A Study On The Narrative Theory Of Commons On Legendary Plays

In the Ming and Qing Dynasties,various kinds of commentary books of legendary plays emerged in an endless stream.The critics represented by Li Zhuowu,Mao Shengshan and Yunting Shanren drew nourishment from the ancient painterly theory and written theory and revealed the narrative techniques of legendary plays with a series of refined and original theoretical terms.This paper attempts to start with the commentaries of the four legendary plays,The Romance of the Lute,The Peony Pavilion,Palace of Eternal Life and The Peach Blossom Fan.Through the collation and interpretation of the commentary terms,the author summarizes the narrative theories such as setting narration,character description,verbal narration and so on.Critics have always attached great importance to the plot and structure of legends,that is,the settings of legends.Mao Shengshan,Yunting Shanren and other commentators analyzed the structure of legends by using terms such as "formality","transformation","meticulousness".They also interpreted the plot twists and turns of legendary plays with terms such as "idle narration","cat and civet","flying steeply",and "gradual".Commentators such as Wu Ren and Tan Ze,Chen Tong and Qian Yi commented on the narrative theory of "rendering flowers and willows" in terms of "dyeing" and "reflecting",explaining how the legendary texts rendered and reflected eachother's plots.Commentators such as Wu Ren and Yunting Shanren put forward such terms as "always cooperating" and "ghostly workmanship" to reveal the narrative theory of legendary props,pointing out the clue function of "chai","fan","painting" and other props in the plot function of "ambush and correspondence" and "connection".Characters are the core of legendary plays.Based on the text the critics summed up a set of unique charm of the theory of describing acts.In the book,Yunting Shanren Comments on The Peach Blossom Fan,the author put forward the "treatment method",which shows the beauty of legendary appearance of regularity,symmetry and harmony.The terms of "expressing human feelings" and "resemblance" reveal the principle of describing legendary acts as "vivid".The "positive backdrop" and "negative backdrop" between legendary characters are summarized by critics as "setting off the moon with cloud ",aiming at emphasizing the character traits of the main characters by depicting the supporting roles.A multi-purpose method of "tone" and "speaking in mouth" not only depicts thetemperament of the speaker,but also enriches the plot.This method reflects the narrative function of the acting guest's "endorsement".Critics' comments on legendary narrative language mainly focus on vivid depiction,inclusive appreciation of both elegance and vulgarity,naturaltransitional language and miraculous language.The terminologies extracted by the author,such as "writing really","painting in music","clear water","sweet quarrel","extremely concise","graceful writing",and "magnificent",display the gracefulness and diversity of legendary narrative language from different perspectives.The narratologytheory of legendary plays seem scattered and trivial,but they are self-contained.These terms enrich the ancient legendary theory of our country and have certain significance for the construction of the theoretical system with distinctive Chinese national features.