Cuju and combat sports were being promoted, and the Court Music Bureau had begun composing new music. Opera combined drama and song; now that he had decadent music, he naturally could not pass up the "drama."
Listening to opera was no good thing. Emperor Xuanzong of Tang, Li Longji, had privately established the Pear Garden performance academy in his palace, sending actors soaring to prominence. For a time, all of Tang was awash in sensual pleasures and lavish entertainment. Not long afterward, Li Longji, engrossed in the song and dance of a supposedly peaceful age, met with the An Lushan Rebellion.
Li Cunxu, the actor-emperor, had loved performing opera since childhood and often played and mingled with actors. After becoming emperor, he gave himself the stage name "Li Tianxia." When spending time with actors, he observed none of the formalities between ruler and minister or sovereign and subject. He even rewarded actors who were incapable in either civil or military affairs with high office. In the end, when his state fell, even his favorite actors rebelled, rallying the city's motley troops to attack the palace.
There was hardly any need to mention Gao Wei, the last ruler of Qi. He loved puppet shows, and there was even the anecdote of "Handan Duke."
Empress Dowager Cixi was obsessed with actors. With foreign powers watching like hungry tigers and the country hanging by a thread, she still listened to opera in the Palace of Tranquil Longevity during the life-or-death crisis of the First Sino-Japanese War, ignoring everything outside.
Zi Shou had long since begun writing scripts himself and ordered Fei Zhong to recruit people from the Hall of Worthies. Once everything was ready, they could hold a public performance in Chaoge City.
The Pear Garden had only appeared in the Tang dynasty,