A Study On The "white Snake" Drama

It was the middle and later periods of spreading when the “White Snake” storywhich is about the love and marriage of Madam White Snake and Xu Xian enteredinto the field of Chinese opera, and the main features of which were the three kinds of“White Snake” dramas that were created in the period of Qianlong emperor and thelocal&folk operas that were broadly spread and sung in the middle and later periodsof Qing. Based on Fu Xihua’s “A collection of White Snake Stories”, A Ying’s “TheLegend of Leifeng Pagoda” and Zhao Jingshen’s “Researches on Tanci”, we intensivestudied the whole situation of “White Snake” Dramas and the relevant valuableauthors, works and tracks through the method of perusing.This article was divided into four chapters. The first three chapters analyzed the“White Snake” dramas that were created before and during Qing Dynasty. The firstchapter introduced the development and evolution of “White Snake” stories beforeQing Dynasty. The second chapter introduced the “White Snake” dramas in middleQing Dynasty and mainly analyzed three kinds of “The Legend of LeifengPagoda”that were written by Huang Tubi, Liyuan and Fang Chengpei respectively.The third chapter introduced the “White Snake” stories in the local operas of themiddle and later periods of Qing and was divided into two sections. The first sectionintroduced the “White Snake” stories in the local operas of the middle and laterperiods of Qing and the second section introduced the “White Snake” stories in thefolk operas in the periods above. The forth chapter summarized the recreating andrecomposing of “White Snake” dramas in modern times and chose two types of“White Snake” dramas to analyze. The chapter was also divided into two sections.The first section summarized the status of “White Snake” of Beijing opera andanalyzed a main script that was created by Tian Han. The second section analyzed the“White Snake” of Sichuan opera.