the bud. The little commerce which he encouraged, and
the agricultural improvements which the English army are said to
have introduced, were interrupted and destroyed by the cultivators
being in vast numbers called to attend the autumnal circuits, or
forced to wander as fugitives, while the soldiers rioted in the
spoliation of their crops, the breakage of their utensils, and the
seizure of their horses. A famine threatened, and the bishops had
appointed a fast to mourn for the sins of the land; but neither they
nor the rulers appear to have had any sympathy for the suffering
people.
The persecution continued with unabated or rather increasing
violence; and the following are a few instances illustrative of the style
in which it was conducted:—William Hanna, in the parish of
Turnergarth, in Annandale, had been imprisoned in the year 1667,
and fined one hundred pounds for hearing a Presbyterian minister
preach. After his liberation, the curate of the parish was exceedingly
troublesome, citing him before his session, and threatening him with
excommunication. When one of his children died, the curate would
not allow it to be buried in consecrated ground, because it had not
been “regularly” baptized! and when some friends came to dig a
grave in William’s own burying-ground, he came out of the manse in
great fury, and carried off the spades and shovels, telling them “if
they buried the child there by night or day he would cause trail it out
again.” In 1681, he had a horse worth four pounds sterling carried
away for not paying thirteen shillings Scots of cess; and after a train
of constant harassings he was at last denounced and declared
fugitive. He then hoping to find a little repose, went into England; but
no sooner had he crossed the border, than he was seized and sent
back prisoner to Scotland, which Queensberry no sooner heard of
than he ordered him to be laid in irons in Dumfries jail, till he was
sent to Edinburgh (October this year) to be immured in a dark hole
under the Canongate jail, where he had neither air nor light. Here,
being taken ill, he begged only for a little free air; but the soldier who
guarded him, told him to “seek mercy from Heaven, for they had
none to give.” In this dungeon he lay till sent to Dunotter.
His son William, a youth not sixteen years of age, was denounced
for not keeping the church—How many youths in Scotland would be
denounced if that were now a crime?—and forced to flee to England
a year after his father, where he abode some time. Venturing to
return home in September 1682, he fell sick of an ague, and, while
labouring under this disorder, was captured by some of the
straggling soldiery, and forced to accompany them on foot for
several days, in their ranging through the neighbourhood. At one
time, coming to a martyr’s grave, who had been shot in the fields,
they placed him upon it, and covering his face, threatened him if he
would not promise regularity and ecclesiastical obedience, they
would shoot him. The intrepid youth told them, “God had sent him to
the world and appointed his time to go out of it; but he was
determined to swear nothing he thought sinful.” Instead of respecting
this courage in one so young, they sent the boy to Edinburgh, where
he was first tortured with the thumbkins, then laid him in irons so
strait that his flesh swelled out above them, after having been robbed
of all the money sent him by his friends. This year he was banished
to Barbadoes, and sold for a slave.
 Age or sex was no protection. A respectable woman, seventy-
three years old, who dwelt in Carsphairn, had a son cited to appear
before one of these courts, 1680, for hearing Mr Cameron preach.
Not, however, making his appearance, he was intercommuned—his
mother’s house was searched for him, when not finding him, the
soldiers spulzied the furniture. This year the military ruffians came
again, and again missing the son, and finding nothing worth
plundering, carried the mother to Dumfries. Here she was offered the
test, and was about to comply, when the monsters in human shape,
seeing her likely to yield, added a clause to the oath, that she would
never speak to or harbour her son. This her maternal feelings
refused; and for this was publicly scourged through Dumfries on the
next market day. Nor was she even after her punishment liberated till
she paid two hundred merks.
