This month the swallows are returning. On the day of their arrival, a bull, a ram and a pig were sacrificed to the guardian genius of marriages and births. The son of heaven attends this ceremony. The Empress leads nine women of the second rank and the entire seraglio. Special honor is given to those who come close to the emperor. Cases containing arches are provided. The emperor gives each of his wives a bow and arrows in the presence of the deity who presides over the birth.

Thunder is heard, lightning begins to appear. Sleeping animals are all in motion; Removing the opening of their retreats, they begin to appear. Three days before the first roar of thunder, the herald waved a wooden bell to warn all the people and said. There will be thunder soon. If they do not watch their behavior and behavior, they will bring children whose members will not be full, and they will certainly bring great misfortune.

At the equinox lengths are measured, measures of power, weights of thirty pounds, levers of scales, weights of twenty twenty pounds. We compare bushels and ten bushel sizes. The remains of the scales and scale scrapers have been corrected. Workers rarely stay at home this month. Wooden doors and wicker doors repaired; We arrange bedrooms and ancestral rooms beautifully. But a great enterprise cannot begin that could interfere with the labors of the workers.

This month it is prohibited to dry up rivers or lakes or drain water from ponds and ponds. You cannot set fire to mountains or forests. The son of heaven, sacrificing a lamb, forced the cooler to open. He begins with a proposal in the ancestral rooms or in the rooms that lie behind these rooms.

On the first day of the denomination, the great director of music, by order of the emperor, exercises his disciples to make changes, singing, after he has offered vegetables. The Son of Heaven, at the head of the three chief ministers of state, nine other ministers, all the feudal princes and all the great prefects, were personally present at these exercises.

This month, when we pray, we do not make sacrifices. Jade tablets are offered, some oblong, others ring-shaped; the victims are replaced with furs and pieces of silk. In the second month of spring, if the rules had been followed in the fall, floods would have devastated the principalities, cold winds would have prevailed, and armed robbers would have invaded the country. If the rules of winter were observed, the heat would not overcome the cold, the wheat would not ripen, and there would be many thieves. If summer rules were introduced, the drought would be great in the principalities, the heat would come early, insects would eat the heart of the grain.

Alexander Zhakovlev and Chow Kia-kien

Stylized yet deeply human, this people's art was shaped by time. In front of frames bristling with forty brushes - one for each shade - pots of bold flowers are stored on cast-iron stoves. The bright, intense colors of this palette are not suitable for copycat makeup; They are used to paint a ritual mask and an absolutely ordinary one, which absorbs any personal element in the actor, the smells of grease and sweat. Combines the skill of yellow emaciated hands, one of which contains a small mirror, Another, referring to the Chinese, a brush that works with speed and precision , distributes patches of color, limited to pure and primitive clarity, on the smooth surfaces of beardless faces. The painted mask resembles those seen in old paintings or popular engravings; this is a real mask in which only the eyes live an exaggerated life, rolling, shaking, agitating, and not imitating. Sometimes they are motionless, on the contrary, they remember those inlays in quartz and agate that some deities of the Tao-Ist temples evoke with all the luxurious attributes. Even without a beard, the ornament of a painted mask is so precise and conventional that the mouth does not participate in facial expressions. Physiognomy. This is why, although masks are strictly speaking rarely used, Chinese theater is a mask stage. It is also a theater of characters, created and defined by centuries-old traditions. Often the mouth, the most mobile part of the face, is completely covered by a smooth, thick beard. . Two comedians sing popular songs.

When did dramatic art originate in China? The history of this country does not tell us. This only suggests that Emperor Ming-huang of the Angel, who reigned from 712 to 755 AD, had at his disposal a troupe of three hundred actors whom he directed and instructed personally in The Pear Garden. Chinese scholars agree that the oldest plays, known as Chuan-ki, date from this period.

The same story tells us another, more precise fact: in the later Tang Dynasty, Emperor Chung-tsong, who reigned for only three years, knew music and stage plays very well. Dressed and disguised to play in his private residence among the actors, which caused him to lose his prestige in the eyes of the latter, and then his life, by killing his favorite comedians.

Due to political upheavals, the performing arts underwent an eclipse that lasted half a century until the appearance of the Song. During the Song Dynasty, which remained in power for three centuries, the old traditions were taken over in all artistic branches. And the theater began normal life again. The dramatic plays composed by the authors of that period are known under the name Hi-ku.

But it was thanks to the Yuan that dramatic art developed significantly. Despite the short duration of this dynasty, the works written by scholars of that time are of significant quantity and remarkable style. The collection, containing one hundred pieces from this period, offers us dramatic masterpieces still played in some parts of China.

In the performance of this kind of work, the main musical instrument is the bamboo flute. Unable to interest the general public and therefore remain popular in the country, it is soon replaced at almost every stage by a new theater more accessible to spectators of a lesser culture. With the Ming Dynasty, the need to entertain the general public led to the creation of the new imperial family of Hui-tiao in the city of Hui-zhou. From then on, plays became very short, had very little literary content, and were played with very noisy music.

Hui-tiao was initially a great success and remained very popular until the day when King-tio came under Manchu rule to take his place. It can be said that from that time on, King Tiao spread throughout the country and was accepted by almost all theaters.

However, as a result of increasingly frequent relations between Chinese and Western countries Chinese theater, like all art in general, is not without some European influence, and Wen-ming-hello testifies to this influence. It is a kind of comedy in European style, in spoken dialogue and without an orchestra.

This new creation is still in its infancy and has not yet taken a firm position. Will it be filmed like other genres? This is what the future will tell us. V at the moment, let's say, is the only dramatic genre that is still king in fashion in China.

Consequently, this will be the only object of our research in the future. The actress plays in a mourning suit. China has public theaters all over the world. In large centers such as Beijing, Shanghai, etc. Their number ranges from 4 to. Their construction is very simple and does not allow, with the exception of a few façade decorations, any special external architecture. All truly Chinese theaters have the same appearance. It is safe to believe that they were built according to one plan, more or less extended.

The main entrance is a large double door and is topped by a triumphal arch of mahogany painted wood, with the name of the theater inscribed in the middle in gilded characters. This inscription is illuminated in the evening by electric lamps. Some of the more modern theaters use an illuminated sign, and there are large red signs taped to the walls to the right and left of the door with black characters, the program for the day's performances and the following days.

As you pass through the main door, you enter through the second door of the vestibule into a spacious and almost square room, accommodating between 700 and 800 spectators. The stage is at the back of the room, against the wall opposite the entrance, almost square, about two meters high, with two large wooden columns, painted red, covered with poetic inscriptions, each rising at an angle from the front of the stage to a height of about 10 meters to support a canopy-like vault that covers the top of the stage to the wall. This vault is surrounded by carved and painted woodwork.

The stage is lined with wooden balustrades painted gold and red. At the back of the stage, two walls are pierced in the wall, one on the right, one on the left. Each of them is covered with an embroidered silk curtain, decorated with very bright mirrors. Traditionally, actors enter the scene through the right door, and they exit through the left door. The entire wall at the back of the stage is covered with embroidered silk curtains and decorated with mirrors. The wall between the two stage doors is the orchestra.

The stage is covered with carpets and furnished with tables, chairs, benches, cushions, etc. Depending on the events taking place in the rooms, carpets are changed and furniture is decorated. And this is done under the eyes of the audience, because in a truly Chinese theater the stage curtain is unknown.