Xu Wei Opera Aesthetic Thought

As a talented artist who was deeply influenced by Wang Yangming's school of mind, Xu Wei made a pioneering contribution in the fields such as arts and opera theory and creation, etc. He was the first figure who started the trend of turning in Chinese art and opera history."The Natural Theory"on drama aesthetics which he enriched and developed played an extremely important role in the nourishment of opera creation and theory research of Ming and Qing dynasties.On the basis of absorbing and drawing upon the fruits of required research results, this thesis tries to start the study from the era of economic, political and cultural background and personal fortune, then make a full exploration to the philosophical origins, constructions and limitations of drama aesthetic, the theme to opera creation and the impact and contribution to the posterity. This thesis is divided into three parts. Chapter One explores the late Ming setting, personal experience and the origin of philosophy of Xu Wei, restoring Xu Wei to a more objective, true and historic background. Chapter Two analyses the composition of Xu Wei's drama aesthetic from the development of opera sources and the natural theory. The development of opera sources mainly introduced the following opinions of Xu Wei. On the basis of his absolute research of Southern Drama's origin, development and evolution, he claimed that the traditional opera is from civil society and must pay attention to the role which social policy, artistic forging and foundry as well as natural geographical environment played in the development of opera, which serve as the theoretical basis of Xu Wei's Drama Aesthetics. The Natural Theory is the core of Xu Wei's Drama Aesthetics as well as the main topic of this thesis. This thesis makes a full analysis of Xu Wei's multi-level constructions of Drama Aesthetics from four natural aspects: the truth, the love, the play text and the lyrics, which took the truth, love as substance, the popular, natural language and flexible, free temperament as the character of external form. Chapter Three makes a deep analysis to the theme of Xu Wei's masterpiece The Voice of the Ape, collates and summarizes the style and tradition of Drama Aesthetics, which he initiated in the expression of feeling. Considering the practice of traditional opera creation as text, this chapter takes a further step to confirm his advanced Drama Aesthetics and his deep impact to the subsequent opera community.