Research On Zhu Youdun’s Singing-Dangcing Drama

Zhu Youdun is the oldest son of Zhu Shu, who is the fifth son of Ming emperor Zhu Yuanzhang. He was born in Fengyang, Anhui province in the year1379, died in Kaifeng, Henan province in the year1439, honorific as King of Xian. He is a. prominent and talented dramatist. The reason why I am interesting in Zhu’s operas is that his operas usually full of great lyrics, ornate stages, various props and culture styles. Not only in Ming period, this kind of opera is rarely to be seen even in modern time.Because of most of Zhu’s operas were usually highlight stage effects, concept analysis method is adopted by me to pick out some operas, which titled as’Zhu Youdun’s Singing-Dancing Drama’. So, including6chapters, this article is about the research on Zhu Youdun’s Singing-Dancing Drama.Chapter one is the introduction the background of Zhu Youdun’s Singing-Dancing Drama. In this article I will first explain the purpose and significance of my research. Then study the theories and materials about Zhu’s operas, in order to comprehend existing researches.Chapter two is the overview of Zhu Youdun’s Singing-Dancing Drama. In this chapter, what is’Zhu Youdun’s Singing-Dancing Drama’ and why I propose this concept will be answered. Then historical studies will be made to illustrate Singing-Dancing Drama was not thriving more early before Ming, for instance, during Sui and Tang period, some singing and dancing shows were popular in folk. As a peak of this popular trend, Ming have its own characteristics.Besides, I will also summarize the artistic features of Zhu’s operas, distinct18Singing-Dancing Dramas from Zhu’s all31operas. Then I briefly explain the main reason why the other13operas are not belong to’Singing-Dancing Drama’is that they were focus on the plot, not stage effects.Chapter three will be titled as ’Zhu Youdun’s Singing-Dancing Drama’. In this chapter, I will analysis the roles’character and main idea on the basis of scripts. Also I will classify the18dramas into4kinds:’immortal drama’,’birthday celebrity drama’,’scenery drama’and’anti-Devil drama’. Each kind stands for different ideas and culture styles, which reflected the political, moralize ideology and entertainment characteristics of Zhu’s Singing-Dancing Drama.Chapter four will focus on introducing artistic features of Zhu Youdun’s Singing-Dancing Drama. In this chapter, I will study the recreations of Zhu’s Singing-Dancing Drama from different respects, such as singing, dancing and stages, in order to re-appear them. With respect to singing, I will analysis the vocal music and instruments. There are many kinds of singing styles in Zhu’s works, including:chorus, continuous sing, alternate sing, solo and so on. Besides, the instruments used in Zhu’s works are also divers, for instance:pipe, drums, zheng, flute, gong, etc. With various kinds of dances and props included in Zhu’s works, the singing drama represents an inclusive trend during that period.Chapter five is about the causes of the appearance Zhu Youdun’s Singing-Dancing Drama. I will reveal the causes from interior and exterior respects. From my point of view, exterior causes include historical factors, political factors, social factors and culture factors. Interior causes are mainly concentrate on Zhu’s lifetime experience.Chapter six will introduce the impacts caused by Zhu’s Singing-Dancing Drama. As we all know, Yuan period is like a milestone in the development of drama. Some well-known dramatist like Guan Hanqing, Ma Zhiyuan, Wang Shifu are all existed in that period. If Yuan is the peak of drama development, I think Zhu’s works had lead another climax in this field, also, Zhu’s works have a deeply impact on dramas during Qing period.