Dissertation On The "Theater Literature" Of Guan Hanqing

As the dramatist writing the highest number of dramas as well as performing excellently both in writing and acting in Yuan Dynasty, Guan Hanqing is the greatest dramatist in the literature history of our country. The reason why his works has been popular until today is that it is not only successful in literature but also suitable for performing and meeting the aesthetic and psychological needs of the audience so as to get reorganization from them. Guan Hanqing was not a pure writer, but a"legendary leader, chief editor and manager of Yuan Drama troupe", a professional actor and director. Complex and rich experience in life and performance, expressed performance consciousness prompted performance to be his original motivation of his drama writing.This thesis will extend the discussion revolving the form conditions and period connotations of the changing of Guan's Yuan drama towards"theater literature". Firstly, it starts from the aspect of form conditions, analyzing the adeptness and naturalness of his drama language in the view of its features of colloquial, full of movement and musical; then gets the conclusion that he followed the realism doctrine in written techniques in accordance with his creature of live people images and reproduction of real social life from people's true feelings in daily life; finds the changing of its plots and structure indistinguishable and smooth through the sophisticated and multivariate settings of the plots, and large amount of foreshadowing. The perfect form constituted by the three factors mentioned above met the performance requirements fully and caught the audience's attention successfully. Moreover, seen from the angle of period connotation, Guan Hanqing sang the praises of hero, tried his best to describe the beauty of revenge as well as acted as a rakehell, addicted to dating with different women; praised highly towards the officials as well as denounced their crimes; advocated the women's chastity as well as encouraged them to remarry; expressed the prostitutes'eager aspiration of redeeming themselves as well as the difficulties in the way, various kinds of struggling and wandering reflected the projection of that time, shooting on audience's hearts directly. Perfect form and rich connotations contribute his Yuan drama works to"theater literature"smoothly, which were welcomed by the audience at that time and have been popular until today.