A Study On The Drama Works Of Dramatist Wang Zhu

In Qing Daynasty, there are a bunch number of Dramatists who came from Anhui province.They had created a lot of drama works.In the middle of Qing Dynasty, Chinese traditional Opera had becaming more and more literatization, literate playwrights were no longer focus on the citizen stratum, and the storyline and stage performance were not what they were pursuing then. They had began to pay more attention to their own spirit and needs. As a result, Chinese traditional drama had becaming a combination of poetry and drama. A large number of dramatists who came from Anhui province had emerged in the Qing Dynasty, they created certain number of drama works. Wang Zhu, whose hometown was She county, Anhui province, was a dramatist in Qianlong Dynasty.But Wang Zhu had spent large part of his lifetime in Jiangsu province. Wang Zhu, whose given name is "Shipo" and "Tielin", and who styled himeself as "Dongyuan Shanke". The first emperor of Tang Dynasty recognized his great great grandfather’s services by making him a lord in the area of Yue. Wang Zhu has created mant sorts of Chinese traditional Opera, like chuanqi, zaju and sanqu, his drama works included:Dishizhai Erzhongqu, Shangxinyoupin, Polaochou, Qimeizihe and Qiuriqianxing. Wang Zhu’s drama works played a big part in the literate play in Qianlong Dynasty. But there has no related research concern about Wang Zhu and his drama works.This paper, which is aimed to make a relatively comprehensive research on Wang Zhu and his drama works, attempts to comprehensively explain his family background, life and to emphasize on the analysis of the unique feature of his works on the basis of the predecessors’ researches.This paper is made up of four chapters.The first chapter mainly focuses on Wang Zhu’s family background, life experience. Based on what his friend and teacher had written in the prefaces of Wang Zhu’s drama works, we can find a clue of Wang’s life experience. Wang Zhu’s ancestor was recognized as the lord of Yue. Wang Zhu started to study poetry since the age of 8, his teacher was Wu Quan.The he started to writing his own poem in 15, he was keen on poetry. Wang Jun, Wang Zhu’s father, who was a famous gentleman in Yuanpu, had published a book named Huanxin Wenji. Wang Jun had failed so many times in imperial examinations, at last he bought himself a less important official position. Wang Jun made friends with many famous gentlemen, just for the sate of the benefit of his children. So Wang Zhu studied after with many famous teachers. Wang Zhu had been influenced by these gentlemen since he was little, so he aimed to be succesed in imperial examination. His teachers thought very high of Wang Zhu’s talent. At the year of 1765, Wang Zhu was 20 years old, he failed in his first examination, and since then, Wang Zhu seemed had no lucky in all his examinations. In this period, Wang Zhu created all his drama works. After that, Wang Zhu’s father passed away. Wang Zhu finally made it in imperial examinations when he was 40, the year of 1783, so Wang Zhu might born during the year of 1740 and 1743. This chapter also introduce Wang Zhu’s ancestor Wang Hua.The second chapter puts emphasizes on the ideological contents and artistic features of Wang Zhu’s works Dishizhai Erzhongqu.Love Dream and Poem on the Circular Fan both are love story happened between talented young men and great beauties. They passed through so many difficulties in order to be together with each other. Zhou Hua and Pang Ying both are talent and handsome, and more important is they both have kind friends, who can save their life and love during their difficult period. Their life experience was what Wang Zhu’s dream. This chapter also discussed the function of the character of kind friends and the prototype of Poem on the Circular Fan.The third chapter mainly researches artistic feature of the rest of Wang Zhu’s drama works, including Shangxinyoupin, Polaochou, Qimeizihe and Qiuriqianxing. He recognized Qu Yuan, Tao Yuanming, Su shi as his spiritual leaders. He compare them with plum, orchid, bamboo and chrysanthemum, to express the upset in his heart.In Polaochou, Wang Zhu makes a self-deprecation on intellectual class. This chapter also discuss the certain time of Wang Zhu’s creation.