Ming And Qing Dynasties Garden Drama Studies

In order to understand the existence and forms of traditional Chinese drama, it is not only necessary to explore the topic of drama itself, but also necessary to gain understanding about the people and their culture.This paper aims to analyze the garden background dramas from the mid Ming Dynasty to the Mid Qing Dynasty in the Jiang Nan region, which refers to the area around the Yangtze River Delta. Specifically, this paper will explore the origin, appearance, cultural spirit, and mainstream form of Garden Dramas.The first section focuses on the origin of Jiang Nan Garden Drama in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. This part unveils the cultural tradition and the chronological causes of its formation. It focuses on the beginnings of the garden culture system from the garden music of the Wei and Jin Dynasty. The garden culture refers to the music which as been a part of artistic garden life which people gain spiritual benefits through the admiration of nature. As this drama form matured, the Garden drama accordingly became a form of amusement. At the same time, with the change of society of the late Ming Dynasty, gardens and dramas both developed greatly, which has pared the way for the combination of the two. As a result,"Garden Drama"became common practice, particularly in Jiang Nan, where people are wealthier and intelligentsia are willing to stay.The purpose of the second part is to get an insightful understanding of the different types of situation and mood of the intelligentsia plunging to the garden drama. This part mainly utilizes the political environment in the Ming and the early Qing Dynasty to explain why those intelligentsia finally choose garden instead of yamun and prefer arts to politics. These different types include those Jiang Nan officers who resigned and retired from their positions for a more peaceful and quieter life, those talented intelligentsia who failed in exams to serve and reversed to pursue arts and those Jiang Nan intelligentsia who lingered over the past time of the Ming Dynasty after the new empire took over the reign. During the period from the early Qing Dynasty to the mid Qing Dynasty, the garden drama was still popular although its core scheme changed with time went by. As the intelligentsia culture typical of unrestrained freedom faded away, the influence of garden drama also gradually declined.The third part aims at the concrete drama scenes which fall into three scales. They are the routine play for family amusement, the small scaled drama organized for socialization within intelligentsia, and the large-scaled dramas hold in hall for sociality, etiquette and ostentation. These three scales are connected with the three layers of intelligentsia'life at that time, in which refinement and extravagance are both embodied, but in different degrees due to the different spaces and styles. However, generally, the garden drama is the combination of natural affection withexquisite arts, which also reflects the geological features of Jiang Nan.The fourth part tries to analyze the garden image of drama. Such classic scripts as"Peony Pavilion"chosen in this part have created lively garden images and well played in the Ming and the Qing Dynasty gardens for intelligentsia at that time. From"Peony Pavilion"to"Peach Blossom Fan", these gardens in scripts have undergone a process from construction to destruction in which we can read how the rise and fall of gardens work on the heart of intelligentsia. And by comparing the scenes in the garden plays as well as in the drama gardens, the cultural spirit embodied in garden drama can also been reflected on.