Li Qiang. 2019. Silk Road: The Study of Drama Culture (Series on China’s Belt and Road Initiative III), trans. Gao Fen, New Jersey. (αποσπάσματα με εμβόλιμες παρατηρήσεις)

Preface Two

New Developments in the Drama Culture Along the Silk Road

Qu Liuyi

In 2003, Professor Li Qiang wrote The Ethnic Plays, which laid an academic foundation for the new discipline of studying ethnic plays. Six years later, Professor Li compiled the new monograph Silk Road: The Study of Drama Culture. Although many other monographs had been published in the six years (including those published in cooperation with others), Silk Road: The Study of Drama Culture is of great academic value, and has opened the way for the establishment of the new discipline of studying the drama culture along the Silk Road. I have written a commentary entitled Spring Wind Arrives Suddenly Overnight for Ethnic Plays, and will also write a commentary entitled Silk Road Flowers in Full Bloom for Drama Culture Along the Silk Road, metaphorically hinting that readers will have a panoramic view of the drama along the Silk Road. The Ethnic Plays and Silk Road: The Study of Drama Culture are brand new companion pieces for the academic studies.

Up to the present and throughout the world, the Silk Road has surpassed all other routes in areas of coverage, historical duration, and cultural significance. From Xi’an, the Silk Road meandered westward through the Qinling Mountains, Hexi Corridor, Gobi Desert of the Western Regions, Pamir Mountains, Tigris and Euphrates basins, Asia Minor, and the Mediterranean, before reaching the international passage of Venice, Italy. This not only served as a medium for economic, religious, and ethnic cultural exchanges between the Asian, European and African continents, but also witnessed the music, dance, acrobatics, magic, Quyi, literature, fine arts, and other historical culture of various countries along the Silk Road. More interestingly, the beautiful culture of drama has also been preserved along the cross-linked Silk Road.

In line with the current prevalent concept of historical geography and studies of cultural regions, Professor Li explored a new road, delving deeper into and reviewing the history of communication between Chinese and foreign drama cultures which have reaped fruitful outcomes. Readers were surprised to discover that the traditional literary arts of China were all related to the Silk Road, where Yanshi’s puppet plays, masked Nuo plays, Buddhism music–dance plays, and religious ritual plays associated with Chinese traditional operas were bred; Sanskrit plays, highly praised in Kushan in the Western Regions, and Zhezhi plays, prevalent in the Tigris and Euphrates basins of Central Asia, shaped the patterns of exchanges between Chinese and foreign drama cultures after being introduced into the Central Plains.

A past theory, since shown to be invalid, propounded that the traditional Chinese drama developed independently as an art form, not as a result of or scarcely related to foreign factors. However, the enormous amount of historical evidence about foreign music–dance plays in Silk Road: The Study of Drama Culture revealed that the primary musical instruments used in accompaniment, such as pipa, konghou, suona, bili, cymbals and various drums originated in India and Persia at the middle and lower segments of the Silk Road and were brought into the Chinese field of music–dance plays. Seven out of the nine Sui and Tang dynasty ensembles arose from those of ancient minority ethnicities, such as Samarkand music, Qiuci music, Shule music, Chotscho music, and Xiliang music. The role appellations of Mo (middle-aged male character), Dan (female character), Jing (painted-face character), Zhuanghu (official character), Banglao (character of thief and villains) and Base (character of Jiyue musicians) in traditional Chinese operas as well as performance forms of music-dance plays such as Botou, Sumozhe, Daibian (mask dance), Lion Dance, Zhugongdiao, Huxuan, and Huteng were all influenced by the drama culture along the Silk Road.

This academic monograph, published by Xinjiang People’s Publishing House, is composed of 14 chapters, with over 500,000 words and 62 exquisite illustrations. Its contents cover studies about domestic operas and foreign plays, as well as the comparative studies of drama in China and other countries. In the book, there are seven chapters about drama culture in China, including grand music of the Tang and Song dynasties and Zhezhi dance, Buddhist operas of Mount Wutai and the Western Regions, Dunhuang secular music-dance, Buddhist operas of Dunhuang, Maudgalyayana culture in Dunhuang studies, Turpan religious culture and Tibetan plays, and some rare editions of Buddhist operas in the Western Regions. Besides, there are five chapters about drama culture in other countries, including the exchange of music-dance plays between Central Asia and Western culture, Indian religious culture and Sanskrit drama arts, Persian religious culture and eastern drama, plus the eastward spread of ancient Greek and Roman drama culture. Also, there are two chapters comparing domestic and foreign drama, such as the study of drama between the East and West, and the exchanges and enhancements of Eastern and Western drama culture. All the chapters, well-organized and illustrated, complement each other and result in a masterpiece of organic cultural unity. It must be noted that this monograph gives prominence to the key points in a fluent style, which makes it highly readable and informative to the readers.

