On The Drama Of Xiangru And Wenjun

ShiJi established the the basic framework of the story of Sima Xiangru and Zhuo Wenjun, and the relevant records in XiJingZaJi, HuaYangGuoZhi, WenXuan, YuTai XinYong etc. further enriched the story. It widely spread through the varied means such as history books, miscellanies and encyclopedia, cifu poem, storytelling scripts and novels, dance music, etc. Consequently, just at the beginning of maturation of Chinese ancient drama, the drama of Xiangru and Wenjun had already existed, and came to emerge in large numbers with the thriving of dramatics creation.There were six pieces of drama of Xiangru and Wenjun including SiMaXiangRuTiQiaoJi etc. in southern dramas of Song and Yuan Dynasty. The script of SiMaXiangruTiQiaoJi had been lost, yet its fragments existed in some books. Investigating through theme-orientation, times-background and regional culture, it can be known that its purport was to sing the praises of love freedom and oppose the old ethical code, and criticising Xiangru for his unfailthful behavior was its significant content. There were five pieces including Guan Hanqing's ShengXianQiaoXiangRuTiZhu etc. in YuanZaJu dramas, and their scripts had all been out of existence. But through literary quotations of other YuanZaJu dramas, it was clear that they exaggerated Xiangru's ambition and life experience and their prominent feature was to express authors' own feelings and indignation.There were Zhu Quan's ZhuoWenJunSiBenXiangRu and anonymous SiMaXiangruTiQiaoJi in ZaJu dramas of the early Ming Dynasty. The former mainly expressed the thought of actively participating in reality and showed a distinctly subjective atmosphere. It reflected the author's ideological contradiction when he appreciated romantic love and promoted the traditional ethical values at the same time. The latter was written by anonymous artist of imperial court. Its feature was to publicize traditional ethics, embellished peace prospects and extolled merits and virtues of emperor, therefore it embodied the style of emperial court drama. In the middle and later period of Ming Dynasty there were Xu Chao's SiMaXiangRuGuiXiShu and Ye Xianzu's QinXinYaDiao, and they were literati-ZaJu dramas. The dramatics creation of Xiangru and Wenjun was very thriving and there were more than 10 works of in ChuanQi dramas in the later Ming Dynasty. These works displayed distinct opposition against old ethical code, strong taste of the literati and aesthetic tendency of puesuing novelty and strangeness. This was interrelared with the story implication, reflected the specific cultural and ideological trends of that times, and also exposed the aesthetic taste of creators.In the early Qing Dynasty there was Zhu Ruitu's FengShanShu. This drama greatly reorganized the story of Xiangru and Wenjun, tried to conform their elopement to ethical standard. And it put great emphasis on Xiangru's outstanding contribution, finally involved in the affair of becoming a supernatural being, and then revealed a strong myth color and an illusory atmosphere. Shu Wei's ZhuoNvDangLu and Huang XieQing's MaoLingXian were the most particular in the drama of Xiangru and Wenjun of the middle and later period of Qing Dynasty. Their outstanding features were to express own life emotion through Xiangru's experience and had the strong literati interest and charm.The theme of love, conflict between feeling and ethics, outstanding talents of Sima Xiangru and literati ideal of contribution to state, all these factors had endowed the story of Xiangru and Wenjun with rich cultural connotation and unique aesthetic charm. That was the reason why successive literati favored this story and also was the purport and focus all dramas of Xiangru and Wenjun story had expressed.