“戏曲如何表现现代生活”:对“十七年”时期相关讨论的考察

How Traditional Chinese Theatre Reflected Modern Life: Discussions during the Seventeen Years

"十七年"时期,对应戏曲现代戏创演的三个高潮,出现了三次关于"戏曲表现现代生活"的集中讨论。第一次出现在1958年,它的标志是"戏曲表现现代生活"座谈会的召开。第二次出现在1960年,它由文化部举办的现代题材戏曲观摩演出大会衍生而出。第三次出现在1964年,为配合全国范围内的现代戏运动,北京、上海等地持续举办座谈会、各报刊纷纷开辟专栏为戏曲表现现代生活的讨论提供阵地。三次讨论对戏曲现代戏创作方法的思考,是继清代戏曲学方法论后,对戏曲创作理论体系的又一次全面增补和修缮。话题涉及文本和舞台两个维度的各方面,其中,"如何把握现代戏剧本构成的核心质素""如何继承和改造传统程式为表现现代生活服务"等参与度极高。三次集中讨论不仅具有实践层面的价值,即为现代戏创作提供理论指导;同时也具有观念史层面的价值,即戏曲本体观念和戏曲唯物史观通过论争被进一步推广和稳固。作为提供理论依据和批评标准的戏曲观念,其对讨论发生隐形操控作用的过程亦是其再次获得审视和认可的过程。

During the Seventeen Years(1949-1966),three intensive discussions on traditional Chinese theatre’s reflection of modern life emerged in correspondence to the three pinnacles of modern xiqu creation and performance.Appearing in 1958 and 1960,the first two were derived from the forum of "xiqu reflecting modern life" and the Ministry of Culture’s festival of modern xiqu respectively,while the third one took place in 1964,when cities like Beijing and Shanghai held symposiums and the press started columns in cooperation with the nationwide modern xiqu movement.The achievement of these three discussions constituted a comprehensive supplement to and improvement of the theoretical system of xiqu creation after the Qing dynasty.Among the various topics in the dimensions of text and stage,subjects such as "the core elements of modern xiqu’s script" and "to inherit and transform traditional conventions of xiqu in the service of reflecting modern life" received considerable attention.These three discussions,on the practical level,provided theoretical guidance for modern xiqu creation;on the level of history of ideas,they served as an arena where the artistic principle and historical materialism of xiqu further came to light by means of debate.In this process,concepts of xiqu,as both theoretical foundation and aesthetic criterion,exerted an invisible influence and were in turn reexamined and recognized among the Chinese intelligentsia.