Unit 3: Elegant and Popular Music in Common Prosperity
During the Tang and the Five Dynasties, Sichuan, located near the western frontiers, insusceptible to the war that was plaguing the Central Plains, achieved varying degrees of development in politics, economy and culture. At that time, Sichuan was a place of cultural importance. Attracted by it, a great many literati, musicians and performers went there. Elegant music from the Central Plains got blended with music from the Western Regions there, with the art of music and dance achieving further development in Sichuan. During the Northern and Southern Song Dynasties, the urban economy developed further there, boosting the prosperity of folk musical dance. That was the time when court music and dance descended to the bustling folk world, resulting in a great transformation of the art form.

Unit 4 Great Convergence
During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the opera art developed rapidly under the dual effect of immigration and commodity economy. As “people from other provinces immigrated into Sichuan”, the Sichuan Opera blended in with northern and southern singing tunes into a unique genre of opera. Melodious music, lifelike shadow puppets, beautiful bamboo melody and many other styles of opera art were thus deeply rooted in the folk world by virtue of smoke from teahouses and wine shops. Not only are they as solemn and elegant as court music, but they are as fresh and plain as folk music. Multi-ethnic melodies are intertwined, reverberating through this land of wonders from generation to generation.