Theory On The History Of Sanqu In Ming Dynasty

Ming Dynasty is not only an important stage in the history of Sanqu,but also an important link in the process of canonization of Sanqu literature.It is a significant task for the current study of Sanqu to explore the uniqueness of Sanqu in the Ming Dynasty and comprehensively summarize the achievements of Sanqu in the Ming Dynasty.Combing the development process of Sanqu in the Ming Dynasty,investigating the relationship between Sanqu and the social history of the Ming Dynasty,analyzing the essence of important literary phenomena and exploring the evolution of the concept of Sanqu in the Ming Dynasty are important topics in the field of Sanqu.Taking the development and evolution of Sanqu in the Ming Dynasty as the overall context,this thesis analyzes and summarizes the reasons for the formation of Sanqu style in each stage and the main purpose of Qu theories’ construction.Explore the relationship and influence among the social environment,writers’ creation and Qu theory in each stage.Taking history as the outline,theory as the body,and the combination of history,this thesis comprehensively and systematically presents the whole picture of the development of Sanqu in the Ming Dynasty.The development of Sanqu in Ming Dynasty can be divided into three stages.Hongwu to Chenghua(1368-1487)is the first stage.The writer’s creation still takes the Northern Sanqu as the main body,and the Southern Sanqu also began to enter the literati’s vision.The writers represented by Liu Dui and Zhu Youdun began to create the Southern Sanqu with the signature of their own names.During this period,the imperial policy paid attention to practical results,the ideological control was strict,hence few scholars participated in the creation of Sanqu,and the their freedom of creation was also limited.In the shifting of Yuan and Ming dynasty,the social hierarchical order was reconstructed,and the literati returned to the scholar bureaucrat class,which also changed their mentality.Influenced by the social atmosphere and cultural environment,the writers represented by Tang Shi,Jia Zhongming and Zhu Youdun consciously responded to the official cultural propositions of "guiding respect" and "ask for peace",and the creation of Sanqu showed obvious utilitarianism.In addition to the traditional theme of Sanqu,the literati mostly made new works to promote enlightenment and praise the holy beauty,lacking the individual expression of thoughts and emotions.The allegorical spirit and natural and unrestrained temperament of Sanqu gradually lost,showing an empty,boring,serious and rigid appearance.Qu scholars represented by Zhu Quan responded to the official "Ya Zheng" cultural proposition,connected Sanqu with the Confucian ritual and music tradition,emphasized its social value,and expressed their pursuit of integrating Sanqu into the orthodox literary sequence.At the end of Chenghua,the ideological control of the imperial court gradually loosened,and the creation of Sanqu returned to the track of "non utilitarian".In the works of Chen duo and Wang pan,there are new contents that directly describe people’s life and reflect the writer’s true heart,and Sanqu literature has gradually entered a new stage of development.Hongzhi to Jiajing(1488-1566)is the second stage.Changes have taken place in the ideological field,the retro reform movement has been launched in the field of traditional literature,and popular literature is booming.The number of Sanqu writers increased rapidly,the northern Sanqu revived,and the southern Sanqu also flourished rapidly.Wang Jiusi,Kang Hai,Li Kaixian,Feng Weimin,Yang Shen and other writers used Sanqu to vent their dissatisfaction with the political situation and pour out their frustration in life,and expressed their aspirations with Qu,showing their obvious feelings of scholar bureaucrats.Jin Luan and Jiangnan Sanqu writers consciously cater to the aesthetic purport of the emerging civil class,and their creation shows the characteristics of vulgarization and entertainment.Due to the rise of the civil class and the change of social atmosphere from simplicity to luxury,the fragrant,soft and popular southern Sanqu has become popular rapidly,shaking the traditional mainstream position of northern Sanqu,and the dispute over the orthodoxy of Central Southern and Northern Sanqu has become increasingly fierce.The construction process of Southern Quxue was accelerated,Wei Liangfu’s reform of "Kun tune" was successful,Jiang Xiao compiled the old Nan Jiu Gong spectrum,and the music and literary standards of Southern Sanqu were improved.The dispute between the northern and southern Sanqu reflects the transformation