The Study On The Comic Art Of Yuan And Qing Drama

Drama is a kind of eternal art with creations, and its forms vary according to different aesthetic tastes. However, the nature of"presenting stories with songs and dances"did not change through time, and in every period of history, there would be dramas with the most attractive plots,the air of comic has become a focus to most of dramatists. The comic nature of dramas not only belongs to comedies, but also is an essential factor of it. Forms of comedy is diversified, with some focusing on the wit and humor of the personages, some laying particular emphasis on the coincidence and turns of the plot, and others shifting their focus to wit and variety of language uses.This thesis tries to rearrange and classify the literature on dramas and to summarize the regularity of drama composition based on the following three perspectives: the personage of the comedy, the plot of the comedy, and the language of the comedy. Generally speaking, the art of comedy is easy to understand, but some dramatists often add some unfamiliar or uncommon factors to it in order to make it more attractive to the audience in the relative familiar circumstances, or they may put some interesting acting skills to it based on the actual performance. Although those skills are not so related to the play itself, they can often enliven the atmosphere of the stage and stimulate the audience's interest, thus becoming an essential component of comedy. On one hand, this thesis sets out to classify the study of drama, while on the other, it puts the emphasis on the relation of those three perspectives in order to restore the original form of drama on the whole manner.Although drama in Ming and Qing varies, it is kind of a culture-transmission, and this has become a unique angle of view in this thesis. Based on the similarities and differences of comedies in the two Dynasties, this thesis makes a try to explore the inner properties of comedy and to broaden its extension so as to lead the study of comedy into a more systematic and distinct way.