The Analysis Of The Characters’ Facial Description In Yuan Zaju

At the end of the Song dynasty and beginning of the Yuan dynasty,the aesthetics and values of the whole society has undergone major changes due to thecultural devolution caused by the social unrest and other complexity social issues.Yuan dynasty literature including Yuan Zaju has its strong time characteristics,creating a wonderful cultural landscape. This thesis systematically organized andanalyzed the existing70complete Yuan Zaju works after studying the relatedliterature. On the one hand, the author thoroughly read and studied the Yuan Zajuworks, emphasized on textual research and close reading, and summarized the placeswhere the content of the characters’ facial descriptions appeared in the Yuan Zajuworks, the specific issues involved in the contents and the corresponded characters’identity and characteristics. On the other hand, this thesis thoroughly studied theconnotations reflected by the characters’ facial description in Yuan Zaju works andanalyzed their cultural artistic means.This thesis consists of four parts. The first part, as a preface, briefly analyzed theplaces where the characters’ facial descriptions appeared in the Yuan Zaju works,summarized these places into table format and established the scope of this thesis.The second part, which is the first chapter, mainly categorized the depictions ofcharacters’ faces, facial features and facial expressions and analyzed their artisticmeans and cultural connotation using specific examples.The third part, including chapter two, categorized and discussed the characters’facial description according to the characters’ identity, gender and characteristics.Chapter two, consisting of six sections, focused on the facial depiction of scholars (insection one), officials (in section two) and female characters (in section three), thenconsists of three sections which discussed the facial depiction of common people insection four, heroic and thefts in section five, and deities and ghosts in section six. The last part is the conclusion which summarized the analysis of the characters’facial description in Yuan Zaju. This parts has five sections:1) facial description andthe plot structure,2) facial description and the portrayal of the characters,3) facialdescription and the dramatic conflict,4) facial description and the novelistic art, and5)facial description and the facial makeup in later ages. It concludes the effect of thefacial description on the plot structure, portrayal of the characters and dramaticconflict and their key roles in the development of novelistic art and facial makeup inlater ages.