| The Ming Dynasty inherits the brilliance of zaju of the Yuan Dynasty after the classicaldrama grows into maturity in the Yuan Dynasty. The legend of Ming Dynasty which represents thehighest achievements of the Ming Dynasty drama has such considerable influence in the folk, andis closely connected with the folk culture. At the same time, the legend of Ming Dynasty has manyguan mu, enough space and complex plot. As the result, the unique structure and form make it getlarger storage space to record and use more various folk phenomena which involve all aspects ofancient social life. As the core of the folk culture, the gods worship has the extensive and deepfoundation among the people. Accordingly, it is also more important in the legend of MingDynasty, a large number of gods frequently intersperse in the scripts. The previous researchessuggest that the gods mostly exist in the real space, oral communication and historical documentssuch as temples and personal homes. In other words, the gods almost exist quiescently in thephysical or written form. By contrast, the gods in the legend of Ming Dynasty display thefollowing distinctive characters. Although the gods also exist in the drama texts in written form,the ultimate goal of drama is giving a show to the audience in the form of stage performance.Moreover, the legend of Ming Dynasty is one of the forms of artistic creation, and the writergroups usually have higher social status and education level. The above mentioned charactersmake the gods in it inevitably marked by artistic quality.This thesis is to make a comprehensive carding and study on all the scripts of the legend ofMing Dynasty, being established in the truth that script and stage performance are traced to thesame origin, selectively analyze the characteristics of gods from the perspective of folklore. At the same time, in accordance with historical documents, local chronicles and literary notes, to detectthe connection between the gods in drama and gods in folk belief, as the result, the distinguishingfeatures of gods in the legend of Ming Dynasty will be presented completely. On this basis, thisthesis is to have an insight into the creative consciousness of dramatist, the sense of survival andthe psychological demands of people, so as to reveal the internal connection between the legend ofMing Dynasty and real life, folk culture and belief concept.This thesis is divided into five parts. The first part is an introduction, describes the origin ofthe choice for this topic, as well as the research object and methods. In this part, this thesis is todefinite the main concepts, and review the academic history of this topic research. The second partis a summary about the gods in the legend of Ming Dynasty, having a foothold on the context of“text”, to classify all the gods existed in the drama, and sum up their representation features. Thethird part is about the textual representation of the worship of heaven and earth, taking the JadeEmperor and the god of earth as examples, to deeply analyze the characteristics of their own andthe close connection between them, in order to present the primitive belief of heaven and earth inthe legend of Ming Dynasty, as well as reveal the relationship between the drama and the worshipof heaven and earth. The fourth part is a research on the interaction among the utilitarian appeal,folk belief and the legend of Ming Dynasty. Taking life and death, marriage, imperial examinationas the penetration points, to make an analysis on the functions and distinguishing features of theTaishan God, Moon God, Matchmaker, Yinyun God, Wenchang, Wenquxing and Kuixing, so as topresent the internal connecting link among the utilitarian appeal, folk belief and the legend ofMing Dynasty. The last part is about the effect of the legend of Ming Dynasty on gods creation,taking the Zhenhai Dragon King and Yini King who are full of artistic imagination as two cases, to discuss their representation in drama, as well as analyze how the dramatist make artistic creationand description, and then, to reveal the creation and influence of drama on gods. |
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