Enraged at the Apologetical Declaration, the council were still
more infuriated by what seemed a practical following up of its
principles, in the putting to death of two soldiers, Thomas Kennoway
[vide p. 420] and Duncan Stuart. Kennoway was returning from
Edinburgh, whither he had been for instructions with a list of one
hundred and fifty persons he was required, it was said, upon his own
information, to apprehend. Meeting Stuart at Livingstone, they both
went into a public-house, when Kennoway produced his commission,
and boasted over his cups that he hoped in a short time he would be
as good a laird as many in that country, only he regretted he was
turning old, and would not have long to enjoy his good fortune. They
thence adjourned to Swine-Abbey, where they were both murdered,
but by whom was never discovered. The authors of the declaration
were, however, immediately suspected; and the council resolving
upon an indiscriminate revenge, consulted the session as to whether
avowing or refusing to disavow the declaration constituted treason?
That prostituted court replied in the affirmative. But the forms of law
were too dilatory for the sanguinary council. On the same day they
voted “that any person who owns or who will not disown the late
treasonable declaration upon oath, whether they have arms or not,
shall immediately be put to death;” and on the day following, gave a
commission with justiciary powers to Lords Livingstone, Ross,
Torphichen, and a number of other officers of the army, five to be a
quorum, with instructions to assemble the inhabitants of Livingstone
and the five adjacent parishes, and to murder upon the spot, after a
mock trial, all who would not disown the late traitorous declaration or
assassination of the soldiers; and if any be absent, their houses to
be burned and their goods seized; and as to the families of those
who were condemned or executed, every person above the age of
twelve years, were to be made prisoners in order to transportation.
They also approved of an oath (known by the name of the
abjuration-oath) to be offered to all persons whom they or their
commissioners should think fit, renouncing the pretended declaration
of war and disowning the villanous authors thereof.
The extortions were tremendous. In the month of December, six
gentlemen of Renfrew were fined in nearly twenty thousand pounds
sterling, and although some abatement was made, yet had Sir John
Maxwell of Pollock to pay five thousand; the Cunninghams of
Craigends, elder and younger, four thousand; Porterfield of Fulwood,
upwards of sixteen hundred; and Mr James Pollock of Balgray, five
hundred pounds sterling; besides various other gentlemen in the
same districts, who were robbed of upwards of twenty thousand
pounds sterling, by the council and the sheriffs. The pretexts under
which such impositions were levied were, the dreadful negative
treason of not attending ordinances in their own parish churches,
and the more positive delinquencies of hearing Presbyterian
ministers preach the gospel, or holding converse with the proscribed
—men of whom the world was not worthy.
The real cause will be found in the grants which the debased and
thievish councillors received of the spoils.[157] To accomplish their
laudable designs, they despatched Lieut.-General Drummond to the
south and west, to pursue and bring the rebels and their abettors to
trial, and pass sentence upon them as he should see cause; and
likewise ordered him to plant garrisons where he should think it
expedient, especially in Lanarkshire; and besides gave commission
to William Hamilton, laird of Orbiston, to levy two hundred
Highlandmen of the shire of Dumbarton, not only “to apprehend the
denounced rebels and fugitives in that quarter, and in case of their
refusing, to be taken, to kill, wound, and destroy them,” but “to
employ spies and intelligencers to go in company with the said
rebels and fugitives, as if they were of their party, the better to
discover where they haunt and are reset.”
157. Sir George Mackenzie got £1500 of Sir William Scott of Harden’s fine; the
Duke of Gordon and the Marquis of Atholl shared the fine of Harden, junior—
three thousand five hundred pounds between them! Some degree of honour,
as the times went, might perhaps then attach to the open driving of their
neighbours’ cattle, not infrequent on the Highland borders, as it was
accompanied with danger and required at least brute-courage; but these
legal thefts, like the pilfering of the pick-pocket or the petty-fogging lawyer—
his twin-brother in our day—excite unmingled disgust, because the thieves
know they can do it safely.

