Illustrated Editions Study Of The Western Chamber In Ming Dynasty

Most of the editions of the Western Chamber published in the Ming Dynasty are accompanied with illustrations.Although these illustrations have been studied in the past,the discussion from the perspective of Chinese opera still needs to be further deepened.From this point of view,this paper makes a further discussion on the catalogue,edition system and the acceptance and deviation of illustrations from the text of the extant edition of the Western Chamber.The first chapter is "a brief introduction to the existing illustrated editions of the Western Chamber in Ming Dynasty".This chapter collect and arrange the illustrated editions.Due to the limitation of time and the dispersion of the collection,there is no comprehensive statistics on the illustration edition of the Western Chamber in Ming Dynasty.According to my collection,there are 49 editions of the Western Chamber,including 42 illustrations editions.The second chapter is "Supplement to the edition system of the Western Chamber based on illustrations".This chapter starts with the illustrations,combined with the text comparison,makes a new classification and supplement to the version system of the Western Chamber.In recent years,scholars have divided the version system of the Western Chamber mainly from the text system and text content,but they still have not fully clarified the relationship between many versions.This chapter,from the perspective of illustrations,collates the similarities and differences,and combines with the text comparison,makes a supplement to the version system of the Western Chamber.Finally,the 49 editions are divided into five categories,"tipingyinshi" system,"chongjiaobeixixiangji" system,"biyunzhaiguben" system,"shiben" system,special system.The third chapter is "the acceptance of the text by the illustrations of the Western Chamber",which discusses the acceptance of the text by the illustrations of the Western chamber through the combination of pictures and texts.From the perspective of Chinese opera,this chapter combines art,literature and culture,and combines pictures with text to explore the acceptance of the text by the illustrations in the Western Chamber.It includes how to illustrations strengthen and supplement the text in the macro and micro level,and how they deviate and distort the text under the reason of interlacing.This chapter also further discusses the significance of illustration to the proliferation,interpretation and transformation of the text,as well as its etiquette tendency.As an important part of the Western Chamber in Ming Dynasty,illustrations are also of great value.The study of illustrations is helpful to clarify the relationship between different editions,and to further understand the characteristics of the Western Chamber,and the significance of the Chinese opera history.