The Research Of God Dramas Of The Ming Dynasty

The god dramas means one type of dramas which tell the story of gods or their leading roles are gods.The belief of gods has profound effect on the creation of Chinese classical literature. Tales of Taoism are one of important materials of ancient dramas. The god drama is not only a main category of Zaju of the Yuan Dynasty, but a huge existence of dramas of the Ming Dynasty. There are fifty-two god dramas in extant Zaju of the Ming Dynasty. The proportion has surpassed seventeen percent. And there are thirty-four god dramas in the nearly three hundreds legends of the Ming Dynasty. The proportion has surpassed eleven percent. In addition, there are seventy-eight proximity-god dramas, which mean gods appear on the stage but are not main objects of description.The god dramas of the Ming Dynasty , which have a huge number, are played constantly. Their writers and audiences include people from court to countryside. It is a popular and influential category of dramas at that time. However, scholars seldom pay attention to them while some researchers have a derogatory attitude towards their ideological content and artistic value. In fact, god dramas of the Ming Dynasty, which mixed essence with dross, have important value and significance.Compared with god dramas of the Yuan Dynasty, the god dramas of the Ming Dynasty not only inherit the theme of Dutuo and relegated gods, but also create Qingshang Operas, a new type of drama. What's more, there are some dramas about gods allegory and love story between human beings and gods. There are 26 Qingshang Operas, 23 Dutuo Operas, 3 relegated gods dramas, 5 cultivating gods dramas, 5 subduing ghosts dramas, 16 dramas about love story between human beings and gods and 6 gods anecdote dramas.God dramas in early days of the Ming Dynasty are mainly consist of Qingshang Operas and Dutuo Operas. They follow the old line of their predecessors in one respect and break a fresh path.Bustling and eulogistic god dramas don't merely reflect the purpose of the ruling class who inculcate peace and prosperity. And they don't merely reveal the desire ofrulers who hope for long life too. More importantly, they are carols to political power of Han nationality, which finally end off long-time warfare and rules by other nationality. God dramas show the sense of social sanction and satisfaction.God dramas in the middle and later period of the Ming Dynasty are different from those works of early time. They reflect deep social contradictions. Evils of system of imperial examination, conflicts between erotic feeling and justice and the innovatory trend influence the creation of god dramas greatly.God dramas in the middle and later period of the Ming Dynasty put emphasis on satire of society. Majority of works follow the rebelling spirit of god dramas of the Yuan Dynasty and reveal the feature of criticizing.God dramas in the middle and later period of the Ming Dynasty emphasize personal resentment of their writers. There is a distinction that the god dramas of early time amuse others and those of middle and later period amuse themselves when we refer to the purpose of creation.Zaju in these times don't meet with the approval of acceptors any more by complicated plot and satisfactory story. Narrative quality of works weakens gradually and lyricism strengthens obviously. Expressing emotion has become the principal tendency. God dramas of Zaju have the same characteristic. They perform a function reflecting aspirations of writers and criticizing society. Meanwhile legends of the Ming Dynasty have entirely different aesthetic trends. They are in pursuit of complication of plot, peculiarity of characters and miracle of story.Religion condition of the Ming Dynasty directly influence the development of god dramas. Development of Taoism in the Ming Dynasty is closely linked to the attitude of rulers. Whether rulers revere Taoism or not determines the rise and decline of Taoism. Belief in powder and publicity of doctrine of long life in the god dramas is related to religion thinking of rulers.God dramas of the Ming Dynasty reflect real religion phenomena and religion concepts of that society vividly.Performance activities of god dramas of the Ming Dynasty are fairly frequent. Qingshang Operas are performed in court, imperial theater and residence of noble. Performance of god dramas among the normal person is also vigorous. Especially in the period of traditional festivals, performance and appreciation of dramas aboutgreeting gods and offering sacrifices to gods become a necessary part of the masses' lives.The stage quality of god dramas is relatively strong. The gods have different appearances and peculiar model. They display unusual skills and are adept at changing. So the god dramas have strong power of attraction. The pomp show of gods dramas is relatively bustling, which correspond to the artistic feature of dramas emphasizing on aspects. So the quality of amusement and appreciation is strengthened. The creation and appreciation of god dramas are based on the belief in gods. It makes god dramas have more mysterious elements and artistic charm. More importantly, the writers of god dramas are in view of the level of thinking and desire of mentality of audiences. Their works aim for the audiences' desire. The above reasons explain why the god dramas are popular in long time. They are also show the artistic value of god dramas.