The Xiqu Opera is a modern opera developed from the Changzhou Tangliao in the Tangliao system. According to "Jiangsu Opera Journal" records, the Qing Dynasty Qianlong 37 years (1772), Wujin famous poet Zhao Yi back to his hometown Daixi Bridge to visit his relatives, found that his hometown has a village actor, composed a poem to describe: "Flame section of the circulation of the original is not, the village actor for the sound of the beams; the old man has a thousand volumes of books, turned to let the child slaves to Bo Gu Jin." And "Li customary theater," as the "Li customary theater. And to "Li vulgar theater", which can be deduced from the time when the tin opera appeared between 1754 and 1772.
Jiaqing sixteen years (1814), Zhao Yi resigned from his post to return to his hometown, and his wife with the tour of Changzhou Xiaomao Mountain temple fair, wrote "March 18th Tanqiao door to see Xiaomao Mountain incense will pass through" a poem, describing his temple fair to see the "beach spring" spring stage small drama scene: "Xixi * * * Le spring stage, the two old people meet each other, the two old man * * * Le spring stage, the two old man * * * Le spring stage, the two old man * * * Le spring stage, the two old people meet each other. This shows that the beach spring has been very popular at this time.
The beach spring in the farmers' self-entertainment stage is called mountain song, ditty, flower drum opera or flower drum beach spring, after the stage is called Chuntai opera. Early singing content is mostly reflective of daily life in the countryside and local customs, which is the farmers during their leisure time to entertain themselves during the vernacular culture and art, there is no professional and amateur points. Whenever the farmers were idle, they were invited to sing with each other. After the start of the farming season, the people who sang the songs went home to plant their own fields.
Tangzhi originated from the folk songs of Southern Jiangsu Province. Changzhou's mountain songs and ditties became popular in the Tang Dynasty, and in the Ming Dynasty the tradition of "singing mountain songs on the De'an Bridge" was formed once a year. Urban and rural people used to welcome the gods and sing songs here. In 1913, the New Lanling Newspaper reported that on June 19th (the day when Guanyin was said to have attained Taoism), the villagers sang songs under the De'an Bridge. Farmers often sing songs while working in the fields when planting rice seedlings or planting seeds. Sometimes two people sing in pairs, or in pairs, or one person sings while the others sing along, and boat people sing boat songs. In their spare time or on summer evenings, people often sing songs and ditties to entertain themselves.
The contents and tunes of the songs and ditties were passed down through history, and there were also the popular stall-head recordings of the time. The record is the so-called "open" or "book cap", and the record is the sung book. And in the temple fair or festivals, but also at the same time to perform the tune of tea picking, tune horse lanterns, swinging lake boat and other songs and dances. Over time, a variety of art forms penetrate each other, absorption, fusion, it gradually formed a distinctive flavor of folk songs, that is, to sing the main beach spring ditty. It is the development of simple lyrical songs and narrative songs to folk songs with characters, storylines and longer lengths, constituting an emerging cadence. Xizhou Opera is mainly sung in the stage of Tangling Opera, which is a form of folk opera in Southern Jiangsu Province, and its basic cadence is developed from folk music. It is purely a peasant's art, not only its content is reflecting the life of peasants and small producers, expressing peasants' consciousness and thoughts and feelings, but also its performance method has the characteristics of peasants' nature, and the language of singing, reading and speaking is lively, witty and humorous, rich in image, and has a strong atmosphere of rural life. Many tunes in Xiqu Opera, such as "Embroidered Lotus Bag", "Purple Bamboo Tune", "Xiangjiang River Waves", etc., are taken from the folk songs of Southern Jiangsu Province, and the "Spring Tune" in "Meng Jiangnu" and "Daoxiang" in "Pearl Tower" are basically the original folk songs of Southern Jiangsu Province. Later, it was transformed into a singing and dancing, singing and acting rap opera, and gradually developed into a simple pair of plays with characters and storylines, such as the pair of plays "Female Sue Love", which was transformed from the folk song "Crying for Love", also known as "Love Woman Crying for Sinking Fragrance".
The Changzhou Tangliao was also influenced by other operas and folk arts, such as absorbing the contents and forms of "Changzhou Daoxiang", "Singing Spring", "Xuanzhu", and the art of rap, etc. The Changzhou Tangliao was also influenced by other operas and folk arts, such as the "Changzhou Taoxiang", "Singing Spring", "Xuanzhu", and the art of playing words. The form of the opera is very different from that of the traditional Chinese opera, which has been widely practiced in Changzhou. According to the old Changzhou singing spring artists, singing spring and beach spring from the same lineage, the initial difference is only in the beach spring is sitting singing, singing spring is line singing, and beach spring in the ditty from the singing spring "spring tune" absorbed. Changzhou beach spring content and singing spring, Xuan volume, Changzhou Taoist also has many similarities, such as beach spring "Meng Jiangnu", Xuan volume called "Meng Jiangnu Xuan volume", singing spring called "December Flower Name", Changzhou Taoist is known as the "Meng Jiangnu crying the Great Wall", singing the content is almost the same, and some are more informative than the beach spring. Besides, there is no strict distinction between beach spring artists and those who sing spring, Xuanzhu, and Changzhou Daoxiang. The former artists of Changzhou Tangling were often able to sing spring, Xuanzhu, and Changzhou Daoxiang. Wang Jiada, an early representative of Changzhou Xiqu Opera, first learned to sing Tangliao, but due to persecution and illness, he changed his profession to sing Changzhou Daoxiang, and it was not until the beginning of the Republic of China, when he was invited to Shanghai, that he resumed performing Tangliao. In his later years, he also mentioned in his autobiography that he was always asked to participate in the local Buddhist recitation of the Buddha's name. In addition, he also "double strange injustice", "steal the gold medal", "Wujinji" dozens of Xuan scrolls of the singsong and lyrics scripts adapted into the beach spring repertoire for Changzhou beach spring by the development of pairs of theater into the same scene to lay a good foundation.