Perhaps the most compelling feature of this book lies in its introduction of the ethnic plays of various countries from northwest and west, and from China and abroad along the Silk Road that have been long overlooked by Chinese opera and drama scholars, particularly the lack of profound and comprehensive investigations of the ancient and abundant religious and secular arts cultures. Therefore, the author expounds convincingly on the objective rules of the origin, formation, and development of Chinese music–dance plays based on the abundance of historical facts and materials about exchanges of dance cultures between China and neighboring regions, states, and ethnicities. As the relationship of Chinese traditional operas and international culture is also explored, this book boasts a broad academic vision. Meanwhile, the book employs scientific and original research methods, which on the basis of the traditional Chinese textology and philology, include relatively advanced research methods, such as ethnology, science of religion, archeology, and culturology, and adopts the scientific approach to maintain consistency while analyzing written materials and unearthed relics to verify the ethnic and state drama cultures along the Silk Road. This has achieved abundant academic results.

From a historical and realistic perspective, the academic studies about the Silk Road manifest enormous potential. The ancient Silk Road was an international passage of worldwide significance spanning Asia and Europe that communicated the politics, economy, military, and culture of various countries through the media of silk thread and silk fabrics. In human history, the Silk Road has been a bond connecting the ancient civilizations of China, India, Egypt, Babylon, Greece, and Rome. It was also the only route across the Asian, African, and European empires of Macedonia, Persia, Mongolia, and Ottoman, as well as the birthplace of Buddhism, Hinduism, and Islam, the world’s three major religions, as well as Shamanism, Zoroastrianism, Nestorianism, Manichaeism, Arkaim, and other religious cultures.

Upon further research, it has been noticed that the Silk Road refers not only to the overland Silk Road (i.e. the dessert, oasis, and prairie Silk Roads) but also to the maritime Silk Road and southern plateau Silk Road. The five branches of the Silk Road radiated from the birthplace of Chinese civilization and arched over the oriental and occidental areas of the world like five resplendent bridges which enabled the ancient theatrical arts of various countries and ethnicities to be standardized and exchanged with each other, thus spawning relatively independent and stable theatrical cultures with unique artistic styles and characteristics. Represented by the three major classical dramatic systems of Greek and Roman plays, Indian Sanskrit plays, and Chinese opera, supplemented by the plays of Egypt, Babylon, Hebrew, Persia, Arabia, Japan, North Korea, Southeast Asia, as well as the Western Regions, a grand system of drama cultures along the Silk Road were constructed for the oriental hemisphere.

Silk Road: The Study of Drama Culture encapsulates directly the research findings and academic heritage of numerous Chinese dramatic historians and critics in the 20th century. It draws on and compiles valuable historical materials utilizing the massive volumes of Chinese and foreign historical classics and academic materials, and by virtue of its broad cultural vision and innovative concept, opens up a new field for academic studies about the drama culture along the Silk Road.

The Silk Road undoubtedly deserves its recognition as a world cultural heritage which will increasingly draw the attention of people around the world, including special attention from the academia of various countries. This emerging cross-disciplinary field integrating the Silk Road and drama culture, named Study of Exchanges of the Silk Road Drama Cultures will have worldwide appeal due to its vigorous vitality and new cultural orientation.

The author is a researcher of China Theatre Association, a renowned theatrical artist, a member of the Intangible Cultural Heritage Preservation Committee of the Ministry of Culture, and honorary president of the Minority Theatre Society of China as well as China Nuo Play Research Institute.

...

