Abstract
When it comes to Shen Jing's idea of poetic drama writing, scholars used to confine themselves to his controversy with Tang Xianzu, instead of paying sufficient attention to and making objective evaluation of Shen Jing's other ideas. This article argues that though many literati since the mid-Ming Dynasty were active in the creation of xiqu works, the scripts they created were very difficult to be staged and sung, because there were no rules of creation to be followed. They were neither unsuitable for kunju emerged in the Wuzhong area of Suzhou. Therefore, literati were faced with "technical problems" during their creation. To solve such problems, Shen Jing put forward the theoretical proposition that xiqu writers should be proficient in rhythm, and he made paradigmatic demonstrations by compiling various works on poetic drama writing such as The Complete Collection of Tunes of the Southern Drama. Shen Jing won undivided admiration from many drama creators, and made significant contributions in this respect.
First Page
110
Last Page
118
Recommended Citation
Zhu, Wanshu, and Wen Zhu. 2017. "Desktop Drama and Stage Drama: Technical Problems of Traditional Chinese Drama in the Mid-Ming Dynasty and Shen Jing's Contribution." Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art 37, (4): pp.110-118. https://tsla.researchcommons.org/journal/vol37/iss4/5
