• (The) Research of the performance art and culture
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• no.18
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• pp.201-221
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• 2009

This paper is a historical study on mime or pantomime in the chinese theater. What is the origin of chinese mime? This is a very difficult question to answer. But I thought its early model can be found in actions of ancient actors who are believed to precede any genre of theater and actually I could found a very significant proof in historical records which have been ignored generally. It is an episode of Youmeng(優孟) in Chu(楚) dynasty. According to this episode, the history of chinese mime has lasted at least over 2600 years. In my opinion, chinese mime had been organized in ritual genre in early theater and its development had been mostly based on the jiaosehangdang-system(脚色行當制). Most chengshi-movements(程式動作) of zuo(做) and da(打) have been organized in recent several centuries. But a further study on them shows us that the real origin of them is the ancient dance wu(舞). Afterwards the wu(舞) separated into two types of dance the so-called wenwu(文舞) and wuwu(武舞). So we can say that wenwu(文舞) and wuwu(武舞) had a direct influence on most chengshi-movements(程式動作) of zuo(做) and da(打).