Research On The Relationship Between Li Zhi And Drama

Li Zhi was not only a famous thinker and litterateur， but also a drama theorist of the Mingdynasty. There is no doubt that he knows dramas very well. However，his identity as a critic ofdrama has attracted little attention. There are not many papers about his dramatic theory up tonow and the research perspectives are relatively limited， too. On the basis of gathering thedrama materials of Li Zhi fully and Combining with previous research results， this article seeksto make a summary on the relationship between Li Zhi and drama， and have a systemsunderstanding On Li Zhi’s conception of drama and dramatic theory.Li Zhi’s drama activities included three main aspects. The first was his friendship withdramatist. The second was his articles about drama. The third was his critic about drama works.Li Zhi had a close contact with Jiao Hong， Tang Xianzu， Pan Zhiheng and Wang Tingne. Heexchanged ideas or discussed dramas with them. They affected each other by this way. Therewere some articles about dramas in Li Zhi’s works and he expressed his conception of drama bythem. In his opinion， dramas were one kind of the best literary works and they also had thefunction of education. By this way he improved the position of drama. He presented that thenatural drama works were different from the unnatural ones. He thought that the naturalemotions were the source of inspiration in drama writing and praised the natural beauty. Hefound the four unique elements of dramatic literature and disapproved the action ofapotheosizing the characters in drama works. Li Zhi had some critics about drama works and healso expressed his conception of drama and dramatic theory by them. He thought that dramasshould be legendary and the dramatist should pursue the legend beauty on a reasonable basis. Heattached importance to the characters shaping in dramas and paid attention to it. He gave a richconnotation to drama’s “guanmu”. He regarded the reality as the standard of drama beauty andemphasized that drama works should be true on characters， matters and situations.Li Zhi’s conception of drama and his dramatic theory had a great influence at that time andlater. Many drama critics continued to fight for the status of dramas after him and they finallymade the dramas equal to poetries. Li Zhi advocated the natural beauty in drama. Tang Xianzu，Ling Mengchu and Wang Guowei inherited his theory and developed it. Li Zhi presented that thenatural emotions were the source of inspiration in drama writing. Many dramatists at his timeand later also proved that it was true.