But the chief instigators were the curates, and among them Peter
Pierson, at Carsphairn, particularly distinguished himself. When
Grierson of Lag held a court at Carsphairn church the preceding
autumn, he sat with him, described the characters of the
parishioners who were summoned, and appeared and gave
information respecting the absentees. Soldiers were in consequence
sent after them, who spoiled their houses and haled many old and
infirm people, and women with child, and the sick, before the
commissioner, who handled them but roughly. The whole parish was
thus thrown into confusion, and Pierson being a surly ill-natured
man, and very “blustering” withal, boasting in public companies that
he feared no whigs—he only feared rats and mice—he came to be
very generally disliked throughout the district, and was particularly
obnoxious to the wanderers who were under hiding in that quarter. A
few of them, therefore, determined to force him to sign a written
declaration, that he would give up his trade of informer, and
proceeded to the manse early in December, when they understood
he was alone; for he did not even keep a servant. Two of their
number being sent before, got entrance and delivered their
commission, which put Pierson into the utmost rage, and drawing a
broadsword and cocking a pistol, he got between them and the door.
Upon this they called out, when other two, James Macmichael,
gamekeeper to the Laird of Maxwellton, and Rodger Padzen came
and knocked at the door. Pierson opened it, and was proceeding to
attack them, when Macmichael shot him dead on the spot. The rest
at a distance, on hearing the noise, ran up and cried—“Take no
lives;” but it was too late. This deed was instantly and strongly
disavowed by the wanderers, who would never allow any of the party
to join with their societies; but one of the assassins was afterwards
discovered to be a government spy, and Padzen ere long enlisted in
Strachan’s troop of dragoons, which gave credibility to the report,
that the whole had been a government plot, to bring discredit on the
persecuted wanderers, and justify the savage, unconstitutional
measures the managers were pursuing.
Several instances of severity, which occurred during this month,
evince the natural tendency of persecution to harden the hearts and
destroy every good feeling in the breasts of the persecutors. A poor
man, who had been imprisoned in Dumfries jail, for not hearing the
curate, having broken the prison and fled to England, his wife with
seven small children begged their way after him; but finding no
shelter there, she was forced to return. When journeying back, she
had stopped to rest at a small alehouse. While sitting peaceably
there, Johnston of Wester-raw, with some other persecutors
happening to come in, required her to take the test, which she
refusing, they haled her to Dumfries prison; and though she
earnestly begged they would allow her to take her sucking-child—an
infant of three months old—along with her, they would not consent,
but threatened unless she complied next day they would drown her.
Still she held fast her integrity, and lay for five weeks in jail, till she
was sent to Edinburgh, whither her poor children, who, forbid to
enter Dumfries, had been supported by charity, followed her, and
where she somehow or other got released.[158]
158. The poor children who were able to walk came afterwards to Dumfries, and
the eldest applied to the bailies that they might only have liberty to see and
speak to their mother. This request was refused, and they were turned out of
the town. When going past the prison, one of them saw her looking out at a
window, but was not suffered to speak to her. When forced away from the
spot, the child blessed the Lord that he had once more seen his mother.—
Wodrow, vol. ii. p. 441.
John Linning, a dyer in Glasgow, a blind man, chargeable with
nothing but non-conformity, was confined fourteen weeks. When a
young daughter of his was taken sick, she cried out passionately for
her father; yet would not the magistrates either suffer him to visit her
on her deathbed or attend her funeral.
Claverhouse acted up to his instructions, and merited well of his
employers. When ranging through Galloway (December 18) he came
unexpectedly upon some of the wanderers, who were under hiding
at Auchincloy, near the Water of Dee, and surprised six of them
together; four he murdered upon the spot, and two he carried with
him to Kirkcudbright, where, calling an assize, he went through the
farce of a trial, and immediately ordered them to be executed! Nor
would he permit them to write a few lines to their relatives to inform
them of their fate. Other two escaped, and were pursued by some of
the soldiers, who being informed of a house at which they had called
in passing, but never sat down, entered the cottage, and missing
their prey, took all its inmates prisoners and burnt it to the ground.
James Graham, a tailor in Corsmichael, was not so fortunate.
Returning home from his work to his mother’s house, he too was
overtaken, when walking peaceably along the highway, by
Claverhouse and his squad. They knew him not, and had nothing to
lay to his charge; but searching him, and finding a Bible in his
pocket, that was crime enough. They took it and his tools from him,
and carried him as a disloyal rebel to Kirkcudbright; thence he was
sent to Dumfries, where he lay some time in irons, and was
afterwards sent to Edinburgh, where, being questioned upon the
declaration of the societies, and refusing to answer, he was found
guilty of the treason he had not confessed—and of which there was
no proof—condemned and hung!
