"whorehouse" Study

Collection of whorehouse drafted by TingZhi Xia, dramatist of Yuan Dynasty, is a monograph which narrated the stories about the performance and the life of actresses in Yuan Dynasty. With specific, systematic and matured thoughts on drama, TingZhi Xia, in the queasy society of the end of Yuan Dynasty, hastened to write the bookmaking Collection of whorehouse, which had important dramatic value, either to pursue the life in former days or to rest his belief and imply his emotion. Collection of whorehouse, together with Collection of recording ghosts, is praised as two pieces of bright jade in the drama history of Yuan Dynasty. It is obvious that the status and the meaning of Collection of whorehouse in the Chinese drama history can not be neglected.Collection of whorehouse was the first monograph recording the stories of actresses in Chinese drama history. It not only reflected the history accomplishment and the development of the art of the performances in Yuan Dynasty, but provided the life, intercourse and marriage of one hundred and twenty-one actresses of Yuan Dynasty. The monograph had important value for us to know more about the development of the drama of Yuan Dynasty, the performance achievements and social class of actresses, the characters of Chinese drama performances, the aesthetic taste of the nation and so on.The former investigators briefly mentioned in their study about Collection of whorehouse, or analyzed it in a certain depth by combining with the text. But all these studies focused on the various specific areas of Collection of whorehouse. This essay will make the most of the recorded material to make an in-depth and detailed study in order to dish up the value of Collection of whorehouse. The essay will, through theoretical analytic method, comprehensively apply the knowledge of history, ancient civilization, drama, aesthetics analysis and so on to concretely analyze Tingzhi Xia's thoughts on drama, the life of actresses of Yuan Dynasty and their accomplishments and the dramatic cultural value of Collection of whorehouse, and try hard to make the study on this issue flourish both in extent and depth.