Wu Zhensheng And His Study Of Opera

Based on the predecessors’ researches ,this essay mainly talks about the important dramatist Wu Zhensheng who lives in the flourishing period of Qing Dynasty during the rein of Emperor Kangxi, Yongzheng and Qianlong. It gives a detailed record of Wu’s history such as family background, life experiences, making congenial friends and poetry creation activities, which is a great support to the study of his dramatic composing . More importantly, it puts emphasis on the systematical study of his drama set Thirteen kinds of Jade Hook (<玉勾十三种 >)which is based on historical biographies and composed in the way of article writing with a great tendency of truth pursuit featured in Wu’s works.There are totally three chapters in this essay. The first one investigates Wu’ family background, life experiences, making congenial friends and productive works. With the discriminating analysis of three persons with the same name of Wu Zhensheng, it not only corrects the mistakes made by predecessors quoting wrong materials, but also facilitates the descendants to distinguish the differences in their future study. Wu was born in a literary family and got good education with his father and grandfather reading many books. This essay both studies his family background and explores the potential effect of his family tradition on his poetry creation. Due to his five failures in the imperial examinations, most of his scholar friends are from the lower class,which leads to many of his works concerning social problems, reflecting the extensiveness of his association with the society.Chapter two studies Wu’s dramatic t theory. By the theory study in The analysis Li Ge Criticized the Old Play(<笠阁批评旧戏目>) and The Drill - TaiPing YueFu(<太平乐府·演习凡例>) as well as the discussion on the relationship between Music Conservatory and drama, it pursues the full reveal of Wu’s drama creation and performance theory.Starting with his performance practice and script writing, Wu puts forward many creative opinions which are a great contribution to the field of drama. He composes Thirteen Part("十三本")norms aimed at stage performance in The Drill -TaiPing YueFu(<演习/凡例>).However,he doesn’t give a significant explanation on the theoretical level, thus making no great difference on the theory of drama performance.Chapter three is about the research of The Drill - TaiPing YueFu(<平乐府>),mainly examining the editions and the time of drama, taking a further study on the truth, purport, creating ideology and artistic characteristics of his drama. The unusual exhibition of relationship with different ethnics also reflects the author’s thoughts on the ruling of alien Qing Dynasty as well as his ruthless critique on that current society. Taking the advocation of secular sentiments such as lust as starting point, Wu spreads the criticism on the traditional ethical code.