Xu Wei's Research On Drama Music

Xuwei is an outstanding man of letters, dramatist and painter during late Ming Dynasty.He lived in the time from the years of Jiajing to Wanli, which was a key stage of turning to the late period of Ming from the middle one. At that time, political domination was highly centralized, and border crisis was frequent. In the background of Ming Dynasty's social history, Xu Wei's ill-fated life, his concern for female and his relationship with his teachers and friends were the origin of his creation of drama.His representative work Four Apes won its attention for its unique and special style. His Description of South China Drama was the precedent of South China drama study. It was also the only monograph dilated on the outline of South China drama, and was of great importance to the inheritance and development of this kind of drama.Xu Wei's thought of drama was the combination of three religions centered on Confucianism. He took "plain" as the basis and origin of drama creation and criticism. Writing in plain language was his advocacy. In this thesis, on the analysis of Xu Wei's drama theory, drama character plot, drama language and tune and temperament, the author concludes his drama thought of insisting on "plain", which shows his admiration to nature and advocacy of Confucianism. Xu Wei's characteristics of uninhibitedness and not sticking to trifles and his unusual behavior were similar to Taoist style of nature. When he was young, he used to cultivate himself under the influence of his brother XuHuai and his teacher QianPian. He also annotated one of the most important compositionsThe Kinship of the Three. His cultivation focused on understanding and health care, maintaining the relying on nature of Taoism, which had significance to the formation of his "plain" drama theory. Xu Wei also researched Buddhism. Influenced by his teacher Ji Ben, he understood some mystery through mediation and had his unique opinion about Buddhism. He used to have a lot of conversation with Master Yu Zhi, a Southeast China monk. On thinking of Confucianism, he affirmed the opinion of reincarnation in Buddhism. His poetic drama work Monk Yu in Four Apes is a story about this opinion, which shows men of letters'affirmative to the eternity of incarnation in order to achieve their world idea and life value in late Ming Dynasty. He emphasized "understanding" for many times, believing that the essence of drama lied on understanding rather than wording. Xu learned all three Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism. His thought of drama was the combination of three religions centered on Confucianism, which had the characteristic of time. His thought was also the representative of self-admiration and personality development, which was a breakthrough in the awareness of freedom. Before that, traditional Neo-Confucianism prevailed in the late Yuan Dynasty and the early Ming Dynasty. His drama thought meant the rise of individualism during mid and late Ming Dynasty. This thought was groundbreaking and progressive.This author concludes the Xu's drama characteristics as the following two:writing for entertainment, that is taking mock as the writing technique; taking drama as the expression of his ambition, advocating writing based on one's own feeling, considering drama creation as the expression of feelings and ambitions of men of letters.Xu's awareness of subject influenced the development a generation of men of letters'thought, establishing a paradigm in the history of drama. His poetic drama Four Apes formed Xu's unique drama style, opening a new chapter for this kind of drama's creating mode in mid and late Ming. Xu Wei argued that the human nature was erotic, which was different from the traditional aesthetic value, thinking "an action impelled by emotion should stop within the propriety". This had broke the fixed rules in Yuan poetic drama and led this kind of drama to a more individual direction. Xu's breakthrough and creation in thought had great impact on the development of later drama thought. Xu Wei's position in the history of Chinese drama can't be ignored, so studying and researching his drama thought is of great importance.