Zaju

Zaju was a form of Chinese opera which provided entertainment through a synthesis of recitations of prose and poetry, dance, singing, and mime, with a certain emphasis on comedy (or, happy endings).

The various particulars of the zaju multimedia performance were derived from many and diverse sources of musical, dance, poetry, and theater traditions.

Occasionally one or two "wedges" (楔子, xiezi), or short interludes in the form of an aria performed by another character might be added to either support or enhance the plot.

[1] The zaju featured particular specialized roles for performers, such as dan (female), sheng (male), hua (花, painted-face) and chou (clown).

However, various cultural and artistic contributions from these diverse sources melded together to help form the zaju performances: musical modes of the steppes, traditional Chinese shi and ci poetry, the newly developed and embedded qu lyrics, acrobatics, and dance, combined with the other varieties of artistic performance to contribute to the mix which zaju represents.

Generally, information about performances derives from preserved literary texts: arias, libretti, and/or other forms of stage direction.

Much of the information on Yuan era plays (that is, "operas") and playwrights derives from a book written during this time period which is entitled Register of Ghosts.

Compared to the traditional Chinese shì, or scholar-officials or emperors, the newcomers were not so literately erudite or oriented, much less were they appreciative of the ancient forms, expressions, and allusions, legacy of more than a millennia.