Analyzing The Literature And Culture Meaning Of Dream-descriptions In Yuanzaju

Dream-descriptions are widely used by the playwrights of Yuanzaju, to reveal the mental process of the protagonists' desires to be satisfied, and to express the characters' emotions vividly. Dream-descriptions are also used to give impetus to the plot development, to symbolize or highlight the themes, and to show the characters' ambitions. Dream-descriptions make the works more literary and enjoyable by mixing reality and fantasies together.The present dissertation makes an overall review of the dream-descriptions in Yuanzaju, introduces the basic phenomena of the dream-descriptions in details, analyses the literary sources of dream-descriptions as well as their relations with the former literature works. Besides, dream-descriptions are classified according to their features. What's more, the literary significance of dream-descriptions is also explored, accompanied by the analyses of the relation between dreams and dreamers, dreams and plots.Dream-descriptions are usually used as a tool to express the authors' feelings and their states in the process of writing, to disclose the characteristics of the playwrights' time and people's religions. Based on the above-mentioned studies, the present dissertation explores the relation between dream-descriptions and the folk culture, by which the living customs of Yuan Dynasty are depicted. Idol worship, ghost worship and the culture factors, viz, Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism, which influence Yuan People's life are also explored in the present study. Last but not least, the present dissertation makes a brief analysis on the relation between dream-descriptions and the later literary works.