About the latter end of this month, Lady Cavers, who had been in
prison, first in Edinburgh tolbooth and then in Stirling Castle,
upwards of two years, for keeping conventicles and being present at
them, was released through the intervention of her son, Sir William
Douglas, upon his return from his travels, who became bound for her
living regularly in future or leaving the kingdom within three months.
Yet was she not let go till she paid an enormous fine of five hundred
pounds sterling—a sum, says Wodrow, exceeding three years’ rent
of her estate—though the said rents had been sequestered, and her
tenants plundered, during the time of her imprisonment.
About the same time, Dame Margaret Weems, Lady Colville, was
imprisoned in Edinburgh tolbooth, for her ecclesiastical irregularities,
especially for breeding up her son, Lord Colville, in fanaticism, and
putting him out of the way when the council was going to commit his
education to others.
In the parish of Nithsdale, James Crosbie, for refusing the test,
had his ears cropt and was banished as a slave to Jamaica. In the
parish of Auchinleck, William Johnstone being summoned to the
court, and not appearing, a party of soldiers were sent to his house,
which they plundered; and, as he and his wife had fled, they carried
away with them a maid-servant who had charge of the children,
leaving two or three destitute infants to shift for themselves; and
because she refused to take the abjuration, which she told them she
did not understand, they put burning matches between her fingers,
and roasted the flesh to the bone. Her patience and composure
under such torment so astonished the savages, that, after the
infliction, they allowed her to return home. John Hallome, a youth of
eighteen, seized while travelling on the road by Lieutenant
Livingstone, and refusing the oath, was carried to Kirkcudbright,
where a jury of soldiers being called, and he of course found guilty,
he was instantly shot.
The year closed with the appointment of ten special
commissioners, to whom two were added in January next year, to
hold justiciary courts in twelve shires. Their instructions were, to
hang immediately in the place all males who owned or did not
disown the “horrid principles” of the declaration, and to drown such
women as had been active in disseminating them; and the same day
a proclamation was issued, requiring all heritors, and in their
absence, their factors and chamberlains, to convocate all the
inhabitants on their lands, and to bring them before any of the privy
councillors or commissioners appointed by the council, and cause
them swear the abjuration-oath, and receive a testificate to serve as
a free pass, without which any person who should adventure to
travel should be holden and used as a communer with the said
execrable rebels; and all housekeepers, as well as hostler-houses,
inn-keepers, or other houses of common resort, were forbid to
entertain any person who could not produce such a testificate, under
the same penalty; which testificate the holders, if required, were
obliged to swear was no forged or false document—so suspicious
ever are rogues of deceit!—and finally, whoever should discover any
of the said traitors and assassins, who had been in any way
accessary to the said traitorous and damnable paper, or the
publishing or spreading of the same, were to receive a reward of five
hundred merks, Scots, for each of them who should be found guilty.
[1685.] This year was ushered in by increasing severities, and
whoever would not disclaim the society’s declaration, and take the
abjuration-oath, were subjected to be shot by any trooper who chose
to interrogate them, or to be sent by the justiciary miscreants to
slavery, exile, imprisonment, or death, after being robbed of all they
possessed. Nor did the decrepitude of age, the stenderness of sex,
or even boyhood, afford any plea for mitigation. Captain Douglas, the
Marquis of Queensberry’s brother, stationed in the parish of
Twineholme, oppressed it terribly in the beginning of January, having
prevailed with a poor tenant, after many severities, to swear the
oath, they insisted upon his discovering the retreats of the
wanderers. While dragging him along with them for this purpose,
they met another poor man upon the road, who would neither
answer their questions nor swear. Him they immediately murdered;
and when their prisoner entreated the captain to give him a little
more time, and not be so hasty, they beat and bruised the
intercessor so cruelly, that in a few days he died the victim of his
humanity.[159]
159. How low the clergy could descend in their malice, may be judged from the
case of a cripple but pious beggar, John Watson, in the parish of Cathcart.
