Yuan period Zaju(元杂剧) - Poetic Drama and Acrobatics are set to music

A modern-day neutral observer (a neutral observer of the historical record, that is) is sorely tempted to conclude that the emergence of the Chinese theatrical genre, zaju（杂剧）, occured not with the blessings of the ruling Mongols of the Yuan (CE 1279-1368) Dynasty, but in protest to this "foreign" rule after the Mongols had definitively toppled the Jin (CE 1115-1234) Dynasty in northern China, which unwelcome rule had resulted in the abolition of the Civil Service Examination, much admired by Chinese scholars, that had been established in 1237 under Han Chinese rule as part of a general reform of Chinese society away from it's feudal past, where nepotism and cronyism, not merit based on intellectual prowess, had determined the individual's relative position of power and wealth.

How ever it arose, the new artistic genre zaju was an innovation as it combined poetic drama with acrobatics, set to music (the name zaju is derived from this combination of artistic forms), yet it clearly qualifies as xiqu (Chinese opera). Paintings from the period suggest that the artistic community that participated in zaju included more than just actors and acrobats, as scholars, physicians, astrologers, and other educated folk were depicted alongside common laborers, peasants, and other artists such as magicians and soothsayers - and even prostitutes - which oddity in itself only fuels speculation as to whether this unlikely group of disparate types were not brought together by the perceived need to do common cause against what was felt to be a foreign influence, perhaps also because many of these individuals no longer had access to well-paid jobs, having been deprived of the very vehicle which had earlier paved their way to such jobs, the Civil Service Examination.