脚色与行当

Roles and Professions

戏剧是由演员在舞台上妆扮表演且以代言体叙述故事的艺术,其本质是由演员扮演戏剧人物。戏曲将所有戏剧人物按表演特征归类为生、旦、净、末、丑等,并称其为脚色,演员按脚色归为不同行当。各脚色的演员都要司职扮演无数的角色。脚色行当的分类原则是美学的而不是社会学、生物学的,各类脚色称谓的来源未可确定,但脚色行当的划分,有一个随表演艺术水平提升而日益细化的过程。戏曲表演者在脚色行当的基础上,表现人物的多样性,脚色行当与人物形象的关系最典型地说明了戏曲表演艺术的特征。

Drama is the art of actors performing on stage and narrating stories in a representative form.The essence of drama is that actors play dramatic roles.The Chinese drama classifies all drama characters into Sheng(male role),Dan(female role),Jing(painted face),Mo and Chou(clown)according to their performance characteristics.These roles are classified into different professions based on their different features.The classification principle of roles is aesthetic rather than sociological or biological.The origin of all kinds of roles’appellations is uncertain.However,the division of professions has gone through a process that is increasingly refined with the improvement of performance art level.The relationship between the roles and the image of the characters is the most typical illustration of the characteristics of Chinese Opera performance art.