Mr Robert Fennie, curate of the parish, enraged at the poor man, because he
would not come to hear him, gave information against him as a disloyal and
dangerous person, and procured a party of soldiers to be sent to seize him.
John could neither get from them nor go with them; nor would he swear the
abjuration-oath. The soldiers, ashamed of their errand, were at a loss what to
do, when some of his neighbours offered to send him to Hawk-head, Lord
Ross’s residence, in a sledge; and they were proceeding accordingly, when
 his lordship hearing of the cavalcade, and being informed of the
circumstances, sent his servant with an alms, and ordered them to carry the
cripple home again.—Wodrow, vol. ii. p. 457.
On the 18th, four of the persecuted were surprised at prayer, in a
sequestered spot in the parish of Monigaff, in Galloway, by Colonel
Douglas, with a party of horse; and as their serious occupation was
sufficient evidence of their “atrocious rebellion,” they were, without
any process, murdered on the spot. On the 26th, three remarkable
characters were forfeited—Sir Patrick Home of Polwart, George
Pringle of Torwoodlee, and Andrew Fletcher of Saltoun. They all
escaped to the Continent, and were reserved by Providence for
better days. On the 30th, Dalziel of Kirkmichael and Lieutenant
Straiton, with fifty soldiers, surprised a few of those under hiding
asleep in the fields at Mortoun, in Nithsdale; but they all fled and
escaped, except David Macmichael, who from bodily indisposition,
and being wounded, could not follow. Him they took to Durisdeer,
and told him if he would not own the supremacy in church and state,
and take the oath that would be tendered, the law declared him guilty
of death. “That,” said David, “is what of all things I cannot do; but
very cheerfully I submit to the Lord’s disposal as to my life.” The
commander said, “Do not you know your life is in my hands.”—“No!”
replied he, “I know my life is in the Lord’s hand; and if he see good,
he can make you the instrument to take it away.” Being ordered to
prepare for death next day, he answered, “If my life must go for his
cause, I am willing; my God will prepare me!” He next day suffered at
Dalveen with a composure and courage that melted even the rude
soldiers who shot him.
An instance of the ferocious thirst after blood which urged on the
persecutors, occurred February 1st. John Park and James Aldie, two
young men, in Eastwood, were brought before the commissioners for
Renfrewshire, Lord Ross and Hamilton of Orbiston; and when they
were persuaded to consent taking the abjuration, “that shall not save
you,” said Orbiston; “unless you take the test, you shall
hang.”—“Then,” replied the intrepid conscientious youths, “if the
abjuration will not save us, we will take no oath at all.” They were
condemned, and immediately led to execution. While they were yet
hanging, Robert King, miller at Pollockshaws, in the same parish,
was brought into court, and had the test offered to him, which he
refused. He was then led to the window, bid look upon the two
suspended before it, and told if he did not comply, he should
immediately be tied up along with them. Still resisting, he was shut
up in a dark corner and assured that he had only an hour to live.
They would, however, out of charity, give him three warnings by
sound of trumpet, but if he sat the third, there was no mercy. He
heard the two blasts, when his courage failing, he took the test. His
wife was a “composed woman, of uncommon sound sense.” One
day, as some of the plunderers were driving away her cattle, having
rifled the house besides, she came to the door, and was looking after
them, when a soldier, rather more merciful than his comrades, turned
and said, “Poor woman, I pity thee.” Janet answered with great
gravity, yet cheerfulness, “Poor! I am not poor; you cannot make me
poor! God is my portion; you cannot make me poor!”
On the 3d of February, the privy council passed an act for
classifying prisoners; but the king dying, these measures underwent
considerable alteration. Charles, it is said, having become
dissatisfied with the rash violence of the Duke of York’s proceedings,
meditated the recall of his favourite bastard Monmouth, the exile of
his brother, and the adoption of more moderate measures. If he
entertained any such designs, they were never to be accomplished.
