Zheng Yu Opera Study

The drama creation by the emigrant authors of Late Ming and Early Qing dynasties is an integral part of the drama works. In the turbulent age, the emigrant authors after experiencing a political storm, had a strong political sense and social responsibility. Based on the socially-conservative sorrowness and the psychological identity for their old nation, their works have been in unique style. This paper has selected writer ZhengYu in the early Qing dynasty as the research object, because his poems, only a few left, but generally have implied his turbulent life; what's more, his drama works are mainly to describe the current events, expressing the life and character of the ancients. These brief and bold works are worthy of research to some certain.This paper is divided into three chapters of the introduction, main text and conclusion.The introduction has reviewed related resources and research results to clarify the research value and significance. Combined with his poetry works, the paper has further explored his thought tendency and characteristics of works. The paper is divided into three chapters.The first chapter has carried on the textual research into ZhengYu's family, life and writings. On the basis of systematical research, this paper has attempted to solve the issues of omissions, vagueness, and errors about ZhengYu's literary name,identity, works and others, mainly by comprehensive examination of poems,genealogy, local Chronicles and so on. ZhengYu's identity is the main problem in this chapter, because the current academic research on it has certain errors and omissions,so figuring out his identity is the necessary precondition of the research on his works.Chapter two focuses on the thoughts of Zheng Yu's Zaju. Centering on his four Zaju-"Yingzhongsixue". this paper, combining the micro theme of his plays and the macro background of the times, has analyzed the time of creation, the subject matters and the thematic thoughts. The voices of the specific historical time have been revealed in Zheng's works after the analysis of similarities and differences of each play's subjects and the generalization of the tendency in his literary creation by the use of the method of mutual examination of literature and history, as well as the biographical study of the play,wright.The dramas of Zheng Yu are committed to displaying the temperaments and political encounters of ancient scholars. The uniqueness of his works lies in that his plays, often than not, portrays intellects with distinctive personalities and great talents,with the help of the life experience of the subjects, he often overturns the historical cases and makes up his personal regrets, and his plays always end up with seclusion and freedom.The third chapter is about the study of the artistic features of Zheng's Zaju. First of all, the stylistic features of Southern dramas in Zheng's works have been illustrated.Examining the chronological development of Zaju, it is found that Zaju was firstly booming in the early period of Qing Dynasty,playwrights of short dramas have been quite productive and influential owning to the great quality of their works. And their achievements mainly focus on the innovation in structures, design and the style of drama music. This chapter concentrates on the characteristics of Zheng's musical style.With the help of the knowledge of phonology and music score of opera, this chapter has analyzed his innovation in style as well as its limits. Hopefully, through an objective evaluation of Zheng's work,we can find a proper place in the history of drama for him.Conclusion part has explored the mentality of the loyalists of the former dynasty,which is especially reflected in the drama works of Zheng Yu.