《梦中缘传奇序》与花雅之争关系辨误——兼论清中后期北京剧坛的昆曲兴衰

Discriminating Mistakes about the Relationship between “Preface of the Legend Dream” and Hua-Ya Dispute——Also on the Rise and Decline of Kunqu Opera in Theatrical Circles of Beijing in the Middle and Late Qing Dynasty

文学史著作在论述花雅之争时,常引用徐孝常《梦中缘传奇序》来佐证昆曲在乾隆朝已然没落,但在引用材料时多出现失误。一是对《梦中缘传奇序》的标注出现失范;二是所谓"闻歌昆曲,辄轰然散去"的记载本属孤证,未加考察,造成以讹传讹现象。实际情况是,昆曲在乾隆四十四年己亥(1779)魏长生进京之前仍然活跃于宫廷与民间。在北京昆曲至道光时期才让位于乱弹。

When discussing the hua-ya dispute （ dispute between the standard tune and mixed tunes） in the history of literature, scholars often quote Xu Xiaochang ’ s “Preface of the Legend Dream” as an evidence to prove that the Kunqu Opera has already declined during Qianlong’ s reign of the Qing Dynasty.However, mistakes are often made in quoting as follows：anomie of annotations appears;the record of“when hearing the Kunqu Opera, the audience dispersed with a loud crash”is merely an isolated evidence with no further investigation, and therefore an erroneous information is relayed incorrectly.The fact is that the Kunqu Opera was still active in both royal and folk range be-fore Wei Changsheng went to the capital city in 1779, and then gave way to Luantan （ a general term for Chinese opera melodies other than Kunshan melody） till Daoguang’ s reign.