The Study Of The Rhymes Of Shen Jing’s Operas

This essay studied the rhyme in all the remaining works of Shenjing, the drama writer in Ming Dynasty. By comparing drama that used the same tune and parallelism with reference to "Central Plains phonological", the essay analyzed how all the entering tone split into other tones, rhyme of different rhymes and its differences between Midland phonology. The focus fell on the differences between rhyme used by Shen and those included in "Midland phonology". It considered the33rhyme that included in Shen’s drama while not mentioned in "Midland phonology" By comparing to the research findings of Du Aiying, it compared the differences and similarities of rhymes used in Shen Jing’s drama and those in Tang Xianzu’s. In addition, with reference to " TaiHeZhengYinPu "and " South Jiu gong thirteen tone drama", and dramas that used parallelism, it examined the actual category of tone of non entering tone words of drama and entering tone words in mediaeval age. Therefore, it came to the conclusion that the category of voiced entering word and semi-voice entering word in Shen’s drama was almost the same with the "Midland phonology" and that voiceless entering words were not necessarily belonged to falling-rising toneThe essay analyzed and categorized the rhyme word and secondary rhyme accordingly. All came to the conclusion that the24rhymes that Shen used in his drama, except the5rhymes used in entering tone, were mostly similar to those in "Midland phonology". Furthermore, to find the actual cause of combined rhyme and out-rhyme in Shen’s drama, the essay also analyzed them from the aspects of sound evolution, dialect and editionThe second chapter aimed at explaining the differences in rhyme of Shen’s drama and Midland phonology. The focus fell on how the words that had both rhymes in "Midland phonology" were used in Shen’s drama. Besides, there were33words that did not include in Midland phonology (except words that other scholars had studied) were analyzed.The third chapter aimed at analyzing the how the entering tone words were split into other tones in Sheng’s drama. And it tested the theory of the split of entering tone mentioned in Midland phonology, which clarified that the voiced rhyme and semi-voiced rhyme was generally in accordance with that in Midland phonology, apart from voiceless entering word, which differed greatly.The fouth chapter compared the rhyme used by Shenjing with those by Tangxianzu. And it explained the difference between "the comparison between Tang and Shen" from the angle of rhyme which indicated that the rhyme used by Sheng was more precise and strict that included only a slice of dialect. On the contrary, the drama of Tang reflected the actual tone of that time.