I. Other Ancient Traditions: Mesopotamia and the Fertile Crescent -(map link)
A. The Sacred Marriage Plays
1. These were performed around 2700 BC in Summeria, near modern day Syria
2. God and Man married in this play once a year
3. They contained Mime, incantation and music
B. Sammaria: The rein of Hammurabi 1728 - 1686 BC
Hammurabi's Code of Laws
1. Redefined the King's relationship to God by casting himself as a "humble, god-fearing prince" and a "shepherd of the people"
2. Elevated the god Marduk, the city god of Babylon, to be the chief god of the entire nation
3. "Hammurabi's conversation with a woman" is the first court play. A court play is one performed to entertain only. In this play a beautiful woman beguiles the King and gets a wish. What is important about this play is that it is the first one not to deal exclusively with the relationship between God and Man. That's why we call it a secular, rather than a sacred play.
4. "Enmekar and the Lord of Aratta" is another secular play from this same period. Both this one and "Hammurabi's conversation…" must have been hits, as they were recorded in stone. (sic)
C. Babylon (Modern Iraq)
1. Akkadian Dialogue "Master and Slave" seems straight out of Plautus. A slave stands by his master as the master gives "sage" advice, and makes fun of it.
2. Nebuchadnezzar and the New Year's Plays
a. After twelve days of ceremony there was the procession through the streets the city to the New Year's Pavilion. The city was decked out in red and white, and the procession stopped along the way for recitations of epics (Gilgamesh) and pantomimes.
D. Hittites (Modern Iran)
Gold Hittite Plate
1. The Puruli Festival, featuring a ritual play
a) The weather god, with the help of the goddess Inaras and a human named Hupasiyas;subdue a dragon
and the Goddess, as reward, offers water in perpetuity to the people.
E. Persia (Modern Iraq and Iran)
1. New Year's festivals. The city of Persopolis was founded specifically to site the New Year's Festival. Alexander burned it to the ground in 334 BC.
F. Canaanites
1. The Psalms as accompaniment to rituals
a) The early Jews were loath to perform drama, as they felt it was blasphemous. Jewish resistance to the drama weakened following the Sasanid Diaspora in 250 BC
2. Non-Jewish traditions in the Poem of the Gracious Gods.
II. China
Picture
of Oracle Bone - Shang period.
A. Wu dances
1. Shang period (pre- 1000 BC)
Tomb of Huang Di
2. Ritual dances to counter-balance the frequency of natural disasters. Performed by local shamans who induced in themselves a trance-like state in order to perform.
3. The commonplace themes appear in the Chou period, 1000 BC to 500 BC The sung su are both dances and pantomimes, enacting folk stories.
Chinese History Timeline4. Most famous of early jesters and mimes was Yu-Meng, a jester at the court of King Chuang 613 - 601 BC. Story: Yu-Meng appears before the king to entreat him to honor his committments to the family of his dead minister. In this, Yu-Meng dresses as the minister and delivers this address: "Loyal unto death was the minister Sun Shu-ao in Chou. Now his destitute family must cart wood for their living. Ah, it does not pay to be a minister in Chou!"
5. Shih Chi by Ssu-ma Ch'ien (140 - 87 BC) contains an entire chapter on the acting profession, notwithstanding the hostility of Confuscius
Ssu-ma Ch'ien , 145?–90? B.C., Chinese historian; sometimes called the Father of Chinese History. He succeeded his father, Ssu-ma T'an, as grand historian (an office then dealing with astronomy and the calendar) at the court of the Early Han emperor Wu. There he took up a project on history planned by his father and extended it into a history of China and of all regions and peoples known at that time. Incurring the emperor's displeasure, he suffered the punishment of castration. Rejecting the alternative of suicide, he chose to complete this work, the Shih chi [records of the historian]. In 130 chapters, including basic annals of dynasties or rulers, chronological tables, treatises, hereditary houses, and accounts of famous men and foreign lands and peoples, it has served as a model for subsequent Chinese dynastic histories. Its wide range, many-faceted characterizations, and vivid dialogue have won it the admiration of Asian readers for over 2,000 years. a) Ssu-Ma became the court champion of all performers and court jesters. Founds the Imperial Office of Music.
b) Also the early historian of Chinese drama.
(1) The Shadow Play
(puppets projected onto a sceen) is traced in China to Shao Wong in the reign of the Emperor Wu-ti. Shao Wong appeared before him to prove his mastery over the shades of the dead. The emperor had just lost a beloved consort, Wang. Shao Wong used a screen and candles to illuminate a puppet he'd secretly made from the profile of Wang. The emperor was convinced, and showered Shao Wong with presents. But several years later, on a windy night, the emperor again bade Shao Wong to summon the shade of his beloved wife Wang. When the wind continued to blow out the candles behind the puppet, the emperor became skeptical, investigated the hoax, and Shao Wong himself entered the land of ghosts.