Suzhou Storytelling "the West Chamber" Literature Origin

The purpose of this dissertation is to investigate the literary sources of the Suzhou tanci performance script of Xixiangji (Story of the West Chamber), and to demonstrate its literary value. My research traces the tanci Xixiangji to the "Story of Yingying," a chuanqi story of the Tang Dynasty (609-960), examines the evolution of the story through the ages, and studies the inner connections between various texts. Among the texts in question, Li Rihua's Southern Xixiang of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) and Jin Shengtan's The Sixth Book of Talented Writers: Xixiangji in the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) had the greatest impact on the tanci Xixiangji. I will also compare these texts and illustrate my ideas with specific examples.This dissertation has two major findings:1. In terms of Xixiang ji studies, this research discovers that the tanci script of Xixiang ji is a new but crucial text. My study establishes essential links between Southern Xixiang, Jin Shengtan's comments on Xixiangji, and the tanci Xixiangji. The comments on Xixiangji casually jotted down by Jin Shengtan, as my research shows, were transformed from theory into the actual performance script.2. With regard to the tanci, this dissertation asserts the literary value of its script, reveals the guiding role of Jin Shengtan's comments on the narrative techniques of the tanci, and proves that the performance script of tanci Xixiang ji has incorporated aesthetic and literary characteristic from various earlier versions of Xixiang ji. This dissertation is an interdisciplinary study of literature and performing art.The research of this dissertation confirms the outstanding literary value of the Suzhou tanci Xixiangji, and reveals it to be an extraordinarily rich text for further research in a variety of artistic and literary disciplines.