Textual Researches On Fujian Play Experts In Ming And Qing Dynasties

In Ming and Qing Dynasties, there emerged numerous play experts in Fujian area. According to the materials collected by the author, there were altogether 29 play writers, 7 play theorists,7 verse writers with works passed on and 15 plays in existence. However, owning to historical reasons, lifetime materials on these play experts are limited and scattered. Thus researchers seldom pay attention to Fujian plays. It's important to understand the writers and their times. Therefore, this paper chooses "Textual researches on Fujian play experts in Ming and Qing Dynasties" as the main topic, focusing on the lifetime, family background and works of these experts.This paper consists of three parts:play writers, play theorists and the verse writers, giving priority to the play writers. Textual researches are conducted on their names, places of origin, birth and death year, official life and family background. The author sorts up the materials on the plays, its sources, contents and characteristics, and comments on unique viewpoint of the play theorists. On the basis of the above efforts, the author concludes the general characteristics and writing features of the Fujian play experts in Ming and Qing dynasties. Brief introduction on their writings is also listed at the end of the paper.This paper pays much attention to the collecting and sorting-up of historical materials, which is quite demanding since the materials are limited and scattered. The author finds and reads local records, play writers and their friends'poetry, verse, notebooks as well as their plays, prefaces and postscripts, criticism, epigraphs and so on. By careful reading, picking out and distinguishing true materials from false ones, the author gathers up the scattered materials and also collects a lot of first-hand materials. This paper is a trial work for the author's systematical researches on "Fujian play writers in Ming and Qing dynasties". It is expected to be improved and bring more new materials to the study on Fujian plays.