The play Botou, derived from the Western Regions, maintained its original features of wearing masks even after being circulated eastward to Japan via the Silk Road. In the well-preserved Japanese ancient book, Ancient Music of Shinzei, Botou dancers wore malicious masks with one hand touching the ground and the other holding a short stick, disheveled hair covering their faces, and making offerings and worshipping the god and ghost, so as to increase the fearful and tragic sensation of the original drama. In the drama Damian, or Prince of Lanling, influenced by the dramatic culture of the Silk Road, the scene of the protagonist dancing with a mask and the representation of war scenes could more vividly reflect the characteristics of Nuo play, including worshiping ancestors, divinities, and the deceased.

Θέατρο Gigaku https://www.miho.jp/booth/html/artcon/00000440.htm

Sumozhe, also called Pohuqihan play, was popular in the ancient Western Regions. According to the records in The Miscellaneous Morsels from Youyang, and The Sounds and Meaning of Tripitaka in the Tang Dynasty, the play was performed with animal masks and singing and dancing both day and night. It was also described that the performers’ appearances resembled beast faces or ghosts or deities, contrived with various masks. The local customs alleged that the play was often used to drive devils away to keep them from eating people. According to the unearthed ancient documents and relics, this form was a truly typical western exorcism opera. {spp 326, p. 6: The Sumozhe is described here as “originated from the Hu barbarians from the Western Seas” (benchu Haixihu 本出海西胡), or the “countries of the Western Seas” (Haixiguo 海西國), indicating that the ritual came from the Western (Hellenistic/Roman) world, as located there by the Chinese sources from the Han to the Tang dynasties.}

At the beginning of the 20th century, the expedition team, led by Japanese Otani Kozui, unearthed a Sarira box of colored patterns in the old Soubachi temple of Kuqa, namely Zhaoguli Temple in Records of the Western Regions in the Great Tang. Later, Japanese scholar Kumagaya confirmed that it was Sarira container of a Qiuci Buddhist monk from the 7th century. On the Sarira box was painted the Nuo sacrificial music-dance, composed of 21 figures, with six performers hand-in-hand and two dancers holding sticks. Led by one male and one female priest, holding dancing Mao (ancient flags with yak tails), they were all clad in colorful armor wearing various batou masks, dancing to the music and praying to the deities, which was extremely lifelike and vividly portrayed. {https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=pfbid02Hi1bGvPC3ycXErnxLBvcW1TRJnjEFn47BwdANEETJjuqQgvjriHAUG383244ALfjl&id=100052896971032&__cft__[0]=AZXh8zeniiYKeVv7CJEoiYfBPjWYjo3FOFtRZou8qxoqVkV5WPhWIxt1mmbcmrA8PgKuyciZM4ZZLTYCNrSFZB71my4aJJIx-xUAWwRxCpqyjKkESTwoUO4LopHrwcCwzdo&__tn__=%2CO%2CP-R}

Various figures were clearly seen in the Sarira box, including handsome warriors with square capes, mighty bearded generals wearing helmets, and many exorcism dance performers wearing ear-pricked rabbit heads, hook-nosed eagle heads, hairy monkey faces and pocket-shaped pointed caps, and all kinds of masks. In the long sacrificial patrol queue, all the Qiuci artists wearing animal tails were singing, dancing and looking around, either holding objects or bare-handed. There were eight persons in the band accompanying the exorcism sacrifice playing hammer drum, harp, pipe, or a blowing horn of copper, and also five nomadic children carrying drums and clapping, which formed a rather splendid performing team of divinity and Buddhist worship.

The famous German female scholar Feng Jiaban verified the figures on the Sarira box as an acrobatic drama performing a mask play:

The Sarira box was painted with a parade procession, with all acrobats wearing animal masks and in bizarre costumes followed by musicians playing konghou (an ancient plucked stringed instrument) and beating drums.27

From an appended drawing, which was stolen by the archeologist Grunwedel of the German expedition and published in the book Ancient Buddhist Relic Sites in Xinjiang of China, we detected a wooden mask which came from the ancient Buddhist site in Kuqa. We have also discovered more historical evidence from the Kuqa sites: Douldour–Aqour and Soubachi, described in the third volume of The Pelliot Archeological Periodicals, stating that the French Pelliot archeological team dug out a wooden Sarira box related to the ancient exorcism plays in Kuqa, Xinjiang in 1906. The outer wall of the Sarira box was painted with four Hu comedians with animal masks, two of whom were playing pipa (a four-stringed Chinese musical instrument) and Ruanxian (a plucked Chinese stringed instrument), and the other two were dancers sometimes looking up or bending down to sing and dance, whose zoomorphic masks were dog-headed and monkey-headed batou, made of cloth. On the basis of the costumes, masks, and musical instruments of the musicians, the Sarira box is considered as the same cultural relic that was stolen by the Japanese Otani Kozui expedition. The cultural relics share the same subject content, which is Sumozhe, the exorcism play to drive devils away to keep them from eating people.

