In the Han Dynasty (206BC-220AD), Baixi (Variety Show) came into being. Baixi is a collective name of folk dances, acrobatics, Wuxu (martial art) and magic of the Han Dynasty. In the reign of Emperor Wudi, Yuefu (music bureau) was set up and folk songs popular among the ordinary people were collected, pushing forward the development of music and dancing. The Silk Road promoted cultural exchange between central plains and the western regions. As a result, variety show experienced unprecedented development and royal courts also began to launch large-scale variety show performances.
Among all the programs of variety show, a program that featured comic feats was Jiaodi (an ancient wrestling skill). Jiaodi was originally a feat between two persons to show their wrestle strength and both sumo and wrestling aftertime originated from Jiaodi. It was performed by athletes wearing ox horns and wrestling with each other imitating wild oxen.
Jiaodi performance was enjoyable and amusing. At that time, actors and actresses tried to display stories of life through their Jiaodi feat so Jiaodi contests transformed into a kind of drama Jiaodi and, as a result, Jiaodi drama came into being. Drama Mr. Huang in the East Sea tells a story that at the end of the Qin Dynasty (221-206BC), Mr. Huang, a man capable of theurgy, went to the East Sea to subdue a white tiger. Unfortunately, his theurgy failed and he was killed by the tiger. In the drama, there are performances of man and the tiger fighting fiercely and the tiger killing the man.
The dramatis personae, the plots, conflicts, and ending are all preset in the drama, so it is obviously no longer the Jiaodi that tries to find out the stronger contestant. It is no wonder that drama historians regard Mr. Huang in the East Sea as the rudiment, and collective performances of Variety Show as the cradle, of Chinese drama.
（Source: chinaculture.org）
