宗族祭祀与宗族戏剧考探－以政和县禾洋村的四平戏为例

Abstract

Generally, the operas studied by the academia are the “elegant” ones appreciated by the gentry, the entertaining ones played in the theatre of the metropolitan cities, and the ritual ones to amuse both gods and human beings performed in the temple stages of the villages and market places. The performers in these operas are professional actors of the theatrical troupe, well trained but semi‐professional literati, and amateurs consist of farmer‐actors. In the past, most scholars only paid attention to the operas that could be categorized as performing arts. But, in the remote mountain areas, there still exist one special ritual opera dedicates to the worship of lineage ancestors. The organizer is the head of the lineage, and the performers all come from the same lineage. As a specific ritual performance for annual ancestor worship, it is quite different from the popular operas in the cities and villages. Such kind of ritual opera is seldom noticed by the people, and ignored by the scholars. The lineage opera in Heyang village of Zhenghe County, Fujian is a typical example of it. The significance of the discovery lies in the new light it shed on the role and status operas had in ancestor worship in ancient agricultural China, the interdependent relationship of ancestor worship and operas, and the original form and development of traditional opera in the ritual of lineage. Thus, it also helps us to study the popularization of traditional opera in the folk societies and the social background for its development, providing a useful and fresh reference for the research of the history of Chinese opera.