An attack of apoplexy, or poison, as was suspected at the time,
finished all his earthly projects; and, after a few days’ illness, he died
in the fifty-fifth year of his age. But oh! how different his deathbed
from the scaffold scenes we have been recording. He could only
mutter he hoped he would climb to heaven after all! and eagerly
grasped at the delusive phantoms of Romish superstition. When
Huddleston, a papist priest, who had saved his life at Worcester, was
introduced to save his soul, he sighed out expressively, “He is
welcome!” received the last sacraments of that church, and expired
in her communion.
 BOOK XXI.

A.D. 1685.

Accession of James VII.—Proceedings of the privy council—Field murders—

Northern commission—Indemnity—Outrages in the south—Two women
drowned—John Brown, the Christian carrier—Parliament—Argyle’s expedition
—Suspected persons sent to Dunotter—Argyle defeated—taken—executed—
Colonel Rumbold—Nisbet of Hardhill and other sufferers.

An express which left London on the 2d of February, arrived in

Edinburgh on the 6th, bringing intelligence of the king having been
struck with an apoplectic fit. On the 10th, early in the morning, the
privy council received the news of his death, and at ten o’clock, the
authorities proceeded in their robes to the cross, where the
Chancellor, “who,” says Fountainhall, “carried his own purse, and
weeping,” proclaimed James Duke of Albany, the only undoubted
and lawful king of this realm, under the name of James VII. But he
had not taken, and never did take, the Scottish coronation oath:—so
scrupulous was he with regard to his own conscience in matters of
religion. The proclamation, however, which was sent down from
London, paid less respect to the consciences of his subjects, who
were bound by every sacred and constitutional tie to resist popery
and popish rulers. After declaring that his majesty, their only
righteous sovereign over all persons and in all causes, held his
imperial crown from God alone, thus concluded—“And we—(the
lords of his majesty’s privy council, with the concurrence of several
others, lords spiritual and temporal, barons and burgesses of this
realm)—hereby give our oaths, with uplifted hands, that we shall
bear true and faithful allegiance unto our said sacred Sovereign,
James VII., King of Great Britain, France, and Ireland, Defender of
the Faith!! &c. and to his lawful heirs and successors; and shall
perform all duties, service, and obedience to him, as becomes his
faithful, loyal, and dutiful subjects. So help us GOD.” Then followed
another, announcing that his majesty continued all the servants of
the crown in their offices till he had leisure to send down new
commissioners.
Next day the Court of Session met, when the lords not only took
the oath of allegiance, and swore the test again themselves, but
administered them likewise to all the advocates, clerks, and writers.
The king’s speech to his cabinet—-in which he promised to follow
the example of his brother in his great clemency and tenderness to
his people, to preserve the government in church and state, as by
law established; and as he would never depart from the just rights
and prerogatives of the crown, so he would never invade any man’s
property—was extensively circulated; and the people were desired to
believe that the royal papist would promote the Protestant religion, or
at least preserve it.
As a practical illustration of his majesty’s professions, the council
appointed a committee to inquire into the state of the prisoners in the
Canongate jail; and, upon their report, sent two to the justiciary, and
fourteen to the plantations, because they would not violate their
consciences; and for the same obstinacy, the Dumbarton
commission court fined John Napier of Kilmahew in £2000 sterling;
John Zuil of Darleith, £1000; John Campbell of Carrick, £1500, for
himself and lady; and Isabel Buchanan, £100; and ordered them to
be imprisoned till they paid their fines, or gave satisfaction to
Queensberry, the lord-treasurer.
At the same time, the work of blood went on in the fields. Captain
Bruce surprised (February 19th) six of the wanderers on Lochenket-
muir, in Galloway, and ordered four of them to be shot without further
inquiry. The other two he carried to Sir Robert Grierson of Lag, at
Irongray, who, upon their refusing the abjuration, instantly hanged
them upon an oak-tree. One of them, a married man, before his
execution, was asked if he had any word to send to his wife,
answered, “I leave her and my two babes on the Lord and on his
promise;—a father to the fatherless, and an husband to the widow is
the Lord, in his holy habitation.” Two days after, five were murdered
at Kirkconnel; and early next month, other three, in the parish of
Kirkpatrick, were despatched in the same summary manner, by the
same miserable slave of the prelates.
