Overview I

Chinese puppetry has a long history. As one of the most ancient art forms in China, it enjoys a unique and significant position in both Chinese and international culture and art history.

Although there is as yet no conclusion on the origin and evolution of Chinese puppetry, according to mainstream academic consensus, ancient Chinese puppetry has gone through three key stages in its development.

In the beginning was the tomb figure. During the Zhou dynasty, slave-owning aristocracy began to replace human sacrifice with tomb figures. According to The Etiquette of Zhou, tomb figures, mobile, made of wood and dressed up with grass, looked much like real people and were buried alongside the deceased to guard them in the netherworld. Confucius was an advocate of the substitution of human sacrifice with tomb figures.

Then came the performing puppet (Song and dance). According to Tong Dian, an encyclopedic book first published during the Tang dynasty on the political system in China up to that point in time, “puppets were originally manipulated to perform at funerals. During the Han dynasty, puppet shows began to be presented on festive occasions. Gao Wei, emperor of the Northern Qi dynasty, was a particular fan. It was also popular in Koryo. These days, it is universally popular”. Such historical records suggest that the performing puppet might trace from the Han dynasty. Tang dynasty legend has it that in 202 B.C., Chen Ping, advisor to Liu Bang, the founding emperor of the Han dynasty, put on a puppet show on the parapet of Ping Cheng in Shanxi; the puppets dressed like beauties distracted Mo Du, chieftain of the besieging Huns and giving his sovereign the chance to escape.      

Finally, puppetry, as we understand the term today, appeared and flourished during the Tang dynasty. During the reign of emperor Xuan Zong, Liang Huang wrote a poem on puppetry, which translates roughly as follows: a puppet is made in the likeness of an old man, it sings and dances just like a real person during performance, but then returns to silence, reminding one of the short span of human life. Apparently, puppetry back then was already highly developed with a complete plot and sophisticated stage effects. Later, during the Song dynasty, puppetry, an ancient, unique form of drama, achieved popularity across the entire social spectrum from the ordinary to aristocracy and royalty. History has it that during the Southern Song dynasty, emperor Li Zong watched puppet shows during banquets. A memoir on life in Kaifeng, capital city of Northern Song dynasty, has it that since the beginning of the reign of emperor Hui Zong, puppetry had been a fixture of drama performance in the capital. The book also mentions four different types of puppets, which, though somewhat similar in the manufacturing process, apparently operated differently. Puppetry was so popular back then that viewers needed to purchase the tickets as early as possible.