A Study On Li Rihua 's Revision Of "South West Chamber"

Romance of West Chamber by Wang Shifu is always the most outstanding classic amongthe works of same theme because of its beautiful words and superb artistic expression.As awork of Northern Qu，however, in the process of the decline of Northern Qu and thethriving of Southern Qu, it gradually fade out on the stage due to its system being notsuitable for Southern drama. A number of later authors had carried out dozens of versionsof adaptation to Romance of West Chamber, in which the South West Chamber by Li Rihuahad the most far-reaching influence, and even completely replaced the position of Romanceof West Chamber on the stage. But critics have always been mixed for this version ofadaptation. In this paper, first of all, author try to research the background of the SouthWest Chamber from the perspective of the changes of the times and the change of socialaesthetic style, to explore the necessity of changing the Romance of West Chamber fromnorthern system to southern system. Second, starting from the law of development ofliterature and art itself, by studying the adaptation method of South West Chamber, authortry to evaluate the gain and loss of the South West Chamber. Finally, through thecomparison between the the South West Chamber by Li Rihua and the South West Chamberby Lu Cai of the same time, author try to research why the South West Chamber by LiRihua was finally chosen as the the standard version on stage.