Aristophanes' 'The Birds' in Beijing: Blending Greek drama with Chinese culture

p. 5:

Kophen {Το Βασίλειο του Κωφήνος – Jibin και οι ανταγωνισμοί Σακών, Yuezhi, Ελλήνων και Han}, directly related to the countries in the Western Regions, called Kashmir or Kasperia in the Tang dynasty, was the birthplace of Mahāyāna school of Indian Buddhism and also the cradle of Indian classical Sanskrit drama. Alexandria Prophthasia {Αλεξάνδρεια η Προφθασία ή εν Δραγγιανή) … founded by Alexander the Great during an intermediate stop between Herat, the location of another of Alexander's fortresses, and Kandahar… is mentioned by Strabo 11.8, 15.2}and Great Yuezhi were the sites of Greek and Roman drama culture, which were important conduits of the Silk Road cultural exchanges in history.

p. 26:

Kophen and Sindhu, contiguous σε επαφή με to the Western Regions, were governed by ancient India and had frequent cultural communications with the oriental countries, particularly Kophen, at the downstream section of the Kabul River and Kashmir region, which was the only route connecting the Western Regions, Middle Asia, Western Asia and the Indian subcontinent to the Western countries. Due to its proximity to the Bactrian empire, governed by the Greeks, this ancient country was deeply influenced by the western culture, which organically

p. 188:

During the period of the Tang and Song dynasties, the monks in Mount Wutai created Sumozhe, on the basis of Buddhist music-dance and acrobatics. Sumozhe is the typical form of Buddhist song-dance play of opera

Chapter 13, p. 717

p. 723:

Pan etc {https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/fragment-of-wall-painting-female-with-a-mouth-cover-padam/mQFKJx9AfkgaMg} mouth-cover padams)

1,800-Year-Old Ritual Mask Discovered During Monorail Construction In Japan

By Kaleena Fraga | Edited By John Kuroski

Published April 26, 2023

https://allthatsinteresting.com/ancient-japanese-ritual-mask

p. 742:

Han dynasty with the sound of camels."34 ‘Hera’ mentioned above was the wife of Zeus, and Ixion was unfortunately punished by being changed into a ‘half-man, half-horse creature’ because he molested lien in the forest. A comparative study of Ixion's image, disposition and experience, compared to those of Dionysus, reveals that the introduction of ‘Dionysus, God of Wine’ into eastern drama culture is to some degree actually an integration of these two Greek gods.

We can still see presently in Shosoin and Horyuji Temples in Todaiji, Nara of Japan, more than 300 pieces of ancient Greco - Roman style masks for drama characters introduced from the West. Masks like "Drunk Hu," "King of Drunk Hu" and "Attendants of Drunk Hu" are obviously affected by Gandhara art. Dung Xijiu analyzed in his article, The Eastward Spread of as Dance along the Silk Road that:

1895 illustration of gigaku masks belonging to Horyu-ji temple in Nara. PUBLIC DOMAIN

The masks of "King of Drunk Hu' and "Attendants of Drunk Hu” clearly bear the facial characteristics of people from Xinjiang of Central Asia, such as high noses, deeply set eyes and red faces (which might be a result of their drinking). Xinjiang is abundant in grapes and people there are good at making wine with it. Whenever there are banquets and gatherings, people get drunk and dance joyfully .. Japanese gagaku (ancient imperial court music/ Gigaku, Buddhist Mask Theatre https://disco.teak.fi/asia/gigaku-buddhist-mask-theatre/) still preserves the program of Hu Drinking Wine, in which the masks used are similar to those of "King Tao of Drunk Hu" and “Attendants of Drunk Hu" because they are both from the Silk Road.