of social thought and culture in the middle of the Ming Dynasty.It is not only a dispute between classics and popularity,techniques and styles,but also a dispute over the right of cultural discourse.The anthology appeared at this stage.The anthology still takes the Northern Sanqu as the main body,and the number of Southern Sanqu is also growing,indicating that the mainstream concept of the Qu’s world is still advocating the north,and the Southern Sanqu is becoming more and more popular.These selections realized the classicalization of the artistic form of Qu style by means of Co-selection of Sanqu and drama,Southern Sanqu and Northern Sanqu.The third stage is from Longqing to Chongzhen(1567-1644).The inherent contradictions in society have intensified,the commercial economy is unprecedentedly prosperous,industrial and commercial towns are booming,the civil class is growing,and the social customs have changed from advocating frugality to pursuing luxury.Social thought was further emancipated,mind learning flourished,and the development of popular literature reached a peak.Most of the seats in the cultural and political circles were occupied by scholars in the south of the Yangtze River,and the cultural center moved south.The pattern of "prosperity in the South and decline in the north" of Sanqu in the Ming Dynasty was finalized in the early Wanli period and continued to the end of the Ming Dynasty.The creation standard of Southern Sanqu is becoming more and more rigorous,the theories of the Northern Sanqu is completely established,and the literati style of Southern Sanqu is completed.The mainstream writers in the filed represented by Liang Chenyu,Shen Jing,Wang Jide and Shi Shaoxin excessively pursue the elegance and refinement of language,and the content of their works becomes more and more boring and empty.Sanqu’s creation skills are becoming more and more exquisite,while its style continues to sink.It has become a tool for scholars to amuse themselves and show off their skills.The works of writers such as Xue lundao and Li Yingce expressing the feelings of family and country have not attracted widespread attention.Sanqu literature declined in the atmosphere of fragrance and softness.Writers represented by Feng Menglong and Zhu Zaiyu began to draw nutrients from the folk and turned to write "Xiaoqu",but failed to reverse the decline.At this stage,the Southern Sanqu was also selected.The selectors made every effort to forge the classicalization of Ming and Southern Sanqu.The distinction between Sanqu and drama was more obvious,emphasizing "Dictionary" and "literary rhythm" of Sanqu,which promoted the literary classicalization process of Sanqu to a certain extent.At this stage,the creation of Northern and Southern Sanqu shows a desk tendency,especially the degree of Northern Sanqu.In the creation of Sanqu,the dispute between "Dictionary" and "literary rhythm" is becoming more and more popular.Qu experts represented by Shen Jing,Tang Xianzu and Wang Jide began to focus on the relationship between "Voice" and "Diction",which accelerated the process of"regularization" of Sanqu.The concept of "Sound oriented" Quxue of the Ming people wavered,and Sanqu gradually changed from "Lyric" to "Literature".After the Ming Dynasty,it finally broke away from sound singing and became a kind of "Apprentice poetry".Ming people have made important contributions to the creation of Sanqu and the construction of Quxue.In terms of creation,on the basis of the Yuan people,the Ming people broadened the theme and content of Sanqu creation,enriched the literary interest and connotation of Sanqu,and their creative skills were more exquisite than those of the Yuan people.In terms of Quxue theory,the Ming people strengthened the stylistic independence of Sanqu,promoted the canonization process of Sanqu literature,established Southern Quxue more perfectly,and basically completed the humanization of Southern Qu.Sanqu in the Ming Dynasty also had a direct impact on the formation of the style of Sanqu in the Qing Dynasty.The elegant Sanqu in the late Ming Dynasty and the Xiaoqu written by scholars inspired the two veins of elegance and vulgarity of Sanqu in the Qing Dynasty.The development and evolution of Sanqu in the Ming Dynasty not only reflects the changes of literati’s situation and mentality in various stages of the Ming Dynasty,but also reflects the evolution of social ideas,customs and trends.Therefore,exploring Sanqu in the Ming Dynasty is not only helpful for us to deeply understand the development history of Sanqu literature,but also of great significance to the study of the history of Chinese ancient literature and the social history of the Ming Dynasty.