With regard to the development of early Chinese drama, little attention has so far been paid to the Han period or earlier, as scholars generally consider this era to be at best the embryonic stage of Chinese drama. My research shows that this is far from the case. The main points of my talk include the following. First, as argued by Yang Gongji in as early as the 1940s, there is documentary evidence for well-developed forms of drama scripts during the Han period. Second, archaeological finds also show that Han dramatic forms exhibit features surprisingly similar to what we see in later historical times. Some of these archaeological finds have been publicized, while others are just now being examined (including findings by the presenter). Taken together, both historical documents and material evidence make a compelling case that cultural developments as represented by drama and other performing arts during the Han period greatly exceeded the levels that scholars are generally willing to recognize.

The talk will be given in Chinese

Yao Xiao'ou is professor in the Institute of Literature, Communication University of China. Among his publications (in Chinese) are "Advertising in the Shanghai Daily and the Early Shanghai School of Peking Opera," Modern Communications (no. 1, 2004);

姚小鸥
中国传媒大学

到目前为止，中国戏剧史著作中对汉代戏剧仅有极为简单的一些叙述。学界一般认为中国在汉代仅有萌芽状态的戏剧，如《东海黄公》之类的角抵戏，不能与定义为戏曲的中国传统戏剧同日而语。我们的研究证明，这一认识是非常片面的，与汉代戏剧发展的实际不相符合。我们的主要观点和材料是：
其一，杨公骥教授1948－1950年间的研究证明，收录在《宋书·乐志》和《乐府诗集》中的《公莫巾舞歌行》是一个具有完备形态的戏剧科仪本。
其二，通过对出土文献和汉代墓葬明器及其他出土文物的研究证明，汉代的戏剧形式与后世戏曲非常相似，演出活动非常普遍。这些文献与文物有些是已经发表而未被人们认识的，有些是我们发现而尚未公布者。
我们结论是，中国汉代文化发展水平大大超出人们过去的认识，中国戏剧在汉代已经有了较高水平的发展。

Professor Yao's talk is cosponsored by the UCLA Confucius Institute

RichardGunde
310 825-8683
gunde@ucla.edu

Sponsor(s): Center for Chinese Studies