An Inquiry Into Tang Xianzu's Official Career And The Cause Of Death

Tang Xianzu is one of the greatest dramatists in drama histoiy. The study on Tang Xianzu has been set much stare by the academic circles. Xu Shuof~ng's Chronological Table of Tang Xianzu, the Biography of Tang Xianzu and Huang Zhigang's Chronological Biography of Tang Xianzu are good examples. But they don't reveal Tang Xianzu's life exactly and completely. On account of this, I try to do a thoroughly textual research on Tang Xianzu's official career and the cause of his death.On the basis of other scholars' study, I fly my best to do some textual research on the time of his starting official career and of leaving Xuwen and the reason why he ended his official career.I find that Tang Xianzu held his position in the 11th of Wanli (1583)when he became a .Iinshi. Based on the textual research I rechronicle these poems which are interretaled to that year. The time he left Xuwen was between March and May of the 20th of Wan Li. The reason that he was demoted in June, and then arrived at Xuwen in November and returned home in the spring of the next year, was that both of the Prime Ministers of the royal left and the situation was getting better for Tang Xianzu according to the letters between Tang Xianzu and Liu Yingqiu.The leaving office is one of the main point in Tang's life. As for the reasons why he left, Cha Jizuo's " nature version ", Zhenruns "multiple reasons", zhang Geng and Guo Hancheng's " the worse situation in which he couldn't manifest his ambition " are widely accepted. I question thenature version " according to Tang's deeds when he stayed in Nanjing. As for the" multiple reasons ", I differentiate and analyze each of the reason and hold that they can't tell the real reason why he left his position. As for" the worse situation in which he couldn't manifest his ambition" , I believe it isn't tenable to reveal the mctivation of leaving according to the fact at that time and the tradition that the First Prime Minister hold most of the power in Ming Dynasty.His attitude was confirmative at imperial examinations and official after he left Suichang. His intention was the world business when just got home and he still had the expectation of going out again. He sighed with emotion that he lost wish and intention and didn't know for whom he lived. He summarized the cause of the membership written off as foolish and vain attempt. He had been series unpleasant experiences of hoping promotion and only got disappointed before he left .On the basis of above, I hold that the reason why Tang left his position is that he wanted to eliminate the animosity between him and some high official. That is, retreat in order to advance.As for the cause of Tang Xianzu's death, Xu Shuofang hold that Tang died of syphilis. I believe that the conclusion lacks more powerful and direct arguments. We can learn that he suffered from pulmonary tuberculosis and consumptive thirst which are mentioned in his articles and poems. In fact, he was in bad health almost all the time and the death of his parents brought him great grief. Under that condition, his health deteriorated and died.