Comedy Of The Yuan Dynasty With The Commercial Relations Of The Performances Discussed

Rich comic factors are reflected in the extant scripts of zaju of the Yuan dynasty. The popularity of impromptu comic gestures and remarks of the "painted face" and clown, comic conflicts, comic scenes and happy endings, as well as the abundant utilization of comic techniques of expression and comic languages are not incidental. These phenomena are closely related to the commercialized performance of Yuan zaju. Thus, this thesis aims to explore the relationship between the comic factors of Yuan zaju and the commercialized performance of it from the following five parts.In the Introduction, the author reviews the predecessors' researches on traditional Chinese comic art, especially that of Yuan zaju. The author further reveals the unique significance of this thesis.In Part One, the author summarizes the incorporation of comic factors into Yuan zaju from five aspects, namely, the roles, the plot, the character, the technique of expression and language.In Part Two, the author analyzes the commercial characters of Yuan zaju performancebased on three commercial elements, that is, the guild of authors——the producers ofcultural products, the theatrical troupe——the performers of cultural products and theaudience——the consumers of cultural products.In Part Three, the author exhibits the relationship between comic factors and commercialized performance by raising three aspects. They are: 1) The pursuit of commercial effects has laid the foundation for the comic nature of Yuan zaju. 2) The comic factors facilitate the commercialization of Yuan zaju. 3) The comic factors and the pursuit of commercial effects are paradoxical.Part Four is a conclusion. In this part, the author reiterates the intimate relationship between the rich comic factors of Yuan zaju and the commercialized performance.