An in-depth study may further uncover the following conclusion that such masks prevailing in the East actually originated from Gandhara art and Dionysus of ancient Greece.

Khotan in Xinjiang of China was adjacent to the mountains and rivers of Kushan and Gandhara, and they once shared a common destiny. Therefore, it is quite reasonable that there was a significant Hellenistic influence on performing arts and drama in Khotan.{NEXT PAGE IS 743}

p. 743:

According to Professor Abdushukur Muhammatimin who has studied the cultural relics of Hu play in Japan:

We have discovered some pottery painted with lines in relief depicting drama characters in Khotan, the history of which can be traced back to the early centuries. There are images of people holding pipa and bili, images of people disguising themselves as monkeys and other various comedians and images.... That I saw in Tokyo was usually the images of people with full beards, funny mouths and eyes.

He then integrated it with the cultural relics of drama unearthed in Central Asian countries and said:

In the ruins of Haer Chaxiang Castle, which belonged to the Kushan dynasty historically, the ruins of Badakhshan near Bukhara, and the ruins of Afrasiyab Palace near Samarkand, masks worn by the actors, and figures in masks have been unearthed, many of which were like ancient Cypriots, with their thick hair and beards, similar to the characters from comedy. In the ruins of Afrasiyab Castle, the standing relief of actors with masks in hand and peaked caps, as well as the reliefs of young actors with no headdress who looked like Greeks, have also been excavated. All these reliefs may possibly have been built in the Hellenistic era.35 {Qu Liuyi and Li Xiaohi ng (eds.), Drama and Its Occurrence in the Western Regions (Urumqi: Xinjiang People's Publishing House, 1992), 2-5}

According to the large number of historical documents and cultural and artistic relics, we can prove that in the Qin dynasty and at the beginning of the Han dynasty, various ancient Greek drama and formative arts, in their maturity, were indirectly introduced to some Asian countries along the Silk Road in Europe, Asia and Africa. However, an in-depth review of the history reveals that the ones that had significant cultural exchanges with Chinese classical drama art are the ancient Greek tragedy and comedy, as well as the Roman arts.

34 Chen Pengiu, History Collection (Shanghai: Shanghai Bookstore, 1998), 179.

35 Qu Liuyi and Li Xiaohing (eds.), Drama and Its Occurrence in the Western Regions (Urumqi: Xinjiang People's Publishing House, 1992), 2-5.

p. 749: Li Xuan Harpalus Άρπαλος, γιος του Μαχάτα, θησαυροφύλαξ, Πυθιονίκη & Γλυκέρα

Pyrrhic play – Breaking up the Enemy’s Front - pozhen - Music of Prince of Qin Breaking up the Enemy's Front

p. 753:

Dionysus!!! .. Suzhonglang {song – dance playlet μουσικο – χορευτικό παιχνίδι} .. Butoh (舞踏 Butō) is a form of Japanese dance theatre 753 AD

p. 753:

The author summarized this phenomenon in Dionysus Cult, Song of Goats and Western Drama: After the long and dark Middle Ages, and with the prevalence of Christianity across Europe, the ceremony play developed from the alternation of ...

p. 753:

The most notable feature is that stories of Dionysus were transferred from the realm of gods and kings to the realm of ordinary people. Later on these Dionysus stories filled with joy and grief were introduced to the Eastern countries, yet modified with some subtle changes according to their unique national psyche and customs.

Academic circles have not discovered the origin of Botu, which was considered as one type of song—dance plays in the Western Regions. According to the Old Books of Tang: Records of Music: "Botou originated from the Western Regions. The story tells one of the Hu men was killed by a tiger; his son hunted the tiger down and killed it. The dance is a simulation of the scene." Yuefu Miscellany: Dreams states chat "according to Botou, a man was killed by a tiger and his son went up to the mountain for his father's corpse. The mountain has eight zigzags, so the play has eight levels. The performers wear plain clothes crying and pretending to suffer from the loss." According to the remaining Botou Dance found in Japan, which was introduced in the 5th year of Tenpyo-shoho (753 BC) along the Silk Road, together with the play of Xinxi Music, the performers with their high noses and deep eyes, wearing long hair covering their faces, were obviously influenced by the image of ancient Greek Dionysus. Also, the masks of the performers in Damian (or Painted Face), Sumozhe and Magic White Horse, popular in Hu-oriented states of Northern Asia, were totally different from those worn by the ancient Chinese people. The image of a drunk male character in Suzhonglang, popular in the Yellow River Basin from the Southern and Northern dynasties to the early Tang dynasty, probably had somewhat imitated the performance form and makeup artistry of the western Dionysus rites.

