The History Of Term Of "the Four Great Dramatist"

“The four great dramatists”as the representative of the highest achievements ofYuan Dynasty literature, is a iconic term in the history of Chinese literature. Thisterm’s construction and formation went through a long historical process. From thebeginning of the Yuan Dynasty, critics begin to pick classical dramatists of Yuan Quand they had a wide variety of general terms.This article is a paper of the term’shistory, which belong to the category of literary criticism,is a research of this term’sresearch history, and has the nature of academic history.The thesis is divided into five parts:The introduction part briefly analyzed the past study about “The four greatdramatists”, as well as the innovation and the significance of this thesis.The first chapter. First of all, from the cultural perspective, the thesis showed thethinking patterns behind the selection, such as “The four poets in early Tang dynasty”,The seven celebrities in Jin dynasty”, and pointed out that these terms were carriedout by the selection of different critics,which belong to the category of literarycriticism, and then analyzed their inherent shortcomings and defect, the criticism ofthe various dynasties as direct material.On the basis, we could infer the critic’sprinciples of selection, go deep into the historical context, and understand theirpsychological activity. Finally, from the horizontal and vertical clues, the paper triedto discuss “the four great dramatists”’s history, and summarizes the characteristics ofeach stage.The second chapter focuses on the critics’ selection in Yuan dynasty, such as GuanYunshi’s”The six great dramatists” theory, Zhou Deqing’s “THe four great dramatists”theory, and Yang Weizhen’s “The eight great dramatists” theory. The paper analyzedtheir selection principles and opera research idea, it was concluded that this periodof opera research theory relied on the poetry research theory. In addition, the paperthought it wrong that the popular viewpoint that Zhou Deqing proposed “The fourgreat dramatists” at first.The third chapter. Paper mainly discussed the critics’ viewpoint in early Ming Dynasty. The first stage, the critics in early Ming dynasty followed the critics’viewpoint in Yuan dynasty, such as Jia Zhongming’s “The two great dramatists”theory,Zhu Quan’s “The twelve great dramatists”theory. On the whole, they attached greatimportance to the literary grace; The second stage, He Liangjun as a representativefigure, he attached to the rhythm and diction, explicitly put forward the concept of“The four great dramatists”for the first time; The final stage, Li Kaixian, WangShizhen,Xuwei, who put forward their point of view from different perspectives,respected vulgar style, or writer’s feelings, or cultural quality. In a variety of differenttheories, critics increasingly recognised the term of “The four great dramatists”.The fourth chapter. Research about Wang Shifu generally appeared in thecomments in late Ming Dynasty. Critics argued whether Wang Shifu should be asYuan Qu classical writer. Some argued that Guan, Zheng, Bai, Ma and Wang shouldform “The five great dramatists”, some claimed that Wang should replace one of thefour people and form “The four great dramatists”, for example, Hu Yinglin, Xu Fuzuo,Wang Jide admired Wang deeply, but Shen Defu didn’t appreciate Wang’works.Although their selection criteria varied, this showed a tendency to attach great favor toliterary grace and rhythm in general.The fifth chapter. Although critics in Qing dynasty used different standards, theycame to the same conclusion that “The four great dramatists” is “Guan, Zheng, Bai,Ma”. Of course, there were a few different points of view, such as Li Diaoyuan’s “Thesix great dramatists”theory, Ling Tingkan’s “The one great dramatist” theory, and JiaoXun’s “The four great dramatists”theory. Finally, after screening and comparison,Wang Guowei established the term of “The four great dramatists”, has been influentialso far. From the perspective of those selection principles, this period of opera theorygradually drove to maturity, and moved closer to drama theory, SanQu evolved intothe branch of poetry, no longer got the favor of drama critics.