The Drama "freehand" Annotation To Interpretations

The term "xieyi" has long been applied in the theory of traditional Chinese visual arts and has become one of the most significant categories in classical Chinese aesthetics. But its application to the area of theatre happened in the early 20th century, in comparative view of the western theory of theatre. After that, as a keyword, probably the most important term to characterize traditional Chinese theatre or a new national drama still in experiment, "xieyi" has a deep and lasting influence upon our modern theatre, both theory and practice. But for many historical and realistic reasons, there has been a vague and casual situation in the use of the word "xieyi".My thesis is trying to make clear the historical process of how "xieyi" first came into the area of theatre, and how it was used in the "ideographic theatre" of Huang Zuolin and further discussions, then on that ground I will discuss some problems in the criticism of theatre.