In the 6th year of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom (981 AD) in the Northern Song dynasty, Zhao Jonk, Emperor Taimng sent Wang Yande as an envoy to the Western Regions. According to the History of the Song dynasty: Biography of Chotscho (Gaochang), "residents are of the Song Dynasty: Biography of Chotscho (Gazichang), "residents are seen enjoying the happy gathering." The King of Beiting welcomed him with "music, banquets and plays, till dawn." The Journey to Xizhou records that "Qihan Hu plays,” performed by actors with masks, were prevalent there, "As for the musical instruments, there are "pipa and..

p. 754:

.. Women wear a kind of oil cap, worn in the performance of Sumozhe. All of these were clearly affected by the western Dionysus. Later, Sun Zhongrui, the Ceremonial Master of the Jin dynasty personally visited Chotscho and witnessed that..

ΒΙΒΛΙΟΓΡΑΦΙΑ

https://www.amazon.in/Silk-Road-Culture-Chinas-Initiative/dp/9813202955?asin=B07RT4Y8KV&revisionId=f465afab&format=1&depth=1

https://www.kobo.com/ww/en/ebook/silk-road-the-study-of-drama-culture

https://books.google.gr/books?id=eeaWDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA751&lpg=PA751&dq=Li+Qiang,+1999,+Dionysus+Cult,+Song+of+Goats+and+Western+Drama,+Xinjiang+Arts+5&source=bl&ots=HN13efvbdK&sig=ACfU3U3OVFUD8JdqFssKatgwsLJcvNew1g&hl=el&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiIw8HeoKztAhUmsKQKHf75BR8Q6AEwAHoECAEQAg#v=snippet&q=Ixion&f=false

Li Qiang. 2019. Silk Road: The Study of Drama Culture (Series on China’s Belt and Road Initiative III), trans. Gao Fen, New Jersey.

Li Qiang, 1999. “Dionysus Cult, Song of Goats and Western Drama,” Xinjiang Arts 5, 1999 { Journal of Xinjiang Arts Institute ?}

China: The Early History of Chinese Theatre, <https://disco.teak.fi/asia/the-early-history-of-chinese-theatre/>

https://altaica.ru/LIBRARY/Pelliot/Pelliot_Tokharien%20et%20Koutcheen_Journal%20Asiatique_224%201934.pdf

Pelliot, P. 1934. "Tokharien et Koutchéen," Journal Asiatique 224 (1934), pp. 23-106.

https://www.jstor.org/stable/25791051

Shoichi Inoue. 2000. "Interpretation of Ancient Japanese Architecture: Focusing on Links with World History," Japan Review 12, International Conference: The Global Meaning of Japan: European and Asian Perspetives, pp. 129-143.

https://sino-platonic.org/complete/spp326_dionysian_rituals_china.pdf

Christopoulos, L. 2022. "Dionysian Rituals and the Golden Zeus of China," Sino-Platonic Papers 326, pp. 1-123.

p. 6: The Sumozhe is described here as “originated from the Hu barbarians from the Western Seas” (benchu Haixihu 本出海西胡), or the “countries of the Western Seas” (Haixiguo 海西國), indicating that the ritual came from the Western (Hellenistic/Roman) world, as located there by the Chinese sources from the Han to the Tang dynasties.3 The “pagan” aspect of that festival demonstrates that it was a Dionysian type of ritual that came from Hellenized Central Asia and became mixed with Buddhist elements.4 In the Wenxian tongkao, or the “Comprehensive examination of literature,” it is mentioned that the Pohan Huxi was a festival originating from Sogdiana, where people used to splash water during the eleventh lunar month of winter, and that it had started in China during the fifth century AD.5

https://himalaya-arch.com/images/lettre-du-toit-du-monde/Lettre-TDM-ENGLISH-29.pdf?fbclid=IwAR0LUUcpf-OJHBIDoG2DR7efKr8GzHEYWfmwbnmpLBj0Kg-dc6QXovhetPM

