Qu writing in literati communities: Rediscovering sanqu songs and drama in sixteenth-century North China

This dissertation studies the production, transmission, and reception of songs and drama in literati communities in sixteenth-century North China, a literary world which remains largely unknown to us.; I suggest that in sixteenth-century North China, the writing of qu, a collective term for songs (sanqu) and drama (xiqu), was widely practiced and popular among specific groups of literati writers in local regions, mainly centered on retired or dismissed officials after their estrangement from officialdom. I adopt a new approach in studying these writers not as solitary individuals, but as members of larger communities who collectively participated in songs and drama. This allows us to see how songs and drama were produced, transmitted, and "used" among these writers, things less evident when we focus only on individuals.; Chapter One traces the paths into qu writing of three major qu writers, Wang Jiusi, Kang Hai, and Li Kaixian, whom I take as signposts in revealing the world of songs and drama around them.; The second and third chapters demonstrate that two successive " qu communities" were formed around these three writers in Shaanxi and Shandong respectively. I use the term "qu community" to designate a group of literati writers based on their collective participation in an association with one another through writing, reading, printing, commenting on, and performing songs and drama. Chapter Two analyzes the massive production of social sanqu such as matching songs and birthday songs in the Shaanxi community. Chapter Three illustrates how the social networks of the writers enabled the circulation of sanqu to reach a wider community of readers beyond the local level in Shandong.; In these two qu communities, drama played a less significant role than sanqu, and was practiced primarily by the major writers. Chapter Four demonstrates how some dramatic works and songs shared similar themes and subjects, and how the fictional dramatic form allowed the writers in these communities to create a more ideal path to retirement. I also show how writings of these northern writers were often presented to us through the lens of the southern critics.