Research On Historical Materials About Chinese Traditional Opera In Qing Dynasty Jottings

There is a voluminous corpus of Qing Dynasty jottings, much of which contains records and historical materials that are related to xiqu. In the method of their compilation, these jottings not only conserve and transmit some earlier jottings practices, but are also deeply impressed with features of the rich Qing style which characterizes the era. Some of the historical materials bearing on xiqu show not only a difference with earlier jottings, but also with the type of historical materials on xiqu which is retained in other genres, such as poetry.Compared with the materials in earlier jottings, the Qing Dynasty materials are more ambitious and serious. Compared to the historical materials present in poetry, they are more factual and credible. Thus, these materials represent an important documentary value.Thus, the dissertation proceeds through five analytic aspects: the comparative analysis of Qing Dynasty and earlier jottings literature's similarities and differences; the textual and stylistic analysis of xiqu materials in Qing jottings; the vestiges of musicological documents in jottings; xiqu activities; and materials on performers.Compared to earlier jottings, the xiqu materials of Qing jottings, both in content and compilation method, have features of continuation and of difference. Abandoned features also contain transmission; while transmitted features nevertheless show evolution. While adopting the same basic orientation to compilation and methodology,they were however not confined by long-held prescriptions on research methods. Instead, they adopt the special characteristics of their own era, exhibiting a particular style in the compilation of xiqu historical materials in their jottings writings. While retaining a great deal of priceless historical and analytical xiqu materials, these materials also contributed to the development and advancement of jottings compilation methods, providing an important reference and a body of research for the consultation of later generations.The textual analysis of Qing jottings xiqu materials are the most distinct aspect of Qing jottings xiqu materials as separate from earlier works, and are also the content which is most redolent of the era. Because of the particular academic style created by the Qing regime's political and economic environment, Qing scholarly textual criticism drew the literati's academic interest,and through the compilation of jottings this permeates into their work, and can be observed the portion concerned with xiqu. This causes the Qing jottings to have an unprecedented amount of particularities regarding the deep analysis of theatre and theatrical history. Among the Qing jottings xiqu historical materials, the most obvious particularity is the large number of documents cited to substantiate their own findings, using a research methodology relying on wide citation. This is due to the Qing interest in the study of classics,historiography, textual exegesis etc. which uses exactly the same methodology, insisting that"for one character's proof, one must read ten thousand books," and that one "must consult the nine tendencies and the hundred schools" and to "read all kinds of books,without exception."All of these can amply demonstrate how the Qing jottings xiqu history materials were intimately connected to the Qing academic spirit and atmosphere. Moreover, the Qing jottings xiqu materials' records and textual analysis were not the result of a period of unbending conservatism. Instead they demonstrate small discrepancies among them, influenced and promoted by the atmosphere of their particular eras.The fragments of musicological documents in Qing jottings generally concern the correction of musical tendency, supplementary information on musicians and musical anecdotes.Through the exploration and analysis of these texts,this essay argues that most literati authors demonstrated a compilatory method marked by speculation and curiosity, closely connected with the writers' own profound psychological connection with the records. At the same time, it was influenced by the Qing tendency to "raise up the classic books, and cull evidence from everywhere" and "search widely for proof." In the authors' records, they naturally use previous writings as their method of recording, to try and determine the fact of the matter, and so their works still have basically adhere to the idea that "theory derives from historical writing.” This is a principal difference compared with earlier jottings authors, whcich also reflects how Qing literati approached such questions of proof. Even when they did not have a clear consciousness of accomplishing academic proofs, they often implemented a focus on documentary evidence by force of academic habit.Qing jottings records of xiqu activities are the broadest in scope of the xiqu historical records, and their field of relevance is also the most complicated. Historical materials are widely dispersed through works in all sorts of genres: jottings, poetry and prose,correspondence and gazetteers. Of these, jottings are the most common. Because jottings are distinguished by their narrative genre and contain a variety of work formats, the matters they described are closest to the lives of the authors, and are also the most concentrated and objective reflections of historical reality (since poetry and other metrical forms which record xiqu history are likely to distort their historical basis of the material through such techniques as embellishment and allusion). For that reason, making use of the historical materials in Qing jottings can allow us to develop a real and considered sense of xiqu activities, and create a deeper understanding of the real environment, aesthetic orientation, conceptual contradictions,taste arbitration and other deep cultural mechanisms. This can help us create a deeper understanding of the developmental trajectory of xiqu activities.All in all, Qing jottings xiqu historical materials are not only a documentary record, but are also the continuation of an earlier tradition. The influence of the academic style of the era, the literati taste for games of erudition, and the social climate create a great many external factors profoundly linked to a composite of cultural phenomena influencing xiqu documents, xiqu performance, xiqu aesthetics and other layers present in materials that are widely and complexly dispersed. These recorded snapshots are an important source of xiqu materials for today's researcher, but in order to deepen the understanding and fully mine the layers of academic information contained in Qing Dynasty jottings xiqu historical documents, one would need to begin from social, historical, cultural and intellectual questions.