New Discussion on Historical Stages of the Development of Traditional Chinese Opera

Starting from the relationship among the concepts of "drama","opera" and "traditional Chinese opera",the paper summarizes scholars' understanding of the historical stages of traditional Chinese opera,and puts forward three stages of the development of traditional Chinese opera,i.e.the stage of primitive religion,the stage of folk performing art and the stage of drama art.The paper analyzes the main characteristics of the three development stages,and holds that the character of naore in the performance is the internal driving force for the development of traditional Chinese opera in the history of the development of drama art.