Studies On The Rhyming In Sixty Songs

Phonetics of Ming Dynasty has a high place in Chinese Phonetics, especially theModern Chinese Phonetics History. The study of Ming's phonetics is of vital significancein aspects of investigating the evolution from ancient to modern phonetics, studying therelationship between ancient and modern phonetics, as well as analyzing the origin ofModern Standard Chinese. Large amounts of materials are available for the study ofMing's phonetics, for example, Hongwu Zhengyun with its interrelated books, ZhongyuanYinyun with its interrelated books, rhyme notes, transliterations and other materialsscattered in different books, also record the phonetics of that time. Compared with thesematerials, the rhyme of Southern Drama is of unique values:1. It starts with Ming's spokenlanguage, which vividly reflects its actual situation;2. It is a perfect combination ofdifferent kinds of rhymes, the mixed use of rhymes even reflects the changes of Ming'srhymes;3. The long time-span, as well as the large amount of rhyme groups, is totallyenough to reveal the whole picture of Ming's Rhyme System.With over thirty to fifty scenes of each, Southern Drama is too long for us to focus onthe whole Ming's Drama. For one thing, our time and energy are limited, for another, ourstudy will be hard to further with numerous subjects. After taking a comprehensiveconsideration of the influence Southern Drama's scripts have on that time and thepossibility of being popularized and assimilated by Kunqu, we choose Jigu Library's60Drama as our study subject at last.Taking the60Drama published by Chinese Publishing House in1958as a mastercopy, we have exhaustively analyzed its recorded1043qupai tunes and16815RhymeGroups. Conclusions are as follows:1. Rhyme of60Drama can be divided into19parts, which is the same as ZhongyuanYinyun, the main reference book of Southern Drama. There are9parts of Yinsheng, whichare Qiwei, Zhisi, Yumu, Jiama, Xiaohao, Gege, Youhou, Jielai and Chezhe, and10parts ofYangsheng which are Xiantian, Hanshan, Lianqian, Jianxian, Huanhuan, Qinxun, Zhenwen,Jiangyang, Gengqing and Dongzhong.According to the rhyme of60Drama, we can easily know that the main features ofSouthern Drama's rhyme are a mixture use of Zhisi, Qiwei and Yumu; Gege and Jiama;Qiwei and Jielai; Gengqing, Zhenwen and Qinxun as well as Xiantia, Lianqian, Hanshan, Huanhuan and Jianxian. Rhymes ended with [-m] have not lost their distinctive features, sothey should be put apart; though closely related with Yinsheng Rhymes, the entering toneshould also be an independent part.The rhyme of60Drama is basically in accordance with the19parts, which reflectsthe fact that composers of Ming Dynasty tend to use rhyme with common language. Asmost of Southern Drama's composers are southerners, a mixture use of Qiwei and Yumu,Zhenwen and Gengqing, and some others reflect the phenomenon that they are all greatlyinfluenced by their own dialects. While other composers, who do not live in Wu DialectArea, are less likely to use such kind of rhyme, due to a strong influence of northernlanguages. Their rhyme is rather close to the common language of that time.From a diachronic point of view, the drama rhymes of Ming Dynasty have littlechanges for over200years. In the development of Southern Drama, they are alwaysinfluenced by the thought of "elegance and uprightness", the pursuit of drama inaccordance with metrical verses and artistry of literature have been two main tendenciesthroughout the whole developing process of Southern Drama.Based on former studies, the dissertation will be focus on the following innovationalachievements and contributions that have been made:1. We have improved methods of researching and proposed the judging principle ofdrama. The combination of evidences from both inside and outside, but theinside-dominated criterion can maximize works' individuality, which enables us to provideour study results in a more authentic way.2. We have adopted computer-assisted and mathematical statistics methods, whichavoids our conclusions from being one-sided due to different subjective understandings.3. We have made exhaustive investigation into60Drama and narrow it down to19parts. With the analysis of various data, we have proved that the rhyme in Southern Dramais in accordance with that in Zhongyuan Yinyun.4. We have researched the changes of Ming's drama rhymes from a diachronicperspective, analyzed many factors influencing the rhyme of Southern Drama.5. We have used the rhyme of Southern Drama as a breakthrough point, discussed thereference books of its rhyme and the situation of Ming's common language it reflects.