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Dating back to the Three Kingdoms period, water-activated puppets were developed on the basis of the jointed wooden figures activated by flowing water. The gunpowder-activated puppet was closely related to today's fireworks, and children moving like puppets performed the human puppets. In rural areas in Guangdong Province, glove and wire puppets were popular.

Puppetry enjoyed great prosperity during the Song period. Puppet troupes could be found everywhere in the empire. They performed in theaters in urban areas and sometimes were summoned to play in the royal palace. In the Song Dynasty, men of letters also exhibited great interest in puppet shows.

The Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368) was the golden age of ziju (poetic drama set to music). It also saw progress made in puppetry. The only existing text about puppetry during the Yuan Dynasty, it is known that manipulative techniques during Yuan times were sophisticated, capable of making puppets do actions such as talking and singing; the techniques also vividly portrayed the characters' feelings of joy, anger, sorrow, and delight. In addition, the repertoire of Yuan Dynasty puppetry was as realistic as its poetic drama.

Chinese puppetry further developed during the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) dynasties, with a number of schools spreading across the country.

Puppetry gained great popularity during the reign of the Ming Emperor Wanli (1573-1620). In Fujian Province, where puppetry was especially prosperous, string puppets were constructed with fine workmanship and manipulation was very complex because each figure had up to 30 strings. Speech was vivid and the musical accompaniment was rich.

Fujian glove puppets could be divided into the northern and southern branches. Quanzhou glove puppet shows belonged to the southern branch, whose music was similar to that used for string puppet shows. Zhangzhou glove puppet shows belonged to the northern branch, of which the most famous was the glove puppetry from Longxi in southern Fujian. This branch used the xipi and erhuang tunes in music and had all types of roles.

The southern branch was noted for its plays based on myths, while the northern branch stressed plays with battle scenes. In time, the northern branch also broadened its scope of performance by including plays adapted from fairy tales. Water-activated puppet shows during the Ming period gradually evolved interesting plots.