Introduction

Archaeological discoveries, recorded histories, intangible heritages, and living traditions bear witness to a long and diverse history of Chinese performing arts. What this short section engages with, however, will be confined within the limits of the traditional category name of →xiju 戲劇 (theatre/drama). One generally held theory about the origins of →xiju proposes that it evolved either from the jester’s profession of the Western Zhou dynasty (1122–771 bce) or from the assorted games of the early Western Han dynasty (206 bce–9), until it reached maturity in the Song dynasty (960–1279) in story-based song-and-dance performance forms, which are now embraced by the generic term →xiqu 戲曲. In the following centuries, myriad regional →xiqu forms rose and fell, witnessing two golden periods: the zaju 雜劇 (mixed play) in the Yuan dynasty (1271–1367) and the chuanqi 傳奇 (marvel tales) in the Ming (1368–1644) and early Qing dynasties. By the late Qing dynasty, jingju 京劇 (often referred to as “Peking opera” in English), originally a provincial and plebeian →xiqu variety, came into full bloom in court and city.