The flourish of the Chinese drama began with the Yuan dramas. In the Yuan Dynasty, there were over eighty known playwrights, who composed more than five hundred dramas, one fourth of which are still retained now. Among the playwrights were the four great Yuan dramatists: Guan Hanqin, Bai Pu, Ma Zhiyuan and Zheng Guangzu. The representative Yuan dramas were the “Injustice Done to Dou E” by Guan Hanqin and “The Western Chamber” by Wang Shifu. Also, in the Yuan Dynasty, the performing art was matured.
During the Ming-Qing Dynasties there was a contest between “the miscellaneous tunes” and “the elegant tunes”. Kunshan city north of Suzhou was the source of “Kunshan tune”. ( The South Drama had four main tunes : Haiyan tune , Yiyang tune , Yuyao tune and Kunshan tune).The scholar-officials preyed upon the melodious tune , gracious lyrics and refined musical accompaniment of the Kunshan tune , while the not so elegant , rustic tunes were presented in the countryside . In the development of the Kunshan tune from the “folk tune” to the “aristocratic tune’ , the South Drama “Pipa Record” , known as “opera ancestor” , composed by Gao Ming ( Gao Zencheng) at the junction of the Yuan and Ming Dynasties , played an important part .
“Pipa Record” was adapted from a folklore story entitled “Horse Trod Lady Zhao Ma; Thunder Hit Cai Bojie”. This opera was performed in the Kunshan tune, for the playwright Gao Ming lived in the Zhejiang Province bordering Kunshan. Being an orthodox scholar, Gao Ming set ethical teaching as the ultimate standard for his script. He stated outright in one of his poems: “Plays not involved in ethical teachings are in vain, even though nice.” So , naturally he created in his play all good characters and good deeds , and changed the original plot into an ethical plot , recounting the most noble , rich prime minister Niu , the benevolent Zhang Guangcai , the faithful Madam Zhao and the loyal and filial Cai Bojie . At that time, Emperor Zhu YuanZhang had just founded the Ming Dynasty and needed urgently to appease the people. On reading through the script of “Pipa Record” written in a refined diction, the liked it very much, and put forward a metaphor: “This opera is a delicacy for the noble families, whereas the Four Books and Five Classics are clothes and grains for every household”. He placed the South Drama above the classics. This imperial edict raised the prestige of the South Drama, and the Kunshan tune, a sector of the South Drama, shared its prestige.
