Study Of The Ming Dynasty Nanjing Theatrical Circles

In Ming Dynasty, Nanjing had much predominance, such as the particular political status, humanist assembling, thriftily economy status, ascendant geographical position, profound traditional accumulation. This integrative predominance provided advantages to the development of Nanjing's drama. This paper focuses on the field of Nanjing's drama in Ming Dynasty, observing the creation, theory, performance, printing and publication of the drama etc. Through regarding the four aspects as a whole and the systemic and thorough research, this paper roundly reveals the holistic status of the Nanjing's drama in Ming Dynasty.This paper is composed of five parts.In the first part, I define the conceptual meanings of Nanjing's drama in Ming Dynasty. Its main body of activity included not only the native people, but also the people that settled in Nanjing. And it amalgamated the creation, theory, performance, printing and publication of the drama. What's more, it had inimitable advantages on the benefit of its predominance, such as the particular political status, humanist assembling, thriftily economic status etc. Because of the long history, Nanjing had profound base, and the culture connotation that meditated on the past. Its beautiful geographical scene offered aesthetic connotation, affected people's character, and provided abundant material to the literator's activity. Its concurrently clime cultural character brought huge dominance to the literature's development. Nanjing had an important status in the progress of ancient literature and its drama course was of long standing too.The second part discusses the creation of the Nanjing's drama in Ming Dynasty. There had forty articles, and twenty-four of them had been preserved. Among them, the losted drama Hong Xian Jin He Ji had been replicated by Mr. Huang Shi-zhong from Japan. So I can have chance to analyze and appraise it firstly. They can be divided into two kinds, Zaju and Chuanqi. Zaju articles had five categories; the objects were society, history, love, immortal and literator. It teased the undesirable customs, expressed lofty sentiments etc. Its system had character with indefinite length and abundant singing forms and parts. Its artistic characters were true-life, comely style, true qualities, and lyricism words. Chuanqi articles had abundant connotation, and it afforded for thought. Such as Xu Lin's Xiu Ru Ji, Ma Shou-zhen's San Sheng Zhuan, Tang Xian-zu's 7i Chai Ji, Ruan Da-cheng's Yan Zi Jian, these articles took the love story as their theme, but their depicting pivots were different. Xiu Ru Ji combated feelings with ethic. In Ma Shou-zhen's and Tang Xian-zu's dramas, emotion was in an uppermost station. Ruan Da-cheng's Yan Zi Jian relied on the love story, emphasizing the flexuous and euphemistical fancy style made by mistake and coincidence. The other dramas, such as Lu Hua-fu's Shuang Feng Qi Ming Ji, Qing Xiao-sheng's Xi Feng Chun, had different characteristics in leitmotiv, system and artistic feature, having considerable values and significances.The third part analyzes the performance of Nanjing's drama in Ming Dynasty. Nanjing was one of the drama performance centers in Ming Dynasty. The primary action organizations were the aulic, the professional and the familial organizations. They were complement and bearded playing function together. Its tunes were variety. We can carve it to two periods in Wan Li. In the former period, Bei Qu was prevalent. In the latter period, Bei Qu was declining, while Chuan Xi, Yi Yang Qiang, Hai Yan Qiang and Kun Qu sprang up. Kun Qu became the prevalent tune in the development. They had different performing sites, thrifty and lofty, such as tavern, music hall, temple, cartilage etc. Anyway, Nanjing's drama performance was famous in the history of drama. Many people came to Nanjing. Their repute was extended, and the center position of Nanjing also was intensified by these people.The fourth part examines the drama theory of Nanjing in Ming Dynasty, focusing on He Liang-jun, Jiao Hong, Pan Zhi-heng. He Liang-jun took part in exam and became an official. He lionized and carried through drama activities in Nanjing. Nanjing exerted important function in improving his drama attainment. On the other hand, He Liang-jun advocated true-qualities and Bei Qu. His activities exerted important function on the Za Ju's prevalence in Nanjing. I also hackled Jiao Hong's drama actions, analyze his drama theory on creation, performance, direction, and open out his influence on Nanjing. Pan Zhi-heng's drama theory focused on performance and directors. His theories summed up the performance experience in two aspects and had direct function in the development of performance. In addition, Pan Zhi-heng sized up the performance with poetics theory. His aesthetic style theory on drama performance inducted the performance tending toward elegant style and had important significance on the improvement of the drama's aesthetic character.The fifth part investigates the drama printing and publication in Nanjing. Nanjing was the important drama printing and publication town in Ming Dynasty. There were sixteen workshops, and one hundred and sixty-seven individual dramas and four florilegiums. They added phonetic notation, interpreted languages, makers, comments and beautiful iconographies. So these printing dramas were interesting. They were easy to read. It had ascendance in quantity and quality. The reasons of its prosperity were that the print trades were thriving in Ming Dynasty, and the print dramas were convenient to read. The printing and publication had mutual connection with creation and performance. The printing and publication reflected the conceptions of Nanjing's drama in Ming Dynasty. What's more, it had literature significance, because it offered credible information to research the evolvement of the drama.