But the day did not suffice. Like the wild beasts, these monsters
prowled about at night, seeking for their prey. On the 28th, about
eleven o’clock, p.m., Lieutenant Douglas surrounded the house of
Dalwin, and apprehended David Martin. When going away, they
perceived a youth, Edward Kyan, concealing himself between the
end of one house and the sidewall of another. He was immediately
dragged forth; and, without being asked any other question than
where he lived, the lieutenant shot him through the head, first with
one pistol and then with another; and the soldiers pretending to
observe some motion, shot him a third time. Martin underwent a
more aggravated death. When the soldiers stripped him of his coat,
they made him kneel beside the mangled body of his friend. Six were
ordered to present their pieces, when another of the party stept
between them and their intended victim, and begged the lieutenant
to spare him till next day, alleging they might get some discoveries,
to which Douglas consenting, his life was spared; but terror had
deprived the poor youth of his reason, who at the same time being
struck with palsy, was carried to bed, where he lingered four years,
and died. Several women compassionating the sufferer, were cruelly
beat and wounded, for displaying the natural sympathy of their sex.
After this exploit, Douglas caught one Edward Mackeen, and
because he had a flint-stone, perhaps for striking fire in his hiding-
place, shot him without other evidence of guilt.
Sir Robert Grierson of Lag, while ranging the country, having
surprised Mr Bell of Whiteside, step-son to Viscount Kenmuir, with
whom he himself was well acquainted, and other four in company, in
the parish of Tongland, Galloway, they surrendered without
resistance, upon assurance of having their lives spared; but the
wretch murdered them instantly, without even allowing them time to
pray; and when Mr Bell earnestly begged only for a quarter of an
hour to prepare for death, he refused it with an oath, asking
contemptuously, “What the devil! have you not had time enough to
prepare since Bothwell?”
While the south suffered severely, the north was not exempted. On
the 2d of March, the Earls of Errol and Kintore, and Sir George
Monro of Culrain, who had been sent thither commissioners, gave in
their report to the council, and have thus themselves recorded the
oppressions for which they received the thanks of their worthy
employers. On their arrival in Morayshire, their first act was to cause
a gallows be erected at Elgin, where the court sat, in order to
stimulate the loyalty of the inhabitants. Then they issued orders to
the sheriff for summoning all disorderly persons within the shires of
Banff, Ross, and Sutherland, to appear before them on a certain day,
and forbade any person to leave the district without their license, and
all who entered it from the south to produce their papers for
examination. At the same time, they graciously “allowed” the heritors
and the burghs to meet and make address of what they would offer
for the security and the peace of the government; and they
“unanimously and voluntarily!” made offer of three months’ supply,
signed a bond for securing the peace, and did also swear the test
and oath of allegiance, except a few heritors, to whom the lords
thought fit not to tender the same at that time, but who appeared
willing to take it, and some loyal persons absent on excuses—
evidently papists, as these alone among the recusants found any
favour.[160]
160. This appears pretty plain from the manner in which Presbyterians were
treated and the way their fines were disposed of. The Laird of Grant was
fined in £42,000, Scots; the Laird of Brody, £24,000; Laird of Lethin, £40,000;
Francis Brody of Miltoun, £10,000; Francis Brody of Windyhills, £3333: 6: 8.;
James Brody of Kinlee, £333: 6: 8. These were the sums as reported to the
council. In a particular narrative sent Wodrow by “a worthy gentleman in
Murray, upon whom the reader may depend for the truth of it,” the sums are
rated higher; and it is mentioned besides, that the Laird of Brody—this
Brody’s grandfather, which family seems, either from their wealth or worth, or
both, to have been peculiarly mulcted—was fined forty-five thousand merks,
merely for having a conventicle in his house. Of this plunder, £22,000 were