TSA-CH

((Chinese: mixed drama or play),) Pinyin zaju one of the major forms of Chinese drama. The style originated as a short variety play in North China during the Northern Sung dynasty (9601127), and during the Yan dynasty (12061368) it developed into a mature four-act dramatic form, in which songs alternate with dialogue. The tsa-ch, or variety play, was distinguished from the nan-hsi (nanxi), or Southern drama (and later the ch'uan-ch'i ), by a more rigid form. In the tsa-ch, singing was restricted to a single character in each play, and each act had a single and distinct rhyme and musical mode. Melodies were those of the Peking (Beijing) region. Beautiful poetic lyrics were highly valued, while plot incidents were of lesser importance. Of the thousands of romances, religious plays, histories, and domestic, bandit, and lawsuit plays that were composed, only about 200 tsa-ch survive. Hsi-hsiang chi (The Romance of the Western Chamber), by Wang Shih-fu, is a 13th-century adaptation of an epic romance of the 12th century. The student Chang and his beautiful sweetheart Ying Ying are models of the tender and melancholy young lovers who figure prominently in Chinese drama. Loyalty is the theme of the history play Chao-shih ku-erh (The Orphan of Chao), written in the second half of the 13th century. In it the hero sacrifices his son to save the life of young Chao so that Chao can later avenge the death of his family (a situation developed into a major dramatic type in 18th-century popular Japanese drama). One of these, Hui-lan-chi (The Chalk Circle), demonstrating the cleverness of a famous judge, Pao, was adapted in 1948 by Bertolt Brecht in The Caucasian Chalk Circle. The life of commoners is portrayed with considerable reality in Yan drama, though within a highly formalized artistic frame. The lasting worth of tsa-ch is attested to by their continuous adaptation to new musical styles over the years; stories of tsa-ch masterpieces remain a large part of the traditional opera repertory.