A Study Of Ming Zaju Anthologies From The Perspectives Of Script And Stage Performance

My research puts emphasis on the circulation-related matters of Ming zaju. The textual and theatrical appearance arising from zaju scripts are two shapes of zaju to be interpreted in this study. As zaju anthologies carry various textual features, by looking into the details of different zaju anthologies, the changes and development in terms of zaju textual features and its theatrical adaptation to textual scripts would be recorded. What is more, the interpretation of textual scripts from various zaju anthologies influenced much of the theatrical shape of zaju to be reformed, and vice versa. Thus the adaptation of texts and stage performance in different phases of Ming zaju development indicated that zaju had recorded a good living condition, circulation as well as spreading its influence among the public. The thesis analyses how textual scripts of zaju and zaju stage performance interacted with each other, to what extent textual anthologies serve as evidence that zaju had undergone transformation in terms of scripts features and theatrical performance, etc.The thesis consists of three parts. First part will be the introduction, followed by the main body, and then concludes.The first chapter will be a general survey on textual condition of zaju carried out to see how zaju text and scripts were recorded and excerpted in various zaju anthologies. The fact that zaju play which was recorded and excerpted in various forms in collective anthologies demonstrates a high level of spreading and circulating power, however, present scholarship mainly focuses on one-plot zaju which acted as a whole play, less attention had been paid to other forms of zaju performance. This chapter also deals with one-plot and multi-plots of zaju works which were the methods used to record and excerpt zaju text in anthologies. It demonstrated how zaju practiced on theatrical stage of performance.The second chapter focuses on two functional uses of zaju practice by analyzing two types of zaju anthologies. With the interpretation of zaju scripts, zaju can be regarded as a show to fulfill entertaining function on specific occasions like banquet performance or public theatre. While another type of zaju anthologies only excerpted the names of the tunes and the lyrics of the songs in which qu, or songs were composed. This type of text mainly serves as vocal scripts of singing, which means to fulfill the singing function. Though both qu (songs) singing and story telling form a comprehensive landscape of zaju circulation, they have been a delicate and sophisticated issue, and the most important matter is that, these two functional uses not only show great variety of text features in zaju anthologies, but also explain how zaju spreads and circulates in real theatrical world.Last part, the conclusion, stresses that the study of zaju anthologies in terms of story acting and vocal singing performed on theatrical stage or banquet occasions is of significance. Second, it raises questions concerning the studies of Ming zaju which needs further investigation.