Pannier, F. 2019, "Study on the Diffusion of a Type of Mask through Greece, India and Japan," Lettre dy Toit du Monde 29, pp. 1-15.

https://www.byzantinemuseum.gr/en/temporary_exhibitions/older/?nid=2371

ΒΥΖΑΝΤΙΝΟ & ΧΡΙΣΤΙΑΝΙΚΟ ΜΟΥΣΕΙΟ The globally touring photo exhibition & short-film series, "Road of Light and Hope" presents "visions towards unity" through select artwork as evidence of the interconnectedness of East and West, throughout which "The Eurasian Trail of Wisdom" stands out in bold relief.

While Nara was the ancient capital of Japan, it was de facto the easternmost terminal of the Silk Road.

If we were to seek a cultural link connecting its westernmost terminus, Rome, with Nara, it might be found in the sculptural art works from the eighth century, embodying the ideals of the human spirit as well as the free and vivid movements influenced by the classical style of ancient GREECE.

Some examples would be: Buddhist statues influenced by HELLENISTIC culture; the Vairocana Buddha whose origins can be traced along the Silk Road to the ancient GRECO-Bactrian Kingdom; Fukūkensaku Kannon which some believe may have a Greek origin via Shiva, one of the principal Indian deities, who is possibly connected to HERCULES in Greek mythology; Gigaku masks whose origins go back to the comic mask theatre of ancient GREECE, brought all the way to Japan via the "Oasis Silk Road", while becoming intermingled with the folklore and dance of Sogdians (middlemen along the trade routes) and various mask theatres along the Silk Routes both by land and sea.

https://www.byzantinemuseum.gr/en/museum_news/press_releases/?nid=2374

The lecture will be supported by a theatrical performance with masks Gigaku by the dancer Shunso, former soloist dancer of the National Ballet of Cuba and of the Czech Republic. The photographs of Gigaku theatrical masks from the Buddhist temple of Todaiji in Nara, Japan, are displayed in the current exhibition. These masks are thought to have originated from the ancient comic Greek theatre and bear witness to the cultural interactions and influences brought into contacts along the ancient trading route of the Silk Road connecting China and Greece.

https://books.google.gr/books?id=ge8cWl8OT3gC&printsec=frontcover&hl=el#v=onepage&q=Greek&f=false

Ortolani, B. 1990. The Japanese Theatre: From Shamanistic Ritual to Contemporary Pluralism, Princeton University Press.

Από τον/την

p. 36

Whichever might be the immediate origin of gigaku masks and performances, several questions about their remote origin remain open. A study of the characteristics of the gigaku masks reveals that they represent myths and types which are certainly not Chinese. The face masks seem to be connected with the carving art of the Scythians. The head masks have occasioned many attempts to prove the existence of a bridge between the theatre of China and Japan, and the theatre of Greece and Rome, across the Near East and India. As a matter of fact, a close comparison or some gigiaku masks with late Roman comic masks presents some striking similarities. One hypothesis sees in the episode of Konron, the women of Wu and Rikishi a transformation of a Greek myth.{The mask is that of the barbarian Konron, who in the drama clumsily attempts to court the lovely Go-Jo, princess of the Chinese kingdom of Wu. https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/A_1957-1120-1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gigaku} {There are two wrestler archetype characters, the Kongō (金剛) or "Vajra-yakṣa" who is open-mouthed,[10] and the Rikishi (力士) who is closed mouthed.[10][11] These two are said to be analogous to the two Niō or guardian gate statues, who respectively form the open and closed A-un shapes in their mouths.} Hera and Iris would be the models for the women of Wu, satyrs for Konron, Heracles for Rikishi. The possibility of a long arch stretching from the Near East to Japan—traveled by nomadic populations who combined the western art of carving masks with Indian mythology and Buddhist faith—remains as intriguing and fascinating as the surprising presence of a Greek modeling of a pillar in the Horyi.iji temple of Nara, or the discovery in Japan of the winged horse, possibly a Pegasus-motif, in decorative patterns contemporary to gigaku.6

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https://www.mukogawa-u.ac.jp/~iasu2016/pdf/iaSU2016_Proceedings.pdf

Tsaras, G., E. Chrysafidis, D. Giouzepas. 2016. "Traditional Noh Theatre and Ancient Greek Tragedy: Comparative Study towards a common Performance," Archi-Cultural Interactions through the Silk Road. 4th International Conference, Mukogawa Women’s University, pp. 49-52.

p. 51: There are many references to the origins of the masks of Noh theatre that focus on the similarity with the grotesque comic masks of the Hellenistic era [12]. 12. Benito Ortolani, International Bibliography of Theatre, 1985, p. 326.

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https://www.academia.edu/1503231/An_account_of_the_Dionysiac_presence_in_Indian_art_and_culture

Peterson, S. 2011-2012. “An account of the Dionysiac presence in Indian art and culture,” < https://www.academia.edu/1503231/An_account_of_the_Dionysiac_presence_in_Indian_art_and_culture> (17 March 2019).

σελ. 1: Αυτή η ευρύτερη ερμηνεία του Διονύσου καταδεικνύει ότι μέσα στο ινδικό πολιτιστικό περιβάλλον η παρουσία του μπορεί να χαρακτηρισθεί όχι απλώς ως αποτέλεσμα συνήθους συνγκρητισμού, αλλά ως μία εξελισσόμενη σχέση που είχε ως αποτέλεσμα έναν βαθμό πολιτιστικής αφομοιώσεως, εντάσσοντας {φέρνοντας} πτυχές αυτής της πολύπλοκης θεότητας στο υπο-πάνθεον της βουδιστικής θρησκείας.

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https://www.jstor.org/stable/3047209?read-now=1&seq=10#page_scan_tab_contents

Rowland Jr., B. 1949. "The Hellenistic Tradition in Northwestern India," The Art Bulletin 31 (1), pp. 1-10.

p. 6

These sculptures, the earliest examples of classical art from India, revealing the survival of Hellenic and Hellenistic types in Augustan art, bring to mind a statement of Professor Rostovtzeff’s: "In their new homeland, influenced strongly by Greek art and less significantly by Indian, they [the Sakas] created a peculiar Graeco-Iranian art. This art may have influenced to a certain extent the development of that peculiar hybrid art which we call, after Toucher, the Graeco-Buddhic) art of the Gandhara region.38 I would even amplify Professor Rostovtzeff's theory to say that, before the comparatively settled conditions that succeeded the advent of the Parthians, Greek art could scarcely have existed in these regions. The finding of the many scattered pieces of Hellenistic sculpture throughout Iran and in the Parthians' Indian domains seems to indicate that the Philhellenisrn of the Parthians was of a thicker fabric than is indicated by their use of Greek inscriptions and cultivation of the Greek drama, and strengthens the theory that Parthia, more than the semi-mythical Bactria, kept alive the tradition of classic art in the Middle East and was responsible for its transmission to India. Under the Parthians, Iran, politically as well as artistically, still hung in the balance between Europe and Asia: its fate as an oriental power was not really sealed until the Sasanian period. As we have seen, Sir John Marshall's later excavations in the cities of Sirkap and Taxila have led him to the conclusion that Parthian rule and semi-Greek culture continued in the Punjab until about A.D. 65, the earliest possible date for the advent of the Kushans.39 "There is," says Sir John Marshall, "abundant evidence to show that much of this [Greek] influence was directly due to the Parthians.40 And again, "Whatever the Kushans had of Graeco-Roman ideas or Graeco-Roman culture must have come to them by way of Parthia.41 I would add that probably they found this culture largely ready-made. It may have excited their interest and respect for the west and led to the establishment of even closer artistic relations with Rome under Wima Kadphises and his successors, a conclusion favored, of course, by the trade route between India and the Graeco-Roman orient. It is interesting to note in this connection Foucher's remarks on the three or four generations necessary for the mingling of Hellenism and Buddhism to produce the earliest works of the Gandhara school.42 These generations would seems to fall naturally

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Παρασκευή 13 Οκτωβρίου 2023

Silk Road: The Study of Drama Culture

Li Qiang. 2019. Silk Road: The Study of Drama Culture (Series on China’s Belt and Road Initiative III), trans. Gao Fen, New Jersey. (αποσπάσματα με εμβόλιμες